Crypt Custodian Review – Sweeping through the Afterlife

Introduction to Crypt Custodian

Developer Kyle Thompson’s newest metroidvania title sees you playing as a cat named Pluto who recently died, but rather than spend his Afterlife in the heavenly temple known as the Palace, its gatekeeper, Kendra, becomes upset over Pluto’s crime of… Destroying various vases around the Palace’s entrance (believe me, I tried to get to Kendra without doing that when I started my playthrough, but there is no way to reach her without breaking some vases.)

Because of Pluto’s actions, Kendra throws him outside the Palace, where Pluto and other deceased animal spirits must spend their Afterlife as janitors cleaning up outside the Palace. But Pluto has different ideas, which involve finding a way back into the Palace itself with the help of a broom.

Thus, the adventure in Crypt Custodian begins as you explore the outdoors of the Afterlife, to find various animal spirits that Pluto can befriend and help him return to the Palace itself.

I quickly fell in love with how unique, vast, and beautiful most of the areas you’ll be exploring are, from the sky abyss of Sculptor’s Peak to the galaxy light puzzle space world of the Neon Crests, as well as the dungeons that you’ll have to go through to help each animal you try to befriend.

Exploring the Afterlife

While the dungeons themselves are relatively short to get through, their mechanics & interesting puzzles make them more fun for me to get through, and just thinking about them now made me wish I could replay the dungeons all over again. Such mechanics and puzzles include light puzzles involving sweeping the spirit of cats’ heads towards certain podiums to open locked gates, steering a barrel through an ocean of poison, or dashing through podiums that become visible whenever you use dash itself.

With its memorable characters and intricate puzzles, Crypt Custodian is a Metroidvania worth getting lost in.

Fortunately, I was happy to learn that after clearing each dungeon, I discovered that there was more to explore within them to find collectibles and secrets that I didn’t discover when first going through the dungeon or were blocked off until I got an upgrade later on in the game for me that will allow me to get through the blocked off path, giving off good replayability and a reason for me to come back to these cool dungeons later on in my playthrough.

Being in the Afterlife doesn’t make things easier for Pluto, as he’ll still have to fight evil spirits with his broom. Using the X button, players will sweep the broom at various types of enemies. They range from spider enemies that jump around to bird-like enemies that peck Pluto from the vase that they’re hiding it into archers willing to fire arrows at the cat. Pluto will not hesitate to fight back.

Combat Mechanics and Upgrades

Pluto can launch himself into a ground-pounding attack using the broom, combining the A button to jump and the aforementioned X button. Fighting enemies was always so much fun when encountering them during my travels. I liked how fluid Pluto and the enemies were.

Dashing using the R button is also helpful in dodging attacks. It can be used to dodge through the land and air. Sometimes, dashing is necessary to get past puzzles or perform platforming so Pluto can move from place to place. The broom is not the only attack that Pluto can launch toward the hostile spirits, as the cat can find upgrades to make himself stronger when fighting and the ability to use special attacks when a vase gauge at the corner of the screen is full.

Once the gauge is full, players can use the B button to unleash a special attack that Pluto is currently equipped with to take down enemies quickly. This attack can be dropping bombs from behind Pluto or, my favorite one, a spinning attack that you get near the start of the game, allowing you to fire off your attack in various directions. Meanwhile, one of the first upgrades you can get allows you to hit an enemy upon getting closer to them, while other upgrades can make you stronger depending on how much health you have left.

The unique world design and fluid combat make exploring the Afterlife a truly delightful experience

You cannot equip upgrades or special attacks on the fly; however, as you can only do it at Save Shrines that you find throughout your journey, you can also use these shrines to save or teleport to other shrines on your growing map. Compared to equipping upgrades or special attacks, teleporting to shrines can be done at any time using your map, this allows you to save at anytime if you doubt that you might be killed in an upcoming boss fight or in an area you’re about to explore.

One such area involves fighting a group of enemies in a rush format to get through the area. Although fun to do, the sudden influx of enemies you’ll face will chip away at your health quickly, and if you didn’t save recently, they could even kill you and send you back to the last Save Shrine far from the area. Save shrines are also able to regenerate the health that you lost.

Navigating the World and Challenges

Exploring the world outside the Palace can also cause players to get lost easily. Fortunately, the game provides fifty customizable markers that you can place at any point on the map to pinpoint where you’re trying to go. You can adjust the game’s difficulty in the game’s options menu at any time, such as giving you more health (up to three additional health slots), changing the difficulty, or giving you a mini-map to help make exploration more accessible.

The mini-map was necessary for me since I got lost easily due to my curiosity and the fact that I kept finding myself on a new path. Again, this isn’t really a bad thing, as it just shows that Crypt Custodian has a large world in which players will spend hours getting lost.

The main goal of Crypt Custodian is to befriend many spirits that live outside of the Palace so they can help Pluto break into it. These spirits include the anxious rabbit Mira, the grumpy wolf Grizz, or the quiet frog Pebble. These characters were cute, funny, and even quite relatable to talk to. As you explore dungeons, you will find three photos that tell the backstory of each spirit you’re trying to befriend and how they tragically died.

The photos are just many of Crypt Custodian’s collectibles that you will find during your playthrough; you can also find vases that have kitten spirits trapped within them as part of a side quest involving reuniting the kittens with their worried mother, as well as keys you can use to open up locked gates. Lastly, you can find CDs containing the gentle, atmospheric music you will hear throughout your adventure. One of the main reasons I just stopped for a few minutes was to listen to how beautiful each music was and admire the game’s stunning landscape.

Like with upgrades and special attacks, you need to equip CDs in a specific location; in this case, it’s at the Sinner’s Inn, which is run by a bird named Marla and two mice named Bouncer and Big Lisa.

Marla will provide Pluto with upgrades he wouldn’t usually find throughout his travels after paying her a certain amount of coal, which is the in-game currency. Meanwhile, Big Lisa sells upgrade points that Pluto can use to equip more upgrades at a Save Shrine. Additionally, the Inn can also help you find missing collectibles or tell you where to go next. Again, you need a certain amount of coal to use this function.

The Inn will also have various characters that you will meet appear from time to time come by the Inn to relax and for Pluto to engage in conversation with, providing some of Crypt Custodian’s funniest lines and quickly making the Inn into my favorite area to come by now and again. Although helpful during the first part of the game, where you start, I never found the hint system next to Marla. It was useful later when I got the hang of things and knew where to go next. However, players might find a use for it throughout their playthroughs.

Crypt Custodian delivers a whimsical and engaging adventure that’s both charming and challenging.

You can also come across additional challenges during your adventures, such as challenge chests or cursed statues, with the former giving you challenges such as defeating a certain amount of enemies without taking damage or defeating another amount of enemies while dealing with a negative repercussion, such as enemies blowing up on you when defeated, or spikes making their way towards you until the enemy or you are taken down.

Once you also defeat the game’s first boss, the boss rush will be unlocked, allowing you to fight the previously fought bosses again. Although intricate, these challenges give players rewards such as an upgrade point, and I recommend trying them out if looking for another challenge or to gain more upgrade points.

One thing I was worried about when playing was how the game suddenly froze at times when loading at a new area or when a handful of enemies appeared on screen; it made me worried that the game was going to crash at various points and that I would have lost a certain amount of progress, this, fortunately, didn’t happen to me. Hopefully, this issue will get sorted out in a future patch, but it’s something to look out for if you plan to get this game on day one and be ready if it crashes at a certain point.

Final Thoughts on Crypt Custodian

Yet, despite this, I enjoyed playing Crypt Custodian; despite the setting in Afterlife, it’s a soothing story that can tug on you at times. I liked its themes of forging new friends in the most unexpected of places and how sweet it feels at most points. It also gave off a fun Metroidvania adventure-like theme that reminds me of classic Zelda titles.