Crypt Custodian: A Quick Little Review

I may be a little late to the party here – Crypt Custodian was officially released nearly a year ago now, on August 27, 2024 for PC/Switch/Xbox/PS5 – but this solid indie Metroidvania just came out on Xbox Gamepass which gave me the opportunity to play through it and I'm glad I did.

Yes, I did manage to 100% this game which is a somewhat rare event for me so that's another reason why you know this must be a pretty good title.

I played through most of the game on my Twitch stream, so feel free to look through those VODs if you want to see my playthrough with some minor commentary.

In Crypt Custodian, you play the role of Pluto, a cute and lovable little black cat who died in a tragic accident. You wake up in an unfamiliar place, with only a spirit to guide you.

And so, your adventure in the afterlife begins. Upon going through the standard in-world tutorials of how to jump and dash, you eventually find a broom (which will soon become the primary tool in your arsenal) and off you go to the palace to meet the game's primary "antagonist", Kendra.

Ya see, Kendra is a bit mad with power. Kendra is the sole person in this realm who determines your eternal fate. Either you are deemed fit to join others in utopia inside the Palace or, if you are deemed unworthy, you will be exiled outside of the Palace forever, doomed to an afterlife of custodial monotony.

But, you're just a cute little cat right? Surely you haven't done anything that bad...

Yeah so, turns out all the statues on the way into Kendra's office that were completely blocking the path, forcing you to destroy them to proceed were...all just a trap so that Kendra could justify sending you off into exile. Is Kendra an ex-ICE officer or something? I feel like she really shouldn't have all this power without any checks and balances, but I digress...

There are apparently no lawyers in this version of the afterlife so, upon being given your sentence you are thrust out into the wilds to fend for yourself and clean up for all of eternity.

You begin your journey now in the Weeping Wastes, in what will become an epic Metroidvania adventure sprawling across a variety of different zones, each with their own unique look and feel.

Gameplay and Core Mechanics

So now that you have an idea of what the game is about, we can get down to the gameplay itself. This is an indie game through and through, developed by a sole developer by the name of Kyle Thompson. Before Crypt Custodian, he's released a couple of other games – Islets and Sheepo – though I have not played either of them so I can't comment on those here. That being said, Crypt Custodian is one of those solo developer games that you can tell was made with a lot of love and passion. The art is absolutely gorgeous, the controls are smooth and solid, and the music is both haunting and beautiful.

The core gameplay is Metroidvania bliss. It's your standard gameplay loop of exploration and finding new power-ups that ultimately lead you to new areas to explore which make new power-ups available which open up new areas that then contain new items that...well, you get the idea. The combat itself is more Zelda-like, though, with a top-down view and fast-paced hack-and-slash style gameplay.

And I have to say, if you like Metroidvania-style exploration, this game has it. The map is huge, to say the least, almost to the point of being too big and overwhelming at times.

This makes navigation and remembering where to go a pain sometimes. You'll probably find yourself walking and wandering aimlessly for hours. If you're into that, fine, but I could see it being a turn-off for some depending on your tolerance for that sort of thing. The map doesn't really do a great job of showing you where you haven't been. There is a vague fog-of-war type effect on the zoomed-in version of the map, and the zoomed out version (shown above) does show blank spaces on any room exit you haven't been through, but it's extremely hard to see and find those once you've explored most of the map. I personally was stuck at 99% completion for a while until I finally found the few pixels of blank space on one wall of a room nested deep within the center of the map where I failed to explore. This can be frustrating but it's not really something unique to this game – I feel this with most Metroidvanias at some point – and maybe that's part of the charm of this genre that I just don't personally vibe with, which is fine.

There are a slew of unlockable powers and upgrades that you'll find along the way – 32 upgrades and 8 special attacks to be exact, among a handful of powerups that provide movement abilities – so you'll always have collectibles to chase throughout the game. You also have an optional side-quest to find 20 "spirit kittens" hidden throughout the world, which will unlock various special items and rewards along the way if you're a completionist type.

Difficulty and Replayability

Crypt Custodian is not a game I would consider to be easy. However, there are three difficulty levels to choose from. I played on Normal, but there is also Easy and Hard. I don't know how much easier the game is on Easy, but I found Normal to be a relatively decent challenge as someone who generally considers themselves to be an "expert" when it comes to difficult games. So, be warned, if you're not into challenging combat and platforming this may not be the game for you, though Easy mode may provide some respite for you.

Upon completing the main story, there is one fairly short optional side quest that you can complete. I was hoping for something more challenging here, but it was mostly just a bit of fetching items and one semi-challenging combat arena that requires you to fight against waves of what I believe to be every enemy type in the game, but by this point you're fully powered up and it's not that much of a challenge (I only died once).

Finishing the main game also unlocks Shuffle Mode, which is essentially like a randomizer – it shuffles the order in which you find all collectible upgrades and special attacks. There is also a Boss Rush mode which you'll need to go through and get S+ rank on to finish off a few achievements if you're looking to get 100% achievements on this game, which I didn't do myself but I'm glad it's there for those who want that sort of challenge.

All in all, there's not a lot of NG+ content here so once you're done with the main story that's pretty much it. I can't really complain about that, though, when the game itself is so polished. For reference, it took me 9 hours to complete the main game with 100% completion and for an indie Metroidvania that's more than enough for me.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, this is a charming and captivating little Metroidvania game from an indie dev who clearly has a lot of passion for what he's doing. The core gameplay is solid, the controls are smooth as butter, and the visuals along with the sound design and music are immaculate. My only complaints are that the size of the map is sometimes overwhelmingly large with very little to offer in the way of navigational aids, and that the combat can sometimes get a little repetitive. But other than that, this game is a must-play if you're a fan of the genre. This would also be a pretty good candidate for a game to speedrun, if you're into that sort of thing.

Rating: 8.5/10

Crypt Custodian is out now and is available on PC/Switch/Xbox/PS5. The game is currently also available to play on Xbox Gamepass.

This article was written by a human without the use of any AI assistance. AI was used to generate the header image for this article.