Review: Crypt Custodian Gets That Simple Is Best

I appreciate when a Metroidvania game tries to refine and polish its mechanics, or when it mixes things up with a familiar formula. Crypt Custodian is one of those Metroidvania style titles that shines in its simplicity. While the game felt closer to an isometric platforming title, the blend of genres mixes nicely in this game. Add a cute premise and an adorable cat hero to boot, and you have me on board.

Pluto is a good boy, the best one to ever be. Unfortunately, time has come for Pluto to depart to the land of the dead. After meeting Kendra, the guardian of the land of the dead, Pluto is declared to be perhaps not the best boy ever. Sentenced to clean the afterlife forever, Pluto now has to make new friends in order to break into the afterlife’s Palace that the good ghosts inhabit, where a mirror into the land of the living allows them to visit them and guard over their loved ones, in order to make things right for himself and every other stranded ghost left outside.

While thinking about adorable animals and pets meeting their end is not my priority, Crypt Custodian handles this well, and the premise is simple and treated with levity. As Pluto meets new characters and animals, players will also find polaroid photos of their lives and how these animals met their end. The little stories contained in the polaroids offered context into these characters in life, and collecting all the photos paid off in the end.

Exploring the world of Crypt Custodian is really fun. Pluto starts as a fast and somewhat agile character to control, and as you progress through the game and get upgrades and new tools to navigate the world, he becomes even more agile and control gets more precise. During combat, his main tools are a very fast melee attack and a reliable dodge, as well as some special moves that Pluto can activate after filling the special meter. These are really useful and I found myself using them very often, as the meter filled very quickly. Enemies usually take few hits to take down, but so does Pluto. Because of that, fighting depends on smart positioning and knowing what each enemy is capable of in order to take them out strategically. Some encounters can be challenging, especially in some challenge rooms and with some of the curses you can acquire in order to get resources. However, I never found the challenge level frustrating, and it was always enjoyable to do all the side content and completely exploring each area.

There’s a nice variety of mobs to dispose of, with each area having completely unique types of enemies. They all boil down to different flavors of melee or ranged damage, but the way each one attacks, the timings, or even their reaction to being damaged or defeated is different. This made every new area exciting to explore and get used to both platforming and fighting.

Combat is not the only thing you’ll be doing, as exploring is a major part of the experience. The isometric perspective is refreshing for a Metroidvania style game, and platforming in Crypt Custodian is very precise. The game offers very useful indicators for when you will land after a jump and the minimalist visual style makes it so that there’s never confusion on where enemy hits will appear. My eyesight can get tired easily or I can struggle to read the screen if too much is happening. But since Crypt Custodian keeps things clean and readable this wasn’t a problem, and I found no frustration in the game’s controls and readability.

Each area has a unique art style and color palette, with my favorite ones being the house basement, the abandoned theme part, and the blue area with the astral shifting enemies, both in terms of gameplay and aesthetics. The latter in particular has a fantastic gimmick where dashing will shift enemies to different dimensions, making some available to interact with and others impossible until you shift again. Crypt Custodian has some really neat ideas going on. The minimalist style doesn’t allow for a ton of expression in its art, but I still found it appealing in its own way. The afterlife felt mysterious and inscrutable, and the simplicity of the style conveyed that nicely.

It’s in the character and enemy sprites where the more expressive art style appears with Pluto and his friends being incredibly cute and funny. Pluto is always a joy to watch, from its funny expression to the way it moves. In fact, losing the early dodge for a more reliable one made me a bit sad, as seeing him tumble around was very funny and I loved it. Enemies all have a similar style, being usually different variations of bug-like designs. Their designs are generally very readable and a glance helps you guess what they might be able to do. However, it’s boss designs where the game gets even whackier and avant garde. Early game bosses look quite normal, but late game there are some really funky looking dudes and spooky creepy crawlies, with the Moon Man looking straight out of a nightmare one could have had as a child.

I really appreciate Crypt Custodian for knowing its strengths and exploring them throughout the roughly 10 hours it took me to complete the game. The mix of Metroidvania and isometric platforming elements mix really nicely in a title where precision and readability are king. You won’t find a nail-biting challenge in this game, but some extra post-game boss rush modes can prove really demanding and give you that edge. And while the subject matter can be a bit much if you’re sensitive the same way I am to pet an animal death, Crypt Custodian made me look back fondly and remember my childhood pet and every animal I’ve ever loved.

Crypt Custodian is readily available for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam.