Crypt Custodian – Review

indie, kyle thompson, Metroidvania, Platformer, solo dev

Kyle Thompson is an indie developer on his way to becoming a household name. I was first introduced to his games with Islets, a metroidvania released back in 2022. Islets was something truly special and when Kyle announced he was working on a new game called Crypt Custodian, I was already sold.

Where other metroidvanias utilize verticality (due to their side-scrolling nature), Crypt Custodian re-thinks the formula and provides an incredibly unique experience. The camera angle is set to a top-down, isometric view instead of the traditional side-scrolling view that most people are familiar with in a game of this genre.

Story

You play as Pluto, a cat who has unfortunately died and wakes up in the afterlife. After accidentally angering Kendra, the afterlife guardian, you are banished outside the palace and sentenced to clean for the rest of eternity.

You’ll meet new friends on your adventure and learn more about their story through photos you collect.

Gameplay

If you've played a metroidvania before then you already understand most of the gameplay functions of Crypt Custodian. You'll explore an interconnected map while picking up collectibles and new abilities to open more areas of the map.

Since you’re banished to clean for all time, you'll find piles of trash to clean up and collect. Garbage is used as a form of currency to buy upgrade points for enhancements that increase your stats (such as increasing your attack strength/speed) and add special abilities (such as an upgrade that makes enemies explode when they die). Enemies also drop trash when you defeat them so if you're running low, you can roam around and fight to gather more.

In the very beginning of the game you find a bar (called The Sinners Inn) where you can hang out and purchase new upgrades, skills, or hints to show you where secret locations are on the map. There’s both small and large hints to buy. Small hints help you find hidden items and collectibles. Large hints show where to go next to progress the story. Using the small hints at the end of the game to clean up collectibles was so helpful. It just puts a question mark near the item, and you can go to that part of the map and look for it.

Collectibles

There are plenty of collectibles to find across the map. I’ve already mentioned things like upgrades and special attacks but that’s just the start.

You can find Jukebox Discs throughout the map. You’ll mainly use these to play songs from the game on the Jukebox at the bar. It doesn’t add too much to the gameplay but it’s a fun collectible and getting to change up the music at the Sinners Inn is cool.

There are also 20 hidden pots that reveal spirits when you break them. You’ll receive gifts such as currency or upgrade points for collecting them. If you’re familiar with the grubs in Hollow Knight, they work a lot like that.

The Map

The map for Crypt Custodian is so much larger than I expected. Just when I thought I reached the edge there was a bunch more to explore and discover. It has to be one of the largest maps in a metroidvania I’ve ever experienced. Sometimes that can be a bad thing but in this case it was welcomed.

The sound design, color scheme, enemies, and overall aesthetics are so different from area to area. Each biome offers an enormous variety, keeping the game interesting as you explore.

There are wells dotted across the map where you can save the game, equip upgrades and special attacks, and teleport to and from wells. What’s great about the way Crypt Custodian handles fast travel is that you can move to any of the wells from any point of the map without having to already be at a well. Kyle posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he made this decision to keep exploration fun and to not “stifle exploration” if an area of the map was too far away.

Combat

Attacking is a single button press. You swing your broom back and forth and strike enemies. There are no heavy attacks or complicated combos, making combat in Crypt Custodian fairly simple.

Depending on the person, a simple combat system may sound like a bad thing but I found it to be perfect in combination with how the platforming works. You'll be too busy jumping around and dashing by enemies to worry about combos.

You find several special attacks throughout the game but you can only equip one at a time. Special attacks use up your special meter that fills up as you fight enemies and can fill up completely by visiting a well. These special attacks that can be absolutely crucial when fighting a boss or a large group of enemies. The very first one you receive creates a spinning circle around you that hits enemies rapidly (great for crowd control).

You’ll repeatedly run into areas where all paths disappear and you have to defeat an onslaught of enemies before you can continue. These gauntlets are a real test of your combat skills and can be a lot of fun (or frustrating with how difficult they can get further on).

Bosses

Each biome on the map has a main boss to battle. Each boss has their own attacks and patterns. Typically, defeating a boss leads you to find a new platforming ability to help unlock more areas of the map. The great part about this is that you don’t have to beat the bosses in any particular order. You can explore and find them organically.

Performance

Crypt Custodian played very smoothly on the Steam Deck. The hand-drawn art style takes basically no resources so it should play perfectly fine even on a device like the Nintendo Switch. There are small loading times when starting the game up but once you're playing there are virtually no load times between areas or when you walk into buildings.

I ran into a few bugs here and there but nothing that was game breaking. These bugs usually resolved themselves when moving onto the next screen.

To be clear, I was provided a pre-release copy of Crypt Custodian by the publisher so I’m sure some of these bugs will be ironed out before the official release.

Overall Impressions

Crypt Custodian is super charming, incredibly fun, and powerfully heartwarming. It took me about 10 hours to complete the main game and collect most of the items. I was able to reach 100% completion in about 13.

It may be a short experience, but I had a great time playing it and I can’t recommend this game highly enough. If you're into metroidvanias and platformers, this is a must play.