Another Crab’s Treasure is a cheery, accessible take on Dark Souls

Image: Aggro Crab

The underwater escapade is simply a uncommon glimpse into a much accessible soulslike experience.

Another Crab’s Treasure isn’t shy astir its inspirations. If an country titled “The Sands Between” isn’t hint enough, this colorful soulslike astir a crab questing to retrieve his ammunition serves up changeless reminders of FromSoftware’s oeuvre, particularly Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. That doesn’t marque Another Crab’s Treasure just different FromSoftware clone successful an progressively crowded field. Another Crab’s Treasure is a antithetic beast: a uncommon soulslike with a consciousness of humor, plentifulness of undersea pizzazz, and a amazingly accessible instrumentality connected the formula.

The quality is instantly evident arsenic our crustacean hero, Kril, is dropped into a vibrant satellite of undersea hijinks, murderous sealife, and lipid slicks, each presented successful superior colors. Even the mountains of junk that litter the seafloor are colorful. That junk becomes your friend, some arsenic currency (in the signifier of microplastics) and as, successful lieu of his shell, Kril dons changeable glasses, soggy tennis balls, and adjacent a weapon for protection.

Another Crab’s Treasure’s SpongeBob-esque colour palette isn’t conscionable an inviting alternate to the gloomy worlds of emblematic soulslikes, however. For the archetypal clip successful years of playing these games, I could reliably spot what was going connected passim my playthrough. Kril pops from the background, and enemies are easy distinguishable. Combined with a simplified combat loop consisting of lone 4 stats, Another Crab’s Treasure boasts an awesome baseline accessibility compared to its predecessors.

To bolster this beardown foundation, Another Crab’s Treasure also includes a raft of assistance features that rebalance the game’s combat. Players tin trim incoming damage, little force health, amended the durability of your improvised shell, summation dodge invincibility frames and parry windows — though, the crippled ne'er really tells you how to parry — and adjacent dilatory the crippled down. Fall damage, which is lone taken erstwhile falling into the abyss, tin beryllium reduced oregon removed, arsenic tin the hazard of losing your microplastics connected death. Dying astatine a brag volition besides spot you respawn nearby, with items successful tow, alternatively than astatine the past checkpoint. Of course, arsenic developer Aggro Crab’s selling has spotlighted, you tin besides regenerate Kril’s ammunition with a weapon that one-shots everything.

In different menus, players tin besides remap buttons, power sprinting from a clasp input to a toggle, customize dependable balance, and trim question blur and camera shake. Perhaps astir notable extracurricular of its assistance options: you tin intermission Another Crab’s Treasure. This whitethorn look similar a unusual happening to highlight, particularly arsenic pausing shouldn’t beryllium uncommon successful the genre. Last year, however, Lies of P demonstrated that being a single-player, offline soulslike doesn’t warrant a intermission function.

It each adds up to a big of options — gun, perhaps, excluded — that galore players person been begging soulslikes to instrumentality for years. That Another Crab’s Treasure takes the plunge is simply a wide objection that the look tin beryllium made much accessible without compromising its challenge. Because adjacent with these settings, Another Crab’s Treasure is tough. Accessibility doesn’t dilute the game’s difficulty. Rather, it creates a affirmative interplay betwixt the game’s inherent trouble and the player, successful which the subordinate is granted power implicit their ain experience. This shifts Another Crab’s Treasure from a grind successful places to thing much enjoyable.

Image: Aggro Crab

Take the game’s archetypal boss: Nephro, Captain of the Guard. He’s an undersea facsimile of Sekiro’s Gyoubu Oniwa and a comparatively elemental force with lone a fewer attacks. Despite rapidly learning his dodge timings, I recovered it hard to capitalize arsenic his attacks invariably carried him distant from my dodges. It lengthened the fight, and mistakes started to creep successful with the fatigue — and truthful did frustration. Yet, done being capable to mitigate incoming harm and amended my shield, I was capable to region the grind, springiness myself country to marque caller strategies, and commencement having fun.

This happened aggregate times passim my playthrough, and whether the accessibility was mitigating my errors oregon the developers’ oregon some is possibly moot. The important happening is it allowed maine to bask what different mightiness person been frustrating — and achy — sticking points. It’s a strange, astir emotional, feeling to play a soulslike that surrenders power implicit your acquisition backmost to you aft years of the nonstop opposite.

That said, overmuch of the accessibility successful Another Crab’s Treasure is combat-focused. This means, successful different areas, the crippled inactive falls short. Though players are mostly pointed successful the close absorption and the crippled encourages you to get a “little lost,” determination are plentifulness of times erstwhile it wasn’t wide wherever I was expected to spell adjacent — from missing a waypoint quality oregon conscionable confusion. This wasn’t helped by a static representation that appears designed solely arsenic a notation to Elden Ring. In different areas of cognitive accessibility, there’s a invited directory of past tutorials, accessible astatine immoderate time, but there’s accusation missing (including, arsenic antecedently mentioned, however to parry).

This and much volition beryllium a peculiar contented for unsighted and visually impaired players, arsenic nary of this is voiced, with nary audio statement oregon built-in text-to-speech functions. But for a fewer short, voiced cutscenes, Another Crab’s Treasure is a reasonably soundless crippled extracurricular a varied postulation of dependable effects. Slippery platforming and levels afloat of pitfalls mean, adjacent with assistance, this crippled besides isn’t afloat accessible to visually impaired players, particularly erstwhile it comes to a definite country bathed successful acheronian that is hard adjacent for seeing players to get around.

Image: Aggro Crab

Other smaller elements besides creep in, similar the uncharacteristically subdued indicators for unblockable attacks and the predominant slowdowns successful loading zones — which see a visually uncomfortable blurring effect on-screen. Mileage whitethorn alteration connected however annoying they are, but adjacent these tiny moments enactment against the comparative accessibility of Another Crab’s Treasure.

Though it references them often, possibly it’s unfair to comparison Another Crab’s Treasure too often to its predecessors. But it is noticeable that erstwhile it is astatine its weakest — successful wide and successful presumption of accessibility — Another Crab’s Treasure bears a striking resemblance to its influences. Another Crab’s Treasure thrives erstwhile it’s arsenic removed from its FromSoftware roots arsenic possible, erstwhile it becomes a choky distillation of those fundamentals but washes them successful a colorful presentation, an irreverent attitude, and accessible play.

Perhaps the astir striking happening astir Another Crab’s Treasure is however plainly — however readily — Aggro Crab understands it has nary authorization implicit its players’ experiences. Instead of chafing against that similar truthful galore soulslikes, Another Crab’s Treasure leans successful and grants america an unprecedented level of power implicit however we play. In doing so, it lays down a marker for each that comes after, opening the genre to a wider spectrum of players.

More than anything, Another Crab’s Treasure, is simply a timely reminder that, for each of their challenge, soulslikes tin inactive beryllium fun.

Another Crab’s Treasure launches connected April 25th connected Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC, and PS5.