Another Crab's Treasure is quite the sophomore project from Aggro Crab. To go from a top-down 3D dungeon crawler with a relatively simplistic art style (by design) to an expansive soulslike set in a world filled with character and detail is an incredible leap.
But does Another Crab's Treasure match the fun and charm of its premise and gameplay trailers? For the most part, yes, it does indeed.
You play as Kril, a small hermit crab who just wants to be left alone in his shell, away from others. His relative peace is harshly disrupted, however, when a (literal) loan shark robs him of his home and sells it off. Now, he must embark on an underwater soulsborne adventure to buy his home back. From there, one thing leads to another and his secondary quest just happens to become "also, save the entire ocean while you're at it."
It's a fun story with fun, compelling characters and fun, witty writing from beginning to end. Honestly, going by these two projects of theirs that I've played consecutively now, these are things that Aggro Crab really seems to thrive at, and they're really in full force throughout Another Crab's Treasure, even more so than Going Under.
That being said, a decidedly less fun part of all that comes in the form of ACT's ending. Without treading into spoilers, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bad ending—at least, not in that sense. Hypothetically, it's more like they picked the bad ending in a game with multiple choices and decided to make that the canon one. In fact, after I finished, I had to look online and check if that might be the case. It wasn't.
Don't get me wrong, it's a bold choice and to a certain degree, it's effective and I totally get what they were going for and what they were trying to say with it but it still doesn't feel satisfying or earned. I suppose that's more or less the point, and in some ways, it mirrors the endings of FromSoft's soulslikes, but in this game's case, it seemed far more bitter than sweet.
Still, the rest of the game remains a great time despite all of that. I can see people proficient in soulslikes not getting much out of this game since it doesn't use too many of the conventions one may be used to with them. For instance, you only have one weapon in the whole game. You can upgrade that weapon of course and gain certain abilities for it, but the bulk of your offensive capabilities come in the form of 'shell spells' (a special attack that uses up a meter) and the unique abilities of the shells you inherit (which also doubles as your defense).
Still, even if you aren't adept or overly fond of these kinds of games, ACT comes with a nifty 'assist mode' menu with heaps of options to fine-tune the experience to your liking. There's even one that lets you give Kril a gun for those who really wanna dispatch their enemies without any hassle, and fair enough to them at that!
Once again, though, there's a caveat. Besides my qualms with the game's ending, there were certain qualms with regards to platforming too. Overall, it's decent and gets the job done just enough to provide some respite from the combat encounters; however, it's all too easy to get caught in the geometry and miss certain jumps, even with the correct timing.
Part of the reason for this seems to be because Kril doesn't really have a proper double jump. Instead, he floats for a few seconds, much like Yoshi, which can provide you with some airtime to get where you need to go. This is relatively okay; however, there are several occasions where even that is not quite enough. Really, to get the most out of these segments, Aggro Crab could (and should) add a double jump while still keeping the floating, and make it so that you can climb up ledges if you just fall short of the jump. With these additions, the platforming would be well on its way to feeling more satisfying.
Overall, Another Crab's Treasure is a grand undersea adventure with heaps of charm and fun in its sharp, surprisingly crass dialogue and characters. Qualms with the ending and platforming segments keep it from surpassing Going Under but with certain tweaks and potential post-launch content (as they've hinted at), this can easily be achieved.
8/10
But does Another Crab's Treasure match the fun and charm of its premise and gameplay trailers? For the most part, yes, it does indeed.
You play as Kril, a small hermit crab who just wants to be left alone in his shell, away from others. His relative peace is harshly disrupted, however, when a (literal) loan shark robs him of his home and sells it off. Now, he must embark on an underwater soulsborne adventure to buy his home back. From there, one thing leads to another and his secondary quest just happens to become "also, save the entire ocean while you're at it."
It's a fun story with fun, compelling characters and fun, witty writing from beginning to end. Honestly, going by these two projects of theirs that I've played consecutively now, these are things that Aggro Crab really seems to thrive at, and they're really in full force throughout Another Crab's Treasure, even more so than Going Under.
That being said, a decidedly less fun part of all that comes in the form of ACT's ending. Without treading into spoilers, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bad ending—at least, not in that sense. Hypothetically, it's more like they picked the bad ending in a game with multiple choices and decided to make that the canon one. In fact, after I finished, I had to look online and check if that might be the case. It wasn't.
Don't get me wrong, it's a bold choice and to a certain degree, it's effective and I totally get what they were going for and what they were trying to say with it but it still doesn't feel satisfying or earned. I suppose that's more or less the point, and in some ways, it mirrors the endings of FromSoft's soulslikes, but in this game's case, it seemed far more bitter than sweet.
Still, the rest of the game remains a great time despite all of that. I can see people proficient in soulslikes not getting much out of this game since it doesn't use too many of the conventions one may be used to with them. For instance, you only have one weapon in the whole game. You can upgrade that weapon of course and gain certain abilities for it, but the bulk of your offensive capabilities come in the form of 'shell spells' (a special attack that uses up a meter) and the unique abilities of the shells you inherit (which also doubles as your defense).
Still, even if you aren't adept or overly fond of these kinds of games, ACT comes with a nifty 'assist mode' menu with heaps of options to fine-tune the experience to your liking. There's even one that lets you give Kril a gun for those who really wanna dispatch their enemies without any hassle, and fair enough to them at that!
Once again, though, there's a caveat. Besides my qualms with the game's ending, there were certain qualms with regards to platforming too. Overall, it's decent and gets the job done just enough to provide some respite from the combat encounters; however, it's all too easy to get caught in the geometry and miss certain jumps, even with the correct timing.
Part of the reason for this seems to be because Kril doesn't really have a proper double jump. Instead, he floats for a few seconds, much like Yoshi, which can provide you with some airtime to get where you need to go. This is relatively okay; however, there are several occasions where even that is not quite enough. Really, to get the most out of these segments, Aggro Crab could (and should) add a double jump while still keeping the floating, and make it so that you can climb up ledges if you just fall short of the jump. With these additions, the platforming would be well on its way to feeling more satisfying.
Overall, Another Crab's Treasure is a grand undersea adventure with heaps of charm and fun in its sharp, surprisingly crass dialogue and characters. Qualms with the ending and platforming segments keep it from surpassing Going Under but with certain tweaks and potential post-launch content (as they've hinted at), this can easily be achieved.
8/10