Many Souls-like games have about as much fun and color palette as a burning cow pie. They’re grim and gloomy, and often have gimmicks that are a bit average: mechanical arms that spit shit or turn to stone. Or they stand out for their incredibly deep combat, dense menus, and rainbow loot. So Another Crab’s Treasure is a refreshing surprise, with its crustacean theme, platforming, and shell gimmick that actually complements the combat in a clever way. Not only that, but it’s colorful and fun, with plenty of challenge for veterans and plenty of difficulty tweaks for those who just want to have fun. I’d say swap the cow pie for coral.
You play as Kril, a hermit whose shell (and home) is ripped off his back by a loan shark. And in a series of unfortunate events, your shell ends up on the back of Prawnathan, a cunning salesman who won’t give up your home for anything… except for a certain legendary treasure. Despite the fact that Kril could probably beat Prawnathan in a claw fight, Kril is overly nice and agrees. So off you go, collecting treasure map fragments scattered across the regions, battling nasty crustaceans, and discovering why the sea dwellers have succumbed to a mysterious disease that has transformed them from crabs to crab-like creatures.
While you might look at the game’s cute, cartoonish art style and think that its entire structure is a bit childish for you, I’d say it would be silly to consider it a game for gigantic kids. The writing is often comical (really comical), and it’s refreshing to play a colorful Souls-like that doesn’t miss the gloomy fantasy of FromSoft. Another Crab places you in an ocean besieged by human waste and pollution, which is undeniably grim, but the environmental theme is handled with humor and a sense that these resourceful crabs can thrive off of our garbage. I especially like that the trendy hairstyle is a curly orange peel. The pretty dress is a receipt with tanned edges, giving it a crisp feel. And the guy’s elegant hat is a toilet roll.
Exploration is mostly linear, taking on a sort of time-honored Soulsy feel. You explore by bouncing between Moon Crab’s Moon Shells, which act as your campfires, allowing you to rest and eventually Shelleport as fleet travel, and spend the microplastics you earn from fallen enemies on raising a few fun-to-manage key stats. Eventually, you’ll come across the enormous city of New Carcinia, which acts as a hub with a blacksmith and other vendors, but more as a place where people point you in the direction of your next treasure. A wise crab with a Pringle in his hat will tell you to go north of the Sands Between and look for a mysterious place, for example. That way, it’s effortless to know where you’re going at all times.
Even if these areas can be a little confusing at times. Some areas, at least at first, are quite sprawling and effortless to get lost in. Most of them are beautifully executed, fitting the theme perfectly, though, with acidic cities constructed from empty milk cartons and discarded baskets acting as great focal points for the noxious swamps. Even better is your ability to jump, climb and swing through them, as this is as much a platformer as it is a Soulslike. You’ll be bouncing off sponges, throwing jagged hooks to grab onto dangling netting and performing little dog paddles to close tight gaps. And don’t worry, the platforming is intuitive and fairly fast-paced, with very few jarring moments.
When you’re not climbing sieves, you spend most of your time fighting crab-like crustaceans with your only weapon: a fork. And in its simplest form, combat once again follows the typical Souls formula. You’ll be blocking enemies, dodging to avoid their swings, and munching on heart-shaped kelp to heal yourself. The goal is to land blows to break their health bars, and more importantly, work to maximize their stagger meter. Once you’ve accomplished that, you can hit them with a charge attack to trip them up, leaving them vulnerable to your attacks for a few precious seconds. The thing is, you’re a crab, and this isn’t just your typical Souls-like with a run-of-the-mill gadget. Oh no.
The house on your back is no longer a house – cheers, loan shark – but the equivalent of a shield slot. Some enemy crabs can, say, carry a bottle cap, so if you defeat them, you can carry a discarded bottle cap on your back and operate it to absorb attacks by crouching in it. You can still hide a bit when crouching, and unlike in some Souls games, it will absorb 100% of an enemy’s attack. Once the blue shield meter reaches zero, it will shatter, leaving you naked and relying on dodging to avoid the pain. So it’s significant to keep an eye on your shield status, or at least keep an eye on any potential fresh homes you might want to jump into if that muscle-bound lobster breaks your walls.
What’s really nippy about this gadget, aside from being a thematic treat, is that you’re encouraged to regularly hop between shells, focusing less on the fork and more on your transient home. There are mass shells lying around like coffee capsules, skulls, cans and darts (my favourite, of course). Many of them are effortless to lose when you’re in a hurry and all of them also have special abilities.
With the Moon Crab, you can wield the power of Umami. Umami is dictated by the charges you have available, and they charge up when you hit enemies, rewarding aggression. Coffee pods give you a transient movement and attack speed boost, and banana peels can be eaten whole for a health boost at the cost of protection. There’s even a dead crab shell that acts as bait when activated, which can give you critical time to re-shell, tricking enemies.
Yes, it’s a bit of a shame you can’t hit with a soggy cigar butt or a toothpick, but you have other ways to be aggressive. Umami lets you perform special techniques that you get after beating some of the game’s toughest fights, like a powerful punch that knocks enemies out in the blink of an eye. Moon Snail also has four tiny skill trees that you invest crystals in (easily available after or near fights) that give you a ton of useful abilities. Those feisty hooks you operate to swing from your webs? You can upgrade them so you can actually grab enemies and hit them. My favorite is the ability to stick a shell to a fork, turning it into a makeshift hammer.
The shells and all those skills mean that despite the lack of weapon variety, combat rarely gets lifeless. But that doesn’t mean that because you have such a generous selection, everything is incredibly effortless. I would say that the default difficulty is actually quite challenging, as enemies have a habit of shredding you in a few hits if you’re not careful. In fact, this is the case throughout, as I found enemies scaled to your level, so you never Really I felt my base power and protection become stronger as I poured microplastic into them.
Still, there are plenty of options to turn the game into a child’s first Dark Souls if you want. The difficulty can be changed from the default Hard to Easy and Story, with Story making it much easier for those who want a minimal challenge. Individual settings, like microplastic loss on death or fall damage, can be turned off without affecting the overall difficulty. You can even just say “Fuck it” and move the “Give Kril a gun” slider, which lets you bombard areas with a gun capable of destroying pretty much anything in your path. I completely ruined a challenging boss fight by killing a mega-shrimp with a few shots. It was wonderful.
Another Crab’s Treasure may be one of the most consistent Souls-like games, considering how it took the hermit theme and actually turned it into a fun ARPG with intriguing combat. And while it’s challenging enough for Souls fans, I appreciated the abundance of options that allowed it to be turned into a much easier experience. It really is a Souls-like for everyone.
This review was prepared based on the version of the game provided by the developers.
