Crypt Custodian review: A charming metroidvania that’ll sweep you off your feet

Smack, smack, smack—squeak! Smack, smack, smack—squeak! 

You may not know it, but that’s the harmonious sound of one little black cat as he sweeps up the afterlife. Did he deserve to be banished to the underworld as its eternal janitor, forever cleaning up infinite piles of garbage? No, and that’s why he’s secretly plotting to overthrow the powers that be by uniting hell’s suffering souls and storming the golden gates.

It may sound like a weird pipe dream, but that’s right in line with developer Kyle Thompson’s style. Thompson has returned with another metroidvania, Crypt Custodian, following his hit Islets, and fans of the genre are in for yet another treat.

In Crypt Custodian, you take on the role of Pluto, a beloved house cat who escapes his home one night and becomes the unfortunate victim of a “Why did the cat cross the road” joke. Spoiler alert: It was apparently to get to the other side, and that other side ended up being hell. When you load into the game, you meet the afterlife’s judge—Kendra, a giant ghostly bullfrog—who banishes you to the underworld to serve as its custodian for the rest of time.

With only a broom to start, you’ll fight vicious monsters, evil witches, and other creepy creatures in your quest to storm Kendra’s castle. But you’re not alone; a cast of charming animals joins you in your adventure, each with their own touching stories of their lives before becoming the underworld’s lost souls. Along your path to redemption, you’ll find puzzles to solve, collectible power-ups, and plenty of hidden secrets to uncover.

The underworld’s not so bad! (Or tough)

You’re limited to melee attacks and single jumps when you first step into the underworld. Like in any good metroidvania, though, you unlock various power-ups and movement abilities as you progress through the story.

There are two types of power-ups: Upgrades and Special Attacks. Upgrades are passive effects that require Upgrade Points to equip, whereas Special Attacks are powerful attacks that you must charge by smacking enemies with your broom. You can find Upgrades and Special Attacks behind puzzles and locked gates, but you can also purchase some with Garbage, the currency you gain from killing enemies.

Upgrades offer bonuses ranging from increases to your health or damage to secondary effects triggered by movement abilities or melee attacks. With 24 Upgrades to collect, you can mix and match bonuses, customizing your playstyle to find one that best fits your skill level and preferred approach to combat.

As you travel around the map, you encounter bosses blocking your path. When you take them down, you receive a range of new movement abilities: Dashes that allow you to cross chasms or a way to tunnel into the ground to bypass walls and gates. You can then use these abilities to reach new areas of the map and progress through the game’s story, as well as revisit older areas to find hidden collectibles you might’ve been unable to reach.

The map is composed of over 10 distinct areas, each with its own theme, including an abandoned amusement park, a moldy basement, gorgeous floating islands, and a dream-like realm. Most regions have an animal friend to call its own, and as you play through the game, you help solve their problems to recruit them in overthrowing Kendra and retrieving a magical mirror that lets you visit the world of the living and those you left behind. 

I played on Hard, the most challenging of the game’s three difficulty options, and finished the game with ease. Bosses took me only a few tries at most, and I never spent more than a few minutes in each chamber. Different enemy types inhabit each region, but they often share variations of the same attack, so even though you’re progressing through the game, enemies never seem to evolve alongside you. Although there are optional Curses—occasional challenges that temporarily up the difficulty of enemies and reward you for defeating a set number of foes—this leads Crypt Custodian to feel best suited as an entry point into the genre. 

For those looking for more of a challenge, two additional modes unlock throughout your playthrough: Boss Rush and Shuffle. Boss Rush, which you gain access to after defeating the first boss, lets you replay bosses at the three difficulties and gives you a letter-grade score based on how well you did. You only have a limited amount of Upgrade Points, the number of which depends on the difficulty, capping the number of Upgrades you can bring to battle. Shuffle mode, which unlocks after you’ve completed the story, starts a new playthrough but randomizes the collectibles found around the map, limiting you to the Upgrades and Special Attacks the game throws your way. 

Curiosity… rewarded the cat?

Ok, I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for collectibles. There’s nothing more satisfying than unearthing a hidden power-up or checking off an item from my collectibles list. And Crypt Custodian scratches this itch in an incredibly rewarding way. 

There are tons of collectibles to find in Crypt Custodian: Photos that tell the backstories of your companions, Cat Spirits trapped in mossy vases with useful rewards, Upgrade Points that allow you to equip more power-ups, and Jukebox Discs that change the game’s music. They’re all organized intuitively, too; each clearly defined area on your map has three photos, a Cat Spirit, and a Jukebox Disc. This makes it easy for players aiming for 100 percent completion, even if some of these items take a bit of searching to find.

While most collectibles aren’t necessary to complete the game, the photos play a big role in supporting the narrative. Each animal has three photos to find, telling the beginning, middle, and end of their lives and providing context to their attitudes or actions: Why is Grizz so aloof and bossy? What caused Wailer’s debilitating grief? Some players may blow past these stories, but those who take the time to collect them all will be treated to touching stories that further raise the stakes for reclaiming the magical mirror.

At the end of your journey, you’ll be met with a cocktail of emotions: Triumph, grief, acceptance. Maybe it was the writing, or maybe it was my own recent struggle with the loss of a pet, but the game’s ending had me bawling like a baby in a strangely cathartic way. For such an unsuspecting game, it sure finds a way to pack a punch.

Is Crypt Custodian worth the $20 price tag?

Crypt Custodian may not be the most challenging metroidvania, nor does it reinvent the wheel, but it handles many of the genre’s most defining characteristics well. Between its customizable combat system, satisfying collectibles list, and silly but heart-wrenching narrative, Thompson’s new release is worth picking up whether you’re newly interested in the genre or a metroidvania veteran—even if the difficulty is lacking.