3.5/5 ★ – vassm's review of Another Crab's Treasure.

The first time I saw "Another Crab‘s Treasure" was during last years Nintendo Direct, and I remember instantly falling in love with it. I thought the combination of Souls-like and platforming was such a unique gameplay mechanic that I was eager to try out. Fast forward to a week and a half ago and I finally got around to playing it, and it was an overall decent experience. However, there definitely were some issues. >_> Obviously, from the start, I was completely hooked by its art direction and adorable characters that I grew super attatched to within the first 20 minutes. The bright, saturated colors starkly contrasted with the games narrative themes in a way that I will for sure remember as a games artist. The overall color palette was fantastic, and I had a lovely time walking up to various assets and analyzing the textures…which I love to do. :P The narrative was genius and I loved how it puts things into perspective from tiny little sea creatures rather than humans. It made the capitalistic undertones have an odd sense of dark humor to them. Not to mention the writing had a sense of immaturity to it that I loved and went well with the childlike visuals of the game. Brilliant way of tackling serious topics in a visually pleasing way. In terms of difficulty, "Another Crab‘s Treasure" was definitely on the easier side for the genre. The first stretch of bosses were actually really enjoyable, with my favorite being the Duchess-- her moveset was just super fun to learn, and really rewarding once I beat her. The music was also incredible everywhere you went in this game and I was not at all expecting that. However, after about the 60% mark, the game started to slowly fall apart for me. Once I completed the treasure map portion and had to push through the "Mouth of the Drain" and beyond that, the experience took a nosedive. The platforming became unbearable, especially in the "Old Ocean" area and the boss fights took a sudden dip in quality with a spike in tediousness rather than a genuine challenge. It felt oddly rushed, but also not? I don't know how to best describe it. The story also got boring! Not to mention, I thought this game was going to end several times before it actually did lol. The last three bosses were easily the worst offenders. By the time I reached the final boss, I was so over it that I pulled out the glock for the first time (because, honestly, I couldn't be bothered). The fighting at times also felt clunky, the parry didnt feel nice, the dodge had a delay, and the dodge time between hits sometimes felt unfair. I promise I‘m not that bad at the game… On a technical level, the game also had some serious issues. The frame rate would tank at times, and during the second to last fight, the audio completely broke and made the game go to 1 frame per second, forcing me to restart and lose progress. Now to conclude! XD "Another Crab's Treasure" was super charming and refreshingly unique for a game of this type, but it definitely had its problems both design-wise and technically. While I loved its visuals and early game design direction, the later sections and technical hiccups made for a frustrating end. However, I will say, I'm super glad that I played this game because there are parts that are incredibly memorable and were genuinely fun, but despite my issues with it, I do not regret picking up this game by any means! 7.6/10