Crimson Capes

Crimson Capes is an interesting experiment, where every fight could be a chance for meaty combat, instead it feels like too close to Prince of Persia combat – flailing and anachronistic.

While we’re used to seeing games in this genre that draw heavy inspiration from (or even outright copy) one another, I appreciated that Crimson Capes has its own identity and offers an original gameplay experience. It has its flaws, but the effort put into it definitely shouldn’t be overlooked.

"A Dark World Full of Challenges" Crimson Capes delivers a solid 2D Souls-like experience, with a rich dark world, precise combat, varied strategies for each character, and polished graphics and sound. Despite some weaknesses in the narrative and world exploration, the game remains enjoyable for re-play and fans of tactical challenges.

The combat system is where the game really shines, with its mesmerizing 2.5D sword fights. However, there is a stark contrast in difficulty between fighting regular bad guys and giant monsters. The boss fights certainly challenge you to lock in and give your A-game of dodging, blocking, and countering. But the massive imbalance in difficulty between effortless bandit beheadings and punishing boss fights can feel a bit jarring. Crimson Capes delivers an enjoyable experience for all devotees of the roguelite / roguelike / metroidvania genre. If Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Dead Cells, and the like are among your most-played games, then Crimson Capes will surely scratch that itch to try out something new. Just don’t expect anything groundbreaking in terms of story and theme. I hereby bestow upon Crimson Capes the Thumb Culture Silver Award!

I was hoping for something fun and new with Crimson Capes. I am relatively fresh off SilkSong, which probably doesn’t help, but I didn’t go into it expecting something of that calibre. What I found was a game that could have had a rich world with interesting quest lines, innovative combat, and novel enemies, but really failed to deliver on every count. The world was empty, the enemies were a predictable grind, and the combat was uninspired. It’s just another 2D Souls-like that fails to bring anything new to the table.