Crimson Capes is the latest game from indie studio Poor Locke, the creator of Windmills and Unbeliever. This time, they take on a more complex project than they have previously, but maintain the same Souls-like style in a 2D world. The highlight of this project compared to previous Poor Locke games is the combat system, which is designed in a way to be deliberate in how you attack in order to make you feel like a master swordsman.
I’ve played a lot of classic RPGs and as well as Souls-like games, but I’m not as used to seeing these genres in a 2D style that still works to maintain the modern elements that you tend to find in Souls games. While I went into the game believing there would also be a significant number of features that you find in platformers, I was surprised that it’s quite light on platforming styles. The experience that I stepped into with Crimson Capes is a classic RPG that could still use a few tweaks.
Crimson Capes Feels Nostalgic from the Start
Crimson Capes follows the journey of Milon, the leader of the Crimson Capes who’s been tasked with hunting and killing four witches by order of the king. This sets up a classic story for fantasy RPGs, which isn’t bad. It’s nice that you unravel the story as you play, instead of being thrown into the middle of too much plot that it’s overwhelming.
With Milon being the leader of the Crimson Capes, he’s the default character that you start the game playing after a short section as a village child. However, you’re not restricted to only playing Milon. Once you finish the opening, you can play as the other Crimson Capes, who are technically Milon’s subordinates. They each have their own fighting style, so that’s where you can start tailoring the experience to your personal preferences.
This was something I didn’t expect, but the world felt nostalgic as soon as I started the game. It gives me the feeling of games like the first Diablo in the way that you move and the style, but just in a 2D world. I can definitely see players who remember old RPGs fondly enjoying the setting from the start.
I believe the nostalgic feeling comes largely from the art and animation style. Those elements are two of my favorite parts of the game. Even without having the kind of open-world map that you might be used to from a lot of RPGs where you’re not often limited to the 2D style, you don’t feel those limitations while playing.
The art doesn’t show everything in hyper detail, but it still shows a pretty world. Similarly, the animation and visual effects are also quite beautiful. It doesn’t feel flat, which seems like it is always at risk of happening in 2D games. Instead, it does well to make you feel like there’s a full world around you.
It’s also nice that the art doesn’t include a lot of clutter in the areas you explore. There’s enough detail that the world doesn’t feel empty, which would be unsettling or give it a lazy feeling, but there’s not so much that you’re overwhelmed and have difficulty seeing what’s important. The combat makes this particularly crucial, as I could imagine how much harder it would be to time parries and dodges when there’s visual clutter.
As for visual effects, I particularly like the effect that shows up when you rest at a flowerbed. The items you can pick up are clearly visible as glowing orbs, and it’s easy to tell what you don’t what to stand in based on the effects, such as the green fog that you might encounter enemies spewing early in Crimson Capes. In those ways, the visuals are effective at their jobs.
Crimson Capes Combat Forces You to Time Everything
Part of Crimson Capes’ official descriptions talks about the inspiration that the team at Poor Locke took from Souls games while making the game, and a big part of Souls games would be the difficult enemies you face and how challenging combat can end up being.
I played primarily as Milon, because that just felt like the right option for me in the grand scheme of the game. He plays like a classic paladin-type character. You focus on melee attacks and have a special ability to boost your word power via divine lightning. When you get the pop-up to use this ability for the first time during the tutorial boss fight, your health refills.
However, it’s important to note that your health doesn’t refill from the ability, and it’s because of the point in the fight you reached. If you don’t use the ability here, you still regain your health. This wasn’t clear in the pop-up, so I mistakenly believed that the special abilities also acted as another way to restore health, leading to deaths later. The timing of the ability tutorial and health refill is misleading in this way.
Basically, you’ll mostly use your light and heavy attacks, dodge, and parry. You can learn skills at rest points as well, and that lets you tailor your fighting style a bit more to your personal preference for each of the four playable characters. Although this is everything you need to take on enemies, I quickly learned that timing is the most important element of Crimson Capes’ combat.
I’m not sure if this is intentional, but I found that there’s a delay between when I choose an input and when my character executes that input. I believe that part of this could be from the animations of abilities, and maybe that makes it take a little longer to execute, but it was an adjustment to work with, especially for parrying and dodging. You have such a small window that timing it with the delay is difficult.
The result is that you rely heavily on visual and audio cues for combat, which is expected in games in general. However, you have to time your dodges and movements a little before when you actually need to use them. It gives you the feeling that your weapons have weight in terms of immersion, but as a player, it feels sluggish at the same time in a way I’m not used to dealing with in games.
Overall, the combat isn’t as challenging as Souls games even with the delay. I’d love to have a way to interrupt my character’s current action for the sake of dodging, and I’d be fine taking a penalty for it, such as not being able to attack for a short time, in exchange. That was definitely my biggest challenge in combat, and quite frustrating even after I learned to time actions.
Crimson Capes Could Feel Different Using Multiplayer
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to test out the multiplayer aspect. This isn’t unexpected, as there’s just not enough people to make it easy to coordinate a multiplayer run ahead of the release date. However, Crimson Capes feels like the style of game where having a friend run through it with you could make the overall game feel different.
In addition to changing combat by having an extra person help you fight, you would likely feel more immersed in the story, since the Crimson Capes are meant to be a team that’s been assigned to kill the witches.
Like in many games, it’s also debatable if having another player with you would help. I know that I would likely frustrate my partner simply through my tendency to sit and test boss abilities and which can be parried versus which need to be dodged. This leads to many deaths as I’m not trying to kill the boss until after I’ve gone through multiple encounters with it.
Alternatively, you could also end up being invaded by other players, which would make the game more difficult. Naturally, I was unable to experience this part of the game as well. But with an understanding of the basic concepts for the multiplayer options, it seems like an interesting way to change the difficulty of your run in the absence of difficulty options.
Crimson Capes is a Classic RPG in a Modern World
While I enjoyed my time in Crimson Capes and appreciate the way it took me back to the feeling of playing RPGs as a child, I think it might have difficulty drawing in a younger audience that might not have that nostalgic feeling attached to its style. I also believe that the delay for actions, if it’s intentional or not, could dissuade players from playing it because the timing can be tricky to get used to.
I believe that fans of classic fantasy games are the most likely to enjoy Crimson Capes. The Souls-like elements aren’t implemented in a way that makes it overly difficult or frustrating, and they instead encourage you to take your time, explore, and be strategic regarding how you approach the game rather than the general idea that Souls-like means a game is difficult to the point of being frustrating.
Overall, it’s a fun game and the combat was definitely interesting to learn, because it does make you feel like you have more abilities at your disposal than you expect. It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to experience the multiplayer options simply due to the reality of playing early, but it’s a solid game for what it has to offer.
Reviewed on PC. Review code provided by the publisher.
Crimson Capes brings an ambitious combat system to a world that feels like a classic RPG, but delays in actions can be frustrating. The result is a solid game that appeals to those who love the fantasy genre that encourages you to explore the world around you and find the playstyle that fits you best.
The Good
- Good art and level design
- Blend of classic and modern RPG styles
- Unique combat style
The Bad
- Delay for actions
- Inability to interrupt your own animations
