Another Crab's Treasure Review

Soulslike Carcinization

The soulslike genre has been exponentially growing since the success of games like Seikiro, Dark Souls 3, and more recently, Elden Ring. However, the market seems to have taken too much inspiration from FromSoft's franchise as most of these games also adopt the grimdark aesthetic (ie Lies of P, Remnant, and Thymesia). Thankfully, Another Crab's Treasure stands out in more ways than one. Thanks to its vibrant cheery art style, playful puns, and poignant jabs at real world issues, ACT is a joy to play. I'd been following the development of this game for about two years on TikTok and the extra insight to how the game was developed heightened my appreciation for the game and for game development in general.

In Another Crab's Treasure you play as a hermit crab named Kril. His journey begins when his shell is taken away by a Loan Shark. To get his home back, Kril chases the shark to the big city, New Carcinia. Upon arrival, Kril finds out his home has been sold to a Prawn Shop run by Prawnathan, a prawn who's searching for his next big score. The cost is steep, 999,999,999 microplastics is a fortune that feels unattainable, that is until Trash Day hits the city, revealing a map with a location to the biggest treasure trove in the ocean. Kril's journey to find the treasure is hindered discovering that many of the underwater creatures have been “Gunked” due to the growing pollution in the ocean. This causes nearly everything to attack on sight. If that isn't enough, Kril is not the only one searching for treasure.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that the story of ACT has no business being as heartwarming as it is. It feels authentic and genuine in addition to being fun. They set the tone early on, but every good story has a shift later on and I love the way ACT executes theirs. The third act is an emotional rollercoaster and dare I say...a little spooky. Part of what I love about the storytelling is its political messaging and satire. The critiques of capitalism, the rich, and the friends we make along the way. There's literally a Trickle Down Economics joke after all. The humor is on point and done perfectly.

While the visuals are going to be the first thing you notice about ACT, what also makes it different is the gameplay accessibility. The biggest complaint myself and many other have had with most FromSoft games is the lack of accessibility. The games are so cripplingly difficult, it does lock many potential players out of the proverbial room. There's nothing wrong with an easy mode and I will say that Elden Ring did make strides in being more accessible by making all builds super strong, it is still is not for everyone. The defense people from the “git gud” crowd online is always, “it infringes on the artistic vision” of the game. ACT proves that wrong.

You are given a variety of settings to change that make the game easier to play so you can enjoy it your way. They don't lock achievements as well. If you want to equip Kril with a gun that one shots every enemy, go for it! Don't want to lose your Microplastics when you die? You can turn on the setting to keep them. You're never beating your head into the wall when constantly failing and it makes the experience fun, because Aggro Crab gives the player full control.

Part of Elden Ring's success was how every aspect of the game felt like it belonged. The art, voice acting, combat, exploration, even dialog all felt natural to experience within the world of the Lands Between. The same goes for ACT, I will say this is a subtle aspect of the game's worldbuilding that so few games adopt when trying to use FromSoft as the blueprint for their latest game. More companies need to take the right lessons from successful games and Aggro Crab clearly has.

Combat in ACT is very standard. You'll string together light and heavy attacks with Kril's fork while dodging or blocking with his shell. Your attack potential increases when you gain the ability to stab your shell with your fork, creating a hammer. The moveset changes while also granting Kril more damage at the cost of swing speed. I found myself using the hammer more often than not because it felt more impactful than the standard forms of attacking. Some enemies will simply be too fast to make use of the hammer and some will be too strong for the standard fork. The variety of enemies are what keep you on your toes.

Armor in ACT is all in the shells. There are a wide variety of shells to choose from and many have different abilities, offensive, defensive, and more support oriented shells allow the player to explore at their own pace. You are able to find what you like, and keep using it thanks to a Shell Insurance mechanics later in the game. The heavier the shell, the slower your rolls are, but the higher the damage mitigation and more health it has. The health of the shell does deteriorate when using it as a hammer too.

In addition to melee combat, you'll gain a variety of spells to use. These spells scale with “Umami” which is their way of saying, “Mana/Magic”. You'll earn more spells with more bosses you defeat, a lot of them are missable so be sure you explore as much as you can. These are crucial to beating bosses later in the game, and on my first play-through I missed most of them so I had a harder time than normal.

The true mark of any soulslike is the quality and variety of bosses. ACT does not disappoint in this department. Every boss is unique and they always match their environment. The Ceviche Sisters were my favorite to fight and a close second was the Mantis Shrimp. The first major boss you fight, the Duchess Magista, sets the expectation for what you will later encounter. You learn everything you need to from the fight. I think this is incredible game design and I wish more games took the time to teach the player through their gameplay rather than text windows of explanation.

I don't have my negatives to say about ACT. My main criticism lies in the platforming. The physics felt inconsistent when using sponges to bounce. Towards the end of the game there's a lot more platforming and I found myself getting more frustrated because it couldn't find the sweet spot when trying to jump from platform to platform. The distances you'd travel when bouncing wasn't consistent. Unfortunately it felt this way through the entire level. The swim feature to hover through the “air” was challenging to get a hold of as well. I found myself sliding off an edge often because the game couldn't tell I had landed already. The platforming is not nearly as polished as the combat.

My final criticism is the map. I missed a lot on my first play-through because the map is not detailed and you are unable to zoom in/out or move it around. You only see a small portion of the map locked onto the area where Kril is. If your game is going to be open world, you need a decent map with the ability to place markers. ACT lacks this and as accessible as the game is, the map was a huge miss. (Edit: Aggro Crab has updated the game, the map is moveable now).

Overall, I think Another Crab's Treasure is a lovely game with a lot of heart. It is clearly a labor of love and more people should play this game because it is certainly flying under the radar. It is by far my favorite indie game in the last few years. The last time I had this much fun playing an indie title was Hades. I think Aggro Crab is onto something here, I think there's potential for future installments or DLC if they wish to expand on the game. But if this is one and done for Kril, the entire dev team should be proud of what they accomplished because this game is truly something special.

I highly recommend Another Crab's Treasure. You can play it on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Switch, and Steam.