Crypt Custodian

Crypt Custodian opens on a simple, likable joke: Pluto, a mischievous cat, dies and is sentenced to serve as the afterlife's eternal janitor. What follows is a fairly traditional metroidvania — new movement abilities unlocking new paths through an interconnected world, upgrades to find, ghosts to befriend — wrapped in an art style and tonal warmth that this review's sample finds genuinely disarming, set against a combat system that a large and specific portion of that same sample finds considerably less inspired.

Exploration as the clear centerpiece

Where this game earns its strongest, most consistent praise is in the act of simply moving through its world. "There's paths branching out in every direction and it was pure dopamine uncovering every last room and collectable," one reviewer with 823 minutes logged writes, a sentiment echoed by several others who single out world design and secret-hunting as the game's real hook. Another reviewer, deeply experienced in the genre, doesn't hedge: "Crypt Custodian is a 5/5 through and through. An absolute perfect game that combines the best parts of a top down zelda w[ith metroidvania structure]." The art direction earns its own dedicated praise across nearly every review regardless of overall verdict — "the art style is absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, it's like a playable painting," one reviewer writes, a line that could stand in for dozens of similar comments throughout the sample.

Accessibility done with unusual care

One thread worth calling out specifically is how much credit the game earns for its assist options. "This is the first game I've played where I made extensive use of the 'assist' options, and though I had mixed feelings about it at first, I'm glad I did," one reviewer writes, going on to praise the atmosphere and exploration as the genre's best qualities regardless of the difficulty adjustment. That's a meaningful signal: accessibility settings that a genuinely engaged, experienced player chooses to lean on, and comes away satisfied with, speak to thoughtful implementation rather than a bolted-on afterthought.

Where the negative sample gets specific, not vague

The complaints in this game's negative sample are notable for how detailed and consistent they are, rather than reading as scattered frustration. One reviewer structures an entire review around the tension directly, titled "Cute cat game let down by bullet hell," describing the actual combat encounters as visually chaotic projectile spam rather than the tight, readable fights the genre's best entries deliver. Another, with 643 minutes logged, writes: "Could've been alright, but it's just too full of filler content... the game just goes on and on," describing the mid-to-late game as stretching thinner material further than it comfortably supports. A third sums up a recurring split-decision succinctly: "It's not a bad game by any means, in fact there is a lot of heart and the dev(s) are clearly talented. The game just never really evolves beyond 'press X as fast as possible while occasionally dodging.'" These are reviewers actively rooting for the game, describing a specific structural shortfall rather than dismissing it outright.

Getting lost, and a few sharper technical complaints

A second recurring thread involves navigation. "Decent metroidvania, but very easy to get lost, and even with the in-game purchasable marker system, I found myself not really knowing where to go," one reviewer writes — a legitimate design critique for a genre that lives or dies on how well its world teaches you to read it. Technical complaints round out the sample with more specificity than the usual vague "buggy" grumbling: one reviewer documents a crash tied specifically to the Steam Overlay, with a workaround of disabling it entirely; another reports persistent input delay not present in any other game on their system; a third flags a genuinely odd control-design choice where menu actions share inputs with combat actions without updating the on-screen button prompts. None of these are universal, but each is concrete enough to take seriously rather than dismiss as an outlier.

What the achievement data adds to the combat conversation

Steam's own completion figures back up the reviewer-described split between exploration and combat rather cleanly. An early story milestone sits at a strong 96.0%, and general collectible-hunting achievements sit comfortably in the 70-85% range, consistent with most players comfortably engaging with and enjoying the exploration side of the game. The picture changes sharply once you reach the boss-rush challenge tiers, which fall to 11.1%, 5.7%, and just 4.4% for the hardest tier — numbers that read less like a natural difficulty curve and more like confirmation that the game's combat-focused endgame content asks for a level of mechanical engagement most players who loved the exploration simply don't come back for. That lines up precisely with the negative sample's core complaint: this is a game whose combat was never its main draw, and the data shows most players implicitly agree by not chasing its hardest combat challenges.

A useful outside perspective worth including

One reviewer with a longer view offers a distinct, worthwhile caveat: having positively reviewed the developer's previous games, they note "the dev basically makes the same game every time. The atmosphere is the same, a sort of ironically lighthearted, zero-real-stakes" formula repeating across three releases now. That's a fair point for anyone who's already played Islets or the developer's other work — Crypt Custodian is executed with real craft, but it isn't reinventing its creator's established formula so much as refining it once more, and buyers going in expecting a dramatic departure should adjust expectations accordingly.

Final verdict

Crypt Custodian is a genuinely lovely, well-crafted metroidvania whose exploration, art direction, and accessibility options earn wide and specific praise, set against a combat system that a large, thoughtful portion of its audience consistently finds thinner and more repetitive than the world it's set in. Play it for the sense of discovery and the warmth of its world; go in with modest expectations for its fights, and you'll likely land closer to this review's largely positive verdict than its harsher outliers.