Another Crab’s Treasure is one of the most approachable Soulslikes ever made thanks to its aesthetics, sense of humor, and fantastic assist mode options.
How much of an impact does a game’s aesthetic have on how it feels to play? That question was consistently at the forefront of my mind as I played Another Crab’s Treasure. Aggro Crab’s latest game is a Soulslike, a style of game known to be quite frustrating as players slowly learn how to overcome challenging combat encounters. It’s also colorful and funny, something that visually doesn’t feel too far off from SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake.
Typically, I bounce off Soulslikes hard if I hit a difficulty wall. But during the first tough boss fight of Another Crab’s Treasure, I felt more motivated than usual. It was against a corrupted crab named Duchess Magistra who had taken my shell. She was aggressive, spraying gunk that could drain protagonist Kril’s health and power attacks with the ball-and-chain she wielded. It was tough, but I stuck with it, learned her attack patterns, and overcame the fight.
Something about how Another Crab’s Treasure looks and feels made overcoming this challenge seem more possible, giving me the mental fortitude to finish a difficult boss fight. And if the visuals didn’t provide me implicit confidence, I still had plenty of assist options to lean back on. It’s not the most refined Soulslike, and its writing may be hit-and-miss depending on your sense of humor, but this is one of the most approachable stabs at the genre I have ever played.This crab is feeling blue
Another Crab’s Treasure begins with Kril, a hermit crab living in a tide pool, getting his shell stolen by a loan shark (a literal one) who comes to collect his taxes. This kicks off Kril’s adventure to get his shell back, but things get increasingly out of hand; the queen is corrupted and killed by Kril, but his shell gets taken to a bustling underwater city. In order to get enough money to get his shell back, Kril then sets off on a treasure hunt that brings him up against the megacorporation that runs that town.
Aggro Crab uses this narrative backbone to tell a story about the current climate crisis, how corporations are content with watching the world burn if they’re making a profit, and how our anger toward those things should be applied in a way that helps our communities. As Earth’s real-world climate crisis worsens, I’m sure Another Crab’s Treasure’s themes will become even more relevant.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though.
