Has Crypt Custodian hit your download queue this week? This charming isometric platformer/metroidvania mashup, originally launched in August 2024, and new to Xbox’s Essential Tier today, takes a look at the afterlife through the eyes of a cat.
You play as the dear departed, Pluto, who wakes from a road incident to discover he’s in the afterlife. Pluto is met by an animal guide who tells him Kendra, the Palace Guardian, will ultimately decide his fate. Through one door lies the palace, aka cat heaven, a land of peace and plenty. Through another door lies the Weeping Wastes, a land where bad pets go to live out their eternity in the rain, and in janitorial servitude to the palace they’ll never get to enter.
But first Kendra needs to perform a quick recap of your life to understand if you’ve been good or bad. At first things go swimmingly. Kendra is impressed that you began life as a stray kitten before being adopted and loved. She even feels pity that you escaped one night and got swiped by a car. Cat heaven is looking like a safe bet at this point. But wait! What’s this? It appears that upon entering the afterlife you smashed some pottery. In fairness, you did. One of the first objects you collect in Crypt Custodian is a broom which you can use to whack enemies … and pottery. So much pottery.
It looks like it’s the Weeping Wastes for you! Without further ado you are tossed to your fate. However as you begin to explore, opening up a truly massive game map in the process, you soon discover that you are not the only creature Kendra has banished. In fact, with so many creatures sent out to clean up the Wastes as janitors you have to wonder if anyone has made it to the palace at all? Hmmm…
The game map, which opens as Pluto explores his surroundings, is comprised of tranquil Koi and lily-pad-filled ponds with a series of interconnected bridges and islands. Some areas require a key to be found before becoming accessible. Others can be accessed by flipping a switch to call a floating block to carry you onwards. There are crypts to explore, shrines to make use of, an inn to buy upgrades in, adorable new friends to meet, and so much pottery to smash along the way. The landscape is crisp, beautifully designed, and a joy to explore.
You’ll also encounter a series of enemies that are generally of the bump into you, or fire projectiles at you variety. The afterworld’s motley crew of antagonists are comically whimsical, their faces peeping out from shells, pieces of pottery, cloaks, and afterlife debris. Some regard you balefully with three blinking eyes. Others have spider legs poking out from their armor, but it’s impossible to know what they truly look like under their various protective coverings. Either way, you’ll have to dispatch or avoid them if you want to make progress.
Combat is straightforward. Try not to get shot by an arrow, or globs of flame, or a direct hit from an enemy.
Your abilities include dodge roll, jump and an upgradable special attack. You begin with 4 lives (not nine!?!), and every time you lose all 4 you’ll reappear at the last Shrine you visited. Shrines can also be used to save your game or teleport you to another shrine further away, and are a handy way to quickly return to where you last died without having to slog half way across the game map.
For those seeking a greater challenge, you can also choose to accept specific combat challenges in order to earn rewards.
Boss battles are generally of the “bullet hell” variety, with a huge number of projectiles that require avoiding, necessitating that you stay on your toes and keep on top of your selected abilities.
Game mechanics may be simple but they are also both logical and thoughtfully designed in Crypt Custodian. As you smash and sweep your way through the afterlife you accrue a sort of ‘debris’ currency which you can use at a local establishment — Sinner’s Inn — to purchase upgrades of the aforementioned special attack, health, and defensive ability variety. Which is great because whacking enemies with nothing more than your broom gets old fast.
However to actually use any of these newly purchased upgrades, you’ll first need to collect a series of upgrade points. Some upgrades might require 5 points to use. Others might need only 4. If you don’t have enough points to be able to use a newer shinier upgrade that has caught your eye, you can simply swap points out from an existing upgrade and put them into the new one — a refreshing way to allow players to avail of special abilities even if they haven’t discovered all the points in an area yet.
So where are all these precious points at? Surprisingly, they can be found lying around in inconspicuous areas. Others are located behind locked doors, or are granted as rewards for solving a puzzle. However, they can also be earned by completing challenges or by taking on and defeating a curse (e.g. the next 20 enemies you kill will explode upon death, greatly increasing your chance of injury. Defeat all twenty without dying to earn an upgrade point.)
There are also a number of side quests for completionists: free 20 cat souls trapped in various vases, bring jukebox disks to Sinner’s Inn for a reward, collect the memories of the other janitors etc. (There are about 12-15 hours of total gameplay for those who want a fuller experience.)
Crypt Custodian’s puzzles are likewise fairly straightforward. Initially they involve pulling levers to activate a bridge. Sometimes you must kill a certain number of enemies to open a gate. At other times you must unlock gates by weighting down pressure-sensitive pads with ghostly cat heads which can be struck and sent flying off in a number of directions, or ricocheted off a wall, like a ball in a game of ghost pool.
Uh … ok.
The leap from basic levers to precisely timed and angled shots, and in some case timed challenges, may seem jarring at first, but with a little will and perseverance these more complex puzzle mechanics are safely solvable.
Overall Crypt Custodian is a charming metroidvania that combines tight game mechanics, a charming aesthetic, and a unique afterlife setting.
Our Score: 8/10. Crypt Custodian may not win points for innovation in combat mechanics or in puzzle-solving, but it scores big on personality, style, whimsy, its cast of innocent and charming afterlife creatures, art-style, a series of thoughtfully designed maps, a generous reward system, and a fun mischievous story.
Genre: Metroidvania
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Release Date: 27 Aug, 2024. June 3 2025 on Xbox Essential Tier.
Studio: Kyle Thompson
Publisher: Kyle Thompson/Top Hat Studios, Inc.,/H2 Interactive Co., Ltd.
