Kristala
Developer: Astral Clocktower Studios
Publisher: Astral Clocktower Studios
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PlayStation 5
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $39.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
There have been many different twists on creating a “soulslike” game and while many have failed to find their own footing, choosing to lean too heavily on the signature features of the genre and the games that made it famous, others have managed to launch themselves into quite a surprising level of success through innovation and storytelling. Few of these however happened to come from an indie developer and that just so happens to be what Kristala is, an indie soulslike developed by Astral Clocktower Studios. Looking to combine a few different elements from other games in the genre and adding a feline twist to things, is this cat ready to land on all fours or is it a bit too flea bitten to recommend?
Story
The world of Ailur lived in darkness until Six Kristals fell from the heavens and awoke the feline race, enlightening them and transforming them into the Anagativa. Favoured by the Kristals, each clan found different sources of strength that helped establish order even as the abandoned skaven, unblessed by the Kristals, the Kotakaya, raged war. Eventually, the clans found peace through the assistance of one gifted “cub” that would bring them all together as one, and now every year another six are chosen to continue on the Raksaka’s mission, only this time things are far more dire as a twisted curse has begun taking over the land, warping everything from the land itself to transforming harmless creatures into deadly abominations.
With the player’s chosen character, it will be up to them to complete their mission as the chosen Raksaka in an effort to clean the taint sweeping the land and potentially purify the Kristals before it is too late. With the guidance of one of the blessed Kristals personally assigning the player the task to continue their search, a view many have yet to see in generations, it appears that all will rely on whether or not the player can push through the abominations blocking their path and save what they can.
Kristala‘s storyline is a fairly predictable one, filled with endless moments of darkness and despair with only a few bright lights still shining in the darkness but it at least does what it can to help flesh out the events of the world a bit more than just letting players put clues together through vague item descriptions. Instead there are various small towns and locations with actual NPCs players can talk with as well as notes to discover and even “memory fragments” of other failed Raksana, all of which add extra clues and bits of lore to the world. This does mean that there is still quite a lot of the story that players are meant to intuit for themselves, especially in the latter half, but having actual NPCs to work with certainly helps.
That’s true of course only if the NPCs work properly though. Throughout the game players can obtain a number of side-quests that offer various rewards including money, vital means of transport, upgrade items, and other elements as well as bits of the story. The problem is that, as of this writing and numerous patches, a few of these NPCs remain glitched and since the title relies on an auto-save system, there is no way to try and “unstick” a bugged character or side-quest. On a few occasions, dying and restarting did help reset the glitched NPC while another, required an entire hard-reset of the game. As for the blacksmith of all characters, they are entirely locked out of properly being used as of now outside of quest-driven collectables triggering interactions.
Gameplay
When it comes to gameplay, Kristala offers an extremely unique experience for a soulslike as it takes numerous different factors into account and also offers something that many games in the genre don’t. A difficulty setting. While the game does have a recommended difficulty (hard), players can choose to play it on normal or even easy if they so wish. It is also worth noting that this difficulty level can be adjusted at any time during the game though doing so will void any achievement based on difficulty level. It is also interesting in the way that the game does include a “dynamic” style of difficulty separate from these levels. This means that enemies will adjust slightly to how good, or bad, the player is performing. Winning multiple fights in a row or countering enemies with properly timed parries might mean that the next set of enemies might just attack a little faster or vary up their swing times to try and catch players off guard while dying a few times might see their field of vision narrow, allowing easier stealth kills.
This is another element that helps set Kristala apart, the ability to heavily focus on stealth. As players traverse the world they will find that many locations where battle can take place will have patches of high grass, ledges that can be jumped onto or ropes to walk across, and, since players are literally cats, they can sneak quietly through and along these pathways to target their prey. While players can sneak attack and instantly kill almost every standard enemy by crawling on all fours and targeting them while within range, other, larger enemies, aren’t as easy. These enemies can initially only be targeted through aerial takedowns and usually don’t kill these larger foes in one blow, though players can follow through their stun animation to finish the job. At the same time, other enemies can similarly be annihilated through aerial finishers. Though given the buggy nature of the game, players always need to be careful with an aerial takedown as countless times throughout Kristala we found our character not only doing zero damage to an enemy targeted in this manner, it also locked us in a frozen animation unable to attack or dodge, needing to take a hit to properly fix the bug.
Speaking of combat, that is where Kristala is both interesting and troubling at the same time. As just mentioned, stealth can be a great way to thin out enemies in an area but should all else fail or players come across a foe they can’t stealth kill, then it’s combat time. While there are many different weapons available throughout the game, each carrying a unique skill that can be triggered at the cost of MP, there are only three types of actual weapons, Sword and Shield, Greatsword, and Claws. Regardless of what weapon type the player has equipped they can dodge incoming attacks, including perfect dodges that line enemies up for counter attacks, and even parry incoming blows that drastically reduce an enemy’s stagger gauge. Every attack on an enemy, especially if they are blocking, depletes this gauge and will leave an enemy stunned and ready for a, most often than not, finishing blow.
When players create their character at the start of the game they will be able to select from one of three different clans of magic that will dictate the path that they will be able to utilize spells from. But the interesting element here is that rather than relying only on the refillable at the respawn points MP tool, which works exactly like the player’s healing item, players can earn MP by dealing damage to foes at the same time. This encourages an aggressive playstyle since offense can generate MP which can then be used to further buff the player’s ability to withstand attacks, dish out ranged damage, or more depending on what spells they have learned.
That being said, the way that the upgrade system works in Kristala is something of an issue. While players will earn “kris” points and eventually gain an unlosable point to level up a stat at their respawn point, magic and skills come from consumable collectables found from completing side-quests or defeating optional foes. Kris Pearls must be used to unlock spells and require a certain “stat” requirement at the same time to be used efficiently in battle. Similarly, Tiger’s Eye gems must be used to unlock various feline abilities such as faster stealth and agility elements, including being able to assassinate larger targets and more. Alchemy is another feature that requires collectables and is further used to improve things such as the player’s healing items. As for the blacksmith, as mentioned before, it appears to still be bugged and unusable at this time.
Thankfully players can find plenty of stat resetting items throughout their exploration which allows for plenty of changes if they find a new set of equipment or weaponry that fits them better or might need to adjust their stats to fit a new spell, keeping plenty of room for customization open. Unfortunately alongside the already mentioned bugs, there are a number of others that cropped up persistently throughout our time with the game. The title’s lock-on system, even with adjustments to turn off extra assists, is miserable and will often target foes not even in combat, players trying to maneuver around the environment can get themselves stuck in the level geometry quite easily and while there is a “unstick” option in the menu, it simply resets players back to the spawn which can be devastating if they are deep into a location. One good note is that falling into water or other hazards doesn’t instantly kill the player, only drops their health a good portion and just like any good feline, these cats don’t take any kind of fall damage.
Audio & Visuals
Kristala is something of an odd game when it comes to describing how it appeals graphically. On one hand, it seems to capture the essence of an Xbox 360 era style of design while offering plenty of impressive looking locales to explore through and a decent amount of enemy variety. On the other hand, that doesn’t really seem to be the level of quality that the team was looking for either here. The character models for the feline characters are rather impressive looking and there is a great level of variety to the few weapon types and armor players can obtain, but it just never quite reaches beyond that level. Feeling stuck in the past, but not intentionally so like many indie developers aim for. It is also worth noting that on the Xbox Series X not only does the game have significant load times but even when loaded properly textures can fail to load in entirely or pop-in at an alarming rate. That is if it doesn’t decide to randomly crash in the middle of exploring a zone.
Surprisingly nearly all of the speaking NPCs in the game have voice work and it is handled quite well, though the player themselves is reduced to standard grunts and groans. The only issue is that characters will often start talking the second players approach them, even if they happen to be just running by either in a town or during a side-quest, meaning that players will need to skip their dialogue every time it repeats itself. As for the soundtrack the title features an impressive collection of background music that actually does wonders to help the exploration of the various areas as well as the intensity of some boss battles.
Overall
Kristala is an ambitious project and it certainly shows. There are a lot of unique ideas here mixed in with those that anyone familiar with the soulslike genre will recognize and the game does do its best to try and keep things interesting. With a solid enough storyline and engaging combat, Kristala works, until it doesn’t. Between constant bugs, the occasional crash or user-interface hanging for so long the game must be closed entirely, glitched NPCS, poor lock-on, and a lack of overall variety despite build depth, this soulslike still feels like it could have used more time with a flea bath and a good combing to smooth out the various bugs and issues clinging to its fur.
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