A quick-witted adventure that spells trouble, Cryptmaster is an RPG about using spelling to dungeon crawl. We go over overall gameplay, spelling mechanics, puzzles, combat and more in this preview.
Cryptmaster a Unique Spelling Dungeon RPG
Developers Paul Hat and Lee Williams answer the question of what if you combine spelling with a DRPG in Cryptmaster. In this indie title being published by Akupara Games, the game sets to take the nostalgia of dungeon crawlers and add a new spin to it with combat that is devised of spelling. Playing as a full party of amnesiac undead adventurers, players will battle monsters with the power of words. There is a short demo now available on Steam which allows you to experience the beginning of the game and some of the combat in both turn-based and real time.
In this preview, we take a look at what makes Cryptmaster a unique dungeon-crawler experience and why you should keep one eye or two on this creepy and dark-humoured indie title.
Name: CryptmasterPlatforms: PCDeveloper: Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara GamesPublisher: Akupara GamesRelease Date: 2024Genre: Dungeon RPG, Dungeon Crawler, Word Game
Story & Setting
From the demo there isn’t too much story revealed, rather you’re introduced to characters that guide you through the dungeons. Playing as a warrior who has recently met the Cryptmaster, you join three other characters to dungeon crawl through a myriad of tunnels. How you got there and why isn’t known, but for now you will have go along with this stranger’s plan to find your way out. Along the way, you will find enemies, chests and loot that help you with collecting letters that let you guess their Skills through trial and error.
You’re introduced to four characters Joro, Syn, Maz and Nix, who have no recollection of their memories, but together with the Cryptmaster, you will slowly learn more about these character’s pasts and their unique set of skills. You can think of the Cryptmaster as a sort of dungeon master, guiding the player to useful clues, characters or even items in each room. He’s also a very entertaining narrator, who will ask you questions and you can answer how you wish. This can trigger some funny responses and make the game feel like your own adventure with these small interactions for banter along the way.
Making a covenant with the Cryptmaster doesn’t sound like a great idea, but could prove useful for both parties. Just exactly what his game is and where you will end up might be a lot darker than these tunnels…
Gameplay
The game uses similar keyboard commands to turn left, right and go forward. You also have a mini-map that helps you navigate rooms and find further doors to open. The overall retro gameplay is a callback to dungeon RPGs and choose-your-own adventure games.
Skills
Instead of relying on a skill tree or point system to unlock further Skills, players must type or speak actions using a microphone for their characters to act in combat. Each character has a class, so depending on their class type you can kind of guess what their skills are with the number of letters in the word or current letters available. For example, Joro is a warrior who uses melee-type abilities. Syn is a thief and assassin. Maz is a bard and Nix is a caster-type character a sea witch, using spells. Her first spell ‘Zap’ lets you deal a small amount of damage. But as you progress, the Skills you find become more powerful and increase the arsenal of abilities you have in your possession. Guard for example can help you block enemies’ attacks.
You don’t get a traditional health bar, but instead, the number of letters in the character’s name determines their health. If they receive too much damage all the letters in their name get knocked out, and they can be taken out of the action. You can gain skills such as ‘Soothe’ which can restore letters from an ally’s name. There are also ways to restore allies through altars.
Combat
One thing you can’t do is repeatedly spam skills. Once performed the character will have a cooldown, so you will need to use another character to continue combat. This will become more challenging especially when you meet enemies that can deflect skills with certain letters. For example enemies can have shields that block the letter ‘E’. So that means any skill that has the letter ‘E’ won’t work. Enemies also have a timer which you will need to keep an eye on or lest they will attack you.
Players will collect letters from defeating enemies that may help with missing character Skills. The enemy will drop letters from their name, and you get to pick the one you think will help solve you’re missing skills. This adds a puzzle element to the game, where you will need to fill in the blanks.
Later you will have to charge up the Cryptmaster’s Soul Stone which is the source of his power. By collecting bugs or living creatures, and spelling their names found around the dungeon, you can charge the stone. This could spell trouble in future combat, as you’re tied to it in some way or another.
Loot is Power
Chests will also uncover items that will be useful in your venture into the crypts. In order to gain what’s inside, the Cryptmaster lets you use a set of commands that can help you guess its contents. These commands are Look, Feel Listen, Smell, Taste and Remember. Choose wisely as the number of choices is limited, and sometimes trying to taste an item for example might not give the desired effect. Tasting a shield for example doesn’t sound too helpful but if you want to see if he’ll do it, I suppose why not? You can choose to Remember which can help trigger some information about a character.
Use Your Words
Overall, the gameplay so far is a mix of part mystery, part puzzle and a bizarre adventure devised by typing commands to deal damage. As the demo was limited, there were a few actions I was able to uncover such as ‘Trap’ which could come in handy knocking back enemies. I found it became more of a challenge to remember all the skills discovered and recall them in battles, the more I found. Especially if you meet an enemy that restricts the use of certain letters, but that’s the fun.
Turn-Based/Real Time
The suggested mode was real-time in the demo, meaning you had to be on your guard in combat to decide what actions to use first. Turn-based slows things down a little and could be a better option if you don’t want to panic about typing out your commands. But the pure chaos of real-time will have you on edge as you try to figure out the best strategy against different enemies and their restrictions. There could be some really interesting ways to make players think on their feet, with different kinds of foes posing different challenges. Especially if you’re using a microphone to say or let’s face it shout spells in combat.
You could spend a lot of time just testing out random words to see how the Cryptmaster will respond to you, and from what’s been shown from the devs there are some great reactions out there, like typing ‘ASMR’. The dark sense of humour just seems to shine through even the darkest of dungeons. The developer has described the game as a “say anything” game and if you tell players that they are going to do exactly that. This could hold a whole load of secrets that only the most dedicated players could spend hours testing out. Could it unlock a secret Cryptmaster reaction? Maybe a unique scenario? Or could it push the Cryptmaster’s buttons into abandoning you all altogether? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Authentic, Sensual, Mysterious and Resonant. Putting the “romance” back into “necromancer”…#gamedev #ASMR pic.twitter.com/tXmP1TpMzo
— Cryptmaster (@thecryptmaster) December 11, 2023
More to Come
The Steam page teases more to come in the full version including discovering strange quests, numerously weirdly charming characters as well as unexpected mini-games. I’m curious how bard rap battles will pan out, the illegal card game Underland and dark fantasy fishing. Using a word combat and puzzle system opens up a lot of options for where the game can go, and I’m excited to see what other secrets are hidden in the depths of the crypt.
Games of chance are illegal in the Underland. Luckily, so are laws. pic.twitter.com/4m515ukw3o
— Cryptmaster (@thecryptmaster) December 3, 2023
Visuals and Audio
Something has to be said about the overall look of the game. The hand-drawn 3D feel that’s in black-and-white contrast doesn’t take away from the immersive feel of the game. The way that the Cryptmaster glares at you through the screen almost feels like he could pop out at any moment. I wouldn’t call it scary, but it does add to the creepy atmosphere and together with his dark, humourous commentary, it makes for a fun experience. The voice acting also is superb and leaves me wanting to meet more characters in the weird and wonderful world of the Cryptmaster.
The Countess Ulara has had six husbands. There’s a nice rhyme to remember how they died: Murder, murder, murder, murder, fell off a bridge, murder. pic.twitter.com/78zZH28SJ3
— Cryptmaster (@thecryptmaster) December 15, 2023
From the demo, the Cryptmaster does seem to have a set of responses, which he does repeat if you say something he doesn’t have a unique reaction to. Hopefully, the full game will play more on-player interaction to keep you drawn in and doesn’t become too repetitive. Then again the demo only previews a very short snippet of the game, and there will be further interactions and features the more you play.
Final Thoughts
Being a narrated game, the Cryptmaster does an excellent job of inviting you into a world of bizarre creatures and characters with a great sense of humour to go along with it. The fill-in-the-blank feature certainly makes it stand out against the usual dungeon crawlers. The combination of a retro feel dungeon RPG where you must navigate through tunnels and explore rooms hits that nostalgic feel.
It has a unique blend of weird as well as intriguing concepts that hopefully evolve the combat the further you get into the game. It’s not often you’re tested with spelling in a mix-up of what feels like Scrabble and a choose-your-own adventure game. I’m looking forward to where the Cryptmaster will take us when it is fully released in 2024. In the meantime you can check out the demo out on Steam now which I highly suggest playing with a pair headphones for a fully immersive experience.
If you enjoyed this preview, be sure to check out more in Granblue Fantasy Relink: What We Know So Far About the Action-RPG and Morbid: The Lords of Ire – Dark Fantasy Soulslike.
