Kristala Preview
For me, Soulslikes are like pizza. You get the basic ingredients right, and you’ve got yourself a tasty meal. Kristala is a new Soulslike from Astral Clocktower. In terms of development, it’s barely in the oven, but it looks like a promising title in a very crowded genre.
I can’t tell you too much about the lore and world, but you’re a sword-and-sorcery-wielding feline, and your enemies are creatures like rodents and aquatic, wave-throwing monsters. Aside from some cat-like animations and character design, Kristala —at least in the short beta slice — didn’t seem to lean too heavily into the whole cat warrior aspect. Not having litter boxes as save points was a missed opportunity, but that’s just my opinion.
However, cats are nimble folk, and that comes through in Kristala as pretty fluid movement, dodge rolls, jumping, climbing, and tightrope walking. Jumps and climbing are quite forgiving, which I appreciate. Poorly implemented platforming frustrates me, and it’s something indie action games often botch.
Borrowed from the Best
Mechanically, Kristala cribs a lot of ideas from Dark Souls and its brethren, which just means it’s a third-person action game in the 2020s. So, you have a checklist of Soulslike components like bonfires (healing fountains), heavy and light attacks, blocks, parries and dodges, refillable healing crystals…the list goes on. This means that for experienced players, you know what to do. You just have to figure out how Kristala wants you to do it.
Kristala borrows a bit from Sekiro and Elden Ring, too, adding some verticality, roof climbing, and plunging attacks, all of which feel good already.
Combat also feels pretty rewarding, and switching between long-range magic and up-close weapons is fun. At this early stage, there’s some balancing to be done, and the melee animations could be a bit more fluid and precise. To be expected. The small slice of the game I played didn’t have much in the way of weapons or armor to collect. There’s nothing that cats like more than trying on new outfits.
Unreal Visuals
The Unreal 5 engine powers the graphics, and the nighttime demo used lighting and shadows effectively. There are still some fairly simple environmental textures at this point in development. The world doesn’t quite have a strong visual identity that sets it apart from the sea of fantasy action games.
I play a disappointing new Soulslike at least once a week, but I was pleasantly surprised by Kristala. Like the best pizza, it’s built on tried and true ingredients combined in familiar ways, but with some interesting spices in the sauce, new flavors of cheese, and a handful of unexpected but flavorful toppings. Kristala is definitely a game to follow as it nears a proper demo and final release.
Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.
