Shadowcrypt

Super nice animations and designs for the characters. Levels are basic but work well enough. The whole game is more like one long level in a game, rather than a game alone. If you're looking to grind for achievements and git gud then this is the game for you. After one play-through to get used to the controls it took me about 50 minutes to get to the necromancer. (Not that I can beat him yet anyway) Recommend to play when you need something to do without thinking to much.

Short linear smooth animated "Prince of Persia DOS"-like platform game.

Pros:
- Combat : Crouch, block, jump & hit fast
- All is nicely animated (Prince of Persia DOS-like)
- Not many but challenging enemies (skeleton unarmed, sword, axe, spear, archer & mage)
- Good fitting music
- Unlimited lives but you start again with basic equipment when you die
- Variation of sometimes enchanted swords, spears & shield
- Every defeated enemy drops an item or health
- Simple controls
- Low price

Cons:
- Sometimes difficult dungeon layout & monster positioning making it hard not to lose some lives
- Hard to kill end boss
- And there is only one boss
- Short & linear, not a lot of variation in dungeon dressing

First runs it was not directly my cup of tea and I left it there for 2 years.
After reconfiguring the keyboard I gave it again a try and I began to get better at combat, blocking & jumping, progressing deeper & deeper in the dungeon.
I started to enjoy it and even finished it twice (to check if my first win was not based on pure luck but also a bit of skill :-)

So all in all, as a more casual gamer it sometimes frustrated me but I also enjoyed it more.

Recommend to give it a try.

Good combat mechanics but very little of content. I've played around hour and I would say that I saw pretty much everything. There are a lot of achievements that can add some replayability for some players, but the thing is the game becomes boring in 30 minutes and I don't see reason to run it many times.

+Good: animation, sounds, music, combat mechanics, atmosphere.
-Bad: Can't keep you interested for long time

The game is entertaining for a moment, but I finished it in one hour. The amount of content makes it feel like a demo. I don't want to discourage the developers because it is a unique game with a cool vision, but the mechanics are shallow and there's very little variety in the gameplay. Even given its current mechanics, some inspired level design could have given it more life and adventure. What's there feels like a first-pass prototype, taken to full polish. For $5 I can't recommend it. For $1, it would be a novelty.

This game is fun, However the asking price is way to much. Def get it for 75% off or more. Just as most of the users have stated it is pretty much a copy paste from rooms, however there is a little bit of a learning curve as far as how you fight. I have enjoyed this game for what I have played it so far. I have just not been able to survive through the first dungeon.

Tight controls, but overly punishing. Only for masters of the genre.

Not a badly made/designed game, so "recommended", just not for everyone.

Overall a fun game. I found the fact that the enemies walked into you as an attack annoying at first, but once I got over that it became a much better experience. Very simple to learn, excellent animations, controls are very tight.

If you enjoy games that challenge you based on mastery of controls, this is a good one. If you enjoy games that let you feel powerful or do cool things, this is not it.

You won't get much replay value out of it -- it's a short, ~30 minute game who emphasizes mastery over the mechanics. The game is linear and does not change in any way as you play it and only has 6 or 7 different enemy types in it, so you pick up on it pretty quickly. You can beat it in 2 to 3 hours, but it's a fun challenge to pick up on a sale and definitely a game worth playing.

I like this game, but it's a dev's game, and the experience is begging to be expanded. The mechanics are simple with a small learning curve. It's linear, and all you'll need is a good memory The unpatient will find this game annoying, and the reviews saying,"buy this on sale", they are correct.

What hurts the game the most is the wall cling. It's doesn't always hit, and usually with doom underneath your feet.

I bought this game because I'm a big fan of the fast-paced expressive combat in Zelda 2. I'd classify that game as "tough but fair." In contrast, I find Shadowcrypt to be overly sluggish and disadvantageous to the player for my tastes.

Simply put, this game is great and the negative reivews do not have much merrit. For example, one of them complains about backtracking, which was not only a minor part of the game, but is also very easy since the enemies remain dead. Is it overpriced for what it is? Sure. When I sat down seriously with the intent to beat it, I completed the game in 40 minutes. $10 seems a bit much for that, but it was a good time. The controls are simple, and they are tight. If you died, it's completely your fault. There isn't much healing, so you need to be on point. It is hard, but fair, and if you don't like that type of game, *that's fine*, but that doesn't make it a bad game.

Really, the price for the amount of content is the only valid complaint. The game can be grueling and stressful, and this is completely intentional. It feels like Dark Souls when you're out of Estus and have no idea how far away the next bonfire is. Thumbs up from me: I want more.

Shadowcrypt, while not for the faint of heart, is still a wonderful and rewarding experience that sadly to a lot of people, that experience was ruined by the "crushing difficulty". Is it a difficult game? Yes. But I've played it for about 2 hours now and I'm having a blast! At first, it was annoying to deal with the skeletons with the sword and shield. But after playing over and over again, I found myself breezing through the parts that I deemed were too difficult at first. It goes to show that the more you play, the better you WILL become. You just need to patient. Now with that said patience is a MUST in this game. If you are not patient enough, just prepare to see the game over screen over and over and over again. But if you are patient, then you will find quite a bit of enjoyment in this game, especially when unlocking a new area and you find a new foe to deal with. The only bad thing about the game one could say is that after you die, you lose everything. It's similar to likes of Gradius, once you die you lose everything. This is the only big gripe I have with the game. But again, if patient enough you can persevere through the crypt and defeat the necromancer. I have yet to do that quite yet, but I am willing to do it any day!

I say buy it!

I agree with people saying it's too expensive. I played it a little before getting a refund for it.

I like the difficulty and the general idea of the game, but the advertised non-linearity, as said in other reviews, just leads to lots of running around aimlessly. Which is even more awful given the repetitive design. It's not like you're aimlessly wandering around through beatiful and unique landscapes. Which makes it even harder to remember which door you took last time and which you have not tried yet.

The combat is ok. I really hate it, though, when I am locked into an animation in a game where very quick reaction times are asked of the user. If I cannot attack because I might have to block an enemy attack which may or may not come, all the while the enemy moving in on you (which is bad because you lose health if an enemy runs into you without even attacking) makes for some really frustrating experiences.

Then there is the absolute randomness of drops that may make the game really easy or really hard, purely depending on your dropluck. You can get a 12dmg sword off the very first super easy enemy and then breeze through the game for quite a while or be stuck with your starting sword, finding it almost impossible to beat harder enemies who have absurd amounts of health. Which also ties in with the terrible decision to make you lose any swords/shields you have picked up when you die, basically dooming you.
Item drops should get progressively stronger as you progress through the game and you really should not lose the items you gathered when you die. That's just a super bad design move as it leaves you with barely any damage on enemies with extremely high health later in the game.

I may pick it up again when it's a lot cheaper than the 5€ I got it for on the sale, but I'd really appreciate some changes to the game to make it a little more friendly. The game is hard enough through the combat patterns and limited lives. You don't have to fuck people over even harder by stripping them off their gear on death and way too slow attack/shield bash animations.

Visuals: Awesome. A good retro feel, but in no way low budget.
Gameplay: Combat is quite simple, but overall extremely challenging.

The multitude of weapons with different effects, aren't always just "better". This forces you to choose between them, which is nice.

So... what is missing? Oh yeah, I'm not having fun! The extreme difficulty means you will go back to the beginning a hundred times at least. This would be fine, if not for the fact that the levels NEVER CHANGE. You go through the beginning stage again and again, and after a while it just stops giving you any satisfaction.

Also, you have three lives, and you can pretty much die four times before getting a game over and going all the way back. But you know what? You might as well just have 1 life. Because the fist time you die, you immediately lose the weapons you picked up thusfar. And when that happens, your (ahum) butt is grass. You might as well restart. The further you got into the game, the more this is the case.

I've heard someone say to not be "discouraged by this", but honestly; the ONLY way you can beat the rest of the game is by killing all the enemy in extremely cheap ways. Waiting instead of skillfull fighting, and some room lay-outs make even THAT impossible. That, I'm sorry, I cannot see as a good gaming element.

In the end; this game, I feel, does not use it's full potential. It would do the creators very good to take a page out of the "Binding of Isaac" game mechanics, where every time you restart the game a new stroy is ahead of you. Intead of what i can only discribe as a tedious waste of potential.

I will not recommend this game, BUT if you are into hardcore challenges, like retro games and don't mind the repetition, I would tell you to buy this.

A simplistic and annoyingly tedius game that is difficult in all the wrong ways.

A lot of backtracking means that you'll have to slowly walk through the same rooms you have cleared just to continue on. Speaking of slow moving, your character barely has a brisk walk going on which draws this game out.

Characters are overpowered for just being skeletons, and the game repeatedly gives you items you do not need.

When you die, you start with basic equipment, meaning you'll be stabbing an enemy over 30 times just to kill it. Shields aren't explained as far as their abilities go, and the repetative enviroment dulls the entire experience, not to mention the lackluster music and sound design.

Save yourself some money and skip on this poor excuse of a platformer. It's callback to Zelda II and Castlevania is undeserved.

Played it for a bit. It's a little hard on ya... kinda wish there was a cractro trailer in the beggining like the in the olden days. had multiple RAGEQUITS! But all in all it's interesting. I support the dev because im interested what will he do after this.

Excellent game for anyone looking for a game that's simple but challenging.

Shadowcrypt feels very retro in all the best ways: Simple controls, a manual with valuable game knowledge, no long tutorial, and the best part: its replay value comes from not the length of the game or a plethura of features and modes, but the sheer challenge of finishing the game (and getting achievements).

To clear things up:

This is a combat-based platformer, meaning that if you don't learn the timing and dynamics of the combat, you won't get very far. Understanding that this is by design and is meant to be adapted to is essential to enjoying and completing Shadowcrypt.

The description may sound like the game has procedurally generated levels, but it does not. This isn't a bad thing though, once you get into the game you learn to embrace it. The levels are technically non-linear, but at the end of the day, they're linear. They just involve exploration and remembering where to go; the crypt is confusing and a bit maze-like, but that's a part of the game. Getting lost in the crypt is also part of the game. You'll see.

You get three lives, and when you lose them all you start over from the beginning. A complaint I hear a lot is people saying once you lose your first life you're screwed because you lose all of your gear (which is an important part to progressing). To these people I say: Don't get discouraged! You can beat this game with the starting crappy weapons, as impossible as that may sound. If you're good at fighting in this combat-based game, you will move forward. And there will most likely be a weapon or shield drop or a treasure chest. Just keep going, don't give up!

Final verdict:

This is one of the BEST games I've played this year. It took me a long time to beat it and I appreciated the mood, the music, the excellent character animation, the sound of the dungeon doors opening and closing, and especially the challenge. It's old school and feels like you picked it up from the SNES bin at the local game store, and I love that.

I'd love to see another game like this from One-bit Punch, or a sequel. I'd love to see more weapons, more levels, and more boss fights. I couldn't tell you how much money I'd pay for another, longer, more expansive version of this exact game.

It's grindy, it's retro, it's moody, it's a real challenge. I'll be playing it more in attempts to get the ridiculously challenging achievements. I highly recommend this game. 10/10

Random drops but designed levels leaves me a little uneasy, especially due to the difficulty. Your ability to progress is at least somewhat tied to what drops you're lucky enough to get. And then when you ultimately die (which will happen a few times, the game isn't straight up pick up and play), you have to trudge through the exact same corridors.

That aside, the game has great atmosphere, and the combat is quite rewarding, in a similar way to Dark Souls. Perhaps the enemies could telegraph their attacks a little bit more, but if you mess up it's usually the player's fault (except that their power is tied to the RNG gods).

Luckily the game is quite short, so it's not as if you'll lose hours of progress upon death. While not perfect, fans of prince of persia, dark souls, metroid or legend of zelda 2 might find something to enjoy here.

This game feels a lot like the old Prince of Persia 2D games, but not nearly as tight. It has potential, but as it stands, I don't think I'd recommend to anyone.

The combat is supposed to be tight and unforgiving, but without a dodge-roll/active block, you're pretty much stuck doing hit & run/shield bashing tactics. Enemies can take upwards of 20 hits each, and are bound to hit you a few times in between, taking off precious health, which is almost impossible to replenish.

You have 3 lives to beat the entire game. Lose em, start over from scratch. Also, whenever you die, you lose all of your upgrades/pickups. It kinda sucks, especially later on.

The animations & visuals are pretty decent, and I'd have loved to see more out of this game, but it feels like the potential here is wasted a little.

Overall, the game isn't that fun, and without a serious overhaul of the combat, probably never will be.

http://youtu.be/9YsL0XDXWrY

The mechanics are simple, the gameplay is even simpler. There's a subtle beauty to the game but whether or not it's worth $10 is questionable.

It's a great way to waste an afternoon but it relies heavily on the nostalgia that many indie-pixel games do, expecting players to find their own fun in a rather simplistic game is a tough call. Each room is similar, often too similar or out-right copied, flipped and filled with different enemies making it difficult to really discern where the player is going, a problem that's exacerbated by the slow movement in the game. Combat is also a slow dredge but very rewarding as each enemy has the capability to kill the player who in turn must rely on quick thinking and a few simple moves to over come a single or multiple enemies. Puzzle rooms are cleverly designed with a few simple pieces working together to create a real challenge, and the timer is a unobstructive and positive addition for potential speed-runners.

If $10 isn't a huge price tag to you, the it's a good game. Else, wait for it to go on sale.

Would be a decent freeware game, but for what they are asking there simply isn't enough content to justify a purchase.

The 70+ non-linear rooms they boast is a downright lie. The game is very linear and a large majority of the rooms are copy-pasted.

All the weapons are identical apart from damage and a few enchantments they can have.

Get it for a dollar, otherwise I'd recommend getting something better.

the game is very simplistic and linear. i would not recommend this to anyone unless they assign very little value to their dollar and want to play a difficult game that uses poor mechanics to accomplish its level of difficulty.

you must travel through the exact same dungeon each time you play. there is no random generation, there are no alternate routes, there are no interesting environments, there are no pacing mechanics. when you die you lose all your gear, meaning that upon your first death you will most likely save significant time by just ending your run immediately instead of trying to stab skeletons with the basic sword 30+ times in a row. there is a significant amount of mandatory backtracking through empty rooms each time you play the game. approximately 40% of your time spent on a run will consist of walking back through a long series of already cleared rooms.

the combat gives you very little to work with: jumping can potentially provide you with an extra attack due to frame reset upon landing, but makes you very vulnerable. ducking makes you stationary, resulting in it being a worthless mechanic. enemies don't follow the rules of the game: they ignore damage from traps, and in addition to attacking you will also harm you upon contact while constantly walking forwards. this means that all forms of "normal" combat (ducking, blocking, parrying) are thrown out the window since you can not backstep their approach during all of these maneuvers. instead, you must backstep-stab-repeat ad nauseam in order to guarantee defeating an enemy safely.

there is very little content. every sword is identical in usage except for the randomly varying damage ranges and the possibility for 1 of 3 elemental enchants that have a 10% chance (RNG? in a game where "quick reflex and timing are key"?) to trigger a minor effect. there are also 3 shields in the game with chances to trigger minor bonuses. that is all of the "gear" in the game.

you will quickly grow tired of going through the exact same basic rooms time and time again, fighting the same limited collection of simple enemies.