Another Crab’s Treasure (aka Demon’s Shoals, aka Darkbob Soulspants, aka Shellden Ring, aka Shellkiro: Crabbos Fried Rice) is an indie “soulslike” game developed by Aggro Crab and released on April 25, 2024. It follows Kril, an anti-social hermit crab who must venture into a decaying ocean world to retrieve his stolen shell. Along the way he’ll learn how to defend himself with melee forkplay and mystical powers, meet a colorful cast of goofy-ass characters, and just maybe…save the ocean?
I love this game to pieces. Its gameplay is enthralling and challenging while still being accessible; the aesthetic, vibes, and humor are all extremely charming; and believe it or not, the game tells a very impactful and timely story that is, in my opinion, its biggest strength. I’ve wanted to show this game off since the first time I rolled credits on it, and I am absolutely psyched to do so here!
The LP:
This will be a full LP of the game including all optional areas and bosses. I can’t guarantee comprehensiveness when it comes to collectibles, but I have done my damndest to show as much of this game as I can. Joining me for commentary are veteran LPers and fellow crustacean appreciators Voidburger and Chip Cheezum. Huge thanks to a couple of real ones for lending their aquatic expertise to this endeavor! Episodes with voice-acted cutscenes will be available in cut and uncut formats. Also, as a bonus (i.e., mostly a treat for myself) there will be songs!
RULES:
-No Spoilers. As I said, this game has a strong narrative, and those who haven’t experienced it before deserve the chance to see it play out for themselves. I will extend this rule a bit further to gameplay features, as there are a few that I will be treating as reveals as we go along. If you absolutely must discuss an ability we haven’t picked up yet, please tag your spoilers properly.
I feel like a lot of Soulslike games I’ve heard of tend to go for similar tones to the actual Souls games, so it’s nice to see one that goes in a different direction. Granted, it does seem like the enemies are also husks resigned to the cruel world they live in, but even that’s presented in a way that makes it feel unique. Even this early on it’s clear a lot of thought and love went into this game.
Now, whether it’s better than Funny Truck still remains to be seen.
Right on the heels of committing involuntary crabslaughter, Kril meets the Duchess of Slacktide and is sent on a fetchquest which may furnish him with Fabulous Secret Powers!
With some new powers under our belt, we’re taking a brief detour from the story to fully explore the Shallows of Slacktide, discovering helpful items, an optional boss, and memories of cheaply produced singalong VHS tapes.
The way I’ve found myself describing ACT to people is less that it’s a Souls-type game and more like it’s Hollow Knight in 3D. The format being scrunched into a 2D platformer and then extruded back out into 3D gives you this curious hybrid where combat is much more mechanically simple than a typical From Software affair, but it also has a much heavier platforming focus (at least not counting Sekiro), and stands as a fascinating evolution of the genre compared to the slower, more iterative steps that the actual Souls games took over their years.
Anyway, really enjoying the LP; I had a bad tendency to only explore areas when I was much too high of a level to get the proper challenge, so it’s good to see the appropriate pace for a place like the Shallows. Fort Slacktide? is one of my favourite tracks in the entire game.
Definitely agree that this feels very similar to Hollow Knight. Though most would say even that has Dark Souls vibes. Whatever this mishmash of genre is though, this game has so much charm to it. And it’s really fun to see. I always wanted to play this one but didn’t get around to it. And I gotta say, I may still go play even after the fact.
Who could have foreseen this unfortunate turn of events? Let’s try and make the best of a bad situation as we traverse through the remains of Fort Slacktide(?)!
