Krut: The Mythic Wings | PS4 Review

Starting off on a heavy handed note Blowfish Games' "KRUT: The Mythic Wings" forces it's story onto the player in a matter of minutes through textual/contextual conversation with poorly worded, and to the point plot points centered around a back and forth battle between two mystical East Asian races. One race being that of the winged bird-like Garuda or Krut, and the other Rock Ogres, which are as they sound. In the most compacted way possible their histories in battle are explained through the happenings of two fully engaged skirmishes that span a few paragraphs worth of text. Battles which saw the Garuda losing twice in the struggle, and the Rock Ogres only losing once, briefly. In both instances of time expansive plotted revenge a lone Krut survives the onslaught only to seek retribution, and to return to destroy the Rock Ogre Army for their merciless deeds.

The second go around, in the ongoing conflict, a Krut by the name of Veera carries on that legacy of failure and loses in kind to the Rock Ogre army once again only to fall into the ocean, and be swept ashore on a familiar fabled island. The island of Himmaphan. An island that holds the same power wielded by Veera's victorious ancestor. That being the Mythic Wings, or Silver Wings. In order to fully use the power bestowed upon him through the gifted wings Veera must collect six elemental energies of nature from guardians of the island in order to stand a chance against the empowered and emboldened Rock Ogre Army. As instructed by the mysterious island elder. Thus he sets out to do so. Slaying creatures, and guardians alike. Reaping them like our old Grim buddy.

Gameplay in "Krut: The Mythic Wings", cutting to the chase, is a hack-and-slash slog in the worst way imaginable. Hindered by choppy framerates, lengthy dull stages, long loading screens, and gameplay gimmicks that cannot be fully utilized due to poorly implemented enemy design the player is bound to struggle more than they should on a game that would be easy if it weren't so blatantly slapped together like an asset flip ...

As the Krut captain that survived a brutal beating only to don the Silver Wings your abilities, as this revenge seeking and sword toting survivor, are basic at best and mostly ineffective due to movement hindrances. That and the inability to properly use the combo system. At base level you'll find that Veera can jump, double jump, weak slash, heavy slash, charge slash, air dash, roll, and shoot charged projectiles in the air or on the ground. Something that seems good on paper, but unfortunately doesn't translate well in-game. When it comes to combo potential the combo strings at your disposal are only made purely of weak and heavy slash spamming. Basically all combos come out by spamming weak slash several times, and ending with heavy slash. The problem with this is that the enemy attack patterns only allow for short combos as they often times interrupt you mid swing. Aside from that the attached Silver Wings also affords Veera a powered state that is dependent upon a gauge that fills up as you collect blue orbs from killed enemies. Once activated the powered state allows Veera to hover in place like a shoot 'em up ship, and move as if flying while shooting charged projectiles until the gauge fully depletes. This is mostly useful on bosses, and sub-bosses who have beefier health bars.

Progression, in Krut, is also sadly basic and hindered when it comes to design choices. You will travel from left to right in side-scrolling fashion through 2.5D platforming stages where you'll come across a single enemy creature every so often to deal with only to rinse and repeat that process till the end as if it were a chore. The only real variation in enemy designs per stage being the lumbering mid-boss, and the pattern inclusive end boss. That and the themed lesser enemies. The game basically wants you to deal with them as if you are playing a Soulsborne title, but the only real threat any of them pose is cheap shots that will more often than not catch you off guard due to Veera's slower reactions, and flight recovery. 

As you cull the population of the island's varied terrain to zero you absorb three types of orbs. One being health, another a currency for spending at upgrade guidestones/savepoints, and a third that powers up the Silver Wing's gauge. There is also the occasional chest to slash away at that also gifts these orbs. Spending the currency on the Guidestones will allow for purchases of permanent upgrades to things like charge attacks, and combos as well as health refills among other things. The price dependent upon the nature of the item. You also have to pay 1,000 currencies to unlock these guidestones in the first place, and when you die after progressing past them you will return to that guidestone as if it were a save point. Ultimately Veera only has so much health per life, and limited lives per playthrough thus death is a severe setback if you desire to fully complete your playthrough as it will spell GAME OVER. 

The Verdict ...

Krut, in it's attempt to impress, commits the cardinal sin of pride. And ironically, like pride, it falls just like a winged angel of Biblical lore. The plot comes off as boastful. Eluding to something grand in scale only to deliver a bare minimum experience that is both uninspired, aggravating, and a proper slog that drags on in so many ways. It acts like it wants to be a Soulsborne, but the enemies, and the AI that governs them does little to bring the battle to that awe-inspiring level. Moreover the combo system that is meant to give you an edge over them is rendered completely useless even in most boss fights. Allowing you to only get in the shortest combos before the enemy reacts, as if on cue, to your assault. Even the evasive/defensive maneuvers offer little more than a smoke and mirrors show that hides how bad the experience really is. 

While the enemies in the game do have patterns they will sometimes deviate from said patterns to sucker punch the life out of you. This leads to you having to waste currency on health refills instead of upgrades. Speaking of which currency, health, and Silver Wings gauge earnings are slim. Again, almost as if the developer thinks this is a Soulsborne worthy experience. In truth it's made artificially difficult steering the player towards their only saving grace which is the guidestones. Something that does little to stave off the loss of health, and life along the way. It's truly frustrating knowing you are being kept from completing the stages due to things that go against given mechanics. In closing I will drop the big NOPE on this one. This is not good game design. It feels like a desperate cash grab through undeserving means. A half effort from an otherwise decent publisher. I know that's harsh to say, but this game lacks polish, and good storytelling. That, and the motivation needed to see it through to it's end.

FUN FACT: This game was based on a 2018 CG animated film from Thailand titled, "Krut: The Himmaphan Warriors".