I like when a game is centered around a less “mainstream” mythology I’m not familiar with. We get a ton of Egyptian, Greek, Norse, and even Pre-Columbian themed games every year, but I like when games featuring Indian, Persian, and other mythological elements are released by smaller studios. This is the case with Krut: The Mythic Wings. This small platformer is based on a Thai animated movie, which focuses on Thai mythology. Interesting premise, to say the least. Let’s give this one a go.

In Krut: The Mythic Wings, you control an armored Garuda, a mythical bird-like being I initially found out about as a kid because of Digimon. I would love to tell you more about the game’s story, which is extensive, but I can’t say I was able to pay attention or remember it. Krut just bombards you with a ton of text and static dialogue scenes, all accompanied by boring music and low stakes. It’s a game that tests how long you’re able to endure its story before you give up and press the Skip button.

You’re here for the game itself and… it’s not very good. It’s not atrocious, but it’s that typical kind of “aggressively mediocre platformer devoid of redeeming qualities”. At first, I was actually impressed with the fluidity of its platforming. Your main character runs at a decent speed and jumps really high, with somewhat impressive button responsiveness. Even though the level design was mediocre at best, jumping around in these uninventive 2.5D environments felt hassle-free. I was expecting much worse. Then the game introduced its combat mechanics. Oh boy…

Your main character moves around as if he were in a fast-paced platformer, but he attacks as if he were in Dark Souls. Because, of course, you gotta milk that Dark Souls difficulty curve to artificially extend the length of a game that would otherwise be beaten in two hours tops. The problem is that these combat systems either work flawlessly or are a complete disaster: there’s no in between.

In the case of 2D platformers, Blasphemous and Dead Cells have proven that you can have weighty combat mechanics with a missing dimension. It just needs to be responsive and fluid. Which, clearly, is not the case in Krut: The Mythic Wings. Your animations are incredibly slow, your weapon has a pathetic reach, your combos are limited, your initial strength is embarrassing for a mythical god-like being, and most important, if someone touches you, your attack animation is cancelled. A foe can easily attack you while they’re being hit, as they don’t flinch, but if you’re hurt, you stop almost immediately. It feels unfair, and it’s infuriating.

The game does this because it wants you to keep dying, and it wants you to grind. There are some checkpoints scattered throughout levels, and you can spend currency to upgrade your stats there. There are a few problems, however. First of all, you have to spend money to unlock said checkpoints, taking almost half of what you’ll have in your pocket. Each and every upgrade costs a ton, and there aren’t that many enemies to kill in each level. Krut: The Mythic Wings wants you to grind, to pretend it’s not as short as it actually is. The worst kind of artificial padding. The WonderBra of game duration.

Krut: The Mythic Wings is not a downright awful game. Out of so many games released in 2022, it’s nowhere near as infuriating as crap like Postal 4 and Destroy All Humans! – Clone Carnage. It has some interesting ideas and I like its premise, but this is a textbook example of a game completely devoid of redeeming factors when it comes to its execution. Average-at-best visuals, a weak framerate, no interesting sound capabilities to speak of, and a really poor combat system all result in a very harmless yet underwhelming experience.

 

Graphics: 5.5 Some good enemy designs here and there. I liked the usage of vibrant colors. It does look like an early 2000s PC game though, and it runs at a mere 30fps, despite barely taking advantage of the console’s capabilities. And it’s the Switch we’re talking about.	Gameplay: 4.0 This is a weird case of a game with responsive and fast-paced platforming controls, but terrible combat mechanics. There’s also an overreliance on grinding, to make what’s a nuisance even more annoying.
Sound: 5.0 Stock sound effects and a subpar soundtrack. It’s not offensively bad, but it doesn’t impress… at all.	Fun Factor: 4.5 Krut: The Mythic Wings isn’t terrible, but it’s completely devoid of anything that makes it interesting. Boring story, boring combat, boring level design, all add up to a very “meh” platformer.
Final Verdict: 4.5

Krut: The Mythic Wings is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Krut: The Mythic Wings was provided by the publisher.