Cryptmaster Steam Charts & Stats

It feels like playing word games (e.g., crossword puzzles) while having some funny writing interspersed and some light combat mechanics. In one sense I wish the game was a little longer, so it was reasonable to unlock all your skills by the time you get close to the end. But in another sense, I don't think the game overstayed its welcome, so I don't have that much to complain about. I HIGHLY recommend turning on hints for all the different puzzle types. Otherwise you will end up with no hint letters trying to solve the riddles and it'll be very frustrating. Whereas if you have hints on (even if you're not the kind of person who usually uses hints), you get one letter hinted each time you guess, so you are able to solve it just as your understanding meets the number of letters given away, It's very satisfying!

Very funny, I liked the word puzzles. I'm not sure if I have a good enough memory to master the combat, but it's still pretty fun.

It's a pretty good game, worth playing just for messing with the Cryptmaster and finding vile ways to desecrate Altars. But the game as a whole is pretty damn fun, music's nice and varied, presentation is cool, the gameplay's pretty fun, baiting responses out of the Cryptmaster is very enjoyable, there's quite a few amusing characters, and the card mini-game is interesting despite being too unbalanced/RNG reliant at times. I especially enjoyed finding specific dungeons, spells, and ways to defeat enemies, by solving interesting riddles, it was fun. The only thing I outright disliked was soul collecting, it's not particularly fun to collect bugs from walls to restock mana, especially when the most efficient way to do it is by going back and forth between rooms.

Very interesting game with a super unique gameplay loops. I don't love dungeon crawling, so I can't tell if it just wasn't for me or if it could use some work. The interaction with different characters, items, and resources was well thought out. The story starts weak and finishes on an extremely high note. I would strongly recommend giving it a chance.

Incredibly clever and funny twist on the Dungeon Crawling genre. It's never going stale as new mechanics or variants of older mechanics appear regularly. Fairly challenging, but not too hard as you can always teleport to an altar to heal.

Cryptmaster is full of intriguing riddles and puzzles, and is an all-round wonderfully narrated typing dungeon crawler in a retro first person style. I highly recommend trying this out if you like answering riddles of all kinds.

Many Letters, Much Treasure, Such Rats - 7/10 Snowballs ⛄

A clever, unique, engaging and entertaining game.

Cryptmaster is a unique RPG where you type words to fight & interact with the world. It is humourous and the titular narrator accompanies you throughout the game, adding flavour to it. It's an unapologetically unique game, from its mechanics to its visuals, and as such makes great strides but also great blunders. I liked the story and how you slowly uncover it. Likewise, the lighthearted and comedic nature of the writing is nice. The combat system is clever in principle and I love how you unlock new abilities (even if they feel a little padded out). I also think that the artsyle is striking and generally like it. The minigame 'Whatever' which is prevalent throughout the game is a massive highlight. A simple concept & surprising depth, with cool combos, deckbuilding and delightful music, is probably more fun in moment-to-moment gameplay than the actual game itself. I don't like the 'grossness' of the game, and how critical it is that you wander around rooms eating every bug you find with a sickening crunch. The combat felt a little too difficult to me, with the distinct point that it is virtually impossible even for a skilled player to leave combat unscathed, so basically enough enemies will force you to die no matter what. The NPCs, although written with personality, feel shallow considering how they stand around and don't meaningfully react to anything you say. It also feels like such a waste to be able to say things in the world without them having any effect on things. All in all, Cryptmaster is an artsy game which takes big swings and hits about as much as it misses. If you're craving a unique, fresh experience, this game is for you. However, you may not find it extremely fun or fair at all times.

[h1]Is This An English Learning Program Disguised As A Video Game?[/h1] Cryptmaster plays like an old school dungeon crawler which the player walks one grid at a time and can only turn 90 degrees, but instead of clicking on things you spell letters to do everything. This is the main gimmick of the game. Riddles and puzzles are wordplays that require layers of brainstorming and logical-thinking. Combat revolves around you memorize and type the names of skills you've learned so far. Even the conversation between NPCs needs you to type in the keywords to trigger special dialogues. It's a fresh and interesting experience. Thanks to this game, now I understand I am terrible at pun-related riddles and my English-typing skill is as slow as a snail. [h1]Things I Like About Cryptmaster:[/h1] [b]1. Guess The Word & Typing[/b] Words have power. [list] [*]The core gameplay is to assemble letters to recall the four former heroes' skills and memories. All the heroes have one word available at a time. White slots are skills you can use in the combat, and black slots are memories for their background stories. [*]There are many ways to get letters: defeating enemies, solving riddles and chest puzzles, and fishing. Every letter will automatically line up to each hero's keyword, if you have a rich vocabulary you may even guess the right word with just a few clues. [*]Solving riddles and chest puzzles reward the most letters, and these two are easily the most interesting parts of the game. Riddles often consist of out-of-box thinking and wordplays. It can be a trick on deconstructing a certain word in the question, or it can be a common concept interpreted from a different angle. [*]Chest puzzles are simpler in nature. Cryptmaster will open the chest and ask you what to do with it. Here you can type a few words like "look", "remember", "feel", etc. to prompt Cryptmaster for more descriptions. You then use these information to deduce what's inside the box. There are limited tries so you better make the best use of them. [*]Yet the most common way to get letters is to fight enemies. In combat you can use the words you've assembled to knock down enemy's health. Here the traditional RPG element emerges. All four heroes specialize in different roles, and with more words unlocked each of them can offer more versatile tactic. Defeating enemies let you choose a letter(more as you progress) from their names to apply. [*]Fishing is also a decent way to farm souls and letters. Type the fish's name and pick one of its letter to reel it in. Since it's only one letter at a time, fishing is best for picking up vowels. [/list] [b]2. Cryptmaster Himself[/b] Not gonna lie, he is probably the main reason I want to play this game. [list] [*]Weirdly soothing, slightly creepy, but effectively hypnotizing. This is how I describe the star of this game. [*]It's genuinely amazing how his voice elevates the whole experience. Not only does he react to almost every words you type but also offers to help you solve some problematic puzzles. Sometimes I type random words just to listen to his commentary. [*]No joke. Cryptmaster literally responds to any words you type, being it slang, swear words, or even some "ye olde thesaurus". [*]There are even some dedicated, hilarious engagements with specific words and scenarios between you(the player) and Cryptmaster. [/list] [b]3. Other Compliments[/b] [list] [*]NPCs have a lot of dialogues regarding each others. They can also reveal more secrets and clues if you know what to ask. [*]The music is good, especially the swamp music. The instrumental blues are nice. [*]Rag-dolling enemies will never not be funny in this game. [*]Whatever is quite a nice side activity. It surprises me how fun it is to combine spelling with card-battler. [/list] [h1]Things I Dislike About Cryptmaster:[/h1] [b]1. Hard To Recommend To Others[/b] This isn't the game's fault. It shouldn't be, but it's also undeniable. [list] [*]For a game built around English spelling, it naturally bars a lot of potential non-English-speaking players. I feel quite conflicted by this. On one hand, Cryptmaster is a nice old dungeon crawler with a spelling twist; yet on the other hand, I can't really recommend this package to any of my friends simply because their English are poor. [*]Cryptmaster demands both your fluency in English and a little background knowledge for English culture. You need to know the phrases and terms they use daily for some puzzles. Knowing something like "river runs", synonyms, and even a common pet name can go a long way. This goes beyond just learning a language. It's about understanding a different culture. [*]I am not a native English speaker. Even though I consider myself decently fluent in English(a huge maybe), I still find some riddles and puzzles hard to grasp. [*]This is also one of those games that is impossible to translate in Chinese without rewriting the context and rebuilding the mechanics. [/list] [b]2. Other Complaint[/b] [list] [*]I think some descriptions for box puzzles can be a little clear-er. At the very least every action prompt should have an equal amount of information. [/list] 中文小簡評 →從缺，不會英文的可以直接跳過。