Flynn: Son Of Crimson Review

Introduction

Flynn: Son Of Crimson is a platformer that was developed by Studio Thunderhorse and published by Humble Games. It was released for PC and Consoles in September 2021.

Review

One day, Flynn is told by his Father that he has to stop being so lazy. So he demands he take his sword and their giant fluffy guardian dog named Dex, and go train. As they’re out exploring and training, disaster strikes! Dex, being the guardian of the land, has her power drained from her by an evil entity, and if her power isn’t restored, disaster will befall the land!

So it’s up to Flynn, to find the guardian statues that are scattered around the land of Rosantica and gather the power of Crimson, to get Dexs’ power back to her! The story is told through interacting with NPC, and little comic strips. These comic strips are mostly kept for when Dex is getting her power back, so they are few and far between. As for the overarching story, I actually really enjoyed what was there. The game surprisingly hits kind of hard with emotions when it gets down to it.

When it comes to the rest of it all, it plays like an action platformer. Every enemy you see has a health bar and it starts off very basic. But as you progress in the game, the levels start to have branching paths that can only be cleared once you have acquired later techniques in the game. As you get further though, the combat starts to get very difficult. Especially once the enemies come into play where you basically have to dispel a magical barrier with lightning before you can damage them. This was enjoyable at first. But once bosses, and a ton of smaller enemies start having this barrier, it can get way too hectic, too fast. I hated having to constantly make sure I’m on my lightning magic, because I never knew when one would show up.

In the game, you also get stronger through the use of a skill tree. It’s not too large, but it is large enough to the point where it makes you think what’s really worthy of your upgrade points first. You can hold more healing crystals, or you can have more life. Your magic can do more damage, or you can get a heavy attack combo. But the only thing with the heavy attack combos is they felt kind of useless. When you attack enemies, or get certain pickups, you fill a bar. This bar is then used for heavy attacks OR you can wait until it’s full, and go into a super mode, when you’re invulnerable and can deal quite a bit of damage, quite fast. So I always just saved the bar for the latter.

When you die, the game has a surprisingly good checkpoint system. All it does is start you back at the beginning of the current screen you’re on, as opposed to the entire level, or a checkpoint spot. The only downside to dying is that you lose 5% of your upgrade points. Now I’m not sure if that is a set percentage, or if it’s tied to your difficulty settings. As there is an Easy, Normal, and Hard setting. I played on Normal, and I found the game just the right bit of challenging.

The challenge is accompanied by some fun chiptunes throughout the levels and a fantastic little art style. Where it’s not exactly pixelated, but it’s not too detailed, and I loved it.

Rating

Pros:

Fun Little Story
Awesome Level Design
Big Floofy Doggo

Cons:

Barrier Enemies
Heavy Attacks Weren’t Worth Using

Summary

I highly recommend Flynn Son Of Crimson. It was a deeper platformer than I expected, and it was far more challenging as well. Going around Rosantica to mountains and caves was exciting as I travelled the land. Plus it’s all to save a big fluffy dog. So who can say no to this adventure!?

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Game & Developer Information

Developer Website: Studio Thunderhorse
Developer Socials: Twitter
Publisher Website: Humble Games
Publisher Socials: Twitter
PSN Store Links: £15.99/€19.99 Europe / $19.99 North America
Trophy Information: 23. 1 / 6 / 12 / 4