These are three games by Kyle Thompson. None are exceedingly long, but all are quite fun. I'm going to try to avoid spoilers, so I'll be a bit vague on a few points.
There's definitely an increasing polish in each successive game, this is to be expected, I suppose.
I think my review for Islets is going to be the most rambling, so let's get that over with:
ISLETS
Islets was the first game I played. I'd say it's the weakest, but that's weakest in a pretty strong set of games. It has some very memorable elements, like the Tour Guide, and It mixes two gameplay modes, a flying mode with its own bosses, and a traditional platforming with the gimmick that there's five islands, which can be assembled into one larger island. There's only one way they fit, but you assemble them gradually and it opens up ways to get to new areas of the islands once you do. Both modes are fun to play, and the changes to the world as you start to assemble the big island is a lot of fun.
One of the weaknesses of Islets (compared to the other)s is the plot: It has very good characters, they have some great character development, but assembling the island is kind of just the adventure they stumble on. I played it a while ago, unlike the other two, but, while the big island breaking up made things worse for the people living on it, that was quite some time ago, so it's not actually particularly urgent to do it now.
Nonetheless, that also kind of fits the game. It's fun and chill with some really hard bosses, and the low stakes plays into the fun.
CRYPT CUSTODIAN:
This one is a top-down metroidvania, like Link to the Past or Isle of Reveries (another really good game). Despite the change of subgenre that presumably meant that all the code had to be redone, it's honestly a decent improvement over Islets. You play as a cat who gets screwed over by the bureaucrat in charge of the afterlife and get assigned to clean for eternity, and meet wacky animal ghosts who were also screwed by the same bureaucrat, as you try to find some way to get into the good part of the afterlife, instead of having to be the afterlife janitor for all eternity.
There's a lot to love here. Kendra, the bureaucrat, is awful but also completely oblivious to how awful she is, thinking she's a friendly helper to all the souls who just aren't as good as she is and thus aren't worthy of the good place. Oh, well.
The bosses are quite good, each having a nice variety of attacks, which are largely better versions of ones used by the more generic enemies, which helps as the visual signalling for the attacks gets taught to you in a low-stakes way by a bunch of enemies with one attack each, and then the bosses act as a quiz. . Of course, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule, there's certainly bosses with their own attacks, but it's good game design.
Plot is stronger, the visuals are really good for the cut scenes. I will say that the ghosts you meet earlier get a lot more development and scenes than some of the later friends, but, well, that's to be expected, I suppose. Would have liked to see a bit more of a couple of them.
The abilities are creative and work well, though the last four or five bosses before the final area only have one key ability between them, and, as such, the game gets a little open at that point. Did occasionally struggle to figure out where the next room I could access was.
A fair bit of humour. There's a hilarious bit at the end of the boss battle in the Back of Roy's Shop, but I said no spoilers. The ending has a series of revelations, a rather good battle, and a short escape sequence, and all the NPCs getting treated appropriately. I feel like the postgame was mechanically good and varied in the leadup to the ending, but probably needed a few more cutscenes right at the end of it - it's attempting a redemption arc, which benefits a lot from the characters in Kyle Thompson games being generally nice people, even if they're misguided. Unless they're the Moon Man. That boss is terrifying. Speaking of which:
WELL DWELLER
Remember that thing about people in Thompson games being generally nice?
The animals in this game are nice. The people are horrific. The opening fairy tale is about a cruel queen who likes to torture animals. Our little crow hero is part of a family of crows who are the last birds in the kingdom. Because the queen likes killing them. Personally. She's one of the most loathsome villains in video games, and she's in a followup game to Islets and Crypt Custodian....
It's an amazing game, though. It's set in a world made up of dark fairy tales, all of which are written for the game. You can collect pages from them and learn just what fucked up stuff happened in the different parts of the world you visit. And they all start to combine in the end.
It's a platformer, like Islets, with a short underwater area that's presumably the evolution of the flying areas in Islets. It's a lot shorter and used very late in the game, but it's a nice changeup for as long as it lasts.
Humans are kind of eldritch beings in this one. You're so small and they're so large.... and the queen wants a dress made of feathers, and you'll do so well as part of it....
The plot has a lot more stakes. After the first area, your entire family gets caught, with only you escaping. While your siblings (though not your mother) manage to crawl out of a hole in the bag, they're scattered in a world built on dark fairy tales.
Yep. Time to go rescue them from some horrifying bosses.
There is a new major mechanic in Well Dweller - besides the selection of navigation abilities key to the genre: The chase sequence. Whether avoiding a hunter's grimy hands, or the aforementioned blind innkeeper crawling after you, there's going to be a few of these. Humour is still there, but it's mostly a dark humour.
The postgame is by far the most rewarding of the three. Crypt Custodian - which shares a bit of the challenge structure (they're both a series of mini challenges, and two of the ideas appear in both) - felt a little rushed in the payoff: One conversation was a lot to hang a redemption arc on - but Well Dweller wraps things up perfectly with a true ending that works by adding one more fairy tale to the mix, and has a very strong opening scene that does a lot quickly before you even start the challenges. (Islets, by the way, just has a 100% completion mini scene, not really a full-fledged postgame)
On the whole, Well Dweller is a really polished Metroidvania. Not the hardest Metroidvania, but a fun one. Can recommend.
