Flynn: Son of Crimson

Flynn: Son of Crimson is one of those indie games that is ideal for those who love two-dimensional platform games with a focus on adventure and classic touches. The title from Studio Thunderhorse doesn’t reinvent anything, but it doesn’t need to. Their main virtue is how they have taken advantage of the tools at their disposal and how they execute their mechanics.

This title puts us in the shoes of young Flynn in a story that tells the hero's journey to protect his homeland. A relentless evil looms without warning on the beautiful island of Rosantica. The barrier between the island and The Scourge has cracked, giving rise to supernatural phenomena with hostile creatures slowly populating every territory of the island. Flynn is the chosen one, in charge of putting an end to this calamity and thus re-establishing a threatened peace. He won’t do it alone... Dex, his mystical companion and guardian spirit, will accompany him on this journey, although you will have to find out to what extent.

This is how a game that has thoroughly studied the classic works that once marked the style guide of sidescroller RPGs is presented. The essence of Shovel Knight is in the air; not just in its structure, but in its control scheme. Yacht Club Games' work is known to be a benchmark, but this title does not strive to imitate it. Instead, it delves surprisingly deeply into a cast of movements and actions that give the whole thing its own identity. Honestly, Flynn: Son of Crimson knows how to differentiate itself well enough so that comparisons are forgotten after the first few levels. Its length, a mere 6 hours at a medium pace, leaves you wanting more, but also avoids losing the surprise factor. It hardly repeats situations, it knows how to integrate the character's new abilities and mix them together so that each type of enemy is weak to a particular type of elemental magic, but it doesn't quite exploit them.

One thing that is surprising is how much it affects the gameplay to use a sword, axe or grapple; not so much because the controls are different or because they inflict more or less damage (they even have different combos), but because enemies can be invulnerable to one particular type of move... and terribly weak to another. This intensifies the RPG Action element of Flynn: Son of Crimson exponentially, especially in the final stages and zone bosses, and the level design is also created with this in mind.

The reality is that Flynn:  Son of Crimson is not a metroidvania, it is a side-scrolling platformer, and its puzzles are extremely simple. Some of them cut into the very active pace of the gameplay. Its great virtue, along with the strictly mechanical and control scheme, is the final bosses. Just like Mega Man, we usually get to them with at least one new skill, but it is not a fault; rather, it combines everything we have learnt and puts us in more than one predicament. In total, there are half a dozen of them, and they dominate over every part of the threatened region. Occasionally, our progress across the map will be interrupted by a calamity, which is a boss fight: until we defeat it, all levels are locked.

Beauty on all four sides

As you can imagine, in this case, looks aren’t deceiving. Flynn: Son of Crimson is a beautiful game, it's easy on the eyes and has fantastic animations. Its 2D focus is on colour, both in the characters and the scenery, and it looks good on any screen size at 60 FPS. The character animations, especially Flynn and Dex, are full of detail, as are the environments and enemies we encounter during the adventure. That’s why it’s a shame that there is such little variety in that aspect. You end up identifying very quickly the patterns of an artificial intelligence that leaves something to be desired. Sometimes the environment is a greater obstacle than the enemies themselves.

In short, Flynn: Son of Crimson is a fresh, enjoyable, well-executed and unpretentious adventure, an honest title in every way that will hopefully serve the studio to either make a bigger and more ambitious sequel or experiment with other genres. There is nothing to fault, although excellence has not been achieved either. Ending it with a smile on your face is a sign that you have done a great job.