Cryptmaster

A unique hybrid of Dungeon Crawler, Typing and Puzzle. The presentation and overall design are gorgeous, the world building is great and the voice acting is the cherry on top. The gameplay itself is fun, it's like you're playing a good dungeon crawler while you're playing 'Wordle', and there are also some puzzles and secrets to solve on the way. However, even though initially I was super impressed by the art and concept of the game, it gets a bit repetitive quickly. It's still a charming game with funny moments, but the battle segments do feel very samey. With an average playtime of 10 to 12 hours, which is not even that long, the game drags on after the first two or three chapters, and they get progressively less interesting, culminating in a weak last chapter. I'd still recommend it if you really enjoy typing games, worldle and puzzles. It's innovative, feels polished and has witty writing, it just sadly does not maintain the high standard of the initial few hours.

If you enjoy typing games or doing riddles, you'll enjoy this game. If you're not a fast typer, I recommend putting it in turn based mode!

There's really not a lot going on here. The game has about two mechanics you can engage with. Most of your time is spent walking around solving fetch quests with incredibly slow movement and an atrocious navigation system. The typing doesn't have much to do with the game at all, it's basically just a different form of an interact button. Typing is pointless outside of combat, and combat only consists of spamming words once they're off cooldown. The occasional riddle and chest are the most interesting part of the game but sadly they're not common, and they're over far too quickly.

it's a beautiful game and extremely creative but it does get very repetitive and many of the systems and mini-games are tedious. It gets tiring spamming all these words, the late game isn't very fun. Whole thing should be about half as long as it is so the mechanics don't wear out their welcome.

I cant get enough of this game. I highly suggest it if you're a huge fan of Typing of the Dead, D&D and thinking puzzles. The music is fun and doesnt grate on the ears. You get to relax and learn as you go or work hard and try hard. Very few games has this level of effort and humor for the price

This game breaks the mold and I applaud that. The story and voice acting is a huge part of the game and it's very well executed and entertaining. Good play for something different and fun.

[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 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。

Utterly fantastic game: beautiful art-style and great gameplay with enough planning, strategy and memory to actually help one develop their mind, my typing speed has increase quite a bit and memory and planning aided me. It's also hilarious at times. Could not recommend this game enough.

What a unique concept to make an entire dungeon-crawler out of word puzzles! The only problem is that the novelty wears off after the first few hours, and then you start to realize that the concept isn't actually fun enough to keep doing over the course of an entire game. Still recommended for novelty purposes.

An altogether unique experience. Worth the playthrough. I personally didn't love the lack of a map, as it was hard to keep track of some locations, but I loved the puzzles and the mode of combat. The card game is... okay.

This game slaps hard - just wish there was more. The voice acting is amateurish in a very charming way. Whatever is a fantastic little card game and a great proof of concept to be expanded upon. A way to extend the game further so that the player can better interact with the more "grindy" elements of the game (unlocking character skills) would be a good addition.

Completely unique gameplay and fully voice acted dialogue. Great if you like riddles

Love. This. Game. Uniquely beautiful black and white art style. Old-style story quest game feel. 10/10 recommend.

Typing and spelling games from school, but fun! The voice acting is excellent, as is the illustration. Worth the time to play, highly recommended

A unique, one of kind game, that has no equal in style and attitude. sharpen your keyboard skills or train them as you go. You'll laugh, you'll rage, but you wont regret this purchase.

my wife is always like "lets lick the chest"