Crimson Capes: An Old-School Fantasy Take on the Soulslike

The journey into Crimson Capes begins with a deceptively simple errand: a child foraging for rare flora at a local physician’s behest. Upon venturing beyond the village gates, the youth encounters a stoic figure draped in a scarlet mantle that obscures his features. A brief exchange follows, but the perspective soon pivots, revealing a grim reality. The “doctor” is no healer, but a necromancer preparing a desperate defense against an impending executioner. This sets the stage for Crimson Capes, a 2D Soulslike that eschews modern trends to resurrect the spirit of classic, gritty fantasy.

Crafted by developer Poor Locke and recently debuted on Windows PC, Crimson Capes feels like a lost relic from the era of mid-20th-century pulp magazines, echoing the dark atmosphere of Weird Tales. Players step into the boots of Milon, known as the Tempest, a sworn protector of the kingdom of Avrom. Alongside his brethren in the Crimson Capes, Milon is tasked with purging the land of malevolent witchcraft. Armed with a sentient cloak and a massive greatsword, he relies less on superhuman prowess and more on a stubborn sense of duty to survive the horrors ahead.

Image: Poor Locke

To dismiss Crimson Capes as a mere 2D imitation of Dark Souls would be a disservice to its nuanced design. While it adopts the hallmark “tough-but-fair” philosophy—where a common brigand can end your journey in a few swift strokes—it refines the formula for a more intimate experience. Combat demands precision; success hinges on timed parries and desperate rolls. Resources are scarce, and while resting amidst beds of azure flowers replenishes your health, it also restores the fallen foes you fought so hard to clear. Mercifully, the game spares you the indignity of losing your accumulated currency upon death.

Poor Locke introduces several deviations that distance Crimson Capes from its peers. Most notably, Milon does not possess a traditional leveling system. There is no grinding for an infinite health bar; instead, progression is tied strictly to the gear and artifacts you discover. The combat leans heavily into realism rather than high-fantasy spectacle. Milon begins with a standard two-handed blade—a weapon whose sheer weight is often ignored in gaming. Here, you feel the exertion of every swing, the momentum of the steel dictating the flow of the encounter.

Swordplay is a deliberate, heavy affair, utilizing animations that reflect actual medieval techniques, including feints and thrusts. Each duel becomes a psychological standoff, a “dance” where overcommitting to an attack is frequently fatal. This emphasis on weight and consequence makes the world feel tangibly dangerous.

The grounded nature of the combat heightens the impact of the game’s supernatural elements. Drawing inspiration from “sword and sorcery” literature, the developers have created a realm where a bandit’s knife is just as lethal as a demon’s claw. The witches you hunt aren’t grand, glowing bosses; they are unassuming crones dwelling in the shadows of the woods. This minimalist approach makes them far more unsettling. Rather than flashy magical volleys, they assail you with swarms of ravens and command relentless skeletal husks to do their bidding.

Image: Poor Locke

By keeping the world largely familiar and low-magic, the moments of true sorcery become genuinely captivating. Much like the works of Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian, magic in Crimson Capes is treated as an esoteric, unexplained force that inspires dread. When you encounter a grotesque horror or a cryptic necromancer, there is no lore dump to explain their origins—the mystery itself is the hook, leaving the player to wonder at the unfathomable powers at play.

This atmosphere is bolstered by a minimalist, hand-drawn art style. The architectural designs of the crumbling keeps and the tangled vines that bridge the world’s levels resemble the sketches in an old fantasy anthology, providing just enough detail to ignite the player’s imagination.

Ultimately, Crimson Capes is a Soulslike with a profound sense of self. Its deliberate pacing and dedication to the sword-and-sorcery aesthetic may be niche, but it offers a rewarding, old-school adventure for those seeking substance over flash. It doesn’t seek to reinvent the genre; instead, it proves how much power there is in mastering the basics and setting the perfect, haunting tone.

Source: Polygon