Crimson Capes is an ambitious but uneven 2D souls-like.

Crimson Capes is a 2D souls-like action adventure from Athens-based three-person studio Poor Locke. You play as Milon the Tempest, a witch-hunter tasked by the king of Amvros with tracking down four wizards who attempted to overthrow the crown. The premise has potential, but the story never really capitalizes on it. Narrative threads appear in fragments and rarely build momentum. In the end, the game leans far more on atmosphere than storytelling.

Combat is easily the strongest part of the experience, though not without flaws. Fights are deliberate and weighty. Overcommit to an attack, and you’ll get punished for it. Enemies must first have their stance broken before you can deal meaningful damage, adding a layer of strategy beyond the usual block-and-counter rhythm. Parrying is especially important here. When you correctly read an enemy’s move and land a clean parry, it feels great.

Boss fights demand patience and careful pattern recognition, and for the most part, they feel fair. The trouble is everything around them. Regular enemy encounters grow repetitive, and when the game packs multiple enemies into tight spaces, the combat devolves into an unfair mess.

Despite some variety, the progression system feels underdeveloped. Some abilities genuinely change how you fight, but others just aren’t worth using, only adding clutter to the moveset. You mercifully don’t lose currency on death, but since you use it to buy moves, most of which I didn’t use, and not stat upgrades, I don’t know how much I cared.

Visually, the rotoscoped 3D character animation stands out. Characters and enemies move with a fluidity that traditional sprite work rarely achieves. The trade-off is that the characters look somewhat plain compared to the environments around them. The environments themselves are a mixed bag. Some areas are moody and atmospheric, while others start to blur together.

Crimson Capes has some genuinely good ideas, and the combat foundation shows real promise. Unfortunately, the rest of the experience doesn’t quite support it. Repetition, uneven difficulty, and a progression system that never fully comes together end up overshadowing the game’s strengths.

Crimson Capes is available now on Steam.