The survival action RPG Craftopia has only been in early access on Steam since September 4th and has since recorded over 20,000 active players with a positive rating of 79%. MeinMMO author Sascha Asendorf took a look at the title and now understands why it is so celebrated.
I dove into the colorful world of Craftopia for the first time over the weekend. In a stylish anime style, Craftopia is a survival action RPG that not only reminds you of Zelda but also brings features from Pokémon and Satisfactory. And even though I actually have little time for gaming and have lost interest in survival titles lately, Craftopia has captivated me.
I have already spent about 10 hours in the game, but only solo. I will check out multiplayer later.
This is how I spent my first hours in Craftopia: Every hero starts small, and that applies to my character in Craftopia as well. Although that doesn’t quite hold true, as I apparently destroyed the earth with a nuclear strike. The gods give me a second chance and I am allowed to create a new world after I created a character in the editor.
In my new home, I then gather resources like stones, copper, and wood, craft better equipment from my inventory or with the help of the workbench, and can even advance through ages like in Age of Empires to unlock new recipes. I found that really cool, and my need to collect was awakened; I really wanted to reach advanced ages.
After gathering some resources, I was able to level up. I immediately tried out the newly unlocked recipes and upgraded my equipment. However, the coolest new gadget was the hoverboard, with which I sped across the island and performed small tricks in Tony Hawk style.
While exploring, I also stumbled upon various treasure chests that contain all sorts of items and resources, as well as two dungeons that offer different challenges. In the first dungeon, I had to reach the end within a time limit using a hoverboard, while in the second I had to defeat a large final boss who gave me quite a hard time. Completing a dungeon rewards you with a rune stone and many treasure chests. The rune stones are needed, for example, to buy additional upgrades from the gods.
Once you are done with the island and have already constructed a portal, you can discover more islands by paying with resources. There are a total of 121 islands to explore. I already had fun on the first three.
That’s why you need the other islands: While you can easily establish your base on the starting island and Craftopia offers you at least basic options like walls and floors, various materials or unlimited resource deposits can only be found on the other islands. The dungeons to acquire more rune stones are also spread across each island.
As you progress through the islands, the enemies also become increasingly stronger. For example, I discovered a dragon on the 2nd island that quickly grilled me. To counter this, my character also needs to become stronger, which happens by leveling up, distributing skill points, and spending rune stones.
This is how character progression works: Like in a typical RPG, I gain experience points by killing animals and monsters on the islands and in dungeons. There are no quests or a story, but the developers are working on the latter. With each level-up, there’s a skill point that can be invested in the over 30 skills available. These include passive abilities like health regeneration or active attack and healing skills.
With the collected rune stones, I can buy upgrades for my health points or mana pool at a deity on each island. However, I first have to reach them and build a ramp to the sky like in Fortnite to get to the floating base of the respective deity. In my case, I was welcomed by Anubis, at least he looked like the Egyptian god of funerary rites.
The stronger I get, the further I can progress. The dungeons do not get easier either, and I will probably look for a co-op partner for my further journey. The multiplayer or co-op mode is still in a very early development version and does not work perfectly via Steam.
With a few tricks, such as the program Hamachi, the problem can be solved and Craftopia can be enjoyed with friends. Together, the various features and over 1000 items can also be explored and used more efficiently.
This is what I think of Craftopia
Over the weekend, I had a lot of fun with Craftopia and was able to gather first impressions. Of course, I am far from the end; 118 islands still want to be explored by me, and I have by no means found all the items.
What I like: As an anime fan, I really like the style between anime and Zelda of Craftopia, and I enjoy running around in this colorful world and exploring all the secrets. The animations of my character look fluid, and the combat is fun with the various weapons and skills.
The genre mix and the different features, as well as the incredible variety of objects to build, force me to experiment like in Minecraft. It was a small achievement when I weakened a deer like in Pokémon, then caught it in a kind of Pokéball, and made it run in a hamster wheel to generate electricity.
For a fresh early access game, Craftopia runs really well but still has some flaws.
What I don’t like: The game comes from Japan, and you can tell. The translated texts are often not very meaningful and confusing. It often happens that you don’t really know what to do with the respective item because the description is absolute nonsense.
But the sound design is also a dampener; I caught myself playing for hours without sound. I’m not talking about the background music, which is very nice, and the ambient sounds fit the picture. It’s really annoying when I hunt an animal that then sounds like a balloon losing its air upon dying. Some sounds also seem to be missing altogether.
The AI also seems not to be fully developed yet. Animals often throw themselves into the water and just die or get stuck somewhere. Only the bosses seem to act better in this regard. To be counted among the best survival games 2020, it still needs a bit of work.
While it still needs significant improvements during the planned one-year early access, I can still recommend Craftopia. Because despite the flaws, I’ve already had a lot of fun with the title, and hopefully, it can only get better throughout the EA. If you enjoy games in anime style, check out Genshin Impact as well.
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