Krut: The Mythic Wings Review

Hack-and-slash sidescrollers, especially 2D ones, aren’t hard to find, but there aren’t many where you play as a red bird-like warrior. When you start playing Krut: The Mythic Wings, we are introduced to the character Krut: he is a Garuda warrior and is on a mission to protect his home Ayodhya from the mighty Stone Ogres attacking. This sidescroller is based on a Thai movie called Krut: The Himmaphan Warriors, which came out in 2018. Krut is trying to obtain the mythic wings that his ancestors used in the past to defeat the ogres. Still, it means he has to join the six magical powers from around the realms of Himmaphan. To get these powers, Krut will have to challenge the leader from each area and defeat them in battle.

Each level of the game has a mid-boss and primary boss fight. The mechanics in the game are always the same: run in, land a couple of hits, then retreat before they hit you back. As long as you are patient and take your time, it won't be hard to be victorious; it's when you rush and make silly mistakes that you will get caught. Large stones with text on them act as your checkpoint in the stage; it will cost you 1,000 green orbs if you choose to save your progress. You can also power up your character at these spots if you have enough green currency earned from defeating enemies. Temporary power-ups like filling your health or extra lives are available to buy. Or, for a higher cost, you can purchase items that will improve your stats, like increasing your attack power or learning another combo. 

Players will explore six different areas of the island, fighting through forests, deserts, and even on the rough seas in the middle of a storm. The levels in Krut: The Mythic Wings look detailed and beautiful; I love that time was taken to add the main character's shadow. However, I found it a bit frustrating during the forest level when an enemy would walk behind foliage in the foreground, as it was difficult to avoid taking damage. While you play, there are times when you can interact with parts of the background and jump on leaves or items like barrels and boards. However, not all such objects can be interacted with in this way, and there isn't always a super clear difference between the two types, especially with the barrels; at least most of the leaves glow green light when you can use them.

The controls in Krut: The Mythic Wings are decent: there is a light attack and a heavy attack, along with a button for dodging. Most of the time you will rely on light attacks because the heavy attacks are a lot slower; chances are, you will get hit by the enemy before you can use them if you try to make a close attack. These attacks are usually more successful if you stand across the screen and charge it to make a ranged attack. It's still very slow, but it’s stronger and easier to avoid the enemy attack from a distance. If you let the gauge for your strong attack fill, you can activate a mode that allows you to fly and fire projectiles at your enemy. While you are flying, your health will also replenish, so using this will make all the boss encounters incredibly easy to beat.

The one thing I miss is using the other thumbstick to change your view to see what is beneath or ahead of you; there are a lot of blind jumps that you will have to do, hoping that there is a platform and not a chasm. If you fall, you will be respawned right before the fall, but you will lose some health. If you run out of health and die, you will have to start at the last checkpoint you saved, or if you run out of lives, you need to restart the whole stage.

Krut: The Mythic Wings is an okay game. The soundtrack wasn't anything to write home about; it was just there, and none of the tracks stood out. The gameplay was repetitive — it felt like you were always doing the same thing but just in a different stage, including the boss fights. You didn’t have to change up your battle plan for each boss,as you could just keep doing the exact same thing. The game was alright, but if you expect something new or different with each area, this isn't the title for you.