Corpse Keeper
Last updated: 2025-05-11
- Engaging combat with a high skill-ceiling.
- Unique dark aesthetic and diverse characters.
- Rewarding permanent progression system.
- Unfair enemy advantages and poor balance.
- Poor UI and unintuitive design.
- Excessive grinding and poor resource management.
Verdict
Mostly negative
Summary
Positive 50% Ā· Negative 50%. Score: 50 / 100
Positives:
- The combat system is a major highlight, drawing comparisons to Sekiro and Souls-like games. Players praise its depth, responsiveness, and the satisfaction derived from parrying, dodging, and executing special moves. The hit feedback and animations contribute to the visceral and engaging nature of the combat.
- The game boasts a distinctive dark fantasy art style, often described as unique and stylish. The visual presentation complements the gameplay and atmosphere, creating an immersive experience for players.
- The game features a diverse roster of characters (corpses) each with unique attack patterns and combat styles. Players enjoy collecting bones to create and customize these characters, adding a monster-collecting element and encouraging strategic combat to exploit enemy weaknesses.
- The game balances challenge and accessibility, requiring practice but not being overly difficult. The posture system, similar to Sekiro, rewards skilled players who can master the mechanics and minimize damage.
- The game incorporates roguelike elements with a forgiving permanent upgrade system. This allows players to carry over progress between runs, encouraging strategic resource management and diverse strategies across multiple playthroughs.
Negatives:
- The game suffers from poor balance, with enemies having unfair advantages such as unlimited skill usage, perfect parries, and high stats. This leads to frustrating combat encounters where player skill is less important than luck or character stats. The AI's ability to read player inputs and spam ultimate moves further exacerbates the issue.
- The game lacks clear guidance and intuitive design, making it difficult for players to understand the mechanics and progress effectively. The UI is cumbersome, controls are awkward, and there's a lack of proper tutorials. This results in a frustrating experience where players must rely on trial and error to learn the game's systems.
- The game is heavily reliant on grinding for resources and upgrades, both in and out of dungeons. This is exacerbated by low drop rates, limited inventory space, and the need for specific item combinations. The excessive grinding detracts from the action and roguelike elements, making progression feel tedious and unrewarding.
- Several mechanics such as bone fractures, corpse decay, and limited bodies feel restrictive and negatively impact the gameplay experience. These mechanics force a rushed playstyle and limit player freedom, making the game less enjoyable. The randomness of character selection and the difficulty of upgrading skeletons further contribute to the frustration.
- The game lacks depth and variety, leading to repetitive gameplay. There is a limited number of enemy types, combos, and events, reducing the desire for replayability. Players desire more content, customization options, and meaningful choices to enhance the overall experience.
Gameplay:
- The game features 2D, 1v1, timing-based combat, often compared to 'Sekiro' or fighting games, but with RPG elements. Players use attacks, dodges, and parries to manage stamina and posture, with successful parries creating openings. Combat emphasizes skillful timing and defense over button-mashing.
- Players manage a necromancer's ossuary, creating and customizing undead warriors from collected resources. Corpses decay over time, requiring players to strategically manage their roster and invest in upgrades. This system encourages experimentation and adaptation.
- Preemptive strikes and thrusting attacks are prioritized, but can be countered by uninterruptible actions. Faster swings offer less damage, while slower swings leave the player open. Enemies can evade or block attacks.
- Each run lasts 15 in-game days, with dungeon exploration advancing the clock. Dungeons contain resources, buffs, and enemies, but exploring them increases corpse decay. Strategic dungeon planning is essential for success.
- The game features a posture/balance system where filling an enemy's bar leads to stuns and critical hits. Breaking enemy stance is a core combat strategy, creating opportunities for high damage attacks. Enemies can also recover stance, adding a tactical layer.
Performance:
- The game is well-optimized for controller use and runs smoothly on the Steam Deck. This suggests good portability and accessibility for players who prefer handheld gaming or controller-based input. The game also runs smoothly without bugs.
- The game suffers from technical issues, including frequent crashes and lack of mouse support. The reviewer specifically mentions experiencing eight crashes within ten hours of gameplay, indicating a significant stability problem. The absence of mouse support is also a major drawback.
- The game has light system requirements and features stylized graphics with a low fantasy aesthetic. This makes the game accessible to a wider range of players with different hardware configurations. The stylized graphics and low fantasy aesthetic contribute to the game's overall visual appeal.
Recommendations:
- Many reviewers express concerns about the game's balance, difficulty, and reliance on luck. They suggest improvements like adding a practice mode, adjusting enemy AI, and rebalancing resource management. Some reviewers recommend the game only on sale or to players who enjoy masochistic difficulty, while others advise against purchasing it in its current state.
- Despite its flaws, some reviewers find the game enjoyable and original, especially in the early stages. They appreciate the unique concept, satisfying melee combat, and potential for future improvements. However, opinions are divided, with some considering it a hidden gem and others finding it frustrating.
- Reviewers suggest improvements to character progression, such as increasing skull drop rates and adding more skill choices. One reviewer proposes a new mode with a cooldown system instead of the bone health bar. These suggestions aim to make character development more rewarding and less grindy.
- Several reviewers express strong dissatisfaction with the game, recommending against purchasing it and describing the current gameplay experience as poor. One reviewer uses a metaphor to criticize the game's development process. These points indicate significant issues that negatively impact the overall player experience.
- Some reviewers suggest that potential buyers should consider the game's art style and combat mechanics before purchasing. Checking the trailer or demo is recommended to assess whether these elements align with personal preferences. This point highlights the importance of subjective preferences in the game's appeal.
Miscellaneous:
- The game's availability through Humble Bundle/Monthly and its status as a domestic early access title with developer promises are noted. This provides context regarding how players may have acquired the game and its development stage.
- The game's update frequency is mentioned, with some reviewers noting a lack of updates since release, while others commend the development team for quickly fixing problems. This highlights conflicting experiences regarding the game's ongoing support and maintenance.
- The reviewer highlights the effectiveness of certain attacks (kick > thrust) and the difficulty of parrying specific attack types. This provides specific feedback on the game's combat mechanics and balance.
- The game has Japanese language support, trophies are straightforward and easy to obtain, and the reviewer bought the game because of a streamer named "čč". These points are less impactful on gameplay experience.
- The game features a minimal story where the player, as a slave to a demon, betrays it and raises an army of corpses to defeat it. This summarizes the game's narrative premise.
