Having played and reviewed what’s approaching 4,000 indie games on the Switch, I’ve absolutely seen examples of the adage that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Whether the graphics are minimalist, low-poly, or even mostly expressed through colors or tones, it is possible to make compelling experiences that aren’t pushing the Switch hardware by any stretch of the imagination. Of course, if you’re unable to deliver a great experience, then adding in a case of the uglies only tends to make matters worse. Unfortunately, for me that feels like what has happened with Chrysolite. 

So, while the game’s summary copy at least lends the sound of something that could be compelling, promising a “handcrafted experience” “with Soulslike inspirations”, I can’t say those vibes came through for me. Credit to whoever put it together, it manages to paint in words the equivalent of classic game box art that would convince you to give a dodgy title you haven’t heard of a shot, but the results feel familiarly disappointing here.

The reality of it is that it feels a bit like an elevated version of something from the Commodore 64 era or so, though perhaps looking a bit more on the primitive end of that spectrum. The issue is just that the platforming and combat action are a bit of a dull mess. As someone who has never really latched onto the joys of Souls-likes, I’ve played quite a number of games in that vein and this offered no such challenge for the most part. With enemies perhaps taking some effort to knock off with your pixelated sword, but given such a minimal level of detail to everything there is next to no real room for much nuance or analyzing attack patterns. Worse, with such an emphasis on platforming to get around stages your jumps are decidedly floaty and carry momentum a bit oddly, so it isn’t uncommon to fight with them a bit, even as most of the stage layouts are relatively simple, again tied to the very blocky and primitive nature of everything on the screen.

At the end of the day, while I appreciate what may have been the vision for Chrysolite, and I’m sure there was passion put into its construction, all I can evaluate it on is the result. The fact is, while the game’s primitive look didn’t have to be a crippling factor to peoples’ potential enjoyment, there’s no doubt that its constraints then held back everything else in the game. Complex attack patterns are a challenge to express with only a few pixels to work with, and even setting up more elaborate platforming sections isn’t necessarily possible when everything is inherently so chunky. It may have strived to be more, but the result is still hard to get excited about in almost any way with so much out there to choose from.