It’s been a couple years since The Secret of Crystal Mountain was announced, and to be honest, I had no idea it was. I took the appointment at GDC to preview the game for a half hour and came away impressed with what Chris Rosenthal and Revolutron Games has so far.
The main thing that caught my attention before booking time to play the game was the fact that it was promoted to highlight a puzzle-box world that invoked “classic action-adventure games with modern platforming and RPG sensibilities.” This was very much in my wheelhouse, and while the trailer embedded above wasn’t particularly impressive to me (almost every indie game looks like that these days), the demo left me wanting more.
There’s just something about adventure games and treasure.
Developer Chris Rosenthal mentioned that various Zelda games like The Wind WakerandOcarina of Time, as well as games like Tunic, inspired Crystal Mountain. You play as a Cat on a quest to deliver a letter to Crystal Mountain, but the journey there is treacherous. While you can expect a lot of traps and dangerous not unlike those you’ll find in Zelda games, what really made the game sing to me was its platforming.
Jumping and traversal both felt great. I’m not sure if the build took place at the very the beginning of the game or at some point soon after, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that right away the protagonist was equipped with some translucent wings that both allowed him to perform a double jump as well as the ability to glide in the air. It added a little bit of a Breath of the Wild vibe to it, but of course, those Zelda games were nothing close to platformers.
We didn’t get to mess with any of this, but those jumps look fun.
Combat was simplistic and there wasn’t much to write home about as every enemy I fought in the demo was akin to a chuchu or a basic moblin, to stay with the Zelda terms. Puzzles were only a tad more complicated as the only issue I had was the environmental clues not being extremely obvious. There was one puzzle that required me to break a wall that wasn’t immediately obvious, and there was another one where I had to toss a bomb into a stone pot, which proved difficult because of my own issues with depth perception and not knowing how far the cat could chuck a bomb.
Before I knew it, I came to a room with a chest that contained the Spirit Flute. When using the Spirit Flute, a dial appears very much like the musical controls found when playing the guitar in The Last of Us Part II. In this build, its usage opened doors and solved other puzzles simply by playing the right notes, usually indicated by some clue you find in the environment.
There’s nothing more Zelda-like than a music-based puzzle.
Despite it still being early in development, I thoroughly enjoyed what I played and wished the demo lasted a little longer. The Secret of Crystal Mountain is currently slated to release in 2027 for the PC, Mac, and Nintendo Switch. A demo will be available for attendees to play on the show floor during PAX East at the end of the month.
It’s been a couple years since The Secret of Crystal Mountain was announced, and to be honest, I had no idea it was. I took the appointment at GDC to preview the game for a half hour and came away impressed with what Chris Rosenthal and Revolutron Games has so far.
It’s been a couple years since The Secret of Crystal Mountain was announced, and to be honest, I had no idea it was. I took the appointment at GDC to preview the game for a half hour and came away impressed with what Chris Rosenthal and Revolutron Games has so far.
The main thing that caught my attention before booking time to play the game was the fact that it was promoted to highlight a puzzle-box world that invoked “classic action-adventure games with modern platforming and RPG sensibilities.” This was very much in my wheelhouse, and while the trailer embedded above wasn’t particularly impressive to me (almost every indie game looks like that these days), the demo left me wanting more.
There’s just something about adventure games and treasure.
Developer Chris Rosenthal mentioned that various Zelda games like The Wind WakerandOcarina of Time, as well as games like Tunic, inspired Crystal Mountain. You play as a Cat on a quest to deliver a letter to Crystal Mountain, but the journey there is treacherous. While you can expect a lot of traps and dangerous not unlike those you’ll find in Zelda games, what really made the game sing to me was its platforming.
Jumping and traversal both felt great. I’m not sure if the build took place at the very the beginning of the game or at some point soon after, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that right away the protagonist was equipped with some translucent wings that both allowed him to perform a double jump as well as the ability to glide in the air. It added a little bit of a Breath of the Wild vibe to it, but of course, those Zelda games were nothing close to platformers.
We didn’t get to mess with any of this, but those jumps look fun.
Combat was simplistic and there wasn’t much to write home about as every enemy I fought in the demo was akin to a chuchu or a basic moblin, to stay with the Zelda terms. Puzzles were only a tad more complicated as the only issue I had was the environmental clues not being extremely obvious. There was one puzzle that required me to break a wall that wasn’t immediately obvious, and there was another one where I had to toss a bomb into a stone pot, which proved difficult because of my own issues with depth perception and not knowing how far the cat could chuck a bomb.
Before I knew it, I came to a room with a chest that contained the Spirit Flute. When using the Spirit Flute, a dial appears very much like the musical controls found when playing the guitar in The Last of Us Part II. In this build, its usage opened doors and solved other puzzles simply by playing the right notes, usually indicated by some clue you find in the environment.
There’s nothing more Zelda-like than a music-based puzzle.
Despite it still being early in development, I thoroughly enjoyed what I played and wished the demo lasted a little longer. The Secret of Crystal Mountain is currently slated to release in 2027 for the PC, Mac, and Nintendo Switch. A demo will be available for attendees to play on the show floor during PAX East at the end of the month.
by Danreb Victorio
