Krut: The Mythic Wings review — Classic story marred by frustrating combat mechanics

I love a good platformer, and the indie game Krut: The Mythic Wings has a lot of neat things that I genuinely enjoy. It has some of the best movement tech I’ve seen in a 2D platformer in a long time.

Unfortunately, that is overshadowed by lousy enemy placement and other issues. For every good thing I found, I was met by something that baffled or frustrated me. It’s a neat little game, and I respect the effort that went into it.

That said, some things simply cannot be overlooked as I ventured into the lone Garuda’s journey to defeat a powerful Ogre army. There are many challenges for players, though most come from frustration instead of genuine difficulty.

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Story behind Krut: The Mythic Wings

Krut: The Mythic Wings is based on the 2018 Thai animated film Krut: The Himmaphan Warriors. In it, a Garuda warrior is trying to overthrow an Ogre army that has taken over his home. He has to find the Mythic Wings to have the power to defeat the Ogre forces, which is what we do in this game.

I loved the concept immensely, and the actual journey was very satisfying. I loved the story, getting to the end and ultimately defeating the several-phase final boss.

In some ways, the challenge makes sense. Boss patterns, for example, are solid. It’s easy to figure out what they do and defeat a boss in one or two attempts.

Regular enemies, on the other hand, are infuriating. Some of them do inform what the boss is going to do. For example, on Lion’s stage, he will have lion archers firing at the player from the background. All you can do is be aware, and stay mobile.

The problems with Krut: The Mythic Wings can all be fixed, though. Through patches and updates, the game’s issues can be resolved. The game itself is relatively short, with only six stages, but the difficulty in the gameplay can make it longer.

Krut: The Mythic Wings’ movement tech is fantastic

While playing Krut: The Mythic Wings, I played a brief tutorial that taught everything players need to know. Before I talk about how frustrating combat made me, a major positive: Movement. Krut has some terrific movement tech, without a doubt.

The Garuda warrior has a double jump, air dash, and ground roll. However, you can mix and match the aerial tech.

For example, you can jump forward, air dash, and then hit a double jump to extend your reach as far as possible. You can also tap the jump button and immediately air dash to move quicker than simply walking or rolling.

There’s a slight delay on the roll, so it makes sense to move this way instead. This quick aerial dash was how I moved through most of Krut: The Mythical Wings and avoided combat.

Because combat just didn’t feel like it was worth it, in most cases. But why?

Combat is okay, but upgrades are not worth it in most cases

Krut: The Mythic Wings has a combat system that will be familiar to many. Like in God of War, Dynasty Warriors, and other games, you have a normal attack and a heavy one, and you can combine the two.

However, there’s a bit of a delay between the normal and stronger attack, which leaves you open to taking damage. Virtually every enemy in the game teases their attack before they do them and tends to be mostly slow.

When an enemy in Krut: The Mythic Wings glows yellow, though, they’re going to attack quickly. I just found it wasn’t worth it to use the combo attacks.

Instead, the best way to fight every enemy in Krut: The Mythic Wings is to do a few slashes, and right before an attack, roll or walk through the enemy.

That’s right, walk through. No enemy in Krut: The Mythic Wings had a hurt box, except when they attack. You can walk right through regular enemies and bosses on the ground. It becomes very easy to attack an enemy a few times, roll behind them, and resume hitting them.

When it came to bosses, the easiest time for me for several was to jump and strike a few times and dash to safety. Strong attacks in almost every case are pointless. Honestly, the bosses were much easier than the regular enemies.

Each stage has a mini-boss halfway through and the stage boss at the end. They are both preceded by a stone the user can interact with to receive a respawn location and upgrade their character.

This led me to avoid combat when I could, which was most of the stages. But if you want to save your progress in a stage or upgrade your Garuda, you need to kill enemies for crystals to upgrade at the save points.

Unfortunately, the upgrades were almost entirely not worth it. You can spend 500 points to refill your HP and a variety of other features. You can get extra lives, increase your combo, wing power, more health, more attack, and more.

Many of these just didn’t feel worthwhile. I was especially disappointed with attack power. Leveling up my damage and only going from 12 to 13 damage on regular attacks? That was infuriating, especially considering how expensive it was.

I wound up killing just enough enemies to activate the save points (1,000 or 1,500 points) and maybe enough to refill my HP if I needed it. Other than that, just dodge, dash and roll through foes.

Players also have the Legendary Wings power, which is usable when the blue meter under the health is full. Attacking enemies and bosses fill this meter, as does breaking open treasure chests.

It’s essentially a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. As long as the power is active, the player can fly and shoot energy waves. Attacking also heals Krut here, so it’s a great way to turn a boss fight around.

Enemy placement is baffling, and enemy attacks are very strong

While the actual movement and jumping from platform to platform is very good, when it’s combined with enemies, it becomes significantly less fun. I had far too many moments that I’d jump from one platform, and as soon as the screen scrolled, a flying enemy would shoot a stinger, and I’d take damage.

There was almost no time to react. On top of that, enemy spawn points are not reliable. There were several instances where I’d die, and when I came back through an area, some of the enemies would just not be there.

Flying enemies are easily the worst in the entire game. They can fly farther when you jump to strike them, becoming unreachable without using the Legendary Wings power. There was also a stage where I could use that to skip a great deal of the platforming by just flying up.

I had moments where enemies would attack, and if you got hit, you’d get hit by three or four more hits. That took half my health. It was positively maddening. It did teach me what to look out for, at least.

Hand-drawn visuals are lovely, and music is solid

This is not a voice-acted game, and that’s perfectly fine. I love the visuals of Krut: The Mythic Wings, though.

The art style feels hand-drawn, and the creatures all looked great. I adored how the stages looked, even if some of the gameplay aggravated me.

The attack sound effects were superb, and the music was suitably epic. It had an orchestral sound that I really appreciated. Combined with the beautiful visuals, this was probably my favorite part of Krut: The Mythic Wings.

I loved how each stage was starkly different from the ones before in terms of design and color scheme.

In conclusion

I cannot stress enough that I do not think Krut: The Mythic Wings is a bad game. It has room for improvement and can be fixed.

Some things frustrated me about it, but I had fun regardless. It does need some attention regarding enemy spawns and balance, but not everything was disappointing.

The boss fights were solid, the ending was enjoyable, and I loved the stage design. I just didn’t enjoy where many of the enemies spawned, that’s all.

It didn’t feel like the longer combo chains were worth doing when gamers can just attack, roll, attack, roll until something is eventually dead.