[Demo] Crown of Silence

 

Here’s another demo review. This time I review Nyro Interactive’s Crown of Silence (2026).

Nice starry night. Nice broadsword too, like the one in Rogue Legacy. Skull as letter “O” and sword as letter “I” are fairly brilliant idea. As for the castle, it looks generic. It might fit in Castlevania game. Anyway, let’s start new game.

 

It begins with story of 2 empires: Boreas and Solis. They live peacefully until Solis suddenly launches a surprise attack on Boreas at night. Boreas empire is on verge of defeat.  

 

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The king of Boreas made a pact with devil to enhance his army with diabolical power. With that, Solia invaders are totally wiped out.         

 

Suddenly, I take control of this generic git. Who am I? Am I survivor of Solia’s invasion? Or am I the remaining Solia’s invaders?    

 

The game tells me to press “Esc” button for input button. This looks nice and all. But this help lacks of something essential. Where’s input for attack? Ok. I figured it out. It is left mouse button.

 

After bit of platforming action, I come across this person. We had little talk until my character insists on meeting the king and that triggers his fuse.

 

Warden Kael is serious threat. I think he’s Asylum Demon of this game. I think I miss something. Although I manage to whittle his health to 25% or so on first try.

 

I respawn quite far from the boss fight but I find chest and blacksmith nearby! 

 

The blacksmith can upgrade my initial sword or hammer that I just found on the chest. Lucky for me that the chest also contains iron bar and gold enough for upgrade my weapon. Only for once though.

 

Suddenly this instruction appears. Secondary weapon? I have secondary weapon all along? It’s activated by using right mouse button, by the way.

 

Now you tell me how to attack, game. It will be much nicer if you told me way sooner. This is almost like what I experienced in Touhou Genso Wanderer Reload. Check out that generic skeleton as my proper first enemy! Is it king’s men or Solia’s invaders?

 

I meet my first bonfire. It’s too tall though. The meat hanged too high above my head which is bit weird especially when I’m very accustomed with BBQ spit in Monster Hunter.

 

Here’s the attribute upgrade menu. It’s easy to understand. Even though I have leveled up, I can’t spend the point to upgrade any of these attributes because it’s still in demo version.

 

Now, you tell me that I can jump by pressing space bar. If I didn’t know I can jump before, I wouldn’t meet the “Asylum Demon”. Once again, instruction that come out too late. I see. I didn’t know I can dash which makes me invulnerable temporarily while moving forward. Know that I know that dash exist, I probably can defeat Warden Kael now.

 

See? I’m doing lot better. Kael’s health is at 45% while mine at 90% while I still have 2 potions at my disposal.

 

Ah, of course! Kael has second phase where he turns into demon while firing flame from his mouth like discounted Teostra. Remember about the secondary weapon? Currently I have this book as secondary weapon and it does nothing! Supposedly, it’s for magic casting but it only has blank pages! I have a plan. I will replace this stupid book with shuriken. Ninja’s throwing star is definitely better than magic book with blank pages.

Several attempts later…

 

The shuriken that acts like boomerang, helps with the boss fight. I also figure that I shouldn’t dash forward while Kael breathes fire while standing. I can dodge the fire but the it creates flame on the ground that I can barely dodge it while dashing. So, I only need to stand far away and wait for Kael in exhausted pose. That’s the cue where I need to attack him. No need to be greedy. Just be patience.

 

Now that I killed Kael, I can proceed to go inside the castle. I find this diary and another bonfire ahead. I kind of question the effectiveness of the demon power. The story said that it helps annihilate Solia’s invaders but I can defeat Kael fairly easily. Maybe my character has something more than meets the eyes!

Now, I encounter demonized king’s men and he keeps walking in my way up to bonfire area. Who does he think he is? Baron of hell?

The hammer slow but powerful also with extra reach, which helps quite a lot in boss fight with Kael. But I have to switch to sword for faster attack against these lesser demons. The attack power is quite decent.

 

Everything is fine until this point. This platforming area demands tight jump but the thing is the jump lacks of height even with help of air dash. Going to that second-level platform is easy enough but beyond that is very aggravating. To make things worse, there are 2 saw blades moving along the blue line between the platforms. If I get hit by it, my jumping guaranteed fails.

 

Through rigorous attempts, I manage to get in this point. I found this chest that content 2 iron bars and fire sword. But where I have to go next? Above seems the natural answer but since my jump is not high enough, I can’t just jump up there from here. Maybe I need to go to platform far right but again it’s located too far and too high for my jump and dash. It’s very easy to miss it and I have to go to this level again with ungodly big patience that I barely have. I’m sorry, reader. This platforming is too much, i give up. If only there was bonfire near here, I would continue.

Nyro Interactive’s Crown of Silence (2026) is another -excuse me- Dark Soul clone in 2D. The combat is fine and the story is interesting. However, the big flaw is in the platforming. Either the layout/obstacle too mean or the jump is too short even though I’m allowed to do air dash. That’s quite a shame because I want to continue if the platforming section is not this aggravating. I played Blasphemous like 3 years ago and the platforming aspect is very serviceable thanks to layout that very possible to explore around even though there are still harmful obstacles into the platforming section.  

Summary: It doesn’t get pass my wishlist  

The character’s jump is too short for the platforming challenge that game provided. Funnily, the platforming section is more frustrating than the boss fight. I will come back if they fix the jump.