Adventure Corner ~ Flynn: Son of Crimson

Welcome to Adventure Corner, a column where members of the RPGamer staff can give their thoughts, impressions, and pseudo-reviews for various adventure titles that don’t come under our usual coverage. Adventure Corner is aimed at delivering opinions on a wide range of titles including visual novels, point-and-click adventures, investigative mysteries, and so forth.

In this edition of the column we take a look at Flynn: Son of Crimson an action adventure inspired by classic SNES titles.

Flynn: Son of Crimson

When I entered one of those Twitter giveaways where you like, follow, and comment for a chance to win something, earlier this summer, I was surprised to actually come away with a free copy of Flynn: Son of Crimson for Steam. Busy season that I had, there wasn’t always a chance to play it, but I’ve managed to get more than three-quarters into what’s been a fun action platformer experience thus far.

The story takes place against a backdrop of the setting’s recent history, as the island of Rosantica is still recovering from a mystical menace that invaded it almost two decades before. The title character Flynn spends his days practicing his swordsmanship and wandering the woods with his best friend, Dex, who happens to be a large and lupine guardian beast of the isle. Then the menace announces its return with a surprise incursion that leaves Dex weakened and near death, with only Flynn around to hunt down the pieces of power stolen by the invader. With these, he can revive his friend and then press onward, but he’s going to work hard to make it that far.

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Flynn: Son of Crimson is a stage-based action-platformer. Though there are times when backtracking’s required to access new areas, the action is largely forward in its motion. At first, Flynn has only the Crimson Blade to slice through enemies, and it does so quite well, but his armory expands as more areas of the map are cleared and more pieces of power are recovered. The axe, the claws, and his fuzzy pal all bring their own moves to bear, as well as providing ways to get through previously impassable obstacles.

Likewise, Flynn’s default element of magic is Fire, but over the course of his adventures he will gain the ability to call on the powers of Ice, Lightning, and Toxin, and many stages require creative use of these in order to progress. Finally, Flynn is an excellent climber, and ledge-jumping is a frequent element in map traversal. The game plays well with my cheap third-party PC controller, though it took some time to get used to some of the special attack combos.

There’s a trainer in the main town who can help expand Flynn’s powers by way of a skills tree setup, but this requires a lot of Crimson. This resource can be gained from enemies, found in free-floating shards, or pounded out of the giant red crystals that seem to grow out of the ground everywhere on the island. There’s also a treasure to be found in each stage that can be traded for more of the red stuff, which adds to the exploration side of things. Green crystals will charge Flynn’s healing gauge, giving him a finite but renewable ability to recover health in a pinch.

Flynn: Son of Crimson is a pleasant surprise that filled in some quiet hours this summer. It’s fun, fast, and occasionally frantic in its action, and is a good addition to any action-gamer’s library.

(This article is based on a copy of the game obtained personally by the writer through a giveaway.)