• Price: $7.49 USD (currently on sale for $5.24 until June 9th)
• Developer/Publisher: HitGrab Game Labs
• Release Date: June 2, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by The Game Marketer on behalf of HitGrab Game Labs. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Clan O’Conall and the Crown of the Stag is a platformer inspired by Celtic myths. Battle against Caoránach, the Mother of Demons, who is attempting to steal and use the titular Crown of the Stag for evil purposes. She’s kidnapped the King (your characters’ father) to further her goals, hoping this will be her…crowning…achievement. 😉👑

There are three difficulty levels in the game. As you platform your way to Caoránach’s lair, you’ll have to swap between three characters that each possess abilities to help you make your way across treacherous environments. Choose between the Swordmaster, Huntress, and Brute. At certain points you’ll gain additional abilities linked to your story progression, such as a grappling hook ability for the Huntress.

Each level will have faeries for you to collect, as well as some “secret” items. You’ll use the faeries you collect to upgrade each character, which increases their health and allows you to choose an additional ability for that character to use. Unfortunately, while you can replay past stages to get anything you missed, you can only get whatever faeries you missed the first time and anything you already found won’t respawn. So you can’t farm for faeries and upgrade your characters even more before moving on.

You can add four new abilities to your characters when you upgrade them (on top of those you learn within certain levels). Characters can only get to level 5; you cannot grind for additional levels to become overpowered compared to your enemies. You will inevitably take some damage to your characters, whether it’s due to a mishap while platforming or due to an enemy landing a hit. I like that enemy attacks don’t always result in losing an entire health bar, and that healing items will heal all 3 characters at once. However, enemies do not drop healing items – instead, those items are available in set locations in each level. I wish that enemies would drop them, or that we could buy a set amount of them on the level selection screen.

If one character dies, you can’t just keep going with the other two. You’ll respawn at the last checkpoint in that level. But if a character loses all of their health during a boss battle, it’s much more inconvenient. There were times that I would lose and have to start over when the boss’ health was almost depleted. Bosses with multiple stages did not tend to have checkpoints, so losing in the second stage meant you’d have to completely start over.

I am very thankful that there were checkpoints, and I also like that you can stop playing a level and when you come back it will start you at the last checkpoint instead of at the beginning of the level. I was especially relieved to have checkpoints in the levels where you are chased by a giant “Hell-Boar” named Twrch Trwyth, which reminded me of the Crash Bandicoot levels where I was chased by a triceratops. I always shriek whenever I’m chased by something – especially when they inevitably catch me! 😂 They added to the complexity in Clan O’Conall though – you have to switch between your three characters and use all of their abilities to flee from the boar. 😬 I died nearly two dozen times completing each of the 3 boar chase levels! 🐗

I am both irked and impressed with the one(s) responsible for designing some of the levels – especially the boar levels. Every level requires you to cleverly switch between your characters – sometimes even mid jump – in order to navigate the environment. There’s a convenient option to have the game briefly pause things as you adjust to the characters switching. Obviously some areas will require all 3 characters to use their abilities, but some will make it so you go through barriers that only allow that character to do things in that part. It was a neat mechanic that really made me think about what I was supposed to do!

There were some issues that made it difficult to get around. For one thing, there are certain parts of the map that allow you to zoom in a little; this could be helpful, but the execution could use some work. You zoom in by pressing down on the left joystick, and sometimes I’d accidentally press down mid action/battle and would become disoriented with the sudden shift. I would also occasionally switch to the wrong male character and not realize it due to similar body types, and would use the wrong one mid-jump/switch.

The final boss battle consists of multiple phases. The first two phases took a few attempts but they were manageable; however, the last phase felt overly difficult with the combination of the boss and all of the environmental hazards. Although it was challenging, I still had fun completing the game’s 20 levels.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? The inspirations behind Clan O’Conall and the Crown of the Stag were really cool and unique, with neat art and music to match the setting. I had some issues with a few of the mechanics (and that pesky boar!), but I still thought it was well-designed. I really liked the way they handled switching between characters. I would get frustrated with some levels and take a break, but then I’d dive back in because it was difficult but not unreasonably so. Even if you initially have trouble with a level, you eventually learn how to handle it through trial and error. My 10 hour playthrough was staggeringly entertaining! 🦌 😂 8/10