• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Cralon (Arx fatalis?) - from ex Piranha Bytes devs

SolidQ

SolidQ

Member
Cralon is a genuine 3D dungeon crawler with RPG and adventure elements, inspired by the ultimate underworld classics. On the hunt for a demon, you plunge into the shaft of an old mine, trapped in the darkness. In search of a way out, you encounter strange creatures and new friends, solve quests and puzzles, fight the darkness and evil monsters, face your fears and discover the secret of the mine.




Official site: https://pithead-studio.com/



Personaly would be interesting to play, if it's like Arx Fatalis
 
Last edited:
Yeah it has the Arx Fatalis/King's Field vibe.

Leaving this here for an easy wishlist.


Thanks for the heads-up OP!
 
Honestly, I'm not sure what to think about a Dungeon Crawler from Piranha Bytes ex-employees.
If it turns out good i will be happy.
 
Last edited:
amigastar said:
Honestly, I'm not sure what to think about a Dungeon Crawler from Pirahna Bytes ex-employees.
If it turns out good i will be happy.
Click to expand...
I want to believe, but at the same time I'm more than a bit wary of jumping on the hype train for a project led by the couple that arguably dragged Piranha Bytes to its ruin.
 
amigastar said:
i don't think the original Gothic 2 devs are still there.
Click to expand...
That from official site
He worked for over 24 years as a creative director, game designer, author and composer on the role-playing series Gothic, Risen and ELEX.

So maybe he was involved in Gothic 2 already
 
SolidQ said:
That from official site
He worked for over 24 years as a creative director, game designer, author and composer on the role-playing series Gothic, Risen and ELEX.

So maybe he was involved in Gothic 2 already
Click to expand...
HE is one of the co-founders of Piranha Bytes, but that's not the problem.
The problem is that his decisions and his leadership in the last few years, specifically, are often pointed as the ones that dragged the entire studio on a slippery slope of declining quality until they had to declare bankruptcy few months ago.
The story goes that after Mike Hoge left the studio to explore other options and left him in charge (which for context was around the end development of Risen 1) things started to go south pretty quickly at PB.
 
Sentenza said:
I want to believe, but at the same time I'm more than a bit wary of jumping on the hype train for a project led by the couple that arguably dragged Piranha Bytes to its ruin.
Click to expand...

The daft name for this alone has the stink of Bjorn all over it.

But yeah, with Hoge and Kai leaving you could feel the shift immediately with PB titles.
 
The OST reminds me Harry Gregson-Williams' MGS2 soundtrack.

I think I'm interested. Thanks for heads up, OP, the game seems legit cool. Love dungeon crawlers.
 
Last edited:
I enjoyed Arx Fatalis 20+ years ago, but it was one of my first RPGs. I'm not sure I'd enjoy all that dungeon crawling today.
 
Videos! We have the choice of:

Trailer about the exact same caves with a torch, oh look a scroll!

Gameplay! With German overlay.

The same trailer, now with a rat and DUNDUNDUNDUN music!

So I'm still interested but do developers not understand having GAMEPLAY in your trailers will most likely attract GAMERS that would want to PLAY your GAME?
Maybe I'm not hip enough and should've just said day one buy.

Edit: looking through the video they just walk around and collect stuff. Near the end there's something that resembles an enemy.
Yes battle time! It's docile..
And maybe it's me but that woman has such an annoying voice. Is this an amnesia type of experience where you can only hide?
 
Last edited:
I'd love for this to be an amazing ImSim dungeon crawler RPG. But it's giving me a bit of Underworld Ascendant vibe. Devs who invoke the name of old classics and deliver a very surface level experience. The videos released so far seem very underwhelming to me.

Lol, maybe I'm being a bit harsh and cranky. 😅 But I guess we'll see what's what when we get an actual meaty gameplay video. Hope I'm dead wrong and they knock it out of the park. 🤞
 
amigastar said:
New Trailer
Click to expand...

That inn looks super comfy.
Sexy Booty GIF
 
SomeNorseGuy said:
I'd love for this to be an amazing ImSim dungeon crawler RPG. But it's giving me a bit of Underworld Ascendant vibe. Devs who invoke the name of old classics and deliver a very surface level experience. The videos released so far seem very underwhelming to me.

Lol, maybe I'm being a bit harsh and cranky. 😅 But I guess we'll see what's what when we get an actual meaty gameplay video. Hope I'm dead wrong and they knock it out of the park. 🤞
Click to expand...

Underworld Ascendant was sooooo bad. Like really, really bad. I was saddened to see it skewered upon release and I stayed far away.
Finally curiosity drove me to pick it up for like 5 dollars during a psn sale.
There wasn't a single redeeming quality to it, I couldn't even squeeze a measley $5 worth of enjoyment out of that "game." Anybody connected to the development of that horror should be blackballed from the industry.
 


Get a fresh look at Cralon in this latest trailer for the upcoming 3D immersive sim dungeon crawler with RPG and adventure elements, inspired by the ultimate dungeon classics. Hunting a demon, you fell into the abyss of an old mine. Equip yourself, fight creatures, solve quests, uncover secrets and find a way out. Cralon will be available on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
Click to expand...
 
TintoConCasera said:
Dropped out of nowhere and the only review that I'm able to see states that it feels barebones and not even Early Access worth it.

Not looking good at all, sadly.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it might be a shame since i love these Devs output. But maybe i will give it a try and i will like it. Phoenix Point also got only 74 on MC and it is one of my favorite games ever.
 
Last edited:
amigastar said:
Yeah, it might be a shame since i love these Devs output. But maybe i will give it a try and i will like it. Phoenix Point also got only 74 on MC and it is one of my favorite games ever.
Click to expand...
This isn't a case of low journo score, it's the players calling out how bad the game is:

Schlechte Performance, verbugged, extrem Clunky und verzögert, grässliches Interface, langweiliges Gameplay, Schleichwerbung, linear, bodenloses Kampfsystem und Gegner mit 30FPS. Ein wirklich schlechtes Asset Slop Spiel.

Hat sich nichts verändert. Katastrophal.
Click to expand...
Basically: runs bad, plays bad, has bugs. Dude calls it a "catastrophe". I'd wait for more user reviews before diving in but if you decide to do so please post some impressions, I was curious about the game.

edit: know no shit of german, but "verbugged" sure really sounds like a bad time haha.
 
Last edited:
Björn and Jennifer Pankratz should think about retirement from the game industry and finding something new creative to do, they kept making the same game in Piranha Bytes until people stopped buying it and now they've made this turd. From what I've seen it looks more or less like a prototype that was a rushed release roughly a year after the reveal trailer, likely due to running out of money.

As much as I don't like early access they should've done it in this case and use the Gothic community to help improve basic things like the horrible UI or enemy variety.
 
xrnzaaas said:
Björn and Jennifer Pankratz should think about retirement from the game industry and finding something new creative to do, they kept making the same game in Piranha Bytes until people stopped buying it and now they've made this turd. From what I've seen it looks more or less like a prototype that was a rushed release roughly a year after the reveal trailer, likely due to running out of money.

As much as I don't like early access they should've done it in this case and use the Gothic community to help improve basic things like the horrible UI or enemy variety.
Click to expand...
The problem wasn't that they kept making the same game.

Gothic 1 - Amazing
Gothic 2 - Amazing
Gothic 3 - Wtf is going on?

Risen - Great
Risen 2 - Some good parts
Risen 3 - Worst in the series

ELEX - Great
ELEX 2 - Major step down

If they had just been consistent, people would have bought their games, even if they rehashed the gameplay loop. Unfortunately, every time they made a new IP, they started out good, but managed to fuck it up.
 
Yeah, the constant jumps downward in quality were outright weird.

And hell, Elex 1 was meh too. It was not bad but did not even hit high of Risen 1, not to mention Gothic 2 IMO. :(.

Like you said there was no measurable improvement between series. It was inconsistent AF.
 
StereoVsn said:
Yeah, the constant jumps downward in quality were outright weird.

And hell, Elex 1 was meh too. It was not bad but did not even hit high of Risen 1, not to mention Gothic 2 IMO. :(.

Like you said there was no measurable improvement between series. It was inconsistent AF.
Click to expand...
To me Gothic 1 and 2 are masterpieces
Risen 1 was very good
The rest? Ehh...
 
German magazines pretty much trashed it already. It's unfortunate but not really surprising. Arx Fatalis (via Arx Libertatis) is still very playable and highly recommended.
 
A friend of mine was following this game and he didn't know it released yesterday. He's been following their YouTube channel and apparently they've been talking about still needing to do a lot of bug fixes and clean up before release just this monday, so he was shocked to learn it's out already.
The demo was quite bland and unfocused, sad to see the complete package isn't much better. At least they had the decency to sell it at a budget price...
 
Labadal said:
The problem wasn't that they kept making the same game.

Gothic 1 - Amazing
Gothic 2 - Amazing
Gothic 3 - Wtf is going on?

Risen - Great
Risen 2 - Some good parts
Risen 3 - Worst in the series

ELEX - Great
ELEX 2 - Major step down

If they had just been consistent, people would have bought their games, even if they rehashed the gameplay loop. Unfortunately, every time they made a new IP, they started out good, but managed to fuck it up.
Click to expand...
Risen felt like Gothic in the tropics, Elex like Gothic with scifi. Sure, there are many companies doing games based on the same template, but for me it was very noticeable their games weren't making progress and many mechanics and ideas were stuck in the past. Once 10 or 20 years pass since your first game this becomes very noticeable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Darkhaven announced. New ARPG from ex Blizzard devs.
2
86
2K
March Climber replied
Piranha Games lays off 30% of its employees
Business Game Dev 
2
246
Hudo replied
Voidling Bound - New game by ex-Skylanders devs.
News 
9
405
Durin replied
Tomb Raider Side Scroller Edition - fan made game from TR Remastered devs
19
406
Kagoshima_Luke replied
TTK - Brand new studio formed by ex-DICE devs.. Could they be working on Battlefield type of online shooter?
13
401
Lokaum D+ replied
Top Bottom