A handcrafted 2D action platformer that will take you on a journey of discovery and conflict as you learn to master the art of Crimson Energy.
Flynn: Son of Crimson is a Retraux-style 2D platformer game developed by Studio Thunderhorse and published by Humble Games that released worldwide on September 15, 2021. It was funded on Kickstarter on October 24th, 2017.The game stars Flynn, the youngest member of the Crimson Dynasty, who lives in his beautiful home of Rosantica, a beautiful island that was once ravaged by war and an evil presence now banished back to The Scourge. The magical barrier between Rosantica and The Scourge has started to crack, allowing dangerous creatures to slowly seep back in to try and take over the island. Accompanied by his mythical protector Dex, whose Guardian Spirits have been stolen and must be reclaimed.
The game is a level-based platformer where the player takes the role of Flynn who must explore the island of Rosantica to push the Scourge back with his families Crimson energy. The energy allows him to use the powers of fire, ice, and lightning to assist Dex in getting back her spirits to confront the Dark Lord Zealock
The game provides examples of:
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- Falling from a Bottomless Pit, drowning, or any similar effects will only cause Flynn to lose 1 health point instead of the entire health bar. In addition, the game starts over at the last platform Flynn jumped from, allowing players to progress without having to retrace their steps.
- Most secret areas are given hints in the form of red flowers blooming on the walls. An NPC early in the game will also tell you to be on a look out for these flowers.
- On areas where Dex can be called for assistance, Flynn becomes immune to spikes while riding Dex. This includes spikes on ceilings low enough for Dex to reach while she jumps. Multiple dog statues are also scattered around the areas allowing Flynn to call Dex again, in case they become separated or fall into a pit.
- A friendly fish follows Flynn around in certain underwater stages. This fish creates an air bubble every couple of seconds, allowing players to explore the areas more freely as opposed to frantically needing to find certain spots for air.
- Bee Afraid: Bees serve as an enemy in the game. You have small bees that fly towards you, big bees that shoot stingers at you, and beehives that constantly spit bees out.
- Bouncing Battler: The sword's plummet attack allows Flynn to bounce off enemies with his sword. If there are enough flying enemies around, it can even turn into a Goomba Springboard. It ends after Flynn falls into the ground, takes damage, follows it up with another attack, or simply letting it pass a certain amount of time.
- Canis Major: Dex is this, being Rosantica's guardian spirit that Flynn and large enough that Flynn can ride her like a mount.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Apart from the default crimson energy, Flynn gains new elemental powers as the story progresses:
- Ice magic allows freezing enemies in place, as well as creating platforms out of water. An upgrade allows the ability to pass through multiple enemies in a single line at once.
- Electric magic allows zapping multiple enemies in rapid succession. It also removes the green electric-like armor some monsters have that normally reflects magic. An upgrade also stuns your opponents as they are being zapped.
- Fire magic allows gradually burning enemies, as well as light up torches in dark areas. Charging magic also increases the light radius around Flynn slightly. An upgrade also causes the fire to gradually add to the enemies' stun meter as they burn, making them easier to stun.
- God Mode: There's an option in the game settings that prevents Flynn from taking any sort of damage, including running out of air underwater. Even falling off bottomless pits repeatedly won't give you any penalties. The sole exceptions are scripted areas such as the first fight with Rozia, or getting crushed by a boulder in the Indy Escape stages.
- Harmless Freezing: Ice magic freezes most enemies in place while doing little damage, if at all. Some stages also feature monsters encased in ice, and don't exhibit any adverse effects—apart from a short, initial stun—when breaking them free.
- Subverted with Flynn himself. Swimming for too long in cold water causes him to freeze and lose health.
- Health Meter: In the top left corner of the screen is a picture of Flynn with a line of bright teal jewels next to it that serve as a health bar.
- Hidden Elf Village: The Neptyns of the Hollow prefer to stay down below unless they have to come up to the surface. The exception is Yombal who's considered weird by their standards, obsessed with shinies, aka Relics.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The first fight with Rozia before Flynn awakens his powers. Even God Mode will not prevent you from taking damage, if only because dying the first time is required to progress the plot.
- Indy Escape: One stage features not one, but two areas where you have to outrun a boulder from crushing you.
- Limit Break: Once Crimson Control is unlocked, Flynn gains a gauge called Crimon Charge which fills up while attacking monsters or by collecting crests. Once the gauge is filled, Flynn can perform the following attacks:note
- Heavy Breakers, Plummet Attacks, and Aerial Uppercuts all require 1 Crimson Charge to use. Their follow up attacks, if any, can only then be used for no extra charges.
- Fury attacks require 2 Crimson Charges to use. During this, Flynn performs a short but heavy attack where he's also immune to damage for the entire animation.
- Crimson Control requires the gauge to be completely full. During this, Flynn's combos become faster, knocks/stuns enemies faster, and has greatly increased range. He also becomes immune to most attacks, although he can still take damage from environmental effects.
- Multi-Melee Master: Flynn has three weapons and can switch between them freely, though the latter two are only unlocked as the story progresses:
- The sword is the default weapon and you start the game with a wooden sword. In the middle of power, speed, and range, they're Boring, but Practical.
- The Axe trades speed for power and more range. They're also capable of breaking gemstone-like barriers and armor.
- The claws allow Flynn to attack fast in rapid succession, as well as allow performing air combos. They're also the most mobile of the three weapons despite lacking in range.
- No-Sell: Some enemies and most bosses are outright immune to magic effects. They can still get hurt, but are otherwise highly resistant, cannot be stunned, frozen, or burned.
- Monsters with glowing green armor also reflect magic unless electric magic is specifically used against them.
- Monsters that have pink gems for armor are also immune to most attacks unless you use the axe or throw rocks/bombs at them.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Inverted, pretty much everyone except Flynn is Hopelessly incompetent. The island has basically no warriors, those that are are never seen doing anything to combat the scourge invasion, and the Neptyn palace is taken over with basically no resistance. The only reason that the scourge hasn't taken over the island yet is because their leaders are just as incompetent, the four generals of the Scourge army never actually do anything with their stolen power except fight Flynn (and then die), and Zealock spends the entire game in his citadel, and even after becoming scourged Zealock his only plot contribution before dying is to Destroy his own citadel. Aside from Rozia, who does actually strip the Islands guardian spirit of its power and kidnap the Neptyn king, not a single other character does anything for the entire plot. Fylnn's powers aren't actually that impressive, being restricted to Super-Strength, Super-Toughness, and summoning Crimson weapons out of thin air. But because he's the only character with the sense to actually do anything, he comes off as a One-Man Army.
- Rolling Attack:
- Many of the claws' attacks become this, turning Flynn into a ball reminiscent of Sonic's spin dash:
- The basic ground combo has one animation where Flynn curls into a red ball and deals multiple hits at once.
- The initial plummet attack has Flynn roll into a ball that can move forward or spin in place. Follow-up attacks turn it into a Tornado Move instead.
- The fury attack turns him into a ball which bounces around a small area, dealing damage to anyone in the way.
- Crimson Control also has an upgrade that turns rolls into one giant spin dash, allowing Flynn to dodge attacks while still dealing damage to enemies.
- Many of the claws' attacks become this, turning Flynn into a ball reminiscent of Sonic's spin dash:
- Separated at Birth: There are many hints of Rozia being Flynn's sister, including a flashback that was cut short, and a passage in Zealock's archives raising her to be Rosantica's destroyer.
- Shockwave Stomp: The axe's plummet attack covers an impressive amount of range and is capable of hitting multiple enemies at once.
- Shout-Out: Vincent is a white gi-wearing fighter of the streets who teaches the roll jump.
- Sidequest: Naturally. These are indicated by a red exclamation point over a quest giver's head.
- Side View: How the game is viewed.
- Super Drowning Skills: Not Flynn per se, but some monsters die instantly upon touching water.
- Super Mode: "Crimson Control" mode greatly boosts Flynn's weapon attack power, speed, and range while it is active.
- Wall Jump: One of the later power ups that's tied to the claws. Getting this ability is necessary to access the final stages of the game.
