- Accidental Aesop:
- Aside from the general Capitalism Is Bad messaging, the game's ending (possibly unintentionally) drives home a couple more stringent points about capitalism: getting rid of problematic individuals that support a corrupt system doesn't automatically make said system go away, and the most realistic way to make the best of things is through feasible acts of kindness and mutual aid towards others.
- Related to the above, grandiose and all encompassing "solutions" are not the best or even necessarily the right way to solve complex and difficult problems, or can actively make them worse. The big treasure hunt that drives much of the story is presented as something that could possibly revitalize New Carcinea's economy from its troubles, but no one involved considers the possibility that they're not only putting all of their eggs in one basket, but that the treasure might either not exist or might be completely worthless. Firth's own plans of revitalizing the economy by dropping a giant trash pile on the town is also riddled with holes, ignoring the various complexities of economics and how he could basically be driving the economy into worthlessness since there would be no demand for trash, or how much he disregarded the danger of Gunk from the trash pile basically turning everyone into Gunk-afflicted zombies. In the end, it's taking the smaller steps while paying attention to the actual needs of others, instead of ignoring anything that doesn't fit one's worldview that is needed to make meaningful progress possible.
- Kril's character is a lesson about growing up in isolation and avoiding social interactions. Kril lives a reclusive lifestyle after a frightening experience with a seagull and wanders the ocean floor to get his shell back and return to the tide pool. Because Kril grew up in isolation, he was woefully naive and unprepared for adulthood and its injustices. He gets scammed and manipulated by a con artist, doesn't understand the value of the currency, and is rendered homeless because he doesn't have a backup plan if he is ever forced out of his comfort zone.
- A further addendum to all of the above: Ignoring the problem in exchange for your comfort zone regardless how idealistic, cynical or something in between your worldview is won't make the problem disappear no matter how much you want otherwise.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: The final battle and the subject of the effects of the shell known as the Perfect Whorl leave a lot to be questioned.
- When Kril gained possession of it, was he genuinely tired of the injustice he had witnessed and was sick of Firth's attitude? Or did the shell amplify his emotions, anger obviously being his strongest, and exploit possible internalized resentment against Firth over his condescending attitude, especially after he recently told him to go kill himself?
- When Firth lost possession of it, was he attempting to reason with Kril to avoid a beatdown due to being a Dirty Coward? Or did Firth realize the effects the shell had on himself, and was attempting to prevent it from doing something just as rash as he had done?
- Anti-Climax Boss: The game's Final Boss, Firth, for all his flashy moves, doesn't put up an impressive fight and is noticeable easier than the penultimate boss Praya Dubia. The first phase is pretty simple and the only thing you really need to worry is not attacking when he defends with the shell. The second phase is certainly more chaotic with him throwing abilities out everywhere, but you're bound to be good enough at maneuvering that it won't be too much harder. For this fight to be any real challenge, you pretty much have to purposely handicap yourself by not using any of the various gamebreakers listed below, and even then, the bottom line is that if your strong enough to beat Praya Dubia, you're more than ready to bring Firth's ego crashing back down.
- Anvilicious: The game is very on-the-nose about its Capitalism Is Bad messaging, from its villains representing various aspects of the system to its use of puns such as "crabitalism" and Inkerton's name. It's also pro-environmentalist, with the mockery of how the trash of humans are used as currency for crabs and the pollution being the equivalent of a zombie plague.
- Animation Age Ghetto: When Another Crab's Treasure was first announced, its explicit labeling as a Souls-like RPG confused some people due to its cartoony aesthetics and talking animals, with some believing that it'd be a family-friendly, Nintendo-esque introduction to the genre. While the final game is more tame than most games of its type and contains accessibility options for an easier experience, its overall content and gameplay gear it towards teens and adults as its primary demographic. The game can certainly be enjoyed by kids (much more so than Dark Souls) and has plenty to appeal to them, but has them as more of a Periphery Demographic and with content that may be inappropriate for their age range.
- Awesome Moments:
- For all that the premise hammers home that the pollution has tainted the ocean and driven its denizens mad, Kril's continued slaying of polluted sea creatures with a fork he found deserves mention. Especially when going against bosses many times his own size.
- Chitan may be a Blood Knight who's quick to jump to violence, but she protects the sea creatures of New Carcinia from Inkerton with her dual blades on Roland's barge and defeats him offscreen while Kril fights the isopod himself. When found later in the Abyssal Plains, she's standing next to the corpse of a spider crab, which would tower over even her and shoots lasers.
- Villainous points to Roland—he is not afraid to get his claws dirty, nor is he an easy fight. Especially since he casually shatters the glass of the pinball machine he and Kril are standing on, taking the fight into a place where his rolling attacks have an advantage. And even though the very tough Inkerton is knocked out during the same fight, Roland, after losing to Kril, still almost escapes afterwards.Roland: I'll send you down the drain myself, you little flatworm!
- Using Voltai's adaptation against Roland in the fight against him can feel satisfying since it allows the imprisoned eel to indirectly strike back at the corrupt tycoon.
- Inkerton finally standing up to his boss and killing him. Then he proceeds to show his full strength to Kril. But Kril still wins.
- The final battle against Firth. By the finale, Firth has gained the Perfect Whorl and is powerful enough to move an entire island of trash towards New Carcinia, as well as fight Kril while doing so and teleporting all over the place. However, during the fight, Kril is absolutely done with all this BS and Firth in particular, and using his rage for good allows him to fight back. So when the little guy finally gets the Perfect Whorl away from Firth, he uses its power to lay the final smackdown on the blue jerk. The fact that Firth starts begging for mercy just piles on the schadenfreude.
- Awesome Music: The game's boss soundtrack. Special mention goes to Duchess Magista, Grovekeeper Topoda, Roland, and King Camtscha's themes along with the Praya Dubia's second phase.
- Catharsis Factor:
- After Firth made Kril do a mission for him and then took some of the credit, told him to kill himself and seized the Perfect Whorl for himself, using it to drop Trash Island on New Carcinia, it's cathartic for Kril and the player to give him a beatdown, culiminating in a Megaton Punch... and then see him die to the trash he had dropped.
- Getting Kril’s shell back from that damn hustler Prawnathan. After dealing with ocean pollution, ferocious sea critters, various killers gone mad, an eldritch avatar of the dead, and Firth stealing the Perfect Whorl, Kril is just done with everything. So when the prawn refuses to give back Kril’s shell, a familiar prompt comes up: Attack. Satisfying only begins to describe getting to knock the shrimp’s block off after everything.
- Demonic Spiders: The Spider Crabs have garnered infamy among players for being one of the most frustratingly difficult enemies in the game, possessing immense HP that makes them a chore to kill even with max Attack boosts, powerful Eye Beams, swipes, and grapples that make both ranged and melee combat very risky and shred through Kril's HP and shells, and very tall builds that make it difficult to lock onto them and force him to hit their thin legs. While they do have a poor turning radius that renders them susceptible to kiting tactics if one is patient enough, this is undercut by them often showing up in numbers and being flanked by Cuttlefish, whose use of Hypnosis will almost surely put Kril in the path of their attacks. It's telling that players are typically advised to avoid them rather than fight them.
- Fan Nickname: Not long after the game's release, the term Crab Souls quickly became this game's new moniker around the Internet, as expected.
- Fridge Brilliance:
- Kril being a surprisingly good fighter out of the box makes a lot of sense when you realize that, even with his shell prior to the game's events, he'd still probably have had some points where he'd have to be able to fend off some above ground predators to keep himself safe. His shell can only do so much by itself after all. He might be a massive recluse and intensely disconnected from the ocean world as a result, but he was never completely helpless; he just never had to fight to the degree he had to in the game before his shell was taken from him. Likewise, it's also a demonstration of his potential to be someone truly strong and deadly; he just needed a push in the right direction.
- The spider crabs' new official name of Ambassador might seem confusing compared to all the fantastical names of the other Gunked crabs and assorted sea life. But then you recall that the one writing the museum descriptions and names is Konche, who was a refugee of the Old Ocean. The spider crabs may have been ambassadors to that very territory before getting Gunked, their size certainly making them ideal for long journeys. And their sheer power would make them a prime target for King Camtscha to exile, hence them being in the Abyssal Plains right near the sealed entrance to the Old Ocean.
- Friendly Fandoms: While the game has attracted fans of FromSoftware's games and other Souls-like RPG games such as Lies of P, it has also attracted adult fans of SpongeBob SquarePants and Splatoon for its similar cartoony undersea aesthetic. Appropriately, the game acknowledges this crossover through its costume selections for Kril, which include both Solaire of Astora and Mr. Krabs. The game's overall themes are also similar to Splatoon, showing how human greed and capitalism have shaped the world for sea creatures.
- Game-Breaker: Quite a few actually:
- Some of the Adaptations you can get are very strong, but three among them stand out: Bobbit Trap, Mantis Punch, and Tactical Tentacle.
- Bobbit Trap sends out a landmine that stuns enemies when they walk over it. This sounds pretty tame, but the catch is that it works on EVERYTHING, even the final boss. What makes it broken versus any other Adaptation is that, since it stuns, it gives you the time to get back the Umami Charges you spent using it. With a normal setup it only takes a few extra hits to get enough charges to use it again, and with the right setup of end-game powerups, it's entirely possible to just stunlock everything to death. Add on the Level 3 upgrade that increases the damage enemies take from all sources if they proc the trap, and nothing can pose a threat.
- Mantis Punch is a haymaker blow that deals absurd amounts of damage and stagger. While it costs a hefty three Umami Charges, the Level 3 variant is particularly useful- Kril will teleport while charging it, giving him lengthy invulnerability frames. Every enemy, even bosses, will flinch when this hits, and stacking on Sinker stowaways can allow Kril to fill a stagger bar in a single hit. Basically every enemy in the game will die if Level 3 Mantis Punch connects, and most bosses will be easily Capsized for a free followup.
- Tactical Tentacle summons a spiritual tentacle alongside Kril that swipes whenever he attacks. Once again, at Level 3 this becomes gamebreaking as each hit will heal Kril for a good portion of his life. Not only does the tentacle do respectable damage even if you haven't been investing much into Umami, but they can also Capsize enemies, making it laughably easy to staggerlock bosses to death. The creme de la creme is that you can still use other adaptations while Tactical Tentacle is out, so you can send out a Bobbit Trap to keep the boss busy, swap to Tactical Tentacle, activate it, and then swap back as you quickly recover the paltry two Umami Charges you spent on the combo. And if you've heavily invested into MSG? Watch as the tentacle outdamages Kril's basic attacks.
- Hammers are incredibly powerful, doing much higher regular and balance damage than your normal strikes. Since shells are plentiful (including in boss arenas), you can have a free DPS increase at almost all times. Knowing that the hammer's durability is based on your Shell's, you can also take this step one further: insure a high durability shell, use it as your hammer, and then rest to get it on your back again via insurance. Add the Cockle stowaway (which boosts Hammer damage), and you have a very powerful tank build that can both dish out and receive a huge amount of punishment. The only downside is that their slower swing speed (which scales with shell weight) can make it difficult to land consistent hits... but stacking stowaways that boost balance damage means you can often reliably stagger enemies and bosses, getting free Dispatches on them to mitigate the potential damage loss.
- The Knight's Helmet shell. You can only obtain it near the end game, before the last few boss fights, and you have to go through a tricky platforming section to reach it. But it's absolutely worth it: it boasts the highest durability and defense of any other shell in the game, by a large margin, meaning you become an absolute tank who barely takes any damage from enemies, even the final boss (only their grapple will be any trouble). The only downside is that since it's a large shell your roll is compromised, but honestly, you won't really need to.
- The Old Pipe shell, the second highest durability and defense shell in the game, will also be more than enough to carry you through the majority of the game. While not quite to par with the Knight's Helmet, it's more than enough to shrug off all attacks except the ones that are meant to break the shell and even then, it has enough durability that it can take several of those attacks without breaking. Use it in conjuncture with the hammers and shell insurance as mentioned above and you are set clear though to the Knight's Helmet. And unlike the Knight's Helmet, you can get it pretty early on in the game at Flotsam Vale for nothing or maybe even earlier in Expired Grove if you beat Grovekeeper Topoda (which is easier said than done) or if you exploit the placement of some of the scenery.
- Blood Star Limbs and Stainless Relics make the game significantly easier the more of them you collect. Blood Star Limbs, which if you collect 5 of them increase Kril's heath, are everywhere, and being diligent about collecting them means you will never have to level up Kril's vitality a single time in the entire game. Stainless Relics on the other hand raise Kril's attack and take a bit longer collect, but maxing them out boosts Kril's damage by +15, totalling out to a whopping fifteen free levels in ATK. Some players report using Shark Eggs to actually lower their levels in Kril's attack because they felt too strong in the final levels, and for good reason. Combine it with the hammer ability and either of the two strongest shells with shell insurance and it is almost absurd how much damage Kril can dish out.
- Some of the Adaptations you can get are very strong, but three among them stand out: Bobbit Trap, Mantis Punch, and Tactical Tentacle.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The game appears to have a widespread following upon Japanese audiences, being a common subject of lets plays amongst Japanese gamers.
- Good Bad Bugs: The “Year of the Crab” update caused various treasure spots to respawn, including many upgrade items and crystals.
- He's Just Hiding: Some depictions have Firth surviving getting crushed by the boot shaped bottle and have him redeemed.
- Jerkass Woobie: Despite being a murderer who is barely keeping his impulses in check and being Roland's thug, Inkerton is also quite pitiful. As Konche explains, he was growing in New Carcinia as a normal child until his parents were killed in a scrapping accident and he was taken in by Roland. As shown with Voltai and later with Inkerton himself, Roland is a very emotionally and verbally abusive father. After years of Roland's abuse, Inkerton finally kills Roland in the Unfathom after Roland say that he never should have taken Inkerton in. Afterward, Inkerton completely succumbs to the gunk, losing all hope and all sanity, fighting Kril to the death solely because Inkerton ''wants'' to die and take Kril with him. All in all, Inkerton is as much a victim of Roland and the corrupt system as anyone else is.
- Moe:
- Nemma's daughters Polli and Sessi are insanely cute with their tiny claws, big eyes, and Sessi's little teddy bear (ur, teddy crab). Naturally, Kril and Nemma hide the truth about how horrifying The Unfathom was from them when they get back.
- Kril himself can be considered one. He has a very huggable, non-threatening design and the character portrait in the textbox can look downright cute depending on his expression. Not to mention his naive, in over his head personality for the first half of the game really makes you just want to see him succeed.
- Moral Event Horizon:
- The Loan Shark, Prawnathan, crosses it by still scamming Kril out of his shell even when the Duchess he is supposed to serve dies, showing he is only loyal to his greed and uses the authorities as a mere excuse to be a loan shark.
- Roland crossed it years ago when he imprisoned his adopted eel daughter Voltai in his factory's power center for her whole life to use her as a Living Battery.
- If Firth didn't cross it when he tells a downtrodden Kril to go jump into the mouth of the Apex Predator of the Drain to be "useful to somebody" for once, he definitely crosses it when he not only ignores Kril's pleas to help a mortally wounded Chitan, but drops the entirety of Trash Island onto New Carcina, ignoring the long-term harm he's doing to profit off the economic boon.
- Scrappy Mechanic:
- The game's platforming leaves something to be desired. While it controls fine enough, the collision detection and level geometry really don't mesh well together. It's not uncommon to have Krill sent flying off a ledge from an enemies' attack, or see an enemy clip through the floor and awkwardly slide towards you sideways. Where this really becomes an issue is in some boss fights, where the wonky collision can affect the bosses, allowing their attacks to suddenly change in direction or dodge timing with little notice.
- Basically every other Soulslike game allows you to trade in Souls or Ergo or whatever items you have directly from the menu. For some reason, Another Crab's Treasure forces you to find a vendor to trade Junk items into for Microplastics, rather than being able to consume them, leading to an Early Game Hell.
- Surprise Difficulty: The game appears to be a colorful, and cartoony underwater world akin to SpongeBob SquarePants, but the combat is as brutal and unforgiving as Dark Souls.
- Squick: The descriptions for the mason jar and the sock stand out for being particularly disgusting when one looks closer at them, with the former referencing the infamous cum jar meme via its mention of cartoon figurines and the latter being described as stiff and brittle from age, not unlike a cum sock. Even Aggro Crab acknowledges the former's infamy
. - That One Attack: Firth's Teleport Spam becomes this by comparison to everything else if you use the gun, because it makes him the only enemy in the game you will have to put any effort against, as your shots will miss more often than not.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Despite the game's colorful exterior and (obviously) being Lighter and Softer than the typical Souls-like RPG, it's rated Teen for "blood, violence, use of tobacco, language, and crude humor". Indeed, the game does contain dark themes and devolves into a Cosmic Horror Story, which isn't unheard of for family-friendly games, but it also contains a fair amount of swearing and adult situations (not to mention its overall difficulty), overall having roughly the same maturity level as Deltarune.
- The Woobie:
- Kril himself qualifies. When he was a small child, he was attacked by a seagull and hid in the shell that would serve as his home. Having never had any parents; Kril spent the next few years in his shell all alone in his tidepool doing nothing all day and not having the courage to travel into the ocean. Then Kril's world comes crashing down when "The Loan Shark" (actually Prawnathan puppeteering a grabber toy) steals Kril's shell for failing to pay the taxes to the he only just told Kril about. Following him into the ocean, Kril is forced to begin killing the crabs who lost their minds to the mysterious Gunk. Following Prawnathan to New Carcinia, he refuses to give Kril's shell back despite the death of the Duchess Kril "owed taxes" to. Going on a treasure hunt in hopes of buy his shell back, Kril is subjected to a very long Trauma Conga Line at the end of the hunt (having to kill the abused, childlike Voltai, accidentally getting some of the other treasure hunters killed, the treasure turning out to be worthless, his friend Firth telling to kill himself, etc) that almost leads to him killing himself and is only saved by his friend Nemma. Roused by his friend Konche to go on another treasure hunt, it ends even worse with Konche dying, his other friend Chitan almost dying, Firth turning evil and then dying, and New Carcinia covered in trash with the inhabitants at risk of going gunked.
- Voltai, Roland's adopted eel daughter, is the only boss you will truly feel bad about killing. Not really loving her at all, Roland grafted power outlets on to her body and kept her locked in the power room of his company town Scuttleport her whole life to use as power source. By the time Kril fights her, not is her room filled with trash, but the poor girl is simply so excited to have someone to play with again. Worse yet, based on how the fight goes, Roland has clearly been manipulating her childlike mind to get her to kill anyone he has a problem with by having her "play" with them too hard. Not understand death or pain at all, Voltai simply thanks Kril for playing with her as he is forced to kill her. Realizing that she was just a child who didn't know what she was doing, Kril is visibly depressed after killing her and refuses to talk about it when asked what happened in that room.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/AnotherCrabsTreasure
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