Chris InglisKristala is a dark fantasy ARPG developed and published by Astral Clocktower Studios. The game has been on Steam early access for almost two years before launching v1.0 on PC and consoles on April 24, 2026. This was my first time stepping into the world of Ailur playing as a cat-like creature and featuring challenging combat, fluid parkour, and deep exploration. While I experienced several game freezes, thankfully it recovered each time, and I could get back to the gameplay loop. This is a game built around the grace of a feline character and the combat and magic are fluid.
Our journey begins with a choice of six distinct classes: Assassin, Battlemage, Knight, Shaman, Spellblade, and Warrior. While these determine your starting stats, your deeper identity is tied to your clan. You start by choosing between the Nisarga, Myrtuna, or Tandara clans, each acting as a gateway to a specific branch of magic. Ailur is slowly being overcome by a dark and mysterious curse so you must navigate environmental puzzles and explore every corner to rid the curse at the source.
I opted for the Knight class but aligned with the Tandara clan. While the Knight provides that sturdy, reliable sword and board foundation I usually play with, the Tandara faction, which hails from the frozen northern reaches, adds an additionally lethal layer of ice-based ranged spells. For any souls genre veterans, the most satisfying mechanic in Kristala is the mana-melee synergy. Unlike traditional Soulslikes where you might feel forced to choose between being a pure caster or a pure tank, this game demands you be both.
As a Tandara Knight, I leaned heavily on Crystal Archery and Cone of Cold to dictate the pace of battle. These spells allowed me to pick off stragglers roaming from a pack or soften up a larger monster before it could even get close. Once the gap is closed, the game shifts gears; you dive into melee combat not just to deal damage, but to regain your Mana. It creates a seamless, aggressive flow: blast from range, close in with the blade to recharge your arcane pool, and repeat. You will also come across new weapons to use, and each weapon has a unique skill attached to it, like the greatsword giving you a slam that will do AOE damage.
In Kristala, the movement remains agile even while focussing on targets by locking on them. Switching between targets in a pack of plague-mutated rats feels intuitive, allowing you to parry one and immediately pivot to blast another. More importantly, the ability to break the lock and transition into a sprint or a parkour-style escape is effortless. You aren’t just a tank; you’re a combatant with options. Mobs will use yellow attacks that can be blocked and red ones that cannot, so knowing when to make a quick escape or to block is essential. This captures that feline grace perfectly.
The regular freezing of gameplay though was a worry. The game would freeze, my graphics card fans would wind down, and I awaited an impeding crashed game screen. However the game snapped back into action, the GPU fans whirred back up and away I went. While I had patience most of the time, this could be a deal breaker for others. To the developers’ credit, they have been churning out regular releases since 1.0 launch and are listening to player feedback which bodes well for future support for the game.
Overall, Kristala is a fun and challenging soulslike action RPG where you have the grace of a cat as you parkour and engage with environmental puzzles and tough enemies. Despite the constant patches since release, the game still has some performance issues which will be a deal breaker for some. If you can push past the occasional freeze, the blend of magic-assisted ranged combat and aggressive melee here provides a decent play session. It’s all wrapped in a dark, beautiful world that rewards curiosity as much as it rewards a well-timed block.
This review utilised a Steam key provided by Lewis Line PR and Kristala is available on Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox and PlayStation.
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Yonan
