Clan O’Conall, and we’ll just leave it at that cause the full thing is too long for a demo preview, is a 2D action platformer where you play as three members of the O’Conall Clan. You have a big hulking brute who can melee punch the shit out of things, he can break big stones and move heavy objects. There’s also another large guy who carries a sword and javelin, he can cut vines, knock back ranged items thrown at him, and float. The last character is a small archer woman she can double jump, dodge under things, and is super cute.

The demo doesn’t give much story, it tells of your clan chasing after a ghost guy which, I believe, ends up being a Dullahan. He shows up in two parts of levels and as a boss fight in the demo. The levels are city, swamps, and boss fight. If you can’t figure out what kind of places those levels are then, well, maybe you’re not very smart. You switch between the characters on the fly, I played it with a controller which feels like the way it’s supposed to be played. Each character feels different, even down to how high they jump, to how quick they fall, it’s really nice. Fighting is also really different between them as the archer does decent damage but it only has a handful of arrows that need to recharge over time, the hulk is slow but does a lot more damage, and the sword guy is medium speed and okay damage and even lets you knock people down. The sword guy I think is the best damage output and speed, I prefer faster characters, so the hulk wasn’t going to be my fav. I liked getting around as the archer outside of combat just because her design is really pretty and I like rolling around, it doesn’t make you move any faster, just like jumping in FPS games, but I really, really like rolling around.

It does have some problems though, the platforming is mostly fun, but it has a couple problems. The first is down attacks, sometimes they work, sometimes not so much. The other problematic thing about it is jumping around for the platforming is sometimes a pain in the ass. Sometimes it’s just trying to reach areas is a bit of a pain, usually it’s fairly okay but when it’s a bitch it’s a huge bitch. Another part of that is that your characters can cling to ledges, and more often than not I ended up jumping away instead of up to get onto the platform I was holding onto the ledge of. It’s a bit finicky and needs some refining, thankfully this is just a demo so they have time to deal with it. The last issue I had was maybe just a me issue, I started the game five times, three of the times it just never started, one time it let me get through the trailer to the start of the game and when I selected a level it froze on me, the last time worked and I played all three levels.

I like the art style, I liked the music, I loved the character designs. I really hope the story ends up being as cool as the game looks like it may be. I think it’s worth keeping an eye on if you like action platformers. Go check out the demo, hopefully you agree with me. You can beat it in about thirty minutes and it teaches you how to play the game fairly well during the first two levels, leaving you to fend for yourself completely in the boss fight. Just go check it out, I think it’s worth thirty minutes of your time, don’t you?

Clan O’Conall and the Crown of the Stag was developed by HitGrab.

Point of Sale: Steam.

The demo is free on Steam.

A copy of the demo was downloaded from Steam.

darkmikasonfire thinks you should keep an eye on Clan O’Conall and the Crown of the Stag.