ENCRYPTID: Pokémon Meets Cryptids in this New Indie Horror Demo

Disclaimer: I want to start with a quick note from the developers that appears at the start of the demo.

“This is a short, altered version of ENCRYPTID’s introduction and not representative of the full game.”

So, while I will be doing my best to present a snapshot of what I learned about the game through its demo, what I have to share is not truly representative of the game, just the demo, and we can expect to see a more in-depth introduction to the story of ENCRYPTID once the full game comes out.

Journey back to the 1990s with ENCRYPTID, a game about hunting and capturing cryptids while solving the mystery of a missing cryptozoologist.

Designed in a way to emulate beloved iconic monster tamer games from the 90s and 2000s—Pokémon, gotta catch ’em all!—ENCRYPTID draws on the nostalgia of the popular Gameboy titles all of us adult gamers grew up playing to create a unique new game about cryptids.

ENCRYPTID follows a student studying under Professor Maple, a famous cryptozoologist, in Pleasant Town, the kind of place that was built on the cornerstone of urban legends and now serves as a tourist trap for cryptid hunters. One day, when on the Mountain Path to the north of town, you find a camera, a camera that belongs to the notorious cryptozoologist Professor Pine.

Using the footage and pictures captured on the camera—real-world footage recorded exclusively with an actual Gameboy Camera—you must retrace Professor Pine’s steps by finding and capturing the same cryptids he caught on camera in the hopes of finding Professor Pine before it is too late.

Catch some CYRPTIDs, solve a mystery, and save the day with ENCRYPTID.

Game START

You weren’t expecting to find anything on the Mountain Pass. Despite the fact that people go missing here more often than the people of Pleasant Town would like to admit—especially the ones that feed off the waves of naive tourists that flock to our streets—the Mountain Pass is as familiar to you as the town itself. You’re a cryptozoologist afterall. Well, a cryptozoologist-in-training, studying under the colorful tutelage of Professor Maple. In your few years living here in a place that boasts of being an epicenter for CRYPTIDs, you have yet to see a single damn CRYPTID.

Today changes everything.

What you find today on the Mountain Pass isn’t a CRYPTID, but a camera, which you quickly realize belongs to the esteemed cryptozoologist Professor Pine. Professor Pine, who is nowhere in sight.

Has Professor Pine become the Mountain Pass’s latest victim? Surely not, but you can’t deny the feeling that something is out there with you. Watching. Waiting. And maybe that something had been watching Professor Pine, too.

So you take the camera and hurry back to Pleasant Town, where you hook it up to your computer to see what Professor Pine had been looking at just moments before he disappeared. Except, there’s one problem. The most recent images on his camera are locked, ENCRYPTID, and only with the ENCRYPTION key will you be able to open them and discover the last thing Professor Pine saw before he went missing.

With the scene sufficiently set, let me tell you a bit about the plot of ENCRYPTID!

From what I learned in the demo, the story of ENCRYPTID revolves around the mystery of what happened to Professor Pine, a much more serious cryptozoologist than Professor Maple, who would normally never entertain a CRYPTID tourist trap like Pleasant Town. By looking at the photos and videos left on Professor Pine’s camera, you are to hunt down the CRYPTIDs he caught on camera in the five different areas surrounding Pleasant Town, the forest, fjord, mountain, barrens, and dam, to retrace his steps and find the ENCRYPTION key to unlock the secret files on his camera.

For your journey, you will need to use the information you can find about CRYPTIDs in Professor Maple’s journal and the Pleasant Town CRYPTID museum so you can find the CYRPTIDs, including the Dover Demon, the Jersey Devil, and the Loveland Frogman, capture them, and use them to battle against the stronger and more elusive CRYPTIDs you will find along your way.

Today, you go from a cryptozoologist-in-training who has yet to see their first CRYPTID, to catching them all on a quest to save Professor Pine before it is too late. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll get to see the most notorious cryptid of them all, Mothman.

Pokémon vs. ENCRYPTID

ENCRYPTID first caught my attention when I stumbled across a TikTok describing it as “Pokémon meets cryptids,” so let’s talk about how its mechanics and story compare to that of a Pokémon game.

In terms of battling and capturing CRYPTIDs, it is very clear that ENCRYPTID was inspired by Pokémon. From the information we found in Professor Maple’s journal, we know that there are four different types of CRYPTIDs that will act similarly to different Pokémon types, with different types having advantages and disadvantages when paired against other types.

Terrestrial: “TERRESTRIAL CRYPTIDs are usually akin to typical land animals, with behaviors and appearances often resembling known and confirmed species. They are able to hunt AQUATIC types effectively, but are easily hunted by HOMINIDs – including humans.”

Aquatic: “AQUATIC CRYPTIDs are known to primarily reside in water. This can include both amphibious and marine species found in a wide variety of AQUATIC HABITAT. They are often preyed upon by TERRESTRIAL hunters, but HOMINIDs struggle against them.”

Flying: “FLYING CRYPTIDs are among the rarest and most coveted TYPEs of all. Due to their ability to fly there are many alleged sightings, but with little credible evidence. They are neither particularly adept nor deficient at hunting other TYPEs of CRYPTID.”

Hominid: “HOMINIDs are the most popular TYPE among CRYPTID enthusiasts. Humans are also HOMINIDs, so there is a real fascination in spotting a species so alien yet so familiar to ourselves. While typically vulnerable to AQUATIC CRYPTIDs, much like humans they are skilled hunters on land.”

While we do not get to experience any combat against CRYPTIDs to test this out, here is what we can gather about CRYPTID strengths and weaknesses:

Types	TERRESTRIAL	AQUATIC	FLYING	HOMINID
TERRESTRIAL	x	super effective	x	weak
AQUATIC	weak	x	x	super effective
FLYING	x	x	x	x
HOMINID	super effective	weak	x	x

Battles also seem to operate similarly to Pokémon .

When you engage with Professor Maple’s journal, there is an option to learn about battles, which will prompt Professor Maple to come over and battle you as a tutorial.

As you can see, there are four options: ATTACK, CAPTURE, CHECK, and FLEE.

In this tutorial battle, you don’t have any options when you attack, like you would in Pokémon, you simply deal a basic attack for damage. I’m unsure if this is a standard mechanic or if you will gain multiple attack options when battling with a CRYPTID, like you would get to pick from multiple moves with a Pokémon, but so far the ATTACK mechanic is simple: you hit and do damage. CAPTURE will help you identify what type of CRYPTID you are facing, but it does count as your turn, so be mindful. We did not get to see the CAPTURE function in use yet and FLEE is self-explanatory. You run away.

One thing I found interesting is that the tutorial specifies that once you have captured a CRYPTID, you can either attack as yourself or the CRYPTID, which I think will come into play with type match ups since, remember, Professor Maple’s journal indicated that humans are also considered HOMINIDs.

The tutorial battle did feel very repetitive since all you can really do is attack back and forth, but I certainly see the potential for more engaging battles once you come face to face with a CRYPTID.

So, while ENCRYPTID is definitely inspired by Pokémon and takes some of its elements from it, it feels different because of the amount of investigative work you will have to do to track down these CRYPTIDs. It’s more of a “Pokémon meets mystery” kind of game, rather than a “Pokémon, but if it were cryptids” one. If I were to speak in Pokémon terms, it feels like the end of the game, when you are hunting down those last few Pokémon you need to fill your Pokédex, but instead of a Pokédex you have a bunch of pixelated photos and vague evidence from the museum to help you find them.

Meet the CRYPTIDs

While we don’t get to experience much of the gameplay, i.e. battles, habitat exploration, and catching CRYPTIDs, we do get a peek at some of the CRYPTIDs we will get to encounter throughout the game.

If you choose to explore the museum as part of your research before setting out to track down some CRYPTIDs, you will find a collection of statues, pictures, audio recordings, and sonar images of some of the CRYPTIDs said to have been spotted around Pleasant Town alongside clues to help you identify which type of CRYPTID they are and which habitat to find them in. Here are the CRYPTIDs we know should be making an appearance based on the evidence we can find in the museum.

The Loveland Frogman

Manipogo

Mothman

The Dover Demon

The Specter Moose

The Jersey Devil

Memphre

None of these are confirmed or denied. Well. Except for one…

But I think it’s safe to assume that if we can find them in the museum with clues on where to find them, that we should be seeing them throughout the course of the game.

My final thoughts…

I am super excited for ENCRYPTID to come out. While I do wish we got to experience a real battle or to capture at least one CRYPTID in the demo to get a better feel of the gameplay, I think the demo does an excellent job setting the scene for the full game.

I am both a Pokémon fan and a lover of cryptids, so this game is very up my alley to begin with, but I love the creativity for using actual pictures and videos taken with the Gameboy camera. Also, it’s an actual Gameboy game and can be played on the original Gameboy or any device that emulates Gameboy titles in addition to a PC, which is so incredibly cool in my opinion. It’s super nostalgic while being very unique and playful in its creation.

ENCRYPTID also has multiple endings to unlock, so although it is short, there is still much to explore and discover within the story!

Because the demo is so short, I don’t think you have to play it if you find the idea interesting, unless you want to check out the pictures and footage on Professor Pine’s camera and see if you can catch a glimpse of some CRYPTIDs. Or if you want to experience the thrill of encountering Mothman for the brief moment he is on screen. But, please wishlist it on Steam! Wishlisting always helps developers.

There is no release date for ENCRYPTID yet, but you can find Autumn Knight’s other game, Morph Girl, on itch.io here if you want to check it out and support the developer in other ways.