SKALD: Against the Black Priory

A fun, old school DND Solo tabletop experience, in a new digital shell. Fun, entertaining and engaging. If you like narrative stories, this one is well told and quite fun.

The world, writing, and (especially) the art carry this game. The gorgeous, detailed maps and splash screens steal the show. The game is at its best when your choices have immediate impact, and your chosen stats profoundly influence your character and choices. A paladin pushing through demanding check after demanding check, refusing to yield to the eldritch as they fight to give children's bones a proper burial, is effective because it only plays out thanks to the choices you made at character creation. These choices start the wane as the game progresses. The combat's mechanics are interesting--asking you to balance multiple factors in and outside of combat--but it loses its luster against the tide of uninteresting battles which always feel like they drag on 2-4 turns too many. Even with trash mobs turned off in the settings, combat is often a drag. Boss fights can be exciting, but dungeons often mean weary turns in narrow hallways where neither you nor your enemies can do much. It is worth playing, and the world is worth exploring. What the game does well, it does excellently.

Крутая по своему вайбу игра. Довольно мрачная атмосфера, что-то на Лавкрафтовском. По началу даже довольно хардкорная. Но Швабру в жопу тому, кто придумал, что нельзя переключать персонажей на проверках. Особенно на проверках где игра заканчивается. Но в целом они же вместе ходят. Почему я не могу открыть дверь если выбран другой персонаж? Почему ебучую колбу не может кинуть один из шести персонажей. Это тупо

Jak na cenę to dobry, ale krótki drużynowy RPG. Na razie chyba jedyny taki faktycznie lovecraftiański. Końcowa część gry ewidentnie zrushowana i widać że tam coś miało jeszcze być, ale przy mechanikach i gameplayu które oferuje gra to chyba by się dłużyło. Na promocji warto.

Great classic-style CRPG. I loved the story and the cosmic horror settting.

Great game. A fun little CRPG with old school vibes.

[i]SKALD[/i] harkens back to the [i]Gold Box[/i] games of old, with a few modernised touches and quality-of-life features. The game's setting and atmosphere are its best qualities, with crisp sound design and a fitting ambient OST that sells the dark undertones it's going for. Combat is relatively simple by comparison, and the game can be stingy on resources such as the title's mana equivalent and in its encounter variety, but overall it's a solid 20 hour CRPG made by a solo dev with wicked art and little padding. Graphics definitely take some using to, plus it's not always clear where you can walk freely or bump against something, but it's not often an issue past the first few hours of initial acclimation. I recommend it if you're a fan of CRPGs and are looking for something that won't claim 200 hours of your life.

Loved it! Just the right scale and length so it doesn't go no to long. Combat gets a bit repetitive but remains satisfying. Fantastic Lovecraftian story!