I regret not covering Skald Colon against the Black Priory when its developer told us about it in 2019. Now I would feel very smug.
Skáld is fantastic. I tried to find a clever angle on its journey, but they all end up saying the same thing: for all its retro styling (even party portraits that take up an unnecessary quarter of the screen at all times), it's an accessible and charming gift, and the best modernization of the 80s role playing games that I have ever played.
While Ultima seems its clearest influence, Skald mostly eschews its high philosophical ground and gives us a shipwreck on an archipelago beset by madness-inducing horror. It's a great vibe; Obvious enough that you know what you're getting into, but slow enough that the revelations are rewarding, and it gives the setting and tone a little more depth than the usual “The Dark Lord is an evil shocker.” “.
It is, of course, the Lovecraftian (as in “maddened by mind-altering knowledge and alien horrors beyond human comprehension,” rather than, say, “there's an Italian”), manifesting as corrupted wildlife, sinister fish cults, crowds that erupt in orgiastic violence and all kinds of scenes where things are clear, clearly Not here, but let's see how it plays out. Skald drops you right into a familiar but well-realized world without hitting you over the head with (ugh) “lore” or culture that you can freely infer from the context.
Beyond a plot-relevant childhood, you have plenty of options in character creation, leveling up the various pre-established party members you'll meet, and/or hiring custom characters to round out your toolkit. You can tell the newcomers to leave and hide anyone in the camp while you reorganize the group. It adds a lot of replay value, even if the overall plot can only go in one direction.
A simple d20 system dictates combat, with hit rolls versus dodge, damage rolls versus “soak,” and a heavy emphasis on positioning thanks to flanking bonuses, limited combat space, and a lack of ability to pass through friends. . A D&D-style action economy makes extra attack feats very powerful, but so are passive rogue abilities like free disengage (freely leaving melee range, which otherwise ends a turn) and exchanging places. Unfortunately, I found the magic a little lackluster, as my healer never touched eight out of ten of her spells and my fancy fire mage was relegated to Lore Nerd duty for the most part. My rangers got a spammable “mark target” ability that buffed the entire party, plus a cheap heal that made the cleric/paladin even more bankable. But the MVP of the match was “a guy with a huge hammer who hates nails.” His entire move set was “hit it” and “hit it again” and he never failed me.
But! I had a lot of fun with all of them. Leveling up gives you points to unlock class-based feats that are organized into multiple separate chains. Some are open to multiple classes, giving you plenty of room to differentiate characters and choose your own level of specialization vs. flexibility. There's also no predetermined, mandatory class alignment, so there's plenty of replay value, helped by plenty of magic items for those with sharp eyes, high diplomacy, or the will to free them from their oppressors (at the cost of greater “) . suspicion”, raising future prices). Look, if you have a Hat Of Thievery, what do you think is going to happen?
I could probably talk about Skald's systems for a second full review, especially meal prep. You can cook food by combining ingredients for specific meals to heal everyone when camping, which also asks you to give everyone a simple task, a bit like in Dark Lands (whose HP two-bar Skald system also borrows and improves). Food is so plentiful that it soon became irrelevant beyond half my carrying capacity which included omelettes and soup, and craftable potions became equally plentiful, but both, plus most random encounters, can be disabled through a customizable difficulty system. On medium difficulty, friends and enemies get an auto-replay for everything, avoiding that tedious “retro” thing of watching everyone fail to hit each other for half a battle. The odds can lean in either direction and I see room for all kinds of self-imposed challenges.
You can take this whole description as enthusiastic. Please do, as I frown at a list of bugs and annoyances: Information screens sometimes drop to about three frames per second (as they did in a battle). Annoyances like not being able to split or sell partial stacks are part of why I hoarded so much food (and having two identical magic items is worthless since they don't stack or separate), characters occasionally get stuck uselessly aiming at an enemy, but refusing to attack them. There's a tendency that sometimes clicks just don't register, and there's no order confirmation system, so incorrect clicks can be punishing (and sometimes it's not clear where a spell is going). You can't exit the leveling screen to check a character's stats, and I had to discard an entire mage because a bug bypassed his spell selection menu. They can be fixed, of course, especially the few trivial oversights that are symptomatic of a small development team, and perhaps even by release. But it is still a plague.
These are all kinds of annoyances that can characterize a game, or make it a “qualified” recommendation, but in Skald's case they are completely overwhelmed by its charm, from the swaying when walking to the excellently crunchy combat sounds. The minimal animation contrasted with the gorgeously colored illustrations of the scenes. There are quests that definitely seem like a bad idea and items that don't appear. mechanically cursed (in a Planescape style, immovably), but it still looks like I'll regret handling them. Hear me navigate out loud: “Helmet of Consciousness? Ooh. Unholy Necklace of Awar…wait, what?” There's even a guy you can sell quest items and mundane tools like shovels and pickaxes or a jester's hat that you can wear/actively wear, but don't do anything… except they definitely do, in some place. It's not the biggest RPG, but it's packed with possibilities for secrets and consequences.
The fact that in my imagination they may be larger speaks to Skald's greater success: I'm very interested in it. It's crisp but friendly, playfully reserved and familiar in many ways, but refreshing nonetheless. I wasted half a day on “fact checking and screenshots” out of pure desire to keep playing, and a few minor issues aside, my only real issue is that there's only one.
This review is based on a review version of the game provided by the developer.
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