Anemoia – Feeling nostalgia for something you haven’t experienced yourself. That’s the feeling I got when I saw screenshots from this game for the first time. SKALD is a retro-style CRPG heavily inspired by the Ultima series, predominantly Ultima 1-5, that offers a very distinct visual style. The game looks like it was developed for the C64 which is no coincidence but a conscious stylistic choice made by High North Studios. Anders Lauridsen, the game’s sole developer used the 8 Bit C64 color palette to invoke feelings of nostalgia for the golden days of old school RPGs. And it works really well. Now, I have never played an Ultima game, nor was I even alive when the C64 was the technological peak of the time. And yet, when I saw the promo material for SKALD, I felt this urge, this pull to dive into this peculiar looking game. I wanted to feel like I did when I first put my hands on Baldur’s Gate II as a kid. I wanted to experience an RPG that offers a lore-heavy, interesting and rich world filled with charming but conflicted characters that go beyond typical fantasy stereotypes. I wanted to explore a dark fantasy world just waiting for its secrets to be uncovered. I wanted to be part of a story that means something, that sticks with you. And I also wanted to be challenged, to be put into combat situations that would require me to think, tinker with my equipment, try different strategies and so on. In short, I wanted to feel like back in the day when I played my first CRPGs. And I’m sure, I’m not the only one. SKALD teases players very openly with its appeal. Just look at the trailer and you’ll see that the game wants you to think that it’s one of those old forgotten RPG masterpieces. It promises all these things that I have just listed and very deliberately presents itself as a modern continuation of the groundbreaking and genre-defining titles of the past. These are pretty lofty aspirations. Now, the question is, can SKALD keep these promises or is it just another shallow attempt to cash-in by invoking feelings of nostalgia without really understanding the essence of the material it’s trying to replicate? After finishing the game and pondering my experience, I still struggle to answer this question. It’s certainly no cheap cash-in and it’s very obvious how much work the developer put into this game but SKALD definitely has its rough edges, some of which can be smoothed out by patches while others are fundamental design decisions that are at least questionable in my opinion. So, let’s go over some of the things that caught my attention for better or worse while playing the game.

Strong Beginnings and Broken Promises: The first thing that comes to mind is the “tutorial” of the game, or rather, the first 1-3 hours that you experience in the world of SKALD. Here, the game puts you in an area that teaches you pretty much everything you need to know in a very smart and organic way, which is done beautifully. You explore a tightly designed area where you learn the fundamentals for the rest of the game. Fighting, talking, questing, exploring, it’s all here in this first map and at the end of it, you’re well-prepared to embark on your journey through this grim part of the world – the Outer Isles. In this first section, I felt like I could be playing a masterpiece here. The game opens with a beautiful retro pixel artwork and some really well-written introduction that hooked me instantly. After a while, you have a flashback that explains your mission and the motivation of your character. I was pretty surprised how well the overall writing was done here. The plot seemed intriguing, the characters interesting and I couldn’t wait to find out more about this world and the mysteries it held. Mechanically, this first section was very promising as well. It taught me that the game had certain skill checks, for instance a check on “Athletics” for climbing a rock wall. You can attempt to pass these checks by throwing die or you can use a rope and permanently fix it on the wall so you can easily go up and down without ever having to roll for Athletics again.
Seems pretty cool, right? I’m telling you, in these first 2 hours or so, I thought that if the game would keep going like this, it might end up as one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Does it though?
No, unfortunately it does not.
See, that cool flashback sequence you get in the early game that gives depth to your character and meaning to the main plot, remains the only one throughout the entire game. If you expect to get more insight into your character’s backstory or interesting conflict based on past experiences of your character, you will be greatly disappointed. Unfortunately, the same can be said about the game’s mechanics. That neat little gimmick with the ropes is pretty useless anywhere else in the game. Aside from one or two other situations, you won’t use any ropes in the game. That goes for other usable items as well. I had a shovel and a pickaxe in my inventory for pretty much the entire game and I used both exactly one time each. When I got the shovel, my mind straight-up went to all the possible situations in-game where a shovel would be handy. Maybe there would be treasure-hunts or something but no, there was exactly one side-quest, one that was admittedly really cool, and that was it. The game keeps doing this. It introduces some thing that could potentially be interesting and enriching for the overall game experience, only to immediately drop it after one use.

A Difficulty Curveball: Once the game had introduced its world and had taught me the basics of movement and exploration, I was thrown into battle pretty early on. SKALD is a grid-based tactical RPG in which players take control over up to 6 party members who engage with enemies in turn-based combat. In other words: this is my jam. When the first battle started and I saw the grid system and the turn-order on the left side of the screen, I was delighted. I love slow, tactical RPGs that allow you to strategize and maneuver your characters through challenging combat situations while not being pressured in any way. Take your time, make some coffee, figure this out. I love it and I loved it here too. Shit was hard though. The first couple of battles were brutal. I had to use everything I had, which wasn’t much at this point in the game, and barely made it out of most situations alive. I had to rest again and again to refill my health and only made little progress step by step. It stayed like this for some hours. Even after recruiting my first party members, I still struggled. The game didn’t feel unfair though. I always had the option to buy potions or simply go to another area and come back later but I enjoyed the challenge in these early hours quite a bit. That didn’t last, though. You can fill your party with mercenaries if you like or, if you’re like me, wait for story-related characters to join your gang. I didn’t rely on mercs and still felt like the difficulty dropped hard once I had a few party members. For the majority of the game, I rolled through groups of enemies like a bulldozer (I played on normal difficulty btw.). But then again, once I got closer to the end, the game got really challenging again only to present a final boss fight that was laughably easy. It’s a shame because fighting in this game is really fun. You can use special attacks, magic, range, melee, whatever you like. You can also use the terrain to your advantage. There was a situation in a cave where I was surrounded by monsters that absolutely obliterated my entire party first try. So, I reloaded and formulated a new strategy. I retreated into a tunnel and put my tanks in front, healer and thief behind and could control the battle this way. It took a while but I prevailed. Stuff like that is cool and the game has multiple combat situations where using the map layout can make all the difference. Still, I felt like the game was teasing me with its weird balancing and difficulty. At first, I expected some SMT level of complexity only to breeze through 80% of the game like it was nothing. Only to then be thrown into some of the hardest battles you can imagine leading to a final fight that was piss-easy. What a wild ride.

A Party to Forget?: Of course, this journey wouldn’t be worth much if you didn’t care for the people who joined you in your travels. In this regard, SKALD started off really strong (starting to see a pattern here :D). Every potential party member I met had personality. Each one had some interesting background and their own motivation for joining my quest. There were more than a few situations in which a party member would join in a conversation I had with some NPC. Same goes for story events or any interaction with the world. Party members frequently comment on stuff and I liked that quite a bit. It reminded me of the party interactions in Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 in the best ways. However, you shouldn’t expect the same level of reactivity as in games like Baldur’s Gate. Party members rarely interacted with each other. Frankly, I’m not even sure they ever did. Also, in terms of character development, there was little to nothing happening on that front. Party members didn’t have an arch or interesting conflicts or even dedicated quests allowing you to get to know them better. So, as with pretty much anything in this game, I had high hopes but was ultimately somewhat let down. It would have been so cool to have actual conversations in camp or having to settle some argument between characters but no, they remain pretty static and superficial. That’s too bad because the character writing in general is really promising. It just doesn’t lead anywhere. Speaking of writing…

A World of Darkness: It didn’t take long for me to be intrigued by this world. Warda, the world in which SKALD takes place, is a dark and hopeless place. The Outer Isles are an especially decrepit corner of this world and it’s exactly where our travels lead us. The Isles are swallowed by an unfathomable evil, a being older than the world itself which slowly drives the population mad. Cultists clad in dark robes perform inhuman rituals, menacing hordes of fish-god worshippers terrorize the locals and leave a trail of blood and destruction behind and more and more, you get the feeling that something is terribly, inherently wrong here. The place itself seems wrong somehow. This feeling is beautifully conveyed by the strong writing of the game. Every scene was depicted in a way that made me visualize it in my head. As there are no animated cutscenes, only gorgeous pixel art stills, you have to imagine all the events described on screen in your head. And it worked great. The writer definitely knew what they were doing here. When I bought this game, I knew it was dark fantasy. I had no idea, however, that it heavily relies on horror elements. I don’t want to give away too much here but if you like the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers, you will enjoy the writing in this game as well. But again, it’s far from perfect. Especially the main plot left me somewhat disappointed. As I said, the story starts off really strong but then meanders for a long while. For about 10 hours after everything is set up, there are little to no plot-relevant events. Once you reach a specific point in the game, you get a pretty hefty lore-dump, the plot progresses but before you know it, the game is already near its conclusion. Again, a more evenly-paced story would have helped a lot in keeping me interested. Thankfully, SKALD ends with a bang. I know some people are very critical when it comes to the ending but I thought that it perfectly encapsulates everything that is great about this gruesome world. Yes, it’s brutal, dark and maybe somewhat unfair but it fits the tone of the game perfectly. These last few moments were absolutely fantastic and memorable for me. But alas, they cannot hide the fact that for the majority of the game, its main plot felt lackluster at times. There are some moments of genuine brilliance here but they are just too far and few between.

Selective Reactivity: Even though the story had its lengths, I am glad the quest design was so well done that I didn’t drop the game. Quests in general are really innovative, there are no simple fetch- or kill-quests, there is a story behind everything and usually, it’s really well-written. Also, the variety of quests is pretty high. Some are combat-focused, some dialogue-focused, and sometimes you need to solve small puzzles. I was thoroughly entertained. Quests can be approached in multiple ways with sometimes unforeseen dire consequences. Diplomacy is a skill that helps you to convince people in certain situation but you can’t talk your way out of everything. I liked that. There weren’t many quests that required me to really think about what to say and how to approach the situation but there were quite a few where it really mattered what my character said. People do react to you and sometimes refuse to keep talking if you have offended them in any way. You can also be a complete dick and pretty much attack everybody you meet :D Whilst people react to what you say in conversations, they don’t really care for your actions in the world. What I mean by that is that there are little to no repercussions for stealing. If you’re caught trying to steal from a vendor, they will refuse to trade with you for a while, that’s it, you’re not put into jail or anything. You can also steal stuff from chests and the likes directly in front of the owners and no one cares. There was one scene where I could steal an armor, a priced possession by an important NPC. I stole it, I wore that armor while talking to that NPC and there was no reaction at all. It’s the same story again. On the one hand the game teaches you that everything you do is super impactful in some quests. On the other hand, you can just run around and steal everything and no one will bat an eye.

Grave Grievances: At last, I want to list some of my personal annoyances that I encountered while playing SKALD. I am sure that some of them can and will be fixed in future updates while others may only be a pet peeve of mine. In any case, without any real order, here are my unfiltered ramblings :D
Automatically leaving the area when you’re at the edge of the map is annoying. I accidentally left an area multiple times. Adding a choice “Do you wish to leave?” would be a simple fix.
Why can I sell stacks of items but not buy stacks? Especially when buying arrows, this gets old really fast. Also, I can only sell a single item or the ENTIRE stack (=all of them), old Infinity Engine games had this figured out by putting arrows and crossbow bolts into stacks of 20 which you could sell as a whole.
Why can I put skill points into “Heavy Armor Use” for my “Hospitaller” (the game’s cleric class), if they can’t even use heavy armor at all? :D
It’s too bad there are no icons for spells which makes it difficult to find a specific spell at times. To give an example for the spell “Minor Lay on Hands” the icon reads “MI HA” as an abbreviation of the spell name but no fancy graphic. This can get really messy once you have a bunch of spells.
There is no respec for the characters at this point. I put skill points into using a club for one character only to find out that another club-focused character would join the party mid-game so now there was no way to turn my character into an axe-build or something which is too bad.
Typos, typos everywhere :D

A Journey Worthwhile?: I know that I sounded rather critical throughout this entire review, especially in the last section. So, do I think playing SKALD is a waste of time? Do I think it’s not worth the price? Is it just a shallow copy-cat that uses nostalgia as a tool to misguide players and trick them into believing it’s more than it is? No, SKALD is a really good game, I truly think so. Keep in mind that this game was developed by one guy. One person designed, wrote and coded this game. That same person contributed the sprite work, music, UI design, everything. It’s damn impressive to see what indie developers are capable of these days when given the right tools to breathe life into their vision. SKALD has its problems, that should be clear by now. But it also has heart. Someone had a clear idea of what they wanted to create here and, for the most part, they pulled it off. It’s a dark and mature tale, with bits of fantasy and cosmic horror interwoven into something truly novel and cool. Its distinct style, amazing soundwork and intricate writing are truly impressive and the ending will stick with me for a while. If you’re at all interested in traditional CRPGs with a focus on world-building, interesting set pieces, smart quest design and challenging combat situations, this game is for you. If you’re expecting to get a game on the same quality level as Baldur’s Gate 3 (I have read reviews that claim SKALD would be the TRUE Baldur’s Gate 3 which is ridiculous), you’ll probably end up rather disappointed. So, set forth, brave adventurer and embark on a journey, you won’t forget so easily, the Outer Isles await you.

Really faithful recreation of the feeling of playing old rpgs and CRPGs:

- weird combat that doesn't make sense until suddenly it does and then game is over
- extremely well written
- keeps you up at night

This game does a lot of stuff right which really makes me want to love it. The atmosphere is great, the art is beautiful, and the story is gripping. The problem is, to properly experience these elements, there are some basic elements that aren't present.

There's no map, making it easy to get lost. The combat is slow and clunky; I eventually cranked the difficulty down to its lowest setting because I basically just wanted to skip the combat and it still took forever.

There doesn't seem to be a way to manually move the camera, which is annoying because it naturally lags behind your movement a bit. In any other game this would just be a little irritating, but because enemies can sometimes spot you and initiate combat, you can be thrown into the slow and clunky combat with no warning. Even on normal difficulty this can be a straight up death sentence. That's not too terrible though, because the game lets you quicksave at any time.

Overall this review is quite critical, but my feelings towards the game are actually pretty positive. I think it's great that a game like this can get made and see such success. I just wish it was easier to enjoy the parts of it that are truly excellent

Super fun little cRPG! Short enough to be digestible, long enough to sink your teeth into.
Definitely has some gameplay problems, but devs are super responsive on discord & the game is still being updated.
I think the tone starts off really really strong but gets weaker as it goes. It's a classic cosmic horror problem where the text says "An indescribable creature emerges in front of you" and then you look & it's just a tentacle monster.
The world also isn't as mean as it first appears... An early NPC warns you that being kind and trusting in this world can get you killed, but the people you meet are generally trustworthy and never really meaningfully impede your quest. Would've loved some LISA-esque big consequences for "doing the right thing", but then again I'm not sure how well that type of thing would work with this game's save system, and the min-max nature of the game.
All that said, still had a real fun time with this one. Recommending to all my friends who like D&D type games.

Quando agregamos o antigo com o novo e o adulto com a seriedade, o resultado é um jogo com temática forte, repleto de contextos intrigantes e um combate e estilo específico que marcou várias gerações.

Por mais intrigante e feio que seja, SKALD é um título importante para quem sente falta da seriedade dos rpgs antigos, e ao misturar as clássicas missões de ajudar alguém a se declarar com uma missão de mergulhar em um lugar sem saber para qual direção seguir, o jogo cria o que chamamos de imersão extrema, coisa bem rara nos jogos atuais.

Diferente de muitos jogadores eu decidi iniciar a campanha sem saber o básico do jogo e me surpreendi ao presenciar um rpg de horror cósmico, dois temas que não possuem tantos exemplos de combinação. Apesar da estranheza entre os temas, o teor adulto do jogo não deu espaço para sentir os conceitos tão distintos, o que me ajudou a desenvolver uma conexão ainda maior com tudo o que foi proposto.

Outro elemento competente foi a forma e disposição do combate que acabou se misturando com perfeição aos gráficos, tornando a sensação de jogar algo antigo bem real. Porém, a falta de uma separação ou distinção durante os momentos de cerco tornaram a mistura problemática e de certa forma, chata. Tal ocorrência era rara, pois conforme a build escolhida a necessidade de colocar 4 personagens contra um ou dois inimigos era inexistente.

Curiosamente, esse foi um dos primeiros jogos que eu senti um favorecimento para builds físicas e de apoio, mesmo como personagens fortes os magos ficavam tão dependentes de poções que se tornou inviável manter dois a longo prazo.

Apesar do enredo rico, é perceptível que o jogo sofre de uma quebra de ritmo na parte final e deixa toda a sensação de interesse, proteção e diversão do jogador com outros personagens para focar em deslocar-se o mais rápido possível para o final, e mesmo criando um tempo aceitável para um jogo do porte, a falta de conteúdo afeta indiretamente todo o sistema, quebrando o que realmente importa.

Falando em quebra, é importante destacar que grande parte dos personagens secundários não foram bem aproveitados e tiveram uma tentativa de conexão com o jogador no final bastante insignificante.

Em relação a bugs, preciso dizer que o jogo não possui muitos, mas os que existem são extremamente irritantes. Inclusive, quase desisti de jogar graças a um que me impossibilitou finalizar uma missão ao me deixar trancada em uma sala, felizmente o desenvolvedor é bem ativo e está sempre informando a comunidade sobre os problemas e como evitar o prejuízo.

Se você for uma pessoa que adora RPG, horror cósmico ou só quer um jogo com uma pegada mais adulta do que o clássico "vamos salvar o mundo com o poder da amizade", SKALD é obrigatório e pelo preço é quase impossível reclamar.