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Skald is a solid CRPG inspired by 1980s to early 90s classics. It features turn based combat on a tactical grid, overworld exploration ala Ultima, and a handful of quests that can be approached in different ways. What it does, it does well, but my only disappointment was with its length. It's very short for a game of this type, and I finished it after only 16 hours. When you think you finished the first major area of the game and expect the world to open up, you've actually passed the halfway point already and the game becomes far more linear and sparsely populated afterwards.

Apart from the disappointing second half, the game was quite excellent though. And really, any game whose biggest flaw is that there wasn't enough of it should be recommended. The highlight is definitely the city occupied by sinister cultists, which offers several approaches to solve its main quest. Exploring the island is highly enjoyable too - at some point you get a ship to explore other islands, but sadly there's not too much to discover there apart from one or two locations.

The combat is solid, rewarding tactical maneuvers on a grid like the classic Gold Box games. Skald has a few interesting systems, like two health bars: the first represents a character's endurance and when it's depleted, every hit inflicts a wound which can only be healed by resting (or leveling up, which fully heals up the character). This makes protecting characters with low health a priority, to prevent them from getting hit on their second health bar, while also encouraging focusing on wounded enemies to further reduce their combat effectiveness by inflicting debuffing wounds.

While there are a couple of useful magic spells, I found myself using them rarely. Buffs and debuffs were the ones I used the most, as well as healing, while damage spells felt underwhelming compared to the damage output of fighters and thieves. Oh, the thieves - this game has the most overpowered thief class I've ever seen in an RPG. Thanks to the backstab feat, they can do insane amounts of damage that almost insta-kill every enemy up to the late game. Flanking an enemy usually adds a bonus to hit and damage, but thieves do additional backstab damage to any flanked enemy, which is ridiculously high. For comparison, when my strongest fighter would do 20-40 damage per hit, the thief's backstab did 130. No other source of damage compares. For most of the game, my tactics revolved around pinning enemies with my defensive melee characters, and then moving the thief in to finish them off with a single hit.

Despite the lack of balance, the fights were fun and engaging. Especially early on the combat is challenging and requires good tactics to survive. You can only rest where it's safe to do so, and healing potions are rare in the early game, so there's quite some resource management and attrition to consider.

While the combat is solid, the game's real strength is in the writing. Skald combines a traditional medieval fantasy setting with a plot of Lovecraftian horror. There are weird tentacle creatures, sentient fungi, dreaming gods, characters losing their sanity, all the classic tropes. There's even one quest in a particular town which essentially retells a particular classic cosmic horror tale... if you know your mythos, you will be able to predict 90% of that quest's events from the moment you hear a certain woman sing a few lines of a song while gazing out across the shore.

The plot doesn't do anything new, many of its elements feel very familiar if you've read Lovecraft and other authors around him. But the sheer quality of the writing is impressive, genuinely one of the most well-written RPGs I've played in years. The prose is excellent, far far above what you'd usually expect from a computer game. If game awards had any meaning, this would have won best writing of 2024, but we all know these awards aren't really about quality.

Another high point is the soundtrack, from the catchy menu theme to the more somber atmospheric pieces playing deep down in the crypts. I may be a little biased since I'm friends with the composer, but he did put out a couple of bangers for this one. The music and visuals work together to create a dense atmosphere, and the game is very immersive despite its low-resolution graphics. The artstyle fits very well to the Lovecraftian themes of the game, reinforcing the vibe of dread it establishes.

Overall, a very enjoyable traditional RPG with excellent writing and great atmosphere, although its second half feels a little rushed and I was disappointed at how quickly it was over. Can't help but feel like there's a bit of wasted potential in here - just a few more locations, a few more quests towards the endgame, and it would have felt more well-rounded.

Even so, I can fully recommend it to any fans of oldschool RPGs, to enjoyers of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, or simply to people who want some actual good writing in their computer games.

Great atmosphere and the story is well-written, but combat and exploring are such a slog that it ends up making the game unfun.

Awesome game! Nostalgic graphics with a chilling vibe. Excellent story with a surprising ending. Well made retro music that takes me back to the old Ultima and Phantasy Star games. I couldn't ask for anything more!

Difficulty settings, other than combat heal, don't seem to affect challenge that much. How you spend your feats for each class seems to have the greatest impact on how hard the game is.

On my first attempt I was playing on easy, even with combat heal. But by the time I reached level 5, I could barely survive many of the scripted battles. Level 5 is when you discover the importance of feat spending, especially in the beginning. After a restart to spend feats optimally, I had to max out difficulty to be challenged at all.

11/10 Worth every penny!


P.S. I read a lot of concerns about Guildmagos being on the weaker side compared to the other classes. I found this not to be the case. They start weak like any other rpg magic user. But after level 15, I could dismiss entire party and solo the game on hard. By serendipity, I unlocked magic missle. Then maxed out Air magic asap. Most battles were over after the Magos' first turn at that point.

Brings back the nostalgia of an old school rpg, no voice acting, just read.

Sadness

This game is so good, I am thinking about it all the time. Seriously, the slow burn approach to story development is just incredible. I am partially through this but so immersed. The doom of the setting is brightened by good dialogue and quest opportunity, yet I still feel outgunned and perpetually slogging- the sweet spot of a tactical RPG. Plus the music is banging!

Just completed this and absolutely loved it. If you can get past the old school graphics (which harken back to the old gold box D&D games) this is a super solid, gritty, cosmic horror RPG.
Pros:
- GREAT story. Can't stress this enough. Interesting and well written (I actually read every line instead of my usual "Skip")
- Exploration is rewarding with random encounters and secrets scattered around often leading to side-quests
- Character building. Classes are well thought out in general with impactful skill trees.
- Skills matter. Whether it's diplomacy, healing, athletics or thievery, your skills matter and can give you different dialigue or quest options.
- Combat was chunky and always felt challenging.

Cons:
- Loot felt bit scarce, I ended up having to steal most of my best gear from merchants, although I did end up with a ton of unspent gold so I probably could have bought it all.
- Magic felt a bit weak in terms of bang for your buck and my mages couldn't do much meaningful before running out of mana (summons were very useful though. Some of the debuffs/buffs felt too fleeting.
- Graphics. I didn't mind the old school pixel art but on occasions it make it hard to make stuff out. Fog in particular when it's on top of a combat.

Overall though, heartily recommended. I look forward to more from this studio.

The atmosphere is incredible. The pixelart bursts with personality, the music is excellent, and the writing is some of the best I’ve ever encountered. The story is compelling and proudly wears its cosmic horror inspirations on its sleeve.
Combat is fairly simple but satisfying. Though seasoned veterans of the genre might find it a bit tedious. Despite its roots in classic titles like Ultima, the game’s atractive transcends mere nostalgia. I never played games from that era, so for me, it stands on its own as a great CRPG. Solid 8/10.

Great game. Reminded me I actually do like rpgs when they are well executed. One of the few games to actually understand what a lovecraftian atmosphere should feel like. Some rough edges, but reasonable for the price. Wish steam deck support was better, if it had a fire emblem type of controller scheme it would work much better.

An old-school CRPG done right, from gorgeous pixel art to interesting combat and a surprising atmosphere. It manages to do eldritch horror in a way that is not completely revolutionary but still unexpected. Shoutout to both authentic and stylized CRT overlay options and some really interesting visuals throughout the game. Be warned, difficulty tends to ramp a little bit, and you'll have a little bit of trouble going blind. A gem that should not go overlooked!