Sword of the Necromancer by Grimorio Games is a roguelike set in a world of monsters and magic that will spark your creativity and challenge your monster taming skills. Turning foe into friend, then fighting through hordes of procedurally-generated dungeons against gruesome enemies is the title’s main appeal. This is all in an attempt to resurrect Koko, a person close to our protagonist, who’s story drives the narrative forward necessitating our heroes dungeon crawling exploits.
From the start Sword of the Necromancer may look like your average top-down roguelike with graphics reminiscent of that bygone 16-bit era that look great on the tv in docked mode or in handheld mode. Almost immediately after booting up the game, you’ll find the art direction is a bit more complex than the gameplay stylings let on.
Fully-animated cutscenes are a welcome addition that are beautifully illustrated and helped to draw me into a more fully realized world. These cutscenes are used effectively to show our protagonist and Koko as well as some monsters and key locations. While they may not be as fully fleshed out as a 10 minute video you’d see in a Square Enix rpg I found that they did do a more effective job than most roguelikes at conveying a sense of place and connecting me to the world’s characters.
This sense of place is important as the world is rife with fantastical monsters that range from the classic slime to hulking nightmare. Nearly all of them feel at home in the dungeons I fought through and even the minor enemies posed a significant challenge. But, soon after starting the adventure you’ll acquire the game’s namesake: the Sword of the Necromancer. This sword enables the main twist on the roguelike genre: enchanting creatures to fight alongside you.
As a massive fan of rpgs and action games that enable you to possess enemies I was intrigued by the Necromancer’s promise that I could compel any bested foe to aid me. Though I was sceptical of the execution, my fears were assuaged when I found I really could compel nearly any enemy to fight alongside me. Slime, bat, skeleton, I could possess any and all foe and watch the mayhem that ensued. While I do really enjoy this mechanic I found that it makes combat a bit slow. I could speed this up by stepping-in and hackaway at enemies myself the game is clearly balanced around the player attacking enemies directly as a 2nd or 3rd resort. It is effective but doesn’t feel great.
I wanted combat to be faster. There was no way to really turn the agression up on my companion monsters so that they would attack foes with faster animations and playing as a one-man-army would only take me so far in my runs. Even the movement speed, though there is a dash, feels a bit more sluggish than I really wanted. It feels stuck between its action and RPG roots in a way that I think it’s worse off for.
The RPG elements are a welcome addition as they do allow you to tailor your playstyle by equipping different weapons and gear. This can help you attack from range while your monster pals get in close or vice versa.It did help me feel like the combat was a bit more fluid and reduced my frustration with feeling a bit powerless and slow but never reach the level of being so satisfying that I consistently yearned for ‘one more run’.
That’s where I find myself with Sword of the Necromancer. It’s a concept that is right up my alley but the execution leaves something to be desired and I’m not sure what the answer is.In the last month a big update was released that seemed to make the time it takes to tame monsters a bit faster which was a welcome addition. Maybe in the future increasing something simple like walk speed or the animation speed of companion monsters or even more abilities that allow me to support my possessed allies would help me feel more engaged with a combat system that, by its very nature, wants me to disengage with enemies. Whatever the answer, I can say that if you want a fun action-rpg with a unique twist you might check Sword of the Necromancer out. However if you’re looking for the next roguelike “killer app” you may want to watch some let’s plays or read a few more reviews first.
As always a huge thanks to the publisher and developer for the code that made this review possible.