If nothing else, you’ve bought to present the Skautfold franchise credit score for being unafraid to combine issues up. After Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity launched the collection as a retro-style survival horror, its sequels went on to span the Metroidvania, shooter, and RPG genres. Skautfold: Usurper, the most recent launch within the collection to return to Change, was the primary Metroidvania and boasts key artwork that is very paying homage to Aria of Sorrow. Sadly, the sport isn’t superb. There are some redeeming components right here, however this is not one thing that we will enthusiastically advocate.
The plot takes place in an alternate Nineteenth-century London, choosing up shortly after an alien construction referred to as the Citadel crashed down into the town and commenced releasing a nefarious ‘Fog’ that drove individuals insane and turned them into Lovecraftian monsters. You play as Saragat, a lifeless knight introduced again to life by a necromancer named Waltham, who has taken management of Saragat’s physique to destroy the keeper of the Citadel and seize its energy for himself. But, regardless of the cool premise, the story feels fairly poorly written. Dialogue is general stiff and oddly paced, and it’s troublesome to observe the relationships between characters and the obscure histories they every current.
Gameplay follows an action-focused Metroidvania template, with a robust scoop of Soulslike affect. Fight is gradual and extremely deadly, whereas deaths will lead to you dropping all of your presently held expertise and being despatched again to the final checkpoint. The principle gimmick right here is that you’ve got a tiny quantity of well being and may be simply two-shot by most enemies, however you’ve gotten a a lot bigger, quickly regenerating stamina meter that extends your longevity. Any harm you are taking will come out of your stamina meter first, however it’s additionally drained a bit each time you dodge or swing your weapon. It’s an attention-grabbing strategy to fight, one which might be nice in a greater recreation, however right here it is terribly balanced and needlessly punishing.
A giant a part of this is because of how your character feels fairly stagnant all through the journey. You possibly can stage up all you need, and behind the scenes this in all probability even impacts your stats, however most encounters will nonetheless finish in you getting wrecked for making one mistake when you do little harm to your foes. Merely put, your character stays pathetically weak, which feels counter to the central concept of Metroidvanias providing prolonged energy fantasies as you make progress.
As for the exploration aspect of the gameplay, Userper doesn’t fare a lot better. Although environments are easy to navigate, they don’t actually conceal any secrets and techniques that really feel price chasing. There are new (not essentially higher) weapons and magic stones you need to use to stage up, however no different gear or gadgets to assist shake up gameplay. Worse but, the map is completely horrible at speaking info—you would possibly as nicely simply not use it in any respect.
Pair all the above with spritework and sound design that feels amateurish, and Skautfold: Usurper finally comes off as extra of a mid-effort flash recreation than a correctly polished new eShop launch. There are flashes of enjoyable once in a while, however not one of the concepts or ideas right here cohere into one thing that’s price your time. If you happen to’re on the lookout for a strong Metroidvania with Soulslike components, Blasphemous, Hole Knight, and Salt and Sanctuary all supply up a considerably extra polished and pleasurable expertise.
