NEED TO KNOW
What’s it? An immersive RPG with an emphasis on private note-taking.
Launch date: Mar 5, 2026
Count on to pay: $20/£17
Developer: Hannah and Joseph Video games
Writer: Hannah and Joseph Video games
Reviewed on: Intel Core Extremely 9 275HX, RTX 5090 (laptop computer), 64GB RAM
Steam Deck: Playable
Hyperlink: Official website
Banquet for Fools’ opening drops me straight in on the deep finish, a blood-soaked battle for survival towards festival-goers gone mad whereas I am surrounded by piles of corpses, given a delicate kiss by… I am not even certain what that kindly outsized bird-person was, really, after which shoved three centuries into the long run with out apology or clarification. After creating my very own questing get together full of individuals and expertise that largely reject acquainted RPG stereotypes, I am plunged right into a memorably distinctive land full of its personal imaginative little phrases (“Topa-din!” is a standard greeting), and a surprisingly detailed social construction that I have not acquired a hope of greedy but.
There is not one.
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There is not a dialog historical past tab both. Or a “Go right here” marker on the map. There’s a notes part, however it’s utterly empty. As a result of I have not typed any notes in it but. Myself. With my very own fingers.
This freeform journey not solely expects however calls for my lively participation; if I wish to keep in mind the placement of someplace on the regional map I’ve to kind it in myself. If I wish to create a personalized magical spell then I am going to have to call it after which draw its icon by hand. What little info I’m given to maintain is discovered on elaborate scrolls and hand drawn items of paper I have to maintain shut by if I wish to refer again to them later, the worth and that means of those sketchy scribbles and meandering passages left for me to decipher.
Clear paths are uncommon and signposts much more so, leaving success (and survival) largely in my very own arms.
It is a daunting prospect, however one which rapidly encourages a slower, extra attentive mindset. I’ve no alternative however to develop into absolutely invested on this society and the individuals inside it. I am unable to assist however discover how a lot they fear about their upcoming peppura harvest as I cross by, and I even keep in mind what time of day the guard captain I wish to speak to stands by the entrance gate. I come to understand the work of every settlement’s wandering ghost-repelling chanter, as a result of I am not going to get very far with out their assist.
My travels throughout this barely settled land observe an identical tempo, giving me the selection of both strolling to wherever I must go, with each route taken a aware resolution, or rowing there by boat, which is not all that completely different when it comes to the time and thought required. The most important comfort the sport’s ready to supply is a community of boat providers, although the geography of the panorama means not each boatsman can take me to each port. After all, not each city has a port, and the fare is at occasions steep sufficient to make me assume twice.
This friction transforms journey itself into an occasion, even when I’ve already discovered each treasure and killed each bandit within the space. Clear paths are uncommon and signposts much more so, leaving success (and survival) largely in my very own arms. It actually does really feel like I am alone within the wilderness—and this problem and isolation heightens the strain of any occasions I come across whereas I am on the market.
A pleasant group with succesful guards and a heat campfire are greater than the promise of a quest, they seem to be a welcome reprieve from the tough panorama. A easy group of enemies turns into a nerve-jangling risk after I’m removed from residence and my restorative meals provides spoiled a day earlier. Dropping a whole particular person’s weight in meals by a disinterested harvest god’s shrine is a nervous act of piety as an alternative of a easy task-ending transaction given how a lot time I needed to spend organising, sourcing, after which carrying all of it to them.
Fight on this principally untamed land is completed in a uniquely partaking real-time with pause-ish method, mixing tactical instructions with the necessity to maintain an lively eye on my opponents. As with every thing else, I am anticipated to pay shut consideration and take a proactive strategy if I wish to get something finished. I study to deal with the outsized abomination relatively than the infinite underlings, for instance, or to take out poison-spitting monsters earlier than less-vicious alternate options. Dodging is an lively capability right here, one thing I manually set off myself after I see an incoming sword swing. The power and success of highly effective rally assaults hinges on me stopping a QTE-like marker at precisely the best second.
The tip outcome is a bit more Baldur’s Gate: Darkish Alliance than plain previous Baldur’s Gate. Management, motion, and response is extra direct—extra private, even. Assaults naturally observe the arc or thrust of the weapon in hand; an axe swing connecting with every thing alongside its path, although this “function” is refreshingly frequent sense relatively than a proper capability. Assaults might be averted just by being distant sufficient to not get hit—not out of vary, when it comes to stats or particular measurements, however past the seen tip of a sword. It is busy, however not chaotic. A slow-filling bar determines the house between my actions, and this reserved tempo offers me time to control my get together members and manually change between them if I must tactically deploy a selected talent or spell, relatively than go away their extremely customisable AI to the job.
I care extra about my little get together as a result of I can really feel their battle for survival by way of the tough, by-any-means nature of the choices out there to me.
The actions I unlock over time add helpful tactical capabilities relatively than simply one other numerically potent assault on a listing. My get together will dwell longer if I feel to order a burly character to pin down a robust monster, permitting their allies to get in a free hit or two. Alternatively, I may have somebody cost straight right into a huddled group of enemies, scattering them and dispelling no matter bonuses they acquire from sticking collectively.
The easy nature of many strikes—I am as prone to kick an enemy down as I’m to unleash a flowery spell—offers fight a scrappy, improvised really feel that underlines the “making do out within the wilds” side of the sport. I care extra about my little get together as a result of I can really feel their battle for survival by way of the tough, by-any-means nature of the choices out there to me. Since many enemies do not respawn, hours value of tense, brutal battles out within the wilderness ultimately result in a sport’s value of comparatively secure mountain climbing paths—however, as with every thing else in Banquet for Fools, provided that I am ready to take the time.
It’s at all times an effort, and there are occasions when Banquet for Fools crosses the road into irritating exhaustion. Being instructed by NPCs that the one particular person/monster/focal point I assume I must deal with is someplace “on the mountainside” or “in a marsh” with out even a lot as a imprecise compass course to intention for can unravel into an aggravating waste of time. The sport’s strict day/evening system means it is doable to be in precisely the best place on the flawed time. The reply to an obtuse puzzle might be inside some prolonged scroll I discovered hours earlier and forgot about, or skimmed over an elaborately inked element in.
One uncounted, uncommented-upon minor monster out of dozens already slaughtered idling away in a forgotten nook of 1 map has, on not less than one event, been the distinction between a profitable clear and a quest left mysteriously in limbo for hours. One other may solely be cleared after casting one very particular spell discovered in a completely unrelated location on a bunch of frightened kids I occurred to come across on a random island, revealing the monster hiding amongst them.
But even in these moments, Banquet for Fools retains me coming again for extra. I’ve cursed when a promising lead’s gone nowhere, angrily reloaded after trekking too deep into harmful territory unprepared, and scribbled bizarre fragments of notes about fairy-sayings in a grump, and pushed on anyway. Your entire sport appears like one massive personalised secret to unravel, with each stumble one thing I can repair, and each failed battle one thing to return to later.
Not every thing in Banquet for Fools is essential in my quest in the direction of the sport’s a number of endings. However by making me tread and retread its paths and scattered islands till native names develop into acquainted, and the sight of tillers working the fields appears like coming residence, merely present inside this place turns into its personal reward. Life’s exhausting out right here, however I would not change it for the world.
