A Very Forced Ending (And More) Ruin It
Skald had a lot going for it at a first glance: A great marriage between atmospheric graphics (if you aren't allergic to this type of pixel-art) and music, which creates a great mood from the beginning (the foggy beach after the intro is really cool, and there are many great locations), which compliments the chosen theme of cosmic horror. As an RPG, it offers skill checks, interesting dialogues and setting, and its own ruleset to play around with.
Sadly, all that glitters is not gold: for example, the game offers a lot of uses for ropes in the first map, but outside of that map they are almost never used again, and this feels true for most tools and a non-trivial portion of your skills (at least on normal). The difficulty curve is all over the place: the early parts can be gruesome (especially if you picked a spellcaster), then it becomes easier and easier as you progress and your party grows. The final boss is a joke (I have had harder random encounters).
The atmosphere goes from moody and spooky, to frankly a bit stale towards the end. Too many combat encounters also ruin the pacing (battles are SLOW with 6 party members and even more enemies).
It feels like the cosmic horror works better the further away from it you are, and the dev wasn't ready to deliver on some appropriate story beats to enhance the premise.
Characters are mysterious just for the sake of it, but unlike the character in a story which is found dead the day after he gives you a scary warning, the one playing mind games with you is a party member, so you are awkwardly stuck with each other after the foreboding dialogue is over, forcing you to roll with the clichè, even if it doesn't make sense in the situation.
Most of your party is done dirty by the ending, in a way that diminishes your efforts a tad too much, even for this genre of stories. It all feels too railroaded (even before the ending, but especially after) and bizarre to stick the landing, leaving me with very mixed feelings.
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