The Necromancer's Tale

The image shows a man in a wealthy man’s medieval outfit with arms outspread, looking as though he’s chanting something. He is in a crypt, and a concrete slab is in front of him. On the other side of the slab is the back of a woman in a yellow dress. She has her hands over her mouth, as if she’s gasping or shocked. Flying above the man is the ghostly apparition of a similar-looking man. The text on the image reads ‘The Necromancer’s Tale’ in white lettering.

Read Time:7 Minute, 3 Second

Looking for a new classic-style RPG? Well, The Necromancer’s Tale might be just what you’re looking for. Developed by Psychic Software, we step into an alternate history/world of 18th-century Europe. If you ever wanted to play as a necromancer, here’s your chance as it’s out now on Steam. There’s a 10% launch discount available until 27th July too.

Will you welcome death like an old friend?

The prologue begins in a book, telling the tale of a six-year war between the Republic of Venice and the Sovereign Monarchy Rulsthen, over passage through the Adriatic Sea. Three generals of Rulsthen, a friend and two brothers, grew desperate and sailed for a month on a pilgrimage to Golgotha. On the hill where Jesus died, a mysterious person offers them a spell book which allows them to raise and control the dead. Using it to make an undead army, they battled against Venice and won its surrender. Shutting the book whisked away the dead, and soon after, it was destroyed, and years later, one general had a child, which is where your story begins.

A lovely painted illustration of a horse and carriage on a road heading towards a town. It's a sunny day and a nearby farm is seen to the left. In the distance are many ships coming in or leaving the docks. — A sunny day for such a sad occasion.

Gameplay

Being such a story-focused game, Necromancer’s Tale doesn’t have a lot of combat encounters. Instead, it plays more into the detective gameplay, with you uncovering what to do next with the basic information you have. We start off by making our character, which is neatly done by going through a storybook, which serves as the prologue. The choices you select in the book will increase or lower stats, as well as change some of the game’s story. For example, I selected a military career, which gave me a military background and some established trust with the military faction.

A journal entry of life events for my character. The entry reads.Year: 1711 "Three years later, a child was born to one of the generals involved in unleashing the spell". Below the text is an illustration of a baby near a table leg. More text follows "A beautiful baby boy" "You were named Mathias" "There was a storm the night you were born, one that fame from nowhere. A ship was caught in it, doomed to be dragged to the ocean floor below". Another illustration of a ship about to be consumed by a large wave appears on the next page. Below in brackets are three words that have coloured fonts. Strength in red, Investigation in green, and Convince in blue. "In a tavern a captain silently got up and slowly sailors followed him, not a word spoken between them. They took their ship and braved the storm". "They managed to save half the crew on the otherwise doomed vessel". "None of them recalled why they risked their lives for this". — Oh, look at the little troublemaker.

Once the prologue is done, you’re given the chance to alter your stats to the way you’d prefer, which I like. As some stats I gained didn’t interest me for the play style I wanted. Now, onto the main story. We return home to Marns after getting word that our father has recently passed. Upon returning, we’re greeted by the family steward, Albrecht Hoffman. When prompted about information about our father’s passing, we learn that nefarious things might be happening. Thus triggering the event for us to unfold.

Skill Checks

The game takes place primarily in Marns, and you’ll get to explore the whole kingdom. And some fields in the nearby area. Since Necromancer’s Tale is a story-rich game, we spend a lot of our time talking. You will meet a large cast of characters, from the macabre Undertaker to the lovely, charismatic twins Annie & Conner. One thing to keep in mind when talking to characters is trust. Each person you speak to (from my luck anyway) is easily annoyed. This led to a lot of paths closing for me because of the lack of trust from NPCs.

A box for adding your own journal entry. Right now the box says "package at East Gate, General Store". Below are two options to either confirm or cancel the entry. — You’re able to write your own reminders, but I didn’t use this as much.

When attempting to learn new information, a skill check will occur. If you meet the requirements, the skill check will appear at no cost. However, if you don’t have the stats, you will use some of the limited points the game gives. These points are capped at 5 per chapter and will renew as well. Point cost differs depending on how high the check is. This becomes tedious when having to do so many in quick succession. More so, when I focused more on strength and constitution for my stats.

Combat

The game isn’t all talking; there are some light moments of combat. Combat is played in rounds, with you getting AP (Action Points) to use for moves. If you don’t use your AP, some will carry over to your next turn. Now, since you’re a rising necromancer, at around chapter 5 or 6, you’ll be able to create skeletons to fight for you. You can fit them with armour and weapons, but you must get them yourself. Which is a hassle.

A character walking in a dark cave with a dimly lit torch. A sphere with square-like patterns is seen in the shadows. — This random sphere shows a combat encounter, which ruins the immersion a little.

Another hassle is how you actually control the skeletons in combat. Instead of them just joining your party and getting a turn, you need to waste your turn to activate them. Which I found dumb due to them following you outside of combat just fine. And more so when I gained two monsters, a wraith and a flesh golem, which fight like I do. Except the wraith must be summoned, but that’s not bad when it takes one of your turns. Unlike skeletons, which must be activated each turn to perform an action.

Graphics & Audio

The Necromancer’s Tale has plenty of oil-painted charm to behold. While the player can choose to turn it off, after the prologue, the game features a filter that makes everything look as though it’s in a dream-like oil painting. I turned it off as I found it easier on the eyes that way, but I can appreciate the charm. Unfortunately, though, turning off the filter also revealed the very minimal detailing of environments and character models alike. I also like the character portraits and the way they’re designed, and the voice acting was good and suited everyone well.

A map of the town of Marns, it shows all named landmarks such as the graveyard, barracks, and hospital. The barracks is highlighted as the currently selected location. — Looks like a lot, but it isn’t too daunting.

Longevity

The Steam page lists that Necromancer’s Tale has roughly 25–50 hours of content. This is down to how much you explore and side quests you uncover, as well as the 16 chapters. I reached chapter 10, and that landed me close to the 20-hour mark. There are a lot of paths closed to you depending on the choice you take. Which in turn opens up room for additional playthroughs.

Final Thoughts

At the start, I was interested and loved how Necromancer’s Tale sets up with building your character. But once past the prologue, I was starting to lose my patience. Most of the time I spent was running around trying to find what to do next. The journal offers a broad hint of what to do, but doesn’t log previous dialogue for you to skim through. Which then forced me to return to the previous NPC, run through all the chatter and re-select my words, just for a small hint. I’d recommend a log of things your character has discovered. For example, rumours, info on characters and what they’ve said to be logged as well in the journal.

The game needs a lot of work on the UI and some of the mini-menus. Such as not having to apply my sword every time I re-enter town. Maybe add a toggle feature to holster your blade. And better ways to make money, instead of only allowing you to work once per chapter.

How far I got

After playing until chapter 10, it felt like not much had happened in my story. The fact that I wasn’t really feeling like a necromancer left me disappointed. I mean, one of the creatures I could control wasn’t even made by me. Story wise it is interesting, it just feels oddly drawn out for no reason. The gameplay is both too simplistic and complicated at the same time. It’s light on the combat, and enemies go between hitting you 5 times or just once, which is odd. Especially when they move closer to me from far away.

All in all, Necromancer’s Tale runs okay, but in the end, I gave it the college try. I just couldn’t finish, as I lost interest after reaching the ballroom. I may continue at another time, but not now.

It’s a hit or a miss for The Necromancer’s Tale, so I’m giving it the Thumb Culture Silver Award. It might be up your alley, just not mine.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

About Author

Kyle McGrath

I’ve enjoyed video games for as long as I remember and I don’t think there isn’t a game I wouldn’t play. For reviews, I try my best to make them simple and easy to understand. With so many games released daily, I attempt to play them all.

See author's posts

The Necromancer’s Tale – PC Review