Game: Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection
Genre: Indie, Roguelite, Action
System: Nintendo Switch, PC (Reviewed Steam Deck)
Developers | Publishers: Grimorio of Games
Age Rating: US M | EU 16+
Price: US $24.95 | UK Game £19.99 | EU €24,95 |
Release Date: January 23rd, 2025
With many thanks to Grimorio of Games for the review code!
It’s easy to quickly fall in love with the ideas behind Sword of the Necromancer, and since its original version in 2021, players have done so despite the often mixed reviews. Revamped, revived, and resurfaced, it’s a game that’s going to receive a warm welcome from fans that were able to look over its foibles and appreciate what it was trying to do.
Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection keeps its massive and loving homage to Shadow of the Colossus in its introduction, which quickly gave me a smile. Its story is still a little clunky told, but this riff on a princess and her bodyguard remains heartfelt and sweet, a reminder that love is love and that will, eventually, overcome hardships that feel nigh-overwhelming. We can all take notes from that right now, especially the partnerships this game is helping to highlight and uplift.
Tama the bodyguard and Koko the priest are women who grow to love each other, and their fight to keep that love alive is the best thing about this game. Unfortunately, a number of flaws still remain. But in my opinion, that shouldn’t keep interested players away.
Wielding the Sword of the Necromancer
Let’s go straight to the meat here: as a roguelite, the new Resurrection opens up the strained options palette of the original and allows more in-dungeon freedom to set up the ways you want to attack. The Sword itself will quickly become a permanent standard, which means you’ll have an alternate weapon and a tool, of which the bow qualifies, and your healing potions. The previous spellbooks are gone; instead all you have to do is fell your enemy and you can add it to your stockpile of possible summons.
It’s nice to have the variety, although in truth it’s highly likely you’ll rarely fuss with your weapons palette. Fussing with your collection of monsters is much more intensive and interesting, even as the results are still, unfortunately, really clunky.
Monsters have a basic AI system you can fuss with in the menus. It’s a simplified version of the gambit system from Final Fantasy XII, where you can tell a monster to prioritize helping you, attacking whatever, or, if it sees a pressure plate, it’ll go and help you solve a room puzzle without being asked. In theory.
In reality, the monsters are still clumsy. I very quickly ran into some clunk with a slime I had programmed to sit on aforementioned plates. For some reason, it passed up the one in the center of the room and tried to go for one up atop a platform that its slimy little butt couldn’t reach. When that happened previously, I just unsummoned it, waited for the cooldown, and summoned it on the correct platform.
This time, I experimented. I fully expected the ghostlike sorcerers, being floaty, to not be able to interact with the plate if I gave them that command. I did not expect the lad to levitate straight up to seek some mysterious great platform in the sky. And I was still going to have to wait for the slime to come off cool down. It does muck with the rhythm of the combat section.
Yet the World Beckons
Despite the simplicity and occasional funkiness of the monsters, there’s still something worth appreciating here. Unlocking more of the story is a pretty good drive to continue, and if you flat out like collecting monsters, Sword of the Necromancer has a nice, comfortable vibe to it. After you fail a few times, anyway.
There’s no inherent difficulty setting, but some options to smooth your journey over will eventually appear if you’re having a rough time. The platforming is simple enough for even bad Mario players like me to handle, with the occasional whiff costing only a little health when healing is plentiful. There are occasionally some tough jumps, but they’re surmountable. And, yes, it all works lovely on a Steam Deck.
Personally, I think my most persnickety critique is that I preferred the original pixel aesthetic. Deliberately going for an updated PlayStation one era vibe, Sword of the Necromancer does a good job at mimicking that style, adding pops of color through its monsters even as the levels themselves are often pretty plain. The remastering process adds some vibrancy to its cutscenes, and while the voice acting remains amateur, I mean that in the original sense of this is clearly done with love by people doing their best. Not everything has to be Baldur’s Gate III quality, and there’s an earnestness to the performances that helps the delivery.
Conclusion
Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrected updates and smoothes over a number of its original issues, but several still remain. Still, it’s a passionate game telling a story of two women in love. It’s terrific that this is no longer as original or rare as it was at the time, but like explaining the Barbie movie to friends who felt we didn’t need more basic introductions to feminism, there is always room for more gentle introductions and reminders that the love we have to share with each other matters. No matter who they are. Because it is desperately easy to find ourselves in shadowed worlds that want us to forget that.
The result of the remaster is still an imperfect game, but there’s something about it that keeps you going in spite of its flaws. It’s a great time for a reintroduction, and I hope it’s welcomed by the audience it needs. It didn’t click all the way with me, gameplay wise, but I love the monster designs and the story hit the right notes. Take my final verdict with plenty of wiggle room — this one is going to be highly subjective per player, but worth visiting.
Final Verdict: I liked It
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