Video Game Review: Sword of the Necromancer

Developer: Grimorio of Games

Publishers: JanduSoft S.L. & Game Seer Ventures

Rogue-like Dungeon Crawler

Playstation 4

Reader, have you ever played Shadow of the Colossus and thought to yourself, “I mean yeah this is pretty good but it’d be even better if it was gay”? If you answered “yes,” then boy howdy do I have the game for you! In Sword of the Necromancer, players take on the role of Tama, a lovable rogue whose girlfriend – a priestess named Koko – has been killed. Tama seeks out the dungeon of the legendary necromancer and the forbidden power of his magic sword in order to bring her love back. Though the premise is strikingly similar to that of Shadow of the Colossus, the similarities end there – and that’s not a bad thing.

For starters, rather than being a game about exploration and boss fights, Sword of the Necromancer is a top-down dungeon-crawling roguelike with the added twist that the player is able to summon (small) hordes of monsters to fight alongside them. The titular sword is found very early on in the game only for Tama to be informed that she currently lacks the power to resurrect Koko. What the sword is good for, however, is resurrecting slain enemies as Tama’s thralls, giving her monstrous allies as she ventures ever further into the dungeon’s depths. It’s a fun and interesting system with lots of monsters to collect and plenty of room to decide which are your favorites and which you wouldn’t be caught dead using – but it’s not a perfect one. The player can only have four active inventory slots at a time (plus the option for an additional four storage slots after the first failed run) one of which must always be occupied by the necromancer’s sword, meaning that the maximum number of monsters you can have summoned at one time is three. By itself, this limitation wouldn’t be so bad, but unfortunately passive-buff-granting items, consumables, and any other weapons you might find also take up one of these slots, which puts that space at much more of a premium in a way that ends up grating.

Still, the game is structured in such a way that it’s perfectly feasible to get through using only summons, and indeed I found that to be the most fun way to play. It’s tough but do-able  no matter how you play, and if you’re really having trouble getting through there’s a decent amount of difficulty options to customize, even aside from just toggling it to easy mode… although the game did crash on me at one point after I tried to edit my settings. There are also ways to make the game harder if that’s your cup of tea, but I think the default settings are balanced enough for challenge already. Though the monsters you summon are just as fragile as they were when you killed them, they can be leveled up if you manage to keep them alive and fighting long enough, and a high-tier monster can be a formidable ally indeed. Other gameplay features include a weird but cool QR-ish code input system that lets you directly give yourself specific items as well as a twitch integration system where viewers can affect your runs directly if you want, but I didn’t try that aspect out at all.

Sword of the Necromancer is a fun dungeon crawler with some interesting additions to the formula, but gameplay isn’t where it really shines. Though the game itself takes place after Koko’s death, the story is told mostly through flashbacks of Tama’s time with her as the two of them traveled together and fell in love. The love story therein is very sweet and well-written and surprising in how genuine it is. I am, unfortunately, very used to lesbian “romance” in most media being extraordinarily fetishized, so seeing how genuinely romantic and tender Koko and Tama’s relationship is was a welcome change of pace. On a similar note, the voice acting is absolutely phenomenal – in particular, I was blown away by how real the despair and desperation in Tama’s voice sounded in one early scene, not an easy emotion to really capture as an actor. Even beyond the voice acting, the sound design is great, with catchy tracks accompanying the dungeon delving and combat sound effects giving fights appropriate oomph. Visually, it’s a bit above average – clean, attractive pixel art in the main game and colorful, well-composed drawings for the story scenes.

I will admit, Dear Reader, that I have a tendency at times to overlook the flaws of a piece of media as long as it’s Hella Gay, which is why I let myself sit with this one for a bit to make sure I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it. After a couple of days, however, I can confidently say that, no, Sword of the Necromancer really does have something special. I feel good about whole-heartedly saying it was worth my time, even in spite of my gameplay gripes, and it’s worth your time too.

P.S. – I played this with my GF sitting next to me the whole time, 10/10 would recommend.