Skautfold: Moonless Knight plays a little like an anime. Not that it is rich in colours or doe-eyed maids and girls with their coconuts, but because of its storytelling liberties and borrowing from history, fantasy, video games, and an asset marketplace for gaudy textures to make one relive the days of the Sega Master System. Originally launched on Steam in the 1800s, this ‘Lovecraftian’ RPG/Metroidvania is available for the Nintendo Switch.
I don’t speak the language of Cthulhu, but the dialogue is utter gibberish. It’s a random selection of letters – you know, the ones you type when in an online chatroom and you’re just about to cu- yeah, jibberish. The historical element is loose, too. The current shogun is Oda, plus the game is set in 1900 feudal Japan. Ah, I getcha – this is an alternate reality where Lovecraftian horrors torment the world, and you, a Knight of the British Empire (neither an ex-footballer nor a charity worker – an alternate one called the Angelic Empire of Britannia), you head to Nippon to meet up with the Emperor.
You and a fellow knight named Noah are sent to retrieve a relic, and are rudely interrupted by a cosmic entity posing as the Emperor. The rotter! You now find yourself trapped in a castle with some force field or something blocking the Emperor’s garrison from getting inside, or anyone attempting to leave for a cheeky happy hour in the karaoke booth. Instead, you have to fight your way out and explore some complicated-looking dungeons. I say complicated as there’s a lot going on with regards to texture. If you’re the type who likes to separate their food on a plate and don’t like it when the veggies, gravy and potatoes mix with the meat, you might find Skautfold: Moonless Knight a bit of an eyesore.
Who sets the rules for game genres is anyone’s guess, so you could argue both for and against why this is classified as a Metroidvania. It’s more like an old-school JRPG with rogue-like qualities. Alas, getting to the loop was one of my hardest challenges as I couldn’t get on with the combat at all. Dialogue is often long, and if you press a button to speed up the text overlay, it will skip supposedly important information, though accidentally interacting with an NPC again will repeat it all. I do wonder if I skipped a tutorial, as I initially wasted my health potions and dashed into something that looked like a pit, but then again, a wall – whatever it was, within the ‘safe space’ where you speak with vendors for upgrades and whatnot, I’d managed to go from full health to a third. Without any enemy encounters.
Head outside, however, and the local baddies will blow a whistle and charge at you. I couldn’t work out a way to defend, so I would evade into more obstacles or await enemies, so I resorted to button mashing as I kept healing in error. You can rebind the controls, which is always welcome. Though combat is tricky, there’s a good variety of weapons to experiment with. Not on Nioh’s level, but fairly decent, nonetheless. Still, I was quite irritated that Skautfold: Moonless Knight felt so sluggish, and the core part of gameplay, combat, was unenjoyable. Aha – there is a tutorial. So, the guard thing does exist! I had performed it earlier and thought I’d spawned a red diamond. That was my shield. Like Sekiro, if you time it right, you can avoid most damage and have a chance of survival. With this all on board, I still didn’t enjoy the combat. The music was good, though.
You can equip relics to modify combat, but even with that, it’s still the elephant in the room. That, and navigating the level design. A familiar will be available to support you during your playthroughs, and if you’re that way inclined, can run circles around enemies while they attack on your behalf. Interestingly, these enemies will shout out, ‘Please – spare me!’ and other whingey tones all the while chasing and attacking you. It’s a bit off and didn’t feel right. As you can guess, I’m not really a fan of Skautfold: Moonless Knight. I understand that it’s a solo developer and this is part of a series, and while I respect the creative aspect of making your own game, I’m not going to say I like it for the sake of it. It’s not for me, but if you’ve played the other games and always wanted to play it on the Switch, maybe give this a look.
