Skautfold: Usurper

Skautfold: Usurper is a dark action RPG developed by Steve Gal and published by Pugware. Released on Steam in 2018, the game represents a significant evolution for the Skautfold series by shifting toward a more traditional Metroidvania structure while maintaining the franchise’s signature Lovecraftian tone and alternate-history setting. Combining exploration-heavy level design, challenging combat, and RPG progression systems, the game aims to deliver a gothic adventure that blends retro aesthetics with modern design sensibilities. The narrative unfolds in an alternate version of late nineteenth-century London, where the stability of the Angelic Empire of Britannia is shattered by a mysterious celestial event. A massive alien structure known as the Citadel suddenly descends upon the city, bringing with it an unnatural fog and a wave of monstrous creatures that begin spreading chaos through the streets. The government quickly loses control of the situation as the Citadel’s presence distorts reality itself. In response to the crisis, the imperial forces attempt to investigate the structure, but the expedition proves disastrous. Into this catastrophic scenario enters the protagonist S…

Gloomy-toned metroidvania which suffers from incoherent plotting and excessive length, but is redeemed somewhat by reasonably fun movement abilities and managing to make soulslike-inspired mechanics bearable. The setting of the game is intriguing enough, but you have to work quite hard to piece it together because the story and worldbuilding are handled erratically and unclearly, leaving me at the end of the game with a kind of "wait, I'm not sure what half of that was about" feeling. There's also a kind of steampunk gothiness to the whole thing which works reasonably well. At first your abilities are quite limited but as you start to gain more movement options, the game really opens up. Backtracking to reach new nooks and crannies usually rewards you with something, and the levelling system gives you several ways of building your character (though how much functional difference results, I'm not sure - I suspect some nominally different builds are probably pretty similar in action). I mention that Usurper makes soulslike mechanics bearable and what I mean is this. I don't like soulslikes or the proliferation of the tedious bonfire/soul drop/stamina/dodge roll package that accomp…

Skautfold: Usurper is sadly a really mixed bag of a game and almost kind of bad game, except for a few things that helps this sequel to not completely suck, but let's get into the story first. It has been a few years since the incident at Berelaii’s Manor where the emperor and the four knights committed a ritualistic massacre, where Queen Eleanor was resurrected and killed her brother to take back the throne. After she and the four knights who have re-pledge their loyalty to her, they thought it was finally over, but it's not for the Citadel has arrived in London sending out its unholy creatures to commit mass slaughter. But Saragat the fourth knight along with the others were sent out to deal with the atrocities. Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned for Saragat as he was nearly killed, thankfully the fourth knight's life is saved by none other than Wilhelm, the mysterious benefactor and the man responsible for Eleanor's Resurrection, he too has his own mission here as he desires to control the citadel having fought the Navigator and almost was killed by him. Now Wilhelm resides in Saragat's body and both come to an agreement to save London and the world they must work toge…

The game is poorly executed in terms of character movement and combat; even the map is very bad.

https://youtu.be/W9YheqgkjU8 Heavily wrought systems with heavy forced lore and world building struggles to hook players due to upfront complexity.

In hype for this game, i've bought his prequel Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity. I loved that one, but this was just a disapointment. As an enjoyer of Soulslikes and Metroidvanias, i tought i would love this game, but i coudn't. In the metroidvania part, the exploration feels kinda bland and unfun. Even if you have various things to collect, they don't deserve your time. And this all returns to the Castlevania: Circle of the Moon problem: too much verticality. The map has really some beautiful places and some good atmosphere, but has a very boring navigation that makes this experience very tedious. In the soulslike part, the game (in first run, at least) isn't challenging at all, just kinda messy in some ways since there is no quality of life and fast travel. It has one difficult spike in the last two bosses (witch i had some fun fighting), but the rest of the game feels more like a breeze in a uninteresting progression. The good parts are away from the gameplay in general, being the atmosphere and the story (witch is very entertaining). Lore is the great part of this franchise. I don't think this is a game you would want buy as a solo game, even as an metroidvania or soulslike fan…