Everything about Skald: Against the Black Priory feels crafted to lull me into a false sense of security. With its wonderfully garish retro RPG visuals, familiar classes and character options, and simple turn-based combat, I keep being lured into thinking I'm just on a typical fantasy adventure. That only makes it all the more disturbing when I'm reminded that it's not.
The game starts with a very well-worn RPG trope: you're shipwrecked on an island with nothing but the clothes on your back and an important quest to fulfil (in this case locating a childhood friend who's mysteriously gone missing). But all is not well here on Idra—a curse has befallen the island, transforming the wildlife into monsters and infecting the people with madness and plague. I'm yet to discover the source of this darkness (though I have my suspicions), but the result is plain: the land is suffused with Lovecraftian horror.
