The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos

[RPGWatch]

Are you ready to dive into a tactical RPG chock-full of charm, humor and crazy characters?!

They are clumsy, inexperienced and feisty but...they'll have to endure each other's company to get the dungeon's treasure.

However, a feeling of deja-vu quickly arises...

Guide this team of unlikely heroes in an adventure full of humor and chaos!

The Naheulbeuk universe is an original creation by French author John Lang. It started as a very popular audio comedy series parodying role-playing games and heroic fantasy tropes. Now the story is available in English and as a video game for the first time!

Game features

A ... less than ideal ... team of heroes

• Play with seven classic role-playing game characters complementing each other's skills as you level them up: the Ranger, the Elf, the Dwarf, the Magician, the Ogre and the Thief!
• Every member of the team has their own skill tree to upgrade their abilities and equipment.
• Choose one of three additional companions to join the team on their adventure!

Epic Battles

• Exciting turn-based battles, with creative support mechanics between team members.
• An adaptive difficulty system: from an accessible and fun story mode with simplified combat to the "nightmare mode" where the smallest tactical errors will doom you!
• An expansive bestiary (more than 100 enemies!) pushing you to think more tactically with every fight.
• Epic boss battles where you'll have to muster both strength and smarts to emerge victorious!
• Hidden and destructive objects (including beer kegs) with surprising status effects will turn the tide of battle for the better...or worse!

A dreadful dungeon

• Explore a huge and surprising dungeon from the cave up to the luxury quarters of the evil lord Zangdar, passing through the goblin iceskating park and even an extremely lively tavern!
• Escape traps and solve deadly puzzles to unlock the most impressive treasures!
• Bizarre conversations, absurd situations and unusual encounters await!
• Experience an exciting main storyline and many side quests for your heroes

More information.

 

[HiddenX]

RPGWatch Curation:

This tactical RPG features a party with funny characters, a humorous story and challenging turn-based combat. A game that doesn't take itself too seriously - Recommended!

 

[crpgnut]

I'll try it once it hits a realistic price point. This is not a $35 game.

 

[JFarrell71]

It's not enough to call oneself a humor game. I watched a few minutes and I doubt the game would make me laugh once.

 

[FurtiveNyctophile]

I've been enjoying it and I don't balk at $35 for the amount of hours I've already put into it.

Of course, my wife decided to interrupt my playthrough by having me start a new Grim Dawn campaign with her...

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

It's imho very complex below the surface.
Well … at least for someone like me who hasn't played many turn-based games in ages ! :lol:

Since this game is French, I can see its reference to the Gallus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallic_rooster

The few translation oops wordings like "Klavier" for "Keyboard" make me rather laugh. I like the game for that.

I can't comment yet on how it is further within the game, since I'm still within the tutorial area.

But make sure to thoroughly read the help/mechanics pages through !
It's amazing how much thought and focus on detail they had put into this game.

But again, I can't compare that to other games of the recent times, because I haven't played any TB games since Divinity Original Sin.

 

[Zloth]

I've been playing this for some time now. It's a good one for sure but know what you're getting into.

First, most of the characters are predetermined. You get a ranger, an elf, a barbarian, a mage, a dwarf, and an ogre. After maybe 10 hours, you get to pick one other character: a cleric, a paladin, or a minstrel. As you level up, you'll get to increase your choice of stats, pick one active skill, and pick one passive skill. There's a good number to pick from and you won't get enough levels to buy more than about half of each.

Oh yeah, and you get a thief, too - I keep forgetting that guy.

Second, this is more of a tactical RPG. There are quests and sidequests, but I expect you'll find yourself spending more than half your game hours in the turn-based battle system. (Or maybe that's just me over-thinking my turns.) There are some choices to make in quests, but they aren't that common.

That battle system has been a good one! There's plenty of challenge when playing at hard difficulty. Here's a major battle. Most aren't anywhere near this long, but 15 minutes isn't uncommon, at least for me.

View: https://youtu.be/pi9qhTrIj-A?t=271


The indicator in the lower left is interesting. Every time the enemies get a crit or you roll a critical fumble, the bar increases some, unlocking more powers. When you use a power, the bar lowers according to how strong a power you used. The bar doesn't go away at the end of battle, either, so laying off the extra powers in easy battles can help you out in the nastier ones.

The humor is hit and miss: some works, some doesn't, some probably would have worked if the voice actor hadn't read the lines so fraggin' fast.

I did find the game getting tedious after a time. (Ugh, ANOTHER battle!?) Taking a break by playing some other game was all I needed to make it fun again, though.

 

[Pladio]

I just started this too this week and I enjoyed it. I was playing on iron man though and got party wiped twice. I'll start again without iron man I think.

My mentality will be that I can restart battles but not turns.

 

[Zloth]

Beware the Orktoberfest! That's the tower level that's the hardest, at least so far.

P.S. Respecs are cheap & easy.

P.P.S. The devs know how to hurt me.