SKALD: Against the Black Priory Free Prologue Now Live

Scape-IT is looking to launch their crowdfunded retro RPG SKALD: Against the Black Priory into early access later this year. But if you’d like to sample the game ahead of that release, you can now do so thanks to the free Prologue offering a few hours of early gameplay. The Prologue is currently available on Steam and should be coming to GOG shortly.

Here’s a quick gameplay teaser:

And a brief description:

About the Prologue

‘Skald: Against the Black Priory’ is an old-school roleplaying game that combines modern design and a fully realised narrative with authentic 8-bit looks and charms currently in development. This is the prologue!

Delve into a dark fantasy world, full of tragic heroes, violent deaths and Lovecraftian, cosmic horror. Explore an engaging, branching story mixed with rich exploration and crunchy, tactical, turn-based combat that will seem familiar yet innovative to RPG fans, old and new.

Be sure to check out and wishlist the main game:

What’s in the Prologue

Delve into the first few hours of gameplay as you explore the cursed isle of Idra. The prologue features about 1-2 hours of gameplay and will allow you to play around with most of the game’s features. Currently we do not support using the prologue save-file for the main game after launch.

Features

The full game will feature:

Lovingly crafted retro-style art:

• Experience a richly illustrated world of authentic pixel art using thousands of hand-drawn tiles and images
• A palette inspired by the legendary Commodore 64 computer.
• Optional CRT filter for that authentic old-school experience.

Deep character creation:

• Build your main character and recruit a party from among a dozen diverse characters, each with their own skill-set, agenda and personality.
• Choose from a dozen classes and backgrounds as well as heaps of feats, spells and equipment as you take your party from level 1 to 20.

Crunchy tactical combat:

• Engage in challenging, fast-paced, turn- and grid-based combat.
• Play it your way, with fully customizable difficulty and feedback settings. Or hit ‘auto-resolve’, lean back, and (hopefully) watch your party cleave a bloody path through their foes.

A richly detailed, living world:

• Explore the vast expanse of Freymark and the Outer Isles and watch your actions spell doom or salvation for the region.
• Focus on the rich, branching narrative… Or live the life of a mercenary and explore varied sidequests and encounters – the plot will wait for you.
• Manage your party as you make camp, recruit hirelings, travel by land and sea, and interact with powerful factions and their visions for the world.

Become part of a fantastic community:

• Skald was made possible by crowdfunding and already has a large, passionate and welcoming community that can’t wait to meet you.
• By joining Skald’s Early Access you’ll have a direct line to the developer, get sneak peaks and give feedback on forthcoming plans and help shape the game into a modern classic.
• We will publish the powerful tools used to create the game in an effort to support and encourage modding and content creation once the game has fully launched.