At the Gamescom stage where game companies, developers and gamers from all over the world gather and enjoy, Daedalic Entertainment presented various games including ‘Incalinati’ at the site. Among them, I was drawn to a work that was unfamiliar with the name ‘Incalinati’. It was because the art that had the feeling of medieval manuscripts caught the eye.
‘Inkulinati’ is a work in which the user takes a quill and writes down the world one by one, as if ‘ink’ is attached to the front. The reason I picked out the fables out of many genres in the Middle Ages with living ink was that the characters fighting together were a feast of comical and humorous animals.
In the game, following ‘Incalinati’, an alter ego of the user and the same entity as the game name, graduates from undergraduate course, to complete his book, he draws a beast that will fight with him with living ink from time to time, paving the way for adventure. It depicts the process of fighting an enemy in the way. In the meantime, the configuration in which buffs or debuffs are given depending on how you gradually meet your colleagues or at events you meet by chance, those who have played the game for a long time will probably notice right away. Now, isn’t it a general composition of deck building, a genre that is commonly seen in the indie game world?
If it was a few years ago, it would have been unique enough just by adopting medieval-style graphics and deck building, but unfortunately, the genre is a genre that is undergoing red oceanization. Of course, the combination of humorous characters drawn with a quill on a parchment-like background that can bring out the material of living ink to the fullest is powerful enough to immediately draw attention. However, if ‘Core’ ended in one word like deck building, it might have been a feeling of disappointment.
The method adopted by this game to prevent such a feeling was to put the user’s alter ego or beasts directly into the game like a chess piece. The user’s alter ego was simply fixed in place, unable to move and busy placing cards, but might move one by one like a chess king or inflict damage to enemies within range. After the fielders were also deployed, they moved around like a chess piece to make tactical moves.
At that time, instead of simply moving back and forth on a flat surface like a chessboard, each map had different structures and characteristics, and elements such as obstacles were added to add strategicity. Since the composition was arranged in a side-scrolling style, there was no choice but to make a difference in height in order to diversify the structure. Dropping occurs not only on the edge of the map, but also at the height of one level difference, and because it utilizes the equator drop, the player has to pay attention to this and place the beasts on a turn-by-turn basis.
In addition, the obstacles on the map acted as a good strategic point because it is not possible to stack units in this game. When a swordsman who can only attack directly in front of an obstacle is in front of an obstacle, if spearmen and archers are placed in a row at the back, the enemy cannot attack until they penetrate the obstacle, but I have a great geographical advantage to attack.
The different characteristics of each map terrain were also one of the factors that made you squeeze your head. In the demonstration version, only Chapter 1, the tutorial stage, was opened, but the map catches fire following 5 turns, so there is a high chance of winning if you clear the enemy as quickly as possible or keep the ally’s HP higher than the enemy.
The gameplay of ‘Incalinati’, which was solved by combining such elements, was somewhat different from the commonly thought of deck building. It was because there was a taste of arranging units like a chess piece without spell cards, and arranging the units to eat the opponent’s pieces or to attack other allies while blocking their path. In addition to this, I also felt the thrill of dealing with enemies while minimizing damage to allies if the cooldown was calculated for the units and skills of Incalinati and used appropriately.
As such SRPG-style strategy was further added to it, it was also fun to squeeze the head out and do tricks. No matter how strong an enemy unit is, once it is knocked down, it’s over, so the technique of moving the horse to induce it and then cutting off the enemy that follows was pretty neat. The reason that was possible was that if the unit moved over a certain distance, the unit had to take a turn unconditionally. If I calculate that and move, I can move immediately, but the enemy moves and there is a number of gods that cannot move immediately.
Not only that, he needed an eye that might take a look at the whole of the adventure. This is because, unlike other deckbuildings, if the same units are displayed continuously, a kind of fatigue builds up and the summoning cost increases. Therefore, a technique that often manages fatigue by forming different unit combinations to attack the stage was required. Furthermore, since killing a priest or nuns among the enemies takes a debuff, it was possible to play smoothly only by selecting who to poison the debuff in a situation where it was absolutely necessary to kill.
It was quite interesting not only to compete with AI in this tactical strategy, but also to support local battles. Although it was not shown in the demonstration version, it was because some of the elements of competing once morest each other on the map by selecting the skills and types of their avatars were revealed. I was able to check in advance where the units were to be placed, where to attack first, and where to move, such a fragment that fiercely squeezes the head.
As such, ‘Incalinati’ was not only the art with the feel of a medieval picture book, but also the overall structure was definitely a good feeling. However, as it was played when there were not many types of units in the very early stages, it was unclear whether this power would continue into the second half. Also, if you are considering PVP, there are other areas that need to be improved other than the unit balance. Falling enemies is an attractive point, and if you’re stuck with other users, you can prevent the fall by praying almost every time.
Still, the core of telling the story by carefully arranging one by one with humorous characters like playing chess or playing chess is well captured, and there is also a taste of paying attention to layout, cost management, and even the combination of military types, so if it gets more established following the soon-to-be-early access I think it’s a title worth looking forward to.
