When you think of necromancy, you imagine creepy skeletons and evil sorcerers who delve into the unknown. You don’t expect cute creatures and a human who is more sarcastic than evil. Necro Story does a fantastic job of turning your expectations of necromancy upside down. Take control of various creatures and build your own army while developing your necromancy powers. Journey across the land to regain your powers and discover what happened to humanity.
Necro Story by Rablo Games entertains you with a light-hearted story about a necromancer who is also the last living human. As you recover your necromancy powers, you also assemble a team of creatures to fight with you. It’s fun to traverse across the world and capture monsters, configuring your ideal team. The learning curve is unfortunately high and balance isn’t equal in all areas of combat. But when it comes to necromancy, you won’t find a more enjoyable adventure.
Necro Story is an RPG where you reclaim your title as a powerful necromancer. You customize your necromancer and wake up from a five-year sleep. Apparently, humanity has been wiped out in your absence and your former rival approaches you as a ghost. They ask you to restore humanity and tempt you by saying you can largely terrorize the populace. You set off on a journey to save humanity but also confront the past that you forgot.
From the start, Necro Story is a light-hearted adventure that’s easy to chuckle to. There are few side-splitting moments but it’s clear the story doesn’t take itself seriously. That gives it enough charm to keep you hooked. You can also slightly direct the necromancer’s personality while keeping the absurdity and sarcasm. There are some serious points in the story but there’s a good balance between seriousness and fun.
This helps set the tone of the story and prevents it from going to either extreme. Necro Story does take itself seriously but never stops being slightly silly. This helps you have fun and maintains the light-hearted feeling of the narrative. While the story doesn’t break any new ground, it’s fun and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Thanks to the tone, it stays a silly adventure that helps enhance the gameplay rather than take away from it.
The gameplay is Necro Story’s strength and where the usual necromancy tropes are played with. Your necromancer can specialize in one of four schools of necromancy, though they can also dabble across other disciplines. Each school has their own advantages and disadvantages, letting you test your desired playstyle. Do you want direct damage with a splash of instant death? Prefer using minions to do the dirty work for you? Or are you a life-draining maniac? There are several options that keep gameplay fresh. This also applies to the creatures you can recruit. While the recruitment process takes time, you end up with a powerful army of creatures. They each have a variety of skills that deal damage or assist allies. Mix and match your creatures to find a configuration that works for you. Paying attention to synergies and skills is a big part of your success. If you choose to go in without strategy or planning, your adventure will be cut short.
Capturing creatures is fun and training them up for combat is enjoyable. There’s a variety of cute and cool creatures that let you customize your army, with skills waiting to be discovered. There’s no “useless” creature as you can find a need for everyone you encounter. You can always capture another creature or reconfigure your spells if you are having trouble. This lets you stay flexible without feeling you are locked into a certain route.
Unfortunately, the game does run into several balance problems. It’s clear after some time that numerical advantage is important, as is healing. This means that the Summoning School is the most powerful school with everything else taking a backseat. You also prioritize creatures that can heal because staying alive is the second priority. While the other schools and creatures aren’t bad per se, they don’t suit the pressures of combat.
It’s highly unlikely you will find success outside of intense grinding without the Summoning School. Even making creatures work takes lots of time if they can’t heal or have a method of healing. The Life Steal School looks like a great candidate but summoning skeletons remains powerful even in the late-game. Even when you can summon the power of demons as a fifth school, it makes your numerical advantage problem worse. It’s a shame since the other powers genuinely have potential; they just don’t fit what the game throws at you.
Necro Story’s UI also has several places for improvement. The tutorial doesn’t cover the effects of stats or the elemental affinities. Most of what works in combat is something you figure out on your own. Even equipping items requires several screen switches to ensure you are targeting the right stat or element. Configuring your ideal team takes even more time and the inconvenience makes you less likely to experiment.
Exploration is also rough as there is no map. While areas are largely linear, there are several rooms and potential hidden treasures to find. But with few clues and indications, you might be worrying about missing something all the time. It doesn’t help that some puzzles aren’t great for accessibility, like players with poor vision. While you can still have a good time, bringing out your team’s potential without missing anything will be hard.
Overall, Necro Story promises to give you a great time when you play. It does have flaws that add up over your experience, but nothing major enough to make you stop playing. Enjoy the silly story and take your time building up your monster army. Just make sure you pick the Summoning School or make a hard left if you chose something else. Otherwise, you may have to grind to get through the game.
Victor reviewed Necro Story on PC with a review code.
