Necromanceers by C.E.J. Pacian
I liked playing Necromanceers. The “aha” moment where I realized that I should probably be paying more attention to all the random name drops because I could use that to affect story outcomes was satisfying. I’d been letting things wash over me, but by the third summoning, I was like “oh maybe I should try something new” and ended up with surprising results! Due to my lack of paying attention, I only ended up summoning a small handful of what I think you can, so I expect this game has a high amount of replay-ability in it given how many unlocked names are listed in the compendium. This is exciting!
I appreciated the dry humor of this piece, and thought it was tightly written. I found the ghost that sticks around to haunt you especially amusing, but somehow I managed to win her over in the end. I also appreciated a seemingly complex world that doesn’t overwhelm you with too many political details, but gives you the sense of fitting into meaningful stakes. I think I felt a little bit of disconnect with the protagonist, who seems pretty uncertain of themselves, starting almost every sentence with “um” and acknowledging that they just always summon the same dead entity, because even though you are a seemingly all-powerful necromancer, you don’t seem to have any sense of creativity or grasp of your skills. Yet somehow…you are still very badass, and the other extremely badass necro has the hots for you. While you just…sit there! I mean I suppose the necro dating world has limited options, but c’mon girl. On second thought…maybe this was yet another joke.