Review for Necromancer Ate My Cat

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TheLordThyGod
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Review for Necromancer Ate My Cat

Post by TheLordThyGod »

Necromancer Ate My Cat is a Halloween-themed OHR RPG released in 2016 by Idontknow (The Towers Of Love & Energy, You Need A Hero).

The player assumes the role of Poindexter, a nerd whose feline buddy Fluffykins has been consumed by the mischievous Necromancer. The peeved protagonist dons his knight costume, re-christens himself Sir Poindexter, and sets out on a quest for revenge against the self-proclaimed “great sorcerer of doom.” Along the way he joins forces with Diana (an anthropomorphic she-wolf sorceress) and Doo (a friendly ghost with a speech impediment), and the trio battle all manner of silly monsters from pumpkin-flavored slimes to misguided would-be werewolves. Eventually the heroes’ journey leads them to the Necromancer’s stronghold, where they battle imperfect doppelgangers of themselves before taking on the Necromancer himself and freeing Fluffykins from his crypto-digestive prison.

The plot and characters are exactly as developed as they need to be for this kind of wacky romp, and overall the humor works (save the awkward scene in which Diana becomes aroused by the sound of another wolf howling, only to find out that it’s her own son making the racket). A couple of other similar gags about the fetishization of anthropomorphic animal cartoons in geek culture mostly hit the mark. Otherwise the humor is mostly light and silly, and encourages goodwill toward the game and its designer.

The art is competent and endearing, with a cartoonish style that gels perfectly with the game’s silly-spooky theme. The music and sound are serviceable, with a few brief moments standing out as either stronger or weaker than average – the oddly dense score to the final boss fight is pretty great, and the “meow” sound that accompanies Fluffykins cracks me up every time (it also weirds out my own cat a bit).

The gameplay is solid and functional, but also pretty bog-standard for an OHR RPG. There were a few boss fights that I had trouble with at first, but these were made much easier by simply advancing one more level. Once Diana and Doo became capable of slinging spells at multiple targets, random battles become were piece of cake. While this doesn’t make for particularly interesting combat, I much prefer it to being required to psychically intuit exactly how the developer intended me to approach their game. Luckily, Necromancer Ate My Cat goes very smoothly and only takes about an hour to complete.

Overall this is a relatively short humorous game that doesn’t expect to be taken any more seriously than it deserves, and its competent construction makes it much more palatable than many other games of this ilk. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you’ll probably get a kick out of Necromancer Ate My Cat.
Last edited by TheLordThyGod on Thu Jun 15, 2017 1:36 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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