What would you do to bring back someone you love? Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection challenges players to explore that question in a beautifully reimagined third-person Dungeon Crawler Action RPG. Developed by Grimorio of Games, this 3D remake of the 2021 original game retains the heart of the story while enhancing mechanics and visuals to deliver a richer experience.
Players step into the shoes of Tama, armed with the forbidden powers of the Sword of the Necromancer, on a quest to revive her beloved companion, Koko. By turning defeated enemies into allies, customizing their behavior, and building a formidable army, players delve into the dungeon’s depths, confronting guardians and uncovering the bittersweet tale of Tama and Koko.
With improved combat, a revamped companion AI system, full HD illustrations, and a new local co-op mode, this remake promises both nostalgia and innovation. However, while everything sounds quite promising, the reality causes too many contradictory emotions and confusing in-game experiences. Why did it happen? Let’s find out step by step.
The main story of the game stayed the same as it was, simple and touching. Daredevil thief and rogue Tama becomes a bodyguard for the priestess, Koko, who is about to start her pilgrimage. They share hardships and joys, gradually growing fond of each other, but this journey was meant to end in tragedy. This is where the events of the game start. Koko is dead, while an inconsolable Tama tries to find a way to bring her beloved back to life. Her only lead is an ancient story about the Necromancer who defied the Gods and found a way to trick death. This power is dark and forbidden, but for Koko Tama is ready to transgress any law and natural order itself.
The game starts at the scene in the Necromancer Crypt, with Tama standing before Koko’s breathless body and swearing to find a way to bring her back. The tool she needs is the Necromancer Sword, which in the legends can revive any living being. Gaining the sword was surprisingly easy, yet there is always a catch. It works perfectly fine on any monster you encounter but has no effect on Koko. The vision of the Necromancer themselves appears in front of the devastated Tama and mockingly offers her to gain more strength and challenge their authority in the depths of the dungeon.
From now on, the new pieces of the story appear as Tama’s memories and thoughts after defeating bosses of each floor, some newly added pieces can be opened in special rooms. The story is a pretty classic one but also is openly sapphic, which likely boosted the interest to the original game. Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection doesn’t hide behind the words like ‘friendship’, stating from the start that it’s a story about love between two women.
Due to the limited amount of the drawn story scenes, the progress of their relationships looks a bit hectic, and to the mid-game point, it leaves a feeling that some parts are missed or not addressed properly. However, there is one secret that is not so obvious from the start: the game features points of view of both characters. After a certain breaking point, Koko’s point of view on the events becomes available too, and it fills the gaps in Tama’s tale.
Narrative is probably the strongest part of the game. The story scenes give little lore, yet some of it is reflected in the gameplay. A good example of that is that Koko can’t heal herself with her healing skills, just like she can’t save herself from death in the story. As a priestess of light, she refuses to use any weapon with dark attributes, especially the Necromancer’s sword. Moreover, the usage of this cursed sword seems to play a key point in the story, but sadly I couldn’t confirm this hypothesis in practice.
When it comes to the actual gameplay, the game can’t offer too much in comparison to its narrative features. Despite being dynamic and swift, the battles get boring too fast. There are not many combos, and the fight itself feels a bit chunky. In general, it’s enough to smash one or two buttons fast enough to prevent most of the mobs from attacking the character, killing them before they do any damage. With the bosses, it’s a bit more different at the start; they have a variety of battle behaviors, yet after a certain character or summons’ level, they can die from one hit.
The game balance has some issues, and in the end, many features like crafting look kind of useless. There are five weapon types, shields, and some equipment, but in the end it’s possible to finish the game with two basic weapons, since the elements or bonuses they have don’t bring too much difference. To make the existence of these items and traits more meaningful, the dungeon rooms feature special challenges such as ‘kill monsters with a spear’ or ‘you receive poison damage while in this room.’. However, the gameplay in general is repetitive and boring, and doing all these challenges might be appealing only for those who like receiving the achievements.
The monster summoning system reminded me of another ARPG—Nights of Azure; however, in the Sword of Necromancer, it is quite buggy and works in strange ways. The summons are useful in general, but the mobs struggle to follow the character, randomly get stuck in the doorways, have a fear of stepping on the stairs, or even get stuck in the walls. Their AI misses the intelligent part, thus they can randomly stop or refuse to attack the enemies even though the tactics tell them to fight.
With the transition to the 3D style and a new engine, the gameplay also received the addition in the form of a platformer-style gameplay. It’s a fitting idea for a dungeon crawler genre; however, the realization let it down. Any platformer game requires good physics and precise level design, but in the Sword of Necromancer: Resurrection, these pieces are not polished enough. Yes, it doesn’t have blockers or impassable moments, but sometimes it gets frustrating when characters can’t grab the edge when they obviously could, or randomly stumble on invisible obstacles, losing speed or jumping high.
Another attempt to diversify gameplay resulted in short puzzles, hidden levers, and special elements that require passing a trait check. The design of these elements is good enough, and it creates some challenge since there are no hints, and you can rely only on intuition. Yet, the feature with attributes check is not as simple as it could appear at first glance. It requires having certain summons in possession to pass them, and not being tied to the character’s abilities at all. Even though the ‘possibly needed’ monsters on a level are usually marked by an exclamation sign icon, the player might have to sacrifice an already gathered team of monsters to get new ones due to the summons limit. Well, for the true master of the dead, these creatures are nothing but consumables.
Sadly, the technical side of the game has many problems in general. Aside from the confused AI and controlled response, it’s possible to face bugs or even a critical error in the most crucial moments. The most buggy level for me became the last dungeon room before the final battle. First time I’ve spent half an hour trying to figure out how to open the door only to catch a critical error and the game crash. Moreover, in the new run I found out that the door opening was tied to the miniboss death, but it didn’t spawn for me in the first run. It took me about eight attempts before I managed to finish that level without facing a game crash or bugs.
The visuals became the main change in the remake of the original Sword of Necromancer. 2D art still exists in the game for the purpose of storytelling, showing off in the cutscenes as it was in the previous game, but it was boosted to HD quality. The art is really pretty and conveys the characters personalities well, giving vivid visuals to the dialogues. Other 2D elements, such as icons, character, and monster arts, are stylish and beautiful too, with their own style and feeling.
When it comes to 3D, which replaces the original 2D world environment, characters and mobs—it looks really minimalistic and low poly. The style reminds of a very old Asian RPG or ARPG game from the era of the first PlayStation consoles. The environment is mostly built of cubes with tiled textures on them, stylized for different dungeon floor atmospheres. The most detailed elements appeared to be bosses and monsters, while main characters have minimal details with seemingly hand-drawn elements
The game has many simple VFX effects and sometimes, such as spells, attack effects, monster skills, and even the enemy focus lines. The latter can be really useful and reminds me of a feature the game in the anime Gun Gale Online has. However, when there are more than four hostile monsters and also your own summons show the same lines too, in addition to spells, etc., the screen space becomes a flashy light show stage. Gladly, the game settings allow you to customize the game experience in this aspect.
Whether you’re a fan of the original or new to the series, Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection invites you to relive a heartfelt journey about love, loss, and the power of the undead. The strange mix of emotions it evokes—ranging from love to frustration—keeps you invested, driving you to uncover every piece of Tama and Koko’s heartwarming story. Despite its shortcomings, it captivates with a touching narrative, making it a worthwhile adventure for those willing to embrace its imperfections.