The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos is easily one of the longest titles I’ve heard this year, and I’m sure it wouldn’t mind being a bit longer too. A high fantasy RPG with turn-based strategy gameplay and a hyper satirical (though on the nose) take of heroes, thieves, elves, ogres, pop culture, and all; I wouldn’t have picked me to review it either. I’m on the record as showing a bit of resentment to high fantasy and RPGs individually, but in recent years I’ve come to enjoy some of them through understanding. Of the last several years, I’d highly rate Fallout 4 (shut up, it was fun), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, The Witcher 3, the Dark Souls series, the Yakuza series, Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Wasteland 3, and even Final Fantasy 7 and 15.

I must have gone peculiar at some point. If you’d have told me I’d like RPGs by the end of the decade, I’d have laughed in your face. I still understand why I’d rather bash someone’s face in with a bicycle than go flower picking in the meadow of someplace with signage that strikes fear into the heart of dyslexics. Slow and clunky mechanics, text dialogue that drags on, and characters that I don’t like from the outset, along with minor grievances can snap me out of an otherwise enjoyable game. That is all putting aside the tutorials that never end, menus longer than your mum’s shopping list for “the big bi-weekly shop,” and the fantastical and unbelievable locals I don’t like.

So, to The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos filled with characters I don’t like, locals I’m not enthralled with, and a penchant for slowing things down. It would be unfair to write it off quickly, so I’ll point out, I do like it. Possibly as a result of the combat being in the XCOM-style of tactics. However, it is done in such a way that I have slight objections to it overall. Personally, I’ve seen the combat plod along at a pace akin to the continental drift, and if there is one thing I like to say when it comes to turn-based games, it is to pick up the pace. You can speed up the combat a little in the settings, though for my personal liking, I’d prefer to entirely skip lengthy AI turns.

Another addition that would be considerably appreciated is the muting of the general chatter of characters. For those of you that can and do enjoy Nathan Drake‘s smugness and quippy dialogue, you’ll love Naheulbeuk. At times I’d revel in the references for story dialogue, enjoy the overplayed nature of some character traits, and the odd little tidbits here and there. However, most of the time, I’d want to cave someone’s skull in with a brick. As a group they are well rounded in their personally superficial and satirical way, but they lack a sense of charm and desirability to be around overall.

The ditzy blonde elf with massive norks and a voice that made me want to hoick her out the tallest tower’s window, I don’t like her. Though when she’d complain about Greedy from the Seven Dwarfs, I’d agree with her… until that’s all she’d do. When he’d moan in his own overplayed voice, he’d be the next one out the bloody window. Shortly thereafter I’d be bouncing the ranger out the same window for being a budget Nathan Drake. That would leave me with the ogre that doesn’t speak English, the Magician that I’ll randomly call Poppy Kline would oddly make me think of Felicia Day for some reason, the Barbarian who’s dim, and the Paladin who’s straight to the point. They can decide to chuck out the thief if they want, he often falls into the background.

I get that was the point of John Lang‘s (‘Pen of Chaos’) Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk; they are all overtly satirical looks at the typical Dungeons and Dragons characters. The death knell of comedy is repetition, hence why I carry around a brick for anyone than wants to say, “Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is?” To return to an earlier point, it is all about pacing. In a game, you either set the pacing to make it work or you do as Deadpool (2013) did and repeat lines until you’d only hope you were as immortal as Ryan Reynolds. For the most part, just so the brick wouldn’t hurt as much.

As for being an RPG, it is hard to say I’m properly excited by it. Yes, the premise of de Naheulbeuk and the game are to poke and satirize the genre, but if anything, it is a more linear stomp through the world of Lang’s creation. My point here is, it is only an RPG for that is what genre it is set within to satirize. It doesn’t use the gameplay to inform that story and narrative. It feels like an off the rack RPG and high fantasy world, with little more than that expected of it. It is just the setting to poke fun of instead of an element within itself.

What I did find weird was the swearing, which I don’t mind; I’d do it here if I were allowed to get away with it. However, it self-censors for a reason I can’t quite understand to any degree, not to mention that it likes to pick and choose when and where to let swearing cross into the audible and what will be censored. At first, it feels like it tries to fortify your fastidious and fragile ears from flippant and ferocious foulness of prolonged Fs, and then one or two slipped by. Not to mention that the other one that starts with S hastens to ignore trite practices to silence it. Ok, I’ve put the thesaurus down: The swear word with F is often censored while the one starting in S isn’t, that’s my point.

In truth, I don’t hate The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos, even if the subtitle and colon are entirely pointless. It is a solid game, and if you aren’t a curmudgeon like me, you’ll probably love it. Though the combat may be slow at times, I still enjoy it when I do have my turns even when randomness can be irritating. Maybe if it understood how to be subtil (French for “subtle”) with the satire and I didn’t want to dictate the pace of combat, I may have enjoyed it more. However, characters can grate like a block of knives on the perineum, and prolonged waiting periods for enemies to take their turn are more than frustrating.

Overall, if you’re a fan of dungeon crawling and overtly on-the-nose humor akin to anything Will Ferrell is in, you’ll immediately fall in love. Though if you’re hesitant about quippy dialogue, turn-based combat, or high fantasy, you could find it quite hard to get through at times. Not to mention, if you are like me and are quite superficial about graphical settings, you may find the forced almost tilt-shift level of depth of field to be more than annoying. Nevertheless, The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos can rightfully shove its tongue into its cheek for all the right reasons, sometimes.

A PC copy of The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos was provided by Dear Villagers for this review.

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The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos

$34.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• An interesting dungeon crawling RPG.
• Fun combat when it has brevity.

Cons

• Characters grate like nails on a chawlkboard.
• Temperamental censorship in an already adult-ish game.