Judero, the wild-eyed brawler, seems to have started a miniature wave of Pagan-themed games – or rather, recalibrated my brain to be more aware of Pagan-themed games. The latest game I’ve been enjoying is the party RPG Banquet For Fools, which is available in Early Access with a demo today. Created by two-player Hannah and Joseph Games, you play as one of the Vollings – a race of emaciated elven humanoids from the same school of human form as Judero, who were rejected by their gods and therefore turned to paganism.
Specifically, you are a lord who has established a spice farm on a “cursed” island, the former home of a long-extinct civilization. It certainly sounds stupid, and it’s no large surprise that everyone on your farm is missing. So set out with a team of four specially generated companions to solve the puzzle and create gnarly spells by staining the trees with your blood.
The island itself is one of these “living, breathing” open worlds. Perhaps more “disturbingly animated” than “living, breathing”: some of the inhabitants are ghosts. There are towns you can visit for clues and where you’ll be given quests, and Morrowindy places an emphasis on exploration without the aid of contemporary UI devices – no quest log or magic compass.
Guards and merchants have schedules and you can rob stores at the cost of not being able to purchase the item in the future. The fight takes place in real time with a pause when the action bar is full, like in the older version of Final Fantasies. Teammate stats can unlock unique dialogue choices as relationships evolve. It’s certainly packed with features – I’ve only scraped a handful of them incredibly chatty Steam page – but what I’m most drawn to here is the haunting art direction Plasticene reminds me of that Keane movie about beds.
I’m also very interested in: weirder abilities and a magic system that seems to be based on pagan premises. Singing and music are weapons in Banquet For Fools: for example, you can obtain shepherd’s pipes that can summon furious ravens. You can also learn recent spell ingredients from special trees and assemble them into a custom spell by etching runes in blood with your mouse cursor. I’m not sure if this involves losing the character’s HP, but it should. Meanwhile, instead of classic magical items or classes, Banquet For Fools offers “Fauna”, “Vine” and “Spores”.
I must admit that I wouldn’t know what paganism really looked like if it formed a torchlight procession to my door and dropped a menhir on my head. I suspect I am in danger of succumbing to caricatures of paganism as wretched, fecund, and thrillingly disgusting. But I support the cheesiness of Banquet For Fools and welcome more games in this vein.
According to the Steam note, the game will be available in early access for approximately 8-10 months. “Banquet for Fools is now complete, we are working on maps and game content in the fall and winter,” the developers write. “We’ve basically finished all the hard parts and only have content left to work with, so we thought it would be a good time to open up to ruleset suggestions and feedback on gameplay balance. It’s a single-player experience, so” I’m not too concerned about over-balancing, but I want all playstyles to have challenges and areas of success.
This is probably a good time to jump into this demo. If you like the aesthetics, you may also like Felvedik.
