Raise your thumb if you’ve ever impaled it on a HeroQuest skeleton’s scythe. Country’s gone soft these days, I tell you. I’ve seen those new Heroquest skellies.
You couldn’t injure yourself on those scythes if you tried. It’s polearm-ical correctness gone mad! Well, good news if you’re nostalgic for a simpler time, where tiny scythes could maim you for life, and binary digits came in lots of eight and not a binary digit more.
RPG Beyond Shadowgate is a vastly-expanded, modernised sequel to the classic NES adventure, created by the original’s designers, and it just released last week. “With a world that is over five times larger than Shadowgate, Beyond Shadowgate captures the same look and feel as the 8-bit console version while including modern design sensibilities,” reads the Steam page.
How does one measure the size of a labyrinthine fantasy world, exactly? Ah, they’ve got a graph and everything! 250 rooms! 40 monsters!
180+ deaths! Oh! I’ve written about how much I love bespoke death events before, so this speaks to me. Here’s some story: 35 years have passed since Jair defeated the Warlock Lord in the caverns beneath the living castle, Shadowgate.