Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk – there's no end to games and laughter. RPGs you might have wrongly skipped

The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos is a turn-based RPG that (unfortunately) has not gained much popularity. This may come as a surprise as the game didn't come out of nowhere. The IP is popular in France, where a series of mocking fantasy audiobooks, comics and even board games are released. Sooner or later a computer game had to be made. Ultimately, it appeared on all smaller and larger platforms, including next-gen consoles.

As for an RPG, the plot isn't overly complex. We are dealing with a fairly simple story about heroes locked in the title dungeon, who have to face the dangers of each level, and finally have to defeat the main evil. If not the plot, what's the strong point? Without a doubt, player-driven characters and ubiquitous humor.

The team consists of as many as 8 members. Each of them represents one of the archetypes. So we have a dwarf with a shield and ax, a magician, a great ogre, a priestess, a thief/rogue, a guard who's something like a supporting class, an elven archer and a muscular barbarian. Each of the heroes fits in with the typical patterns for a given race/class and is exaggerated in this to the limits. And so the dwarf is a stingy blinded by the lust for wealth, the priestess is the personification of goodness, the elf is a stereotypical blonde, a barbarian would solve all problems by force, and the ogre has such a low intelligence that he cannot express himself "in a common language" and is understood only by a haughty sorceress . It might seem that all this is trivial and… it indeed is, but it was enough to put all these clichéd characters into one bag, in this case of the team, to make hilarious conversations and situations between them.

Humor is one of the biggest advantages of this production. Team members eat each other, get into absurd situations and take part in performing original tasks. The Naheulbeuk dungeon itself was constructed with humor. Something different is happening on practically each of its floors and it's not dark and gray everywhere. However, we don't want to give you specific examples – it could spoil the fun of exploring the locations on your own.

How is it even played? We explore, talk, solve fairly simple puzzles, disarm traps, pull levers to open hidden passages, and sometimes we just break through the wall (it's an ogre's job) and fight. We fight often. After the fight starts, the game becomes turn-based. The fights are demanding, especially on the highest difficulty level, and are based on the effective use of the skills of each of the heroes. In addition to the skills that you get by leveling up, equipment is also important. We get it for completing tasks, buy it from traders and collect it from defeated opponents.