Skautfold : Shrouded in Sanity is a short, isometric soulslike that doesn’t give off a great first impression, though I admittedly warmed to its somewhat obtuse mechanics after I began to finally understand how it’s meant to be played.
From what I managed to glean from the fairly sparse story you are Elisabeth, raised from death by the mysterious Waltham and tasked with killing a King who has massacred most of his subjects to summon an impenetrable fog; a fog that is now warping the rooms of his manor into something far more nightmarish. The way to the King is blocked by four of his Knights that you can tackle in any order, with the possibility of either sparing or killing them once they are defeated in combat.
Speaking of combat, it’s a fairly simple affair. You can dodge and block in typical soulslike fashion, and also parry certain attacks with your trusty pistol that, when timed just right, opens up the enemy for a massive riposte attack, à la Bloodborne. Don’t go looking for any other weapons, however, your trusty pistol and cane are all you’ll be using throughout your three-to-five-hour playthrough.
Enemy variety is fairly slim, though I appreciated that each type had its own radically different combat style, from knife-wielding maids to scissor-spinning nobles and tentacle-spawning monstrosities.
I found targeting and blocking enemies to be less finicky than Lucah : Born of a Dream, another isometrical souslike I’ve played recently, but I can’t shake the feeling that parallel projection just isn’t precise enough to fit the needs of methodical, dodge-and-parry based combat. My blade passed straight through enemies on more than one occasion, which is always a bit frustrating.
Your punishment for dying here is dropping all your currency and losing some of your sanity, though having low sanity didn’t appear to change much apart from open up a pathway to an optional boss. I actually died quite a few times in the first hour or so because I hadn’t properly understood just how Skautfold handles its levelling.
Your souls, or vitae as they are called in this game, can be exchanged at a merchant for Yth stones, which you can then trade with various trainers around the mansion for stat upgrades or additional healing flasks. The more Yth stones you buy, the more they cost, meaning you have to hoard more souls to purchase them. This is pretty risky at the beginning of the game as the mansion is so large and sprawling you can easily get lost, and most enemies can kill you in a couple of hits.
What I had somehow missed is that butlers, a certain non-respawnable enemy type, have a 100% chance of dropping Yth stones when killed. This means you can avoid all the other enemies while exploring and just target the butlers. Even better, you don’t lose Yth stones when you die, so even if you’re ten minutes away from the game’s single bonfire, you’ll respawn with your stones intact.
Once I’d understood this, I armed myself with a pen and paper and went from room to room, drawing my own map and crossing rooms out when I’d checked them for butlers. That gave me enough stones to level up my stats and take on the four knights, followed by the King himself with little trouble.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity, and I had fun playing through it, though I think it’s finicky combat and strange levelling system may rub some soulslike fans the wrong way.
If you’re looking for a short, pixellated, Lovecraftian adventure you might want to give Skautfold a try, but if you want great combat and deep lore I’d advise you to look elsewhere.
