Dungeons.
Monsters.
Alcohol.
It sounds like the beginning of every satire of fantasy in the history of our world. Here we have a game that takes on impossible odds and tries to take the sum of an endless sea of awfully cliche components and combine them into some kind of creature we want to spend time with.
And what is perhaps most terrible of all, it succeeds in a way that I cannot fully understand.
I was not impressed at first glance. I was even less impressed at second glance, when I was deep into the belly of our first tedious dungeon. But something happened that I wasn't expecting: I started laughing at the jokes.
And this was worrying, coming a nearly 30-year-old spiritual man who finds Family Guy and South Park to be mostly tasteless and crude. At times, the humor in this game makes those two series look tame and meek in comparison. But there's something else here: an intangible and humble self-deprecation that is at times touching and hilarious all at once. The humor is confusing in the same way that watching a clip of Professor Brothers by Brad Neely is confusing: it is both high-brow and low-brow all at once. Indeed, it sometimes dips so low into the brow that we find ourselves looking down at it again, as though from space, wondering how this happened.
And suddenly, I was 20 hours into the game, climbing mountains, battling the immortal bard himself, my blood pumping to the music of the old white whale. I found myself somehow enraptured by this adventure, and in the way that all great art functions, I often forgot that I was engaged in a particular medium until some kind of speed-bump brought me out of the reverie.
Such speed-bumps included surprisingly difficult encounters, especially bosses that aren't required fights, and often the labyrinthine nature of... labyrinths. But also other "dungeons," a term which I will use to describe the nature-areas with enemies between plot-points. They were mostly the obligatory "transition phases," but made a bit less painful by the myriad side-adventures or hidden treasure and entertaining reflections from the protagonist.
Sometimes, the art-styles seemed thrown together like some kind of abstract collage, and when they clashed, they clashed hard. At other times, I didn't even notice, and being that the art is not something I play a 32-bit game for anyway, it was not something that detracted from my experience in a substantial way.
But the thing that I found myself playing for was the surprise factor: the fact that such a thing as this could constantly turn a phrase or make a reference or just do something so totally original and refreshing that even an old grizzled RPG veteran like myself found it impossible to give it up makes the game worth playing for ANY kind of gamer.
And the fact that it's free make the decision an absolute no-brainer: the only reason you should not play this game is if you are deeply sensitive to adult language and themes, because they are in abundance (although I found that it became milder-or I became more acclimated to it-as the game went on).
All in all, 9/10, a must-play.
Tales of the Drunken Paladin begins, oddly enough, at a point in the story after the heroes have already “beaten the game” so to speak. The opening crawl of the game explains how the paladin Anebriate (groan) saved the kingdom some time ago and is now the greatest and most powerful hero to ever live. When the game begins he already has all the best moves and gear he could ever need and more gold than he could possibly spend. However, instead of doing anything positive with his wealth and influence, Anebriate lives a life of squalor and debauchery, abusing his power and generally not caring about anyone else. As such, his fellow heroes (who went on to become prominent and influential figures) have pretty much turned their backs on him, and the local citizenry are not the least bit amused by his antics.
Very fun and hilarious game, not for those looking for a serious epic story but if you're looking for a ridiculous epic story this is it.