Almost a year to the day, my early access review of Inkulinati left me wondering if the game was worth the paper its medieval marginalia was drawn on. Between balance issues and a lack of content, the game felt like it was letting its art style and goofy tone do all the heavy lifting. With the full release upon us, Yaza Games has found a good balance in this current iteration. Furthermore, they’ve added some beast variety that gives players some new ways to approach combat and have expanded upon preexisting game modes. While it’s missing some modern trappings, Inkulinati finds itself at a solid one-point-oh that they can continue to build upon for years to come.
Turn-Based tactics is the name of the game here. If you’ve ever played 2D Worms, you’ll get a sense of what you’re in for with Inkulinati. In the place of arsenal-wielding worms, players control the titular Inkulinatis (artists) and their hand-drawn beasts. The Academy and Journey game modes return, with the former fleshing out even more lessons for players who want to learn the ins-and-outs of ink combat. Journey mode sees players fight through multiple scenarios and Inkulnatis across multiple hand drawn maps, all in hope of facing Death and resurrecting their late master. Journey mode plays pretty much like it did in early access, but with the addition of playing through it again after completion to continue the little bit of story present in Inkulinati. These later runs provide bigger maps and more combat scenarios. It adds some replayability and gives players additional opportunities to test out newly unlocked beasts.
Players can unlock beasts between journeys by accumulating fame in a run which are gained through combat and random encounters. In a single run, where I focused on collecting fame over other resources (and in which I defeated death) I was able to unlock all but one set of beasts. In early access, these sets of beasts only came with three beasts, all of which were the same animal wielding a different weapon. For the full release, these sets have expanded to include a fourth beast, not similar to the rest of the set. The additional beast in most cases is a powerhouse and introduces some much-needed variety in the early parts of each journey. Wickedly broken beasts (like the donkey) have now been tamed, but not made completely useless. Sets that have been added since last year also go a long way in keeping things fresh. Pigeons, while weak, can maneuver different levels more easily and spread the map. The fish set includes beasts that spread water around the map and use those water slots to hop around and attack.
Combat encounters range from laughably easy to “how the hell am I going to win this” hard. The game does a great job of onboarding players early in Journey mode, but after the first few maps, the training wheels are off. Players can only take five beasts and five hand abilities into each encounter. Some of these decisions take some brain power, especially when you work in the boredom feature. Spamming a beast makes them more expensive in later encounters. It was my favorite feature in early access, and I still love it here. During a journey, players gain beasts, hand abilities, and passive talents that will remain with them for the rest of that journey. The game does cap off how many beasts and abilities you can have at your disposal at a given time. Early on I found this annoying, but I came around to it when I realized your roster size grows upon completion of a journey. I played on Normal and struggled through some later encounters. There are harder difficulties, but they’re not for the timid. Inkulinati will kick your ass and not think twice about it.
The hand drawn beasts still look great. Looking around your paper battlefield, you’ll start to notice the small details like fading buildings and trees in the backdrop, or written words retelling everything that is happening on the battlefield. On Steam Deck, players can toggle portions of the UI to look up certain abilities and effects. Players can also toggle this menu while on the world map. The goofiness still persists. Your human hand smacking an enemy beast is as funny the hundredth time as it is the first time. The beasts are all goofballs, from the farting donkeys to dogs howling as they fall to their death.
This time around, I spent a majority of my time with Inkulinati on my Steam Deck. I was pleasantly surprised by just how well the game ran. Running at 60 frames, a frame was nearly never lost, even as maps started to fill with beasts. The Steam Deck also makes the local multiplayer a little more approachable. It’s much easier to pass off the Steam Deck as you try to beat a buddy with your ink beasts. That still doesn’t excuse the lack of online multiplayer. One could hope it’s planned, but not being able to fight online does seem like a missed opportunity.
I have a few minor gripes with the game. Inkulanti introduced later in the game usually have a passive talent that ties to their set of beasts perfectly. For example, Dante can spread fires that his demon beasts can use to create chaos on the board. Professor is immune to plague, which his beasts can spread to the enemy. These are great. I just wish there were a few more of these for earlier Inkulinati and their starting beasts. I’d love a version of the game where the early dogs and fox sets can be just as menacing as later sets.
The ink is starting to dry for Inkulnati. Through an early access roadmap, they’ve made strides in expanding upon a shaky start to get the game to a respectable place for the full release. With challenging encounters, a wider variety of beasts, and a more balanced experience I really do think Inkulanti is worth the paper it’s drawn on. I just hope we can eventually turn the page to find some online multiplayer in its next chapter.
