Is Sword of the Necromancer The Best ARPG on Switch 2?
Stepping into the dark, damp floors of the prologue dungeon, you immediately feel the weight of the Sword of the Necromancer in your hands. This isn’t just about clearing rooms; it’s about the grim satisfaction of watching a monster that just tried to end you become your most loyal ally. The world is moody, the stakes are high, and the loop of hacking through shadows to save what’s lost hooks you before the first boss door even creaks open.
Specs & HUD | Gameplay Review | Performance & Fidelity | Settings & Controls
Sword of the Necromancer Nintendo Switch 2 Review: Specs & HUD
- Chunky Pixel Aesthetic: The game features big chunky pixel graphics that give it a distinct retro feel.
- Compact Install: It sits at a very manageable 1.4GB download size, so it won’t kill your storage.
- On-Screen Feedback: You get real-time damage numbers and exp earned popping up during the chaos.
- Vital Stats: Uses a heart health bar system where you collect hearts from the world to stay standing.
- In-Game Tracking: Features its own built-in achievements called feats to keep you chasing goals.
- HUD Utility: Your HUD shows your level-up progress, allowing you to increase stats instantly as you earn exp.
Gameplay Review & Mechanics Breakdown
The game is a light RPG loop of dungeon crawling, clearing enemies out and taking out the boss. You start off in the opening prologue dungeon to learn the basics, which is a smart way to break you in before the real heat starts. Rooms in the dungeons are dark until you enter them, keeping that sense of dread alive as you explore. The library houses feats, lost diaries, and the bestiary and weapons that get catalogued as you find and kill them, so there is plenty to track while you’re down there. It’s a game you can get into rather quickly, and the combat is what you make of it, but at its core, it’s very hack-and-slash-based.
With the sword of necromancy, you can reanimate a slain enemy and assign them a button to have them attack enemies for you and become an ally. These reanimated characters that fight for you can die and be gone forever, but they can also earn exp and level up to get stronger and learn new attacks. You can also unlock local co-op; the only caveat is that you need the special flask to then cast it, so it takes an inventory slot that is already limited. As you pick up weapons, summons, and abilities, they get assigned to face buttons, and you can manually swap them out when you get too many. You’ll find big boss encounters, and they all have a boss door and a stronger minion to find and kill in order to get the boss door key.
The Altar is the name of the main hub area, and where you go in between dungeons. This is where you find materials and resources in breakable objects and then use these at the Altar to upgrade weapons or add elements to them. Breakable objects can also drop journal entries to flesh out the world. For movement, the dash acts as a way to go across small holes, but it can also be used for dodging. It’s based on a stamina system where you have blue dots to denote how many dashes you can do, but it does replenish automatically over time.
Sword of the Necromancer Nintendo Switch 2 Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Visual Perspective: Presents a 3D game world from a 2D viewpoint, giving the pixel art some nice depth.
- Atmospheric Cutscenes: Cutscenes are text-based but have minimal animated backgrounds with full voice work.
- Dual Audio: You get two voice choices right out of the gate – English and Japanese.
- Environmental Effects: The lighting system ensures rooms stay pitch black until you actually step inside, adding to the tension.
- Smooth Progression: Stat increases happen instantly upon levelling up without any performance chug.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- Difficulty Tiers: Includes 3 game difficulties – Easy, Normal, and Hard – to suit how much of a beating you want.
- Risk Management: Game settings allow you to toggle if you lose items on death, lose levels on death, or start from scratch on death.
- User Assistance: Includes a “retrieve summon from anywhere” option and an “item bag available” setting to keep the flow going.
- Control Guidance: On-screen button prompts help you learn the controls as you go.
- Accessible Inputs: Simple enough control scheme with a dedicated dash/dodge button and the face buttons handling the heavy lifting.
- UI Options: You can toggle the “show monster death prompt” to clean up or add to your feedback loop.
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Sword of the Necromancer
Summary
GOOD STUFF
The big chunky pixel graphics look great, and the 1.4GB download size makes it an easy addition to the library. I love that you get two voice choices between English and Japanese and that the cutscenes, while text-based, have enough animation and full voice work to keep them engaging. The core loop is solid; you can get into it quickly with a simple control scheme and on-screen prompts that actually help you learn. Having your own in-game achievements called feats and a library to catalogue everything you kill or find gives you plenty to do. The best part is the necromancy itself, reanimating enemies to fight for you and watching them level up alongside you is a proper result, and being able to upgrade weapons at the Altar adds a nice layer of depth to the hack-and-slash combat.
BAD STUFF
It can be a bit of a headache managing your inventory, especially since unlocking local co-op requires a special flask that eats up one of your limited slots. If you aren’t careful, the reanimated allies you’ve spent time levelling up can die and be gone for good, which stings when you’ve put the work in. The dungeon rooms being dark until you enter them adds atmosphere, but it can also lead to some cheap shots if you aren’t ready. Hunting down a specific stronger minion just to get a boss door key can sometimes feel like a chore when you just want to get to the big fight.
FINAL VERDICT
Sword of the Necromancer is a tight, atmospheric action RPG that doesn’t overstay its welcome. The mechanic of turning your foes into your friends is brilliant and keeps the dungeon crawling fresh every time you find a new monster to resurrect. It’s a game that rewards you for being aggressive, but gives you the settings to tweak the difficulty if you don’t want to lose everything on death. If you want a hack-and-slash with a grim twist and plenty of loot to upgrade, this is a journey worth taking.
