Knights of Pen and Paper - Haunted Fall Review

Released on 6 November, Knights of Pen & Paper: Haunted Fall clearly missed its target launch window, a fact reflected by the developer’s tongue-in-cheek press release that insisted Haunted Fall remains a “seasonally appropriate expansion”, with Halloween still being a “completely relevant” holiday. But who cares if it’s a little late? Halloween is simply an aesthetic template. What’s more germane is whether the content is worthy of its £3.99 price tag? The jury’s still out on that one.

Haunted Fall is a relatively small expansion that introduces two new dungeons (Corn Maze and Dwarven Mall) and a new village (Other Village) in a separate dimension called the Otherworld. Some nefarious sorcerer has opened up a rift – which is allowing a torrent of monsters to freely travel between this alternate land and Paperworld – and it’s up to your ragtag band of adventurers to close the rift and bring the perpetrator to justice.

The Witch is a bit naff in all honesty

In keeping with the ghoulish theme, you can now recruit the Witch to your team of roleplayers. The Witch class is a support class that shares traits with the Druid in that it can heal allies and send foes to sleep. The Witch, however, opts for area-of-effect damage over the Druid’s single target Feral Rage skill.

This writer found the Witch to be a jack of all trades and master of none, considering that other classes already possess more potent variations on each of its three skills. The Ward skill (rebuffs next incoming damage and heals protected friendly until it’s next damaged) works well in conjunction with a tank class, further increasing their resilience. Yet the Paladin can already cast Holy Shield, which negates damage by 50% for a considerable number of turns when levelled. Similarly, the Witch’s AOE spell – that sacrifices damage for a blanket heal – is less effective than the Mage’s Meteor skill, while its sleep-inducing spell pales by comparison to the Druid’s Hibernate. There could well be a team composition that caters to the Witch’s strengths, but I’ve yet to find it.

Hopefully more multi-level dungeons (like the Dwarven Mall – pictured) will arrive in future expansions

Dungeons in Knights of Pen & Paperwere largely enjoyable yet few and far between, so it’s encouraging to see Kyy rectify this deficiency in Haunted Fall. Dwarven Mall – an abandoned shopping complex that’s fallen into disrepute – is the more expansive and challenging of the two, with four floors of monsters, traps and fatigue to overcome.

Having vanquished the boss of Dwarven Mall, the people of Other Village request that you revisit the scene to deliver an eviction notice to the sentient statues and reanimated corpses that still inhabit it. These moments of levity – throughout the Knights of Pen & Paper campaign and Haunted Fall – are where the series really shines. The pastiche, again, is well observed and delivered with passion, playing homage to the finely balanced escapism of pen and paper roleplaying. Kyy have maintained the high quality of writing, shattering the illusion of fantasy with regular pointed witticisms from the seated heroes. There are laughs aplenty, too.

A solitary balloon floats gracefully upwards amidst the ensuing chaos

It’s not all good, however. One important thing to note about the expansion is where it sits within the core campaign. This is content designed for characters around the low- to mid-20s mark and thus is unsuitable for those that have completed the main storyline. Of course, you can revisit these areas, but you’ll breeze through the missions with consummate ease. As such, you’ll likely want to start afresh.

With Knights of Pen & Paper being conducive to repeated playthroughs, this isn’t a crippling oversight. Nevertheless, you’d wager that the fan base would’ve preferred some end-game content to test their high-level characters. Or, better yet, the ability to pit your party against another’s in a multiplayer component – but perhaps that’s being greedy.