TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 13,193
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
I don't know what's going on, and I like it
Sometimes, you come across a game and instantly know it's for the sickos. Today that is Ablahshikar, a "turn-based salvage-survival CRPG adrift on the Candle Sea" where you rip out the organs of enemy warships to "rebuild your vessel into a doomed chimera," that is out now in early access. To be honest I could have just called it a CRPG and still labelled it as a game for sickos, yet everything that's going on here is obviously just doubling down on the sick factor.
Ablahshikar is a particular flavour of maximalism. Having not played it, it feels a bit impossible describe, I mean, just have a read of some of the game's Steam page: "Lo, destiny crooks a finger only to those whose eyes peer beyond þe next tempest. Take custody of a faltering war-barge that wanders the outer brine of Dastgerd. Thy wrists y-braced to a wan terminal of bone-whyte and tarnysshed latoun, þou steerest Ablahshikar by murke point-nettes and sputteryng tables." I don't know what any of that means! And I love it. Reminds me of Hylics in that the game's world is not translating itself for its audience; you take what you're given, and you figure it out yourself.
Judging from trailers and screenshots, there's a mix of activities to be getting on with. Occasionally you'll be piloting a strange, not alien, but definitely ancient ship of some kind in an arcadey sort of fashion. Then occasionally there's something that resembles Caves of Qud, i.e. some odd, 2D maybe dungeon crawling where your moves are dictated by individual keys on your keyboard. Then there's Disco Elysiumy cutscenes that feel like a video game designed in the year 1200 by someone from the year 2200, aesthetically anyway. As I said, it is a particular flavour of maximalism.
.jpg?width=2048&height=2048&fit=bounds&quality=85&format=jpg&auto=webp)
Truthfully, I do not know if I am sicko enough for Ablahshikar. Its mighty vision is terrifying, but I certainly am curious about it. Right now it's less than a fiver, and it'll only be in early access for roughly a couple of months where the price will then go up, so perhaps it's best to get in at the ground floor. If you are one such sicko, then you can pick it up on Steam right here.
Ablahshikar
PC
Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in
Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.Read more: Full article on www.rockpapershotgun.com
What do you think about this?
Sometimes, you come across a game and instantly know it's for the sickos. Today that is Ablahshikar, a "turn-based salvage-survival CRPG adrift on the Candle Sea" where you rip out the organs of enemy warships to "rebuild your vessel into a doomed chimera," that is out now in early access. To be honest I could have just called it a CRPG and still labelled it as a game for sickos, yet everything that's going on here is obviously just doubling down on the sick factor.
Ablahshikar is a particular flavour of maximalism. Having not played it, it feels a bit impossible describe, I mean, just have a read of some of the game's Steam page: "Lo, destiny crooks a finger only to those whose eyes peer beyond þe next tempest. Take custody of a faltering war-barge that wanders the outer brine of Dastgerd. Thy wrists y-braced to a wan terminal of bone-whyte and tarnysshed latoun, þou steerest Ablahshikar by murke point-nettes and sputteryng tables." I don't know what any of that means! And I love it. Reminds me of Hylics in that the game's world is not translating itself for its audience; you take what you're given, and you figure it out yourself.
Judging from trailers and screenshots, there's a mix of activities to be getting on with. Occasionally you'll be piloting a strange, not alien, but definitely ancient ship of some kind in an arcadey sort of fashion. Then occasionally there's something that resembles Caves of Qud, i.e. some odd, 2D maybe dungeon crawling where your moves are dictated by individual keys on your keyboard. Then there's Disco Elysiumy cutscenes that feel like a video game designed in the year 1200 by someone from the year 2200, aesthetically anyway. As I said, it is a particular flavour of maximalism.
Truthfully, I do not know if I am sicko enough for Ablahshikar. Its mighty vision is terrifying, but I certainly am curious about it. Right now it's less than a fiver, and it'll only be in early access for roughly a couple of months where the price will then go up, so perhaps it's best to get in at the ground floor. If you are one such sicko, then you can pick it up on Steam right here.
Ablahshikar
PC
Rock Paper Shotgun is better when you sign in
Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.Read more: Full article on www.rockpapershotgun.com
What do you think about this?