Take Inkulinati's sketchy medieval tactics for a turn in its new demo

Medieval manuscript battler Inkulinati is amusing just in its trailers, but there's more slapstick enjoyment in playing it yourself. If you'd not gotten the chance before, not to worry. You're getting another swing at this rather Monty Python-inspired tactical game about nuns and hares battling it out as commanded by your quill. Inkulinati has another demo on for those of us who enjoy a bit of body humor and other silliness with our serious strategy games. You can snag it to try for yourself right now.

As part of the Future Games Show and Gamescom 2021, Inkulinati has sketched out another demo for itself which you can snag over on Steam. Developers Yaza Games announced that the demo would be available as of last Thursday. They mentioned that it would be available for 24 hours but, hey, it's still up at the moment. So have at it.

I'd been keeping an eye on this one myself because I am absolutely not above laughing over a donkey playing a trumpet with its rear. Beyond that, it seems to be a genuinely enjoyable strategy game with a bit of extra urgency provided by encroaching flames and the ability to shove other units into them. Ed tried his hand at it last year in his Inkulinati preview and rather enjoyed it.

"The combat is easy to grasp ("but hard to master”, he mutters under his breath) and there’s a snappy flow to battles as turns flip between you and the enemy with an uncomplicated ease. I like this about Inkulinati a lot - it doesn’t overdo things. It’s clutter free. Each unit you command has only a handful of options and movement is limited, but this makes each decision matter. The folks over at Yaza Games clearly know what makes a turn-based battler tick, but I can see this appealing to both the more serious strategy-heads and players who want a more whimsical, relaxed vibe."

Inkulinati has also earned itself a space on the page in RPS's most anticipated strategy games of 2021.

Inkulinati was originally planned to release around the middle of this year but decided to delay after receiving a lot of feedback the developers wanted to incorporate from a previous demo. It now lists a more general release window of 2021.