The Count Lucanor is a charming and well written horror adventure game

The Count Lucanor is a charming pixel adventure that takes place in a equally lovely fantasy land, but as it so often happens, darkness lurks beneath the seemingly perfect veneer and soon enough you will get roped in to a mystery of the most horrific kind.

It released a couple of weeks ago, on March 3rd to be exact, with some great reviews backing it up, but has unfortunately somehow escaped the public's eye. So allow me to showcase you The Count Lucanor, starting with the trailer:

 

You play as Hans, a poor peasant boy with more enthusiasm than sense, who decided that the best way to find adventure and glory is to walk straight in to a forest right before nightfall. Luckily for Hans, a quaint Kobold happened to cross his path and offer him an easy route to the riches he so desperately seeks, with the only requirement being that the boy needs to guess the Kobold's name.

As you might imagine, the simple trial laid out in front of Hans turns out to be a nearly impossible task as the boy becomes a prisoner of the very castle he wished to posses. What you do from this point onward, however, is up to you as The Count Lucanor follows Undertale's design philosophy of allowing you multiple ways of solving each puzzle, progressing through each area, and ultimately completing the game in wildly different ways.

The castle in The Count Lucanor is a strange place

Tenebre Castle is a very, very strange place

According to the developers, the gameplay is inspired by classic games such as The Legend of Zelda and Silent Hill, and while I can certainly see a lot of those elements present in The Count Lucanor, its a game that's not so easily boiled down to a couple of tropes.

Throughout your journey in Tenebre Castle you will be able to explore its hallowed halls with only the light of a candle to guide your way, talk with the various NPCs found there to discover important clues on the castle's history, and finally, puzzle your way through various traps in order to discover plot important items and revelations. On its own that would be scary enough, but Tenebre Castle is home to a myriad of eldritch monstrosities, creatures so vile that you simply have no recourse but to ensure that they never even catch a glimpse of you.

The Count Lucanor features some terrifying critters

There are some things in this world you do NOT want to bump in to

While not a very long game, The Count Lucanor is one that you should replay a couple of times in order to fully experience all it has to offer as it features important choices, alternate endings and plenty of secrets to uncover.

If you're up for a terrifying, yet strangely charming adventure then by all means give The Count Lucanor a try.

The Count Lucanor has some occasionally funny moments

There are also some occasionally hilarious moments