Inkulinati Review: Painting a Masterpiece of Strategy & Humor

Inkulinati brings medieval marginalia to life in a delightful ink-slinging romp. Inspired by the weird and wonderful doodles monks scribbled in manuscripts hundreds of years ago, this game lets you command an army of weapon-toting rabbits, farting donkeys, and saints wielding holy hand grenades. It’s every bit as silly as it sounds.

The premise is creative gold. You play as a medieval illuminator, master of the arcane art of ink magic. These ink sorcerers would draw creatures in the margins of books, bringing them to life in small-scale battles for scribal supremacy. It was the Medieval version of doodling stick figures fighting on your math homework. Inkulinati embraces that childlike spirit of imagination and cranks it up to 11.

With its charming visuals and Monty Python-esque humor, Inkulinati offers a refreshing change of pace from traditional fantasy fare. This is a game with an infectious enthusiasm for history and a joyful sense of absurdity. Leading legions of battle-ready bunnies never gets old. So pick up your magic quill, summon some snarky skunks or flatulent bonnacons, and prepare for marginal mayhem. The illuminated manuscript multiplayer brawler you never knew you needed is here. Now where’s my army of butt-mooning rabbits?

Marginal Mayhem

Inkulinati’s turn-based battles are a riot. The gameplay has shades of tactical games like Into the Breach, but with a totally unique twist: the 2D side-view parchment arena. Instead of just moving units along a grid, you’ve got to navigate platforms, ladders, and ledges. Positioning is key, as a well-timed shove can send an enemy tumbling to their doom. It lends Inkulinati’s skirmishes an almost platform fighter feel at times.

You assemble an ink army from a wild bestiary of beasts, each with their own strengths. Archer bunnies, tanky turtles, clerical cats – you name the D&D class, there’s a doodle for it. Every creature has useful abilities; skunks blind foes, sheep rally napping allies. Finding clever combinations is part of the fun. And you can directly intervene with god-like hand actions, blotting out bothersome beasts or blessing your troops.

Progression walks a fine line between roguelike randomness and customization. Journey mode sees you traversing a storybook map, recruiting new beasts and building fame. There’s a “boredom” mechanic penalizing overused troops that pushes you to vary your strategies. By the closing duels, you’ll have amassed quite the monster manual of margin-dwellers.

While individual bouts are quick, the campaign encourages slow, steady progress to construct your dream beast brigade. Each  journey molds an army with its own style and surprising strengths. Will you field holy warriors or a devilish horde? Either works if you use their gifts wisely. That commitment to creativity permeates Inkulinati’s design and is part of what makes each run memorable.

Doodle Dueling Delights

Inkulinati serves up plenty of parchment playtime. Journey mode is the meaty single player offering, an RPG-inspired romp across a storybook map. You battle rival illuminators while recruiting beasts and gearing up for climatic duels. With unlockable story branches and randomized events, no two journeys are exactly alike.

Yet even 20 hours in, the formula stays fresh thanks to the boredom mechanic and ever-growing bestiary. There’s always new beastly combinations to try for your squad – will assassin mice and chaos-sowing devils work? Each run tells an emergent story through its eclectic ink army.

Beyond journey mode lies straight beast v beast battles and 1v1 Inkulinati showdowns. You can even craft custom duels, tweaking rules and selecting exotic hazards like lava flows or dancing plagues. The robust editor essentially serves up endless scribal sparring.

Local multiplayer offers hotseat head-to-head on a single device. Sadly, there’s no online option as of now – a missed opportunity for sure. Competing with faraway friends to prove your inking superiority would elevate Inkulinati’s longevity. The good news is the devs plan to add online down the road.

For the aspiring medieval doodle master, Inkulinati boasts plenty to enjoy out of the box. Yet with so many more margins left to explore, it still feels like the page is half empty and full of potential. This indie darling seems destined to keep growing.

A Work of Art

Inkulinati is a visual treat. Its art design beautifully realizes medieval marginalia, bringing scrawled sketches to vibrant life with watercolor hues. The illustrations burst with chaotic creativity, as if escaped from the pages of an ancient tome. Saints strike holy poses while pot-helmed warriors rush into the fray – and is that a murder of crows wielding tiny knives?

The animations match the madness. A tiny victory dance here, a stunned pratfall there – little touches sell the idea these doodles have minds of their own. Battles brim with Monty Python-worthy antics as a sheep chomps an opponent or your inky avatar dashes across the page. Even hand actions like blotting beasts mid-strike nail the tone – it’s like disciplining an unruly drawing.

Beyond the 3D parchment arenas, the campaign map impresses with even more splendor. Gorgeous text and illustrations festoon each segment, making every step feel like turning an enchanted page. Along the way you’ll unlock altar pieces, tarot cards, and other collectibles equally resplendent.

For history buffs, there’s plenty of subtle references and hidden jokes to uncover within Inkulinati’s traditional aesthetics. But you need not be a medievalist to enjoy the masterful style – one glimpse of a deadly duck squadron or merry minstrel prepping an attack will make you smile. This indie stands alongside the most sumptuously crafted games out there. An illuminated manuscript come to life? More like a living work of art.

An Illuminated History Lesson

Inkulinatishe more than just silly sketches battling – it shines a spotlight on an overlooked aspect of medieval history. Those wacky margin doodles that sparked the game actually come from illuminated manuscripts, laboriously handwritten and decorated texts made before the printing press. Monks would sometimes doodle amusing images in the margins to stay sane or express their creativity. Inkulinati brings such Medieval graffiti to raucous life.

The game weaves in nods to famous manuscript artists alongside more recognizable historical cameos. Famed Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and philosopher Hildegard of Bingen offer their wisdom, while saints are reimagined as holy hand grenade-hurling heroes. Skeletons boogie in reference to outbreaks of “dancing plagues.”

Blending historical fact with Pythonesque absurdity, Inkulinati shows both admiration for the era and a willingness to playfully poke fun at its quirks. That sincere irreverence is winkingly reflected through design choices – like special boredom penalties incurred for drawing the same units too often. Even medieval artists couldn’t endlessly replicate angels!

While you need not be a scholar of marginalia to enjoy this indie hit, experiencing Inkulinati will certainly give you an appreciation for those whimsical monks doodling the days away. What other game lets you weaponize such imagination? Now if only my army’s rabbits could stop mooning the enemy long enough to win…

Final Thoughts

Few games can match the sheer creative audacity of Inkulinati. This is a passion project with heart, transforming monk doodles into magnificent gameplay. The beautiful art realizes medieval marginalia with aplomb while the strategic battles prove consistently compelling. Positioning parchment armies on tiered stages lends tactics an engaging spatial wrinkle. Throw in modifiers like boredom penalties and the whole experience stays gratifyingly novel.

That said, Inkulinati is lighter on content than some genre staples. Journeys could use more randomized variety, the progression feels truncated before the ending duels, and online multiplayer would elevate longevity. Compared to tactics juggernauts like Into the Breach, this indie darling still has some margins to fill out.

Yet its shortcomings are all areas ripe for expansion within Early Access development. The core concept is so novel, the presentation so gloriously absurd yet welcoming, that one hopes Inkulinati keeps evolving. This illuminating game deserves to shine as more than just a cult curio for Medieval enthusiasts.

For now, I say grab your quill and give the margins a peek if you crave creative strategy with oodles of personality. Revel in rabbits mooning foes alongside holy cats throwing righteous sick beats. But also temper expectations if you want hundreds of hours of content. With some added scribbles though, Inkulinati could go from delightful doodle to illuminated masterpiece. What we have now is but the first gleaming letter – but my oh my, what a letter it is.