No Vacation for an Executioner is a horror action role-playing video game developed and published by JayO.

About

No Vacation for an Executioner is a story about a frustrated executioner in late 17th century. He felt sick at his job and ran away from the gallows. It aroused a riot of monsters, and so he had to clean up this cruel mess and uncover the truth about the “Gloomy Oil” of this crazy world.

It’s a retro PlayStation 2-style horror action RPG, in which you will use various skill to survive, defeat your enemies, and move forward.

It’s also a solo-made indie game, inspired by the book The Hangman of Paris by Claude Cueni, and the paintings of Zdzislaw Beksinski. (But the story is not about the Sanson family.)

It is recommended to use gamepad such as Xbox controller or DualShock. Keyboard players can also use arrow keys to control the camera. If using a mouse, please trigger the “Use Mouse” option at “Config” menu.

Key Features

• Unique Art Style – The special art style immerses you into the nightmare of executioner. Half-sketch, half-real, rendering a different kind of Baroque era.
• Small Tips – The vibe and storytelling look quite Soulslike, but the game mechanics are actually quite different. It’s closer to survival horror and you don’t need to collect souls to level up. What you need to do is to survive by any means necessary, and move forward.
• Different Battle System – This battle mechanics encourage you to make critical stabs, backstabs, and continuously parry to perform an execution hit, as well as use your gun properly—not encouraging you to fight directly with normal melee attacks.
• Attire System – Various attires and hats can be changed, and they each serve different functions. Update your outfit and catch the fashion of early 18th century.
• Item Transfer System – Collect different items on the road and transfer them into valuable resources, like different kinds of bullets or herbs for example.
• Multiple Endings – More than four different endings. The first time playing takes about five-to-10 hours. If you trigger some special endings, it could be either much shorter or much longer.