Dice & Sword

Video: https://youtu.be/rA96DuXcA6c I'm somewhat torn on the general idea of this game. The RPG elements are relatively light, but the combination of the board game style gameplay with dice makes nice mix. Mostly. Graphically the game looks fine, with lots of variety throughout the different chapters when it comes to enemies. The board always looks mostly the same with some slight color changes and different things placed on each piece. But they feel mostly the same. There's... 1 music track, I think. After nearly 3 hours of listening to it, I can say I'm not a huge fan of this solitary song. It isn't that it is bad, it just repetitive. And now, the good. The dice based combat works pretty well. Your dice needs to be better than the opponent's to win. You can use your dice to attack, defend(but take 1 damage at minimum), or flee/dodge. It is a nice implementation, and it works well. The RPG elements are rather light, but gaining experience does result in higher stats that are automatically increased. You can craft gear, buy new stuff, and of course find some loot during your shenanigans. Another thing that works well. The cons: The board game aspect is often an absolute grind. Given the random nature of how dice roll you might find yourself constantly missing the enemies you're supposed to kill, or missing the extraction point on the board. It all leads to this very, very long game where despite all of the time that passes you walk away feeling like not much progress was made. I spent an hour trying to level up my characters by revisiting previous chapters in their adventure mode, and still barely made progress there. There are things like tower building that serve as something to break up the monotony of it all, but you're still at the whims of the RNG gods to have the enemies land there. The story is very light. I enjoy the references to different historical people, and some mythological stuff too. But, with next to no character development it all feels secondary to the board game portion. Ultimately I think this would be considered a Board Game first, with just a slight bit of RPG elements. It's a game that's satisfying to play, at least until you reach that feeling you're just doing all of the same things again and again. I don't think there are many games that mesh the Board Game and RPG vibe together well, and despite the flaws here I do think Dice & Sword does a good job of trying to bring them together. A high recommendation for folks who like board games, and a lighter one for those looking for an RPG.