Easy to learn, difficult to master. The complete quote is “All the best games are easy to learn and difficult to master. They should reward the first quarter and the hundredth.” This quote is attributed to Bushnell’s Law, named after Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari. Bushnell was speaking of game design an emphasis on coin-op (arcade), but it can be applied to modern games. The basic idea is that a game should have an easy entry point and remain enjoyable throughout, while also providing a challenge if one chooses that route.
Developed by Generic Lake Monster, LLC, Quarterstaff is a turn-based action strategy game. “Control the powerful and mysterious wizard Kalresh as you fight to liberate the realm from an ambitious and ruthless tyrant, using a myriad of graceful acrobatics and powerful spells to endure and defeat waves of opponents (Steam)!” Essentially, you are looking at a game of Checkers AND Chess on a massive board. You can choose to play Checkers and just overtake the enemy, or play Chess and utilize everything the game has to offer. By the way, Chess is the perfect analogy for Bushnell’s Law. Once you learn the movesets, you can play forever. Learning the strategy or having the foresight to know what moves are coming moves you towards the mastering aspect.
GAMEPLAY
Each area contains 4 missions to play. Areas can be tackled in any order, but the missions within unlock after each completion. Individual missions take place on large tile-based maps. Kalresh can freely move within a certain range, but attacking is controlled by a separate grid. Melee attacks can only be performed in a one-tile range around Kalresh, while spells have varying ranges. Two unique features that distinguish this game from other tactics-style games are Strategic Foresight and Undo. Strategic Foresight shows all possible outcomes of your next move. You can see what damage you can cause as well as how much damage you will take. Enemy movement is also shown, providing the “foresight” to get into position to attack on your next move. Successfully attacking grants momentum, allowing Kalresh to make multiple moves before the enemy strikes again. Failing to inflict any damage twice in a row during momentum automatically ends momentum. If all else fails, Kalresh can stand still and defend, but his survival depends on both his resilience rating and how many attacks he has to endure. Generally speaking, it is rare for Kalresh to be without a move. If you make a misstep, you can Undo the last move made. Perhaps you did not take into account an archer, or you realize that moving left instead of right allows you to take a strike at four enemies rather than two.
While Kalresh can attack enemies head-on, it eventually becomes ill-advised. For starters, enemies can block and parry. Momentum only occurs when you inflict damage, so non-damaging moves become wasted. In later missions, enemies attack in groups. It is equally easy to finish missions without taking damage as it is to take massive damage and lose in one wrong move. Luckily, Kalresh may be the most acrobatic wizard of all time (I don’t recall Gandalf doing any flips). Not only does flipping over an enemy look cool, but it also disorients them and disrupts their next planned attack. Sometimes, a few non-damaging moves to get in the right position can make or break the whole fight.
Circling back to Bushnell’s Law, Quarterstaff features bonus objectives for every mission. The “easy to learn/first quarter and the hundredth” lies in just defeating every enemy and moving on to the next mission. Those bonus objectives range from high scores to completing the mission in a limited number of moves. In the beginning, high scores will seem nearly impossible (i.e., you need 100,000 but only finish with 7500). Learning to utilize everything in Kalresh’s toolkit will become second nature, and those impossible objectives will complete themselves without you realizing. Missions can be replayed as many times as you like, and you can even watch an instant replay when you are done (see, athletes are not the only ones who study game film).
METAPROGRESSION
In between missions, Kalresh can improve himself in several ways. By completing missions and finishing bonus objectives, you earn mastery. Mastery allows for the purchase and upgrade of various spells that can be used in combat. For each bonus objective completed, you can assign stat points in the following areas: Resilience, Defense, Speed, Finesse, and Pockets. A great feature of this system is that the points are not locked in and can be freely moved around to experiment with different styles. Techniques are passive abilities that Kalresh can assign, and these become unlocked through natural progression in the game (i.e., completing X number of missions or doing Y things).
ACCESSIBILITY
Quarterstaff can be played completely one-handed. The default control scheme in the game uses the mouse. Left click selects spells and other menus, while right click executes the ability. Clicking and dragging of the mouse will pan around maps, and the scroll wheel can be used to zoom in and out. There are two additional control schemes as well: keyboard and numpad. With the keyboard, WASD and Spacebar did most of the heavy lifting with camera controls bound to (by default) I, K, L, and J for panning around the map and PGUP/PGDN operating the zoom functions. The numpad option saw 2468 as the WASD counterpart, and the camera controls remained the same. My preference was the mouse over the keyboard controls. I used a TKL mechanical keyboard so I was unable to test out the numpad scheme. There is currently no controller support, and, at the time of writing, the game does not work on the Steam Deck in either handheld or docked mode.
Quarterstaff is designed to be played in both short sittings and long game sessions. There is no “pause” per se, but there is also no timer. Enemy attacks are automated, but they only go after Kalresh makes a move. None of the bonus objectives appeared to require time-related feats either. Additionally, the game can be saved mid-mission and returned to that exact point later on.
Display options are a huge part of accessibility, and I am happy to report that Quarterstaff has quite a plethora of choices. There are three selections for font size, as well as a dyslexia-friendly font. Tooltip scaling and UI scaling can also be altered, and all the options operate independently. Not only is everything readable (I know this is subjective, especially considering I had LASIK 20 years ago, so I would not be the best judge), but the text is not just a wall of mumbo-jumbo. For example, hovering over an enemy that you cannot charge will tell you why you cannot charge. While dialogue is not spoken, I do want to note that all in-game text is in English.
Regarding audio, master volume can be adjusted along with sliders for sound and music. Sound does enhance the gameplay but there are no audio cues that I picked up. Players have the option to Enable Gratuitous Flip Sound Effects which, “When checked, Flip maneuvers may become significantly more awesome or irritating.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
Quarterstaff is a fun tactics game that can provide a challenge if that is what the player seeks. That said, this is not the game for the impatient. Fans of the genre will appreciate the balance of simple/easy to learn and complex/impossible to master as they play through the campaign.
Full review and developer interview can be found at https://www.deargamers.net/reviews/quarterstaff-impressions
Quarterstaff is a patient yet challenging turn-based action strategy game that you can play for long stretches of time or in short bursts. Control the powerful and mysterious wizard Kalresh as you fight to liberate the realm from an ambitious and ruthless tyrant, using a myriad of graceful acrobatics and powerful spells to endure and defeat waves of opponents!
