Wildermyth

Overview: Combat is fun and the most developed, Map is limited and mostly waiting, story requires imagination and a lot of reading. Repetion is prevalent due to a finite number of events, and RNG can be frustrating. Fun game but definetely shouldn't be your first choice in terms of DnD-likes or RPGs. Fun game with a rather simple turn based combat system. It's sort of like DnD if your dungeon master really liked to use a fixed number of set peices rather than always coming up with something new. Dialogue and interactions change based on personality, but the endpoints are always the same. Difficulty wise there's not too much issue, you can customize both map and combat difficulty seperately, so if you want to spend more time on character developing "side quests" without harming combat experience, you can. That said, be prepared to sometimes lose just because. Like I mentioned earlier, it's akin to DnD, meaning your actions have chances attached to them. I would say this would give you X-COM levels of annoyance at those chances. Otherwise, the combat is semi simple. You have a Melee, Magic, and Ranged class, each with class-appropriate abilities. These are unlocked upon level ups, earned through combat and/or previously mentioned side quests. Of course, you also have weapons and armour. Weapons have 4 tiers, and can have elemental effects found initaily in combat arenas, which can then can be crafted later in any campain. Armour has 2 tiers of varying types, granting unique buffs and stats. Both can be earned in gameplay as well. Trinkets and extra flair items can also be found in game exlusively. These offer minor stat buffs, and add character to your characters, such as shoulder plates, or a talisman. Some are earned through little story bits, others are just found after combat. The game does not explain these stats/buffs at all. There are links to a wiki in many menus, but the game does not directly point to the value of stats such as "potency" or how "speed" impacts character movement in both map and combat scenarios. The map gameplay is akin to a puddle. You spend a solid amount of time in this game looking at the map and waiting for tasks to complete, which lets you enter the next story or combat comic sequence. Things like making bridges, exploring or securing a tile. Despite that, you do very little other than say "go here." It's pretty much a means to combat, rather than a developed system. As for combat, it does reward strategy, but as mentioned, has a level of RNG that can sometimes feel unfair, and when on the "written in stone" (no-do-overs) mode, can feel especially nasty on a loss (see footnote.) That said, positioning, gear, and abilities all come into play, and are quite useful. Again, it plays like a DnD game, where the DM really likes their cardboard cuttouts, but doesn't have too many of them. The magic class gets some pretty neat interactions with the enviroment, and all objects have some impact on combat, but as stated previously, it isn't explained in-game. Finally, there's story. From the previous, I mentioned repetition, which while present in the other sections, rears it's ugly head the most here. Little events can trigger after actions on the map, often segueing into combat. These happen through comic strips, requiring plenty of reading. These events are limited, and while they do branch based on player-input, these events can get repetitive really quickly. Since it's all random, you can expect to see the same event 4 times through 4 campains before a new one, since there seems to be no restricion on how frequently they occur outside of campains. Luckily, it does seem like the thought to limit repetitions within campains, as I don't recall seeing the same event twice within one campain. I think it's a pretty fun game, but not without it's downsides, especially the repetiveness that can come when restarting due to failure or just having bad luck with event reoccurance. Footnote: To the RNG point, it will feel like if the game wants you to lose, you will. Most recently, I had a level where it was necessary to effectively escort a couple Story-important NPCs, who were kind of slow. The point of the level was to move through semi-quickly, but due to my characters speed, and the pure chance of enemy types and chances, I was unable to kill them quick enough to keep moving, and only made it halfway before what felt like 20ish enemies were all around my party. On top of this, (possibly lore-related, come to think of it) all 20ish enemies went after the NPCs, failing my mission outright, and ending the game there. I was on the "hardcore" difficulty, so no resets for me, but I was several hours into this story, and had to start again with new characters, which really kills investment and enjoyment.