While successful Griftlands is a game that deserves much much more recognition than it got. While it lacks the replayability of other deckbuilders it is hands down the greatest experience I've had in a deckbuilder.
Why? Because it succeeds at telling amazing stories while doing it. This is a narrative heavy game with major choices and consequences in the story of each of the 3 characters.
The world building is phenomenal, each character is complex and really interesting with major major kudos to Smith, a complete train wreck of a drunken *sshole who surprised me in becoming one of my top 10 favorite game character of any game ever.
Some game design decision might be shocking: a run is 8 to 10 hours long and if you die, you die. What's on the line is big and when during the final boss your heart will be pumping. Now, the difficulty is also adapted to that: I beat all 3 stories on my first try and never had to redo anything. So this is a design choice that is scary but in my case I found it created a powerful tension that made me really care about my choices and immersed me really deeply.
The only caveat is that there is no Griftlands 2 and by the time I beat the game the only thing I wanted was more Griftlands and more stories about it's characters.
Oh yeah, and the soundtrack by Emmett Hall is absolutely incredible and haunting. There is so much care in it with a unique track for dozens of NPCs you barely meet for a few minutes, multiple combat and negotiation tracks for each character depending if it's day or night... Dynamic tracks during combats affected by which side is winning. It's kinda insane how good it is.
Why? Because it succeeds at telling amazing stories while doing it. This is a narrative heavy game with major choices and consequences in the story of each of the 3 characters.
The world building is phenomenal, each character is complex and really interesting with major major kudos to Smith, a complete train wreck of a drunken *sshole who surprised me in becoming one of my top 10 favorite game character of any game ever.
Some game design decision might be shocking: a run is 8 to 10 hours long and if you die, you die. What's on the line is big and when during the final boss your heart will be pumping. Now, the difficulty is also adapted to that: I beat all 3 stories on my first try and never had to redo anything. So this is a design choice that is scary but in my case I found it created a powerful tension that made me really care about my choices and immersed me really deeply.
The only caveat is that there is no Griftlands 2 and by the time I beat the game the only thing I wanted was more Griftlands and more stories about it's characters.
Oh yeah, and the soundtrack by Emmett Hall is absolutely incredible and haunting. There is so much care in it with a unique track for dozens of NPCs you barely meet for a few minutes, multiple combat and negotiation tracks for each character depending if it's day or night... Dynamic tracks during combats affected by which side is winning. It's kinda insane how good it is.
Extremely interesting game! I really enjoyed my time with it but I made 1 playthrough with each character and left it there. I don't really feel the draw to go back and engage with the Roguelike elements of the story to be honest. But I appreciate that they're there and I'm sure others have reeeeeally got their value out of this one.
Super neat concept for a story-based roguelike that was solidified with Hades but my indecisiveness kept me from continuing.
unfortunately lacks the depth and balance that slay the spire has. i personally find the art style to be kind of bad also.
I played this back a few years ago when it first came out and really liked it. Just played a few runs recently and it really holds up. I think almost no other game has combined story and roguelike elements in such a satisfying way for me.
Really enjoyable, with lots of bells and whistles. Really interesting worldbuilding, pretty aesthetics, characters have their own stories and cards. (Can also do a more traditional battle mode). Two characters have really good stories, and two characters are fun to play. Though two characters don't have easy access to pets, there are lots of modifiers and one can help with this! Having two different decks is great, I love getting to "battle" with diplomacy! And there are different ways to upgrade cards, and you upgrade by playing them! I also like that characters will like/love/dislike/hate depending on what you do, and that it can help or hinder you! Random events popping up keep things fresh. Bit disappointed you can't do a pure pacifist/no hate run.
This was my first game on the Steam Deck! It was a perfect fit!
I like the battle system a lot. I like how the negotiation system works, too. It took some getting used to but I ended up liking the two equally. At first, negotiating put me off due to it being so different.
I'm coming from games like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Across the Obelisk, and Wildfrost. StS still remains the peak of the genre, but this does a lot right.
The "main" way to play the game that involves a story and lots of dialogue is totally fine. After a couple hours, I just started skipping all the dialogue. I didn't find it interesting, it was just deterring me from the actual game. It's a shame you have to play through that part with each character to unlock the "Brawl" mode that let's you only play the good parts (the combat). Once you unlock Brawl, it becomes Slay the Spire and that's the good stuff.
I stopped playing it due to Baldur's Gate 3 releasing. I wasn't quite done with it, but at this point I don't think it's quite compelling enough to pull me back in afterwards.
I like the battle system a lot. I like how the negotiation system works, too. It took some getting used to but I ended up liking the two equally. At first, negotiating put me off due to it being so different.
I'm coming from games like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Across the Obelisk, and Wildfrost. StS still remains the peak of the genre, but this does a lot right.
The "main" way to play the game that involves a story and lots of dialogue is totally fine. After a couple hours, I just started skipping all the dialogue. I didn't find it interesting, it was just deterring me from the actual game. It's a shame you have to play through that part with each character to unlock the "Brawl" mode that let's you only play the good parts (the combat). Once you unlock Brawl, it becomes Slay the Spire and that's the good stuff.
I stopped playing it due to Baldur's Gate 3 releasing. I wasn't quite done with it, but at this point I don't think it's quite compelling enough to pull me back in afterwards.
Tis okay.
Some of the gimmicky mechanics don't work as well, but it's fun enough.
Some of the gimmicky mechanics don't work as well, but it's fun enough.
as a slay the spyre lover
hmm i was excited for another card game thing with rogue like elements but this was just ok
hmm i was excited for another card game thing with rogue like elements but this was just ok
Excelente roguelike de construção de deck, com combate e um sistema de disputas por discussões bem diferente e divertido. A historia é boa, tirando o personagem que parece um sapo, a narrativa dele é podre.
When Griftlands launched, it seemed to be billed as the latest in the deckbuilding roguelite craze. However, it never made quite the splash that was promised, in spite of Klei’s promising track record with cult-hit indie games. Playing the game, it’s easy to see why it might not have taken off, but it’s also a shame that its strengths are so readily overlooked.
Griftlands’ card-battling is fun, but frankly not as fun as staples like Slay the Spire or Monster Train. This is the biggest elephant in Griftlands’ room. It’s enjoyable, but it just doesn’t have the depth or fluidity of play that make those games so fun to repeat. It also has a higher degree of meta-progression than either of those games, which can make it feel like your first few runs are needlessly stacked against you (and without any of the thematic, structural, or narrative innovations that make something like Hades work).
As far as deckbuilding roguelites go, it’s not immediately obvious what this one has over others just from a glance at its card-dueling mechanics. The biggest distinguishing mark in Griftlands' marketing is that you build a second deck of cards to represent your character’s skill in persuasion. Verbal encounters force you to cast arguments instead of attacks, with room for specialization in various forms of diplomacy, intimidation, or anything else a Bard might take proficiency in. After playing it, though, you quickly realize that, while this card-battling dialogue is just as fun as the fighting, it ultimately feels like a tweaked reskin of combat rather than a meaningful simulation of negotiation.
The roguelite structure also doesn’t seem to fit Griftlands quite as well. It’s easy to run through Slay the Spire in a quick session, win or lose, but if you play Griftlands expecting the same addicting loop of pick-up-and-put-down-no-wait-let-me-pick-that-up-again cardplay, you’ll be disappointed to see that the game length drags in comparison, and spends a lot of time outside of the cardplay entirely. This is Griftlands’ biggest weakness and its biggest strength: it’s not just trying to be Slay the Spire. It’s also trying to be an honest-to-god (western) RPG.
A narrative RPG focus and a roguelike/lite focus do seem incompatible at first blush. Imagine procgen Planescape with permadeath, or Nethack with dialogue trees and carefully scripted questlines. But by adopting an accessible and popular gameplay loop, and supplementing it with meta-progression, Griftlands makes it work. Like any good roguelite, the threat of death is constant, and this informs every decision you make. However, the gameplay is easy to understand and offers a number of opportunities to leverage an advantage. The end result? Griftlands finds an entirely new way of making moral choices meaningful.
Because one bad encounter can end an otherwise promising run, selfish--even downright evil--choices tempt in a way they never can in your typical RPG. In your average Bethesda or Bioware game, staying on everyone’s good side and valuing heroism and diplomacy usually produces the best results narratively. Sure, you can be the bad guy, but what for? The best RPGs often work around this by trying to give you morally ambiguous choices, tying multiple decisions together so that the "right answer" for one choice might depend on your previous or future decisions, or delaying the consequences so far that reloading a save for the better outcome isn’t practical. Griftlands has its share of this stuff too, but its world is just dangerous enough to consider things you'd never do in other RPGs outside of an “evil playthrough.” Yet it’s sufficiently short and approachable that you're not forced into doing evil--plus, just like real life, sometimes making friends really is the best call. While it’s not the first or only game to enhance its narrative through permadeath, it’s the most accessible--and successful--that I’ve played.
So with so much focus on storytelling, my assessment of Griftlands has to come down to its writing. And Klei’s writers do put in an admirable effort (as do their animators and character designers, as always--Griftlands looks great). Its worldbuilding is cleverly thought out, and navigating the different factions produces genuinely engaging conflicts. But whether due to the short length of its campaign or the fickle nature of procedural generation and regular restarts, none of the individual characters, relationships, quests, or moments stuck with me. The big ideas are there, and they’re memorable, but I’m not sure it sticks the landing once you get down to specifics. Still, Griftlands' integration of narrative, role-playing, and gameplay can't help but impress anyone interested in RPG design. It's just kind of a shame they built their mechanics around a genre that’s simply more fun when the story is secondary.
Griftlands’ card-battling is fun, but frankly not as fun as staples like Slay the Spire or Monster Train. This is the biggest elephant in Griftlands’ room. It’s enjoyable, but it just doesn’t have the depth or fluidity of play that make those games so fun to repeat. It also has a higher degree of meta-progression than either of those games, which can make it feel like your first few runs are needlessly stacked against you (and without any of the thematic, structural, or narrative innovations that make something like Hades work).
As far as deckbuilding roguelites go, it’s not immediately obvious what this one has over others just from a glance at its card-dueling mechanics. The biggest distinguishing mark in Griftlands' marketing is that you build a second deck of cards to represent your character’s skill in persuasion. Verbal encounters force you to cast arguments instead of attacks, with room for specialization in various forms of diplomacy, intimidation, or anything else a Bard might take proficiency in. After playing it, though, you quickly realize that, while this card-battling dialogue is just as fun as the fighting, it ultimately feels like a tweaked reskin of combat rather than a meaningful simulation of negotiation.
The roguelite structure also doesn’t seem to fit Griftlands quite as well. It’s easy to run through Slay the Spire in a quick session, win or lose, but if you play Griftlands expecting the same addicting loop of pick-up-and-put-down-no-wait-let-me-pick-that-up-again cardplay, you’ll be disappointed to see that the game length drags in comparison, and spends a lot of time outside of the cardplay entirely. This is Griftlands’ biggest weakness and its biggest strength: it’s not just trying to be Slay the Spire. It’s also trying to be an honest-to-god (western) RPG.
A narrative RPG focus and a roguelike/lite focus do seem incompatible at first blush. Imagine procgen Planescape with permadeath, or Nethack with dialogue trees and carefully scripted questlines. But by adopting an accessible and popular gameplay loop, and supplementing it with meta-progression, Griftlands makes it work. Like any good roguelite, the threat of death is constant, and this informs every decision you make. However, the gameplay is easy to understand and offers a number of opportunities to leverage an advantage. The end result? Griftlands finds an entirely new way of making moral choices meaningful.
Because one bad encounter can end an otherwise promising run, selfish--even downright evil--choices tempt in a way they never can in your typical RPG. In your average Bethesda or Bioware game, staying on everyone’s good side and valuing heroism and diplomacy usually produces the best results narratively. Sure, you can be the bad guy, but what for? The best RPGs often work around this by trying to give you morally ambiguous choices, tying multiple decisions together so that the "right answer" for one choice might depend on your previous or future decisions, or delaying the consequences so far that reloading a save for the better outcome isn’t practical. Griftlands has its share of this stuff too, but its world is just dangerous enough to consider things you'd never do in other RPGs outside of an “evil playthrough.” Yet it’s sufficiently short and approachable that you're not forced into doing evil--plus, just like real life, sometimes making friends really is the best call. While it’s not the first or only game to enhance its narrative through permadeath, it’s the most accessible--and successful--that I’ve played.
So with so much focus on storytelling, my assessment of Griftlands has to come down to its writing. And Klei’s writers do put in an admirable effort (as do their animators and character designers, as always--Griftlands looks great). Its worldbuilding is cleverly thought out, and navigating the different factions produces genuinely engaging conflicts. But whether due to the short length of its campaign or the fickle nature of procedural generation and regular restarts, none of the individual characters, relationships, quests, or moments stuck with me. The big ideas are there, and they’re memorable, but I’m not sure it sticks the landing once you get down to specifics. Still, Griftlands' integration of narrative, role-playing, and gameplay can't help but impress anyone interested in RPG design. It's just kind of a shame they built their mechanics around a genre that’s simply more fun when the story is secondary.
It’s a cool little game. I think the devs definitely could’ve done more with the game. As it is it’s pretty short all things considered but you’ll like it if you liked Slay the Spire. There are similar mechanics but also vastly different ones.
The RPG bits were a bit repetitive given the rougelike nature of the game, but I did enjoy the deckbuilding aspects - specifically having to manage two decks for negotiation and combat. I finished with 2 of the 3 characters.
Compelling game! I've finished it once with the first two characters. Never really played a deckbuilding game before (outside of Yugioh lol), so it took a while to get a grasp on mechanics (especially with how much there is to read) but I really enjoyed learning by doing. I had one Rook run where my cards were so well-synced that I negotiated my way through the whole game without friction.
Really dug the art style, music and the vibe of the game in general. It's got that clean 80s cartoon look that I enjoy.
The Switch port is pretty good, you feel the limitations of bringing what would be a straightforward mouse-driven game to a console, but I got used to it pretty quickly. The UI is really tiny though, especially handheld.
Really dug the art style, music and the vibe of the game in general. It's got that clean 80s cartoon look that I enjoy.
The Switch port is pretty good, you feel the limitations of bringing what would be a straightforward mouse-driven game to a console, but I got used to it pretty quickly. The UI is really tiny though, especially handheld.
Overrated
The negotiations in this game are soooo fun. Many games give you options to talk your way out of a situation, but its often at the cost of interacting with the fun mechanics - but i love that in this game the negotiations are their own thing, and theres quite the emphasis on playing them AND fighting normally. The art style is quite good, and I love the designs.
The music could be better, but outside of battle themes I found myself ignoring a lot of it. I could see it made that way as to not distract from reading, but it still feels like a miss. I also don't see myself doing more than a few more runs after beating the campaigns once, but that's a personal thing.
I liked this title a lot more than I thought I would! The writing was also very witty, and while the plots were not life-changing, they were fun and engaging. I'll def be picking up a run here or there to pass time.
The music could be better, but outside of battle themes I found myself ignoring a lot of it. I could see it made that way as to not distract from reading, but it still feels like a miss. I also don't see myself doing more than a few more runs after beating the campaigns once, but that's a personal thing.
I liked this title a lot more than I thought I would! The writing was also very witty, and while the plots were not life-changing, they were fun and engaging. I'll def be picking up a run here or there to pass time.
Beat it on my first run, then never cared to try it again.
Sights & Sounds
- Just looking at screenshots, you can tell this is a Klei game. If they weren't so sci-fi, the characters look like they could be found in Shank or Mark of the Ninja. Here, moreso than those games, the characters are very expressively drawn and bursting with personality
- The music is kind of a let down. It's not bad, but every track sounds like it would be the menu music for a less interesting game
- The sound design is otherwise okay. I get that the Simlish-like VA work is meant to signify alien languages, but the game would have been fine without it
Story & Vibes
- Avoiding spoilers, there are actually three narratives (one for each of the three protagonists). Each one plays out as an interesting little sci-fi character study. Sal's story plays out like a classic revenge tale, Rook's is more subdued and full of intrigue, and Smith's is a bit funnier with several doses of comic relief
- It winds up being a bit of a let down that these stories don't play into each other much. Sure, you may see one of the other two characters pop in to make a cameo, but nothing noteworthy. It really feels like a lost opportunity
- One thing that I did appreciate were the plot-altering consequences. For example, choosing to save an innocent trader from a pack of marauders may net you a reward, but you can bet those bandits will be out for revenge. Screw someone over in a negotiation? Well, hope you're prepared to weasel yourself out of the consequences once your duplicity is discovered
- Vibes will depend on which of the characters you play as. I enjoyed Smith the most. Even though he was the worst at combat/negotiations, I found his story to be the most enjoyable to play through
Playability & Replayability
- I won't go into a deep mechanical explanation of the roguelike deckbuilder; they're mostly the same in term of things like action order/economy. I'll just try to share some observations regarding how it's unique
- In Griftlands, you actually use two separate decks: one for battling and one for negotiating. Which one you use depends on the random event you choose to navigate to on the world map first
- Given the binary focus, you'll typically want to choose events that play into the deck and character upgrades you've received that run
- Griftlands also features partners and pets. Some of these can be very helpful in tougher battles or negotiations
- You can also employ the use of run-altering "mutations", which can provide buffs or nerfs for you to take advantage of or work around
- Unlike many other roguelike deckbuilders, there's very little metaprogression. Sure, you'll unlock cards for future runs (6 per character), but you won't be, say, permanently increasing your HP or the number of cards you can play per turn
- In that way, there's not a ton of replayability in Griftlands once you've completed each character's story. Sure, there's other endings to see and dailies to play, but I wasn't interested in remixes of the same content I'd already played through
Overall Impressions & Performance
- It's a fun game, but doesn't quite reach the upper eschelons of the genre like Slay the Spire. I may not be the most trustworthy of opinions on the matter as I'm not a huge card game player and have just recently started being able to tolerate CCG gameplay
- I didn't encounter any audiovisual issues or other bugs, and the game performed very well on my good-for-2019 setup
Final Verdict
- 7.0/10. It's probably a better game than my score implies, and the presence of a narrative (or three) helps make the plodding gameplay pace a little more tolerable for someone who's lukewarm on CCGs
- Just looking at screenshots, you can tell this is a Klei game. If they weren't so sci-fi, the characters look like they could be found in Shank or Mark of the Ninja. Here, moreso than those games, the characters are very expressively drawn and bursting with personality
- The music is kind of a let down. It's not bad, but every track sounds like it would be the menu music for a less interesting game
- The sound design is otherwise okay. I get that the Simlish-like VA work is meant to signify alien languages, but the game would have been fine without it
Story & Vibes
- Avoiding spoilers, there are actually three narratives (one for each of the three protagonists). Each one plays out as an interesting little sci-fi character study. Sal's story plays out like a classic revenge tale, Rook's is more subdued and full of intrigue, and Smith's is a bit funnier with several doses of comic relief
- It winds up being a bit of a let down that these stories don't play into each other much. Sure, you may see one of the other two characters pop in to make a cameo, but nothing noteworthy. It really feels like a lost opportunity
- One thing that I did appreciate were the plot-altering consequences. For example, choosing to save an innocent trader from a pack of marauders may net you a reward, but you can bet those bandits will be out for revenge. Screw someone over in a negotiation? Well, hope you're prepared to weasel yourself out of the consequences once your duplicity is discovered
- Vibes will depend on which of the characters you play as. I enjoyed Smith the most. Even though he was the worst at combat/negotiations, I found his story to be the most enjoyable to play through
Playability & Replayability
- I won't go into a deep mechanical explanation of the roguelike deckbuilder; they're mostly the same in term of things like action order/economy. I'll just try to share some observations regarding how it's unique
- In Griftlands, you actually use two separate decks: one for battling and one for negotiating. Which one you use depends on the random event you choose to navigate to on the world map first
- Given the binary focus, you'll typically want to choose events that play into the deck and character upgrades you've received that run
- Griftlands also features partners and pets. Some of these can be very helpful in tougher battles or negotiations
- You can also employ the use of run-altering "mutations", which can provide buffs or nerfs for you to take advantage of or work around
- Unlike many other roguelike deckbuilders, there's very little metaprogression. Sure, you'll unlock cards for future runs (6 per character), but you won't be, say, permanently increasing your HP or the number of cards you can play per turn
- In that way, there's not a ton of replayability in Griftlands once you've completed each character's story. Sure, there's other endings to see and dailies to play, but I wasn't interested in remixes of the same content I'd already played through
Overall Impressions & Performance
- It's a fun game, but doesn't quite reach the upper eschelons of the genre like Slay the Spire. I may not be the most trustworthy of opinions on the matter as I'm not a huge card game player and have just recently started being able to tolerate CCG gameplay
- I didn't encounter any audiovisual issues or other bugs, and the game performed very well on my good-for-2019 setup
Final Verdict
- 7.0/10. It's probably a better game than my score implies, and the presence of a narrative (or three) helps make the plodding gameplay pace a little more tolerable for someone who's lukewarm on CCGs
I much prefer this to Slay the Spire, but only because the cards fall easier into archetypes
La carrera armamentística por crear el mejor indie roguelike de cartas nos ha dado Griftlands, un juego con tantas mecánicas y sistemas dentro de la ya trillada fórmula Slay the spire que contarlas aquí es más del tiempo que se tarda en ir a Steam y comprarlo y empezar una run.
El as debajo de la manga de Griftlands está en ser además de un gran deckbuilder un RPG buenísimo dentro de sus pequeños confines de run de hora y pico. Cada partida está llena de decisiones interesantes, diálogos divertidos, un sistema de karma tan afilado que viene para pincharte en el culo cuando menos te lo esperas... ¡Si incluso las cartas son como tiradas de dados por aquello de dañar dentro de un rango!
Porque hasta cuando pierdes una run de 2 horas porque me cago en la leche qué decisión más tonta meterme en esta pelea cuando no debía o cómo se me está atascando este boss, querer volver a empezar es algo casi automático. Porque siempre sientes que ha sido culpa tuya y no del azar o de la dificultad del desafío. Los roguelikes cada vez están siendo más sofisticados en este sentido pero en Griftlands me ha parecido brillante cómo hila la progresión persistente y lo lineal de la campaña con las decenas y decenas de pequeñas decisiones y variaciones procedurales que te encuentras en cada run. Cada una de las tres campañas tiene un objetivo y una narrativa fijas, pero cómo se llega a ello es siempre una elegantísima mezcla entre preparación e improvisación.
Joder y ni siquiera me he puesto a hablar de que hay DOS mazos que llevas en paralelo según quieras llevar un estilo más de negociación o de combate, cada uno con su estilo de juego completamente diferente.
Joyitaaaaa.
El as debajo de la manga de Griftlands está en ser además de un gran deckbuilder un RPG buenísimo dentro de sus pequeños confines de run de hora y pico. Cada partida está llena de decisiones interesantes, diálogos divertidos, un sistema de karma tan afilado que viene para pincharte en el culo cuando menos te lo esperas... ¡Si incluso las cartas son como tiradas de dados por aquello de dañar dentro de un rango!
Porque hasta cuando pierdes una run de 2 horas porque me cago en la leche qué decisión más tonta meterme en esta pelea cuando no debía o cómo se me está atascando este boss, querer volver a empezar es algo casi automático. Porque siempre sientes que ha sido culpa tuya y no del azar o de la dificultad del desafío. Los roguelikes cada vez están siendo más sofisticados en este sentido pero en Griftlands me ha parecido brillante cómo hila la progresión persistente y lo lineal de la campaña con las decenas y decenas de pequeñas decisiones y variaciones procedurales que te encuentras en cada run. Cada una de las tres campañas tiene un objetivo y una narrativa fijas, pero cómo se llega a ello es siempre una elegantísima mezcla entre preparación e improvisación.
Joder y ni siquiera me he puesto a hablar de que hay DOS mazos que llevas en paralelo según quieras llevar un estilo más de negociación o de combate, cada uno con su estilo de juego completamente diferente.
Joyitaaaaa.
I would be a terrible bounty hunter
A smart, carefully designed deckbuilder with heavy narrative and RPG elements. The core mechanics aren't as strong as Monster Train; the variability and deckbuilding potential aren't as strong as Slay the Spire; yet I enjoyed this game more than these two stalwarts of the genre.
The gritty world, choice-based writing and character relations are what tie together the disparate parts of the gameplay for me, and make it greater than the sum of its parts. Also, you can get a giant snail equipped with rockets as a party member. Great game.
The gritty world, choice-based writing and character relations are what tie together the disparate parts of the gameplay for me, and make it greater than the sum of its parts. Also, you can get a giant snail equipped with rockets as a party member. Great game.
Fun gameplay, too bad it's so short. The 3 campaigns are very engaging, but I don't feel like it has a lot of replay value once you finish both main paths in each. Cool worldbuilding, fun card battles, but I just want to develop and live in it for longer, because I like to see how every choice matters, the friends you make help you, and so on. Just gimme more content!1
Really well executed concept for a card roguelike with interesting lore
Something about this game really gets under my skin. A few of the reviews here have helped me put it to words. The dissonance of having to get invested in all of the NPC relationships and reputation, what things to put money into and how to manage all of the options for the deck building, while being so similar to something like Slay the Spire, and just as likely to have a run end. It feels like I'm doing it all for nothing. It's not something I can actually enjoy. It doesn't make for a short fun run, but like, a very awkard long stressful one. Worst of all, maybe I just had bad draws, but the actual cards I had to work with were very frustrating and crappy and couldn't really synergize anything right. The cards all just feel weak even after you upgrade them and get your graft slots filled up. Conceptually, it's nice. I just can't stand it.
Incredibly short, but taunts you with all of this potential of how strong your build could be, without providing the interest to start over and attempt at it
A strong riff on the deck building rogue-light, a dual deck system with a healthy dose of campaign flexibility and dynamic storytelling. If I can levy one complaint, the game offers a steep time commitment just to find out in the final act that your build isn't up to snuff, which can feel pretty deflating.
SO. MUCH. FUN!
Un típico deck-builder come horas con el aliciente de incluir tres campañas para los que no quieran dedicarles infinitas horas.
Pros:
- Cada personaje se siente realmente diferente y fresco en su estilo de juego.
- El uso de dos estilos de juego distintos con cada personaje (negociación y combate) aporca una enorme variedad a cada campaña.
- El sistema de relaciones personales es un añadido muy agradecido, tanto a nivel mecánico como narrativo.
Contras:
- Cada run puede hacerse demasiado larga (5 horas aprox.) como para conseguir el típico "una run más y paro".
- Los perks de los aliados suelen repetirse en demasía.
- El modo campaña acaba quedándose algo corto y no termina de desarrollar bien las tramas.
Pros:
- Cada personaje se siente realmente diferente y fresco en su estilo de juego.
- El uso de dos estilos de juego distintos con cada personaje (negociación y combate) aporca una enorme variedad a cada campaña.
- El sistema de relaciones personales es un añadido muy agradecido, tanto a nivel mecánico como narrativo.
Contras:
- Cada run puede hacerse demasiado larga (5 horas aprox.) como para conseguir el típico "una run más y paro".
- Los perks de los aliados suelen repetirse en demasía.
- El modo campaña acaba quedándose algo corto y no termina de desarrollar bien las tramas.
Looking like yet another game that I respect without enjoying it very much. At first, I just knew this as a roguelite deckbuilder and put it off for a while, but then I heard that it's actually a roguelite deckbuilder RPG, with travel between cities and forming of relationships and so on, and then I had to immediately buy it only to be immediately disappointed by how overengineered it all seems, but without having an equally as immediate hook.
From the beginning, the game instantly digs into itself and throws words and phrases at you. This and that many currencies, so and so many different statues, factions and characters to befriend or make an enemy of. Apply Apprehension to gain two Nervous stacks which then trade back in for Resolve counters and blah, blah, blah. I suppose it's well-designed, but it doesn't draw me in to see a wall of text for the game's various complicated ailments and boons. Maybe I've just had enough games to last me a lifetime if I feel like this about complicated games, or maybe this one could do a better job of luring you in and wanting you to discover more bit by bit instead of drowning you all at once. I don't know, I just know that I'm not having very much fun with the game.
The best example is perhaps the fact that you have two decks. One for combat and one for negotations. That's a layer of complexity that doesn't really add anything, because now you have to keep track of two decks (and can't just choose to be either talker or fighter since some scenarios will demand one or the other), without really expanding the game as negotation "combat" is just more or less the same as regular combat. Do attacks and raise defense, except the attacks are arguments instead of fists. That's really it and there is no deeper difference than that. More keywords and status effect names to remember.
I don't hate it and there is much that I do like. The artwork is classic Klei and looks better and more fitting than ever. The gameplay is solid and glitch free. The day system works out nicely enough with you being allowed to pick whatever your next task is as the previous one moves the clock along until you run out of time and missions. It all works fine, but I'm just feeling overwhelmed by things to learn without feeling a desire to learn them, and it doesn't help that the overworld map feels very linear in how you're not allowed to move freely across it, and it certainly doesn't help that this game does the one thing I hate the most in deckbuilders; it won't carry over defense to the next round, causing the ever-persistent problem of dead hands where if you drew nothing but defense, you just played a terrible turn that can end up with you losing through no fault of your own. Hate that in Slay The Spire, hate it here and will hate it in the next game that does it. And, since everything in Griftlands is solved through card play, me being sick of this mechanic comes into play pretty much directly as the game begins and leaves me not wanting to play more. So I won't and this is the game's third and final attempt.
Good game that's not for me. Again.
From the beginning, the game instantly digs into itself and throws words and phrases at you. This and that many currencies, so and so many different statues, factions and characters to befriend or make an enemy of. Apply Apprehension to gain two Nervous stacks which then trade back in for Resolve counters and blah, blah, blah. I suppose it's well-designed, but it doesn't draw me in to see a wall of text for the game's various complicated ailments and boons. Maybe I've just had enough games to last me a lifetime if I feel like this about complicated games, or maybe this one could do a better job of luring you in and wanting you to discover more bit by bit instead of drowning you all at once. I don't know, I just know that I'm not having very much fun with the game.
The best example is perhaps the fact that you have two decks. One for combat and one for negotations. That's a layer of complexity that doesn't really add anything, because now you have to keep track of two decks (and can't just choose to be either talker or fighter since some scenarios will demand one or the other), without really expanding the game as negotation "combat" is just more or less the same as regular combat. Do attacks and raise defense, except the attacks are arguments instead of fists. That's really it and there is no deeper difference than that. More keywords and status effect names to remember.
I don't hate it and there is much that I do like. The artwork is classic Klei and looks better and more fitting than ever. The gameplay is solid and glitch free. The day system works out nicely enough with you being allowed to pick whatever your next task is as the previous one moves the clock along until you run out of time and missions. It all works fine, but I'm just feeling overwhelmed by things to learn without feeling a desire to learn them, and it doesn't help that the overworld map feels very linear in how you're not allowed to move freely across it, and it certainly doesn't help that this game does the one thing I hate the most in deckbuilders; it won't carry over defense to the next round, causing the ever-persistent problem of dead hands where if you drew nothing but defense, you just played a terrible turn that can end up with you losing through no fault of your own. Hate that in Slay The Spire, hate it here and will hate it in the next game that does it. And, since everything in Griftlands is solved through card play, me being sick of this mechanic comes into play pretty much directly as the game begins and leaves me not wanting to play more. So I won't and this is the game's third and final attempt.
Good game that's not for me. Again.