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.