Soulless, an unnecessary sequel to Earthbound with even more sad attempts at quirky humor. While Earthbound improved the gameplay of Mother 1 but had worse writing, Mother 3 is a step backwards in both regards. Sure the combat is fun sometimes, but I feel it's not worth dealing with the cringe inducing attempt at comedy. Also wannabe intellectuals will tell you this game is some deep message about capitalism and politics but it's really just juvenile drivel about greed in general. This game's not worth it unless you're dead set on playing all 3 games.

Now and then a game comes along that exceeds all of my expectations and Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales did just that. This game underperformed, it is sorely overlooked and under-appreciated as a video game, but also as a fantasy role-playing narrative experience. More people definitely need to give this game a try and i'm really glad that I dove into it from a friends' recommendation.

Considering it forms part of a huge fantasy series and was developed by the original developers (not a side studio) it is surprising that this title is still so obscure, but it ultimately comes down to its premise I suppose. At a glance its easy to see why this game would go overlooked, it appears as merely a single player campaign of a multiplayer card game which wasn't hugely popular to begin with. But beyond the surface lies an intense, sweeping 30 hour adventure with some of the most thought provoking and nuanced writing i've ever seen. From the moment you first load Thronebreaker up, it is made clear that what you're getting will feel as much like reading a complex novel as it will playing a video game.

The writing in Thronebreaker is very novella like in its execution, with meticulous detail and consideration in what it is trying to evoke, exacerbated by some outstanding narration work and voice acting from the entire cast. But nothing ever drags, no amount of detail in the writing feels overdone, nothing ever feels like it overstays its welcome or loses steam and as a result its hard to even pick a favourite chapter in this game because it is just hit after hit after hit. All of the characters feel fleshed out and interesting and like they truly have a place in the witcher universe. What I think is really fascinating, immersive and absorbing about the witcher universe is how even though it is high fantasy, everything feels real and impactful through its own defined sets of rules and limitations. Unlike many fantasy settings, the world of the witcher is grounded very much in reality and keeps its elements of soft magic uniquely ingrained within certain principles. Even when it veers off into something seemingly quite farfetched, which it has, on many occasions, there's always consequences, there's always a cost, there's always an understanding of motivations and reasoning behind these things and importantly, there's little to no convenient writing techniques to write oneself out of a corner. For example, rarely do I ever see convenient plot amnesia, characters always react and stay in character, never breaking character just to serve a particular moment.

All of these things create a setting and a cast that just absolutely lends itself to immersion. When i'd boot up the witcher 3 and the same here, I knew that I was in for something genuinely exciting and interesting with every play session - a hard decision to be made, a solution to a problem that isn't ideal but the other options are even less ideal and compromising for the sake of maintaining alliances and relationships. Weighing up a sense of personal gain against a greater good or putting others needs before your own is something you are always presented with in Thronebreaker and it is just fantastic. Except a rare occasion where the decisions amount to 'do you enter the place we just described in detail or not' (why would I not? I want the story experience don't I?), I am always invested in the decision making. Thronebreaker truly puts you in the shoes of a leader, having to weigh up consequences and make genuinely hard compromises for the good of your army, your status and your companions. On top of this there is always a lingering sense of something to be lost, when a 'hero' party member abandons or is banished from your army, you lose their card in battle and that can be a heavy loss since they are by far the strongest cards in the game. There's also relative scarcity of resources in the first few chapters so weighing up costs of gold and wood and recruits, or your own army's morale is something I had to do regularly. All of these combined with what I think is quite possibly one of the greatest gaming protagonists of all time in Meve make for a story and role playing experience that nears total perfection. The game's relative obscurity means that it will remain the case that Meve will sadly never get the recognition she deserves, as a female video game character certainly but just as a protagonist in general she is fascinating and no decision you have to make feels entirely out of character for her even given the sheer range of decisions you're presented. Alongside Meve, your party members are all fleshed out with backstories and motivations, they offer insights and personal opinions that never feel at odds with their personalities, they're performed and written exceptionally well and like much of the witcher universe, many of them are shrouded in an ever present sense of grey morality.

Many of Thronebreaker's decisions left me utterly stumped which I have genuinely never found myself feeling with a video game before. It felt more akin to a game of d&d or one of those choose your own adventure stories, except the consequences felt much more real and there's no going back after you've done them. Do you take a risk and ambush the wagon which could be carrying gold or other valuables? If so, you might be disappointed at what you end up finding. Thronebreaker also taught me, through its consequences, that sometimes going against your instinct and weighing up your decisions more closely has its benefits. From being too trusting and forgiving (which is my usual approach in games where it is an option lol), i'd been betrayed and punished, therefore in future decisions, I forced myself to be less forgiving. Sometimes it paid off, other times it didn't, there's no 'true' or 'perfect' scenario to anything in Thronebreaker. Even something that seems like an obvious choice like keeping a party member around could, by some turn of fate, turn out to have been costly. Never do these consequences feel out of control or thrust upon me, however, they always feel natural, deserved and appropriate for the scenario and my choices. Some decisions are even harked back to many chapters and dozens of hours of gameplay apart which is just excellent, as many games with similar mechanics have a tendency to only focus on the moment, rather than the past, with the only real lingering indication of past decision making being a kind of meter or statline that stays around, which just isn't as interesting in my opinion.

Now, the gameplay. Thronebreaker's card gameplay is difficult to get into and doesn't always do an amazing job at teaching you its pretty deep mechanics. If you're familiar with Gwent it will be a breeze, although there are 2 rows rather than 3 now, but for new players, it can be tricky. Gwent is quite a passive game which is what I think made it take some getting to grips with, attacking is done entirely through abilities, order actions and deploy abilities that trigger as soon as you play a unit. Once a unit is down on a board, unless they have a lingering ability like an order ability, they are just numbers, and often after that ability is triggered, there's nothing else for them to do really. But this actually really works in Gwent's favour and I learned to really like it with its level of interactions in different abilities and having to think about card order, ability order and combos more carefully. There's also a lot of consideration involving your use of cards because card draw is so rare and you need to be strategic with what you're using. Fire all your best guns too early and you likely won't have them for the next round, though there are workarounds, but it made me consider my next move more carefully particularly with when was the right time to use my hero cards.

Thronebreaker doesn't have a huge amount of depth in terms of deck building options and strategies however, I do find that the game somewhat limits you in this regard, but towards the end of the game there's definitely a lot of cool synergies to play around with. Hero cards synergise amazingly well with all kinds of cards and abilities too so holding onto these is of utmost importance. But what's also interesting about the limited card options you're given is how it is almost like, representative of Meve's rather ragtag army - loyal Lyrians and Ryvians, thieves, bandits, rogues, pirates, dwarven warriors & dave that you met while on the road. Recruiting new units, spending resources to power them up and change up your strategies as the game progresses, building your units around a particular hero for maximum effectiveness, there's a lot of fun ways to interact with your army and build up your deck in Thronebreaker even with its rather limited roster and options. For a single player game of its length and for what it is going for, I do just think its great. By the end of the game the companions that i'd kept around and gained the loyalty of felt like friends, they felt like loyal allies whom I could always rely on and their hero cards literally never stop being useful. Oh and most importantly of all, Thronebreaker's gwent has very little rng. The rng that is there is just the level that you would expect - drawing random cards, discarding random cards, abilities that target random enemies. But there's little to no totally game breaking or bullshit rng unless you just get unfathomably unlucky which is just so refreshing for a genre that often feels inherently built around it.

As for some of the other gameplay in Thronebreaker, it's not bad it's just not quite as strong. The art and the overworld are absolutely gorgeous but moving around slowly in birds eye view, pressing a to pick up resources and taking on battles and puzzles does start to get a bit tedious. I think the length of Thronebreaker is pretty spot on but if there was another chapter I really think it would overstay its welcome. Of course standard battle and puzzles are largely avoidable, you'd just be missing out on a lot of content and unique moments. The puzzles in particular are a cool little addition early on but eventually I started to find them boring or frustrating and started avoiding them more often. Chapter 5 also has some puzzles that are just match 2 and candy crush for some reason and that made me laugh. The real highlights of the gameplay are the story and decision making moments, by the end of Thronebreaker I was uncharacteristically bloodthirsty and if there was an opportunity to sieze a Nilfgaardian stronghold or caravan, I was taking it regardless of the risk or reward. Ultimately, just walking away is boring! I want to play the game :))

Even if you don't really like card games that much, if you like grandiose fantasy stories with a real level of impact and player involvement in the story, this is a must play. Even if you just like a good narrative, this is a must play. Not playing this game is missing out on something special, it looks awesome, the music goes hard oh my god, even harder than the witcher 3 in some instances and the characters are fantastically written and performed. Just an exceedingly well thought out, beautiful looking game that has so many moments where my jaw was open wide or I was stumped at a decision. Quality, quality game.