SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

I love the steamworld universe, but the only deck builder I have ever truly enjoyed is Midnight Suns. For those who enjoy deck builders, this would be a higher rating but for me, even though I'm not a big deck builder fan, this was a fun game. Glad I bought it, glad I played it. Won't be replaying it.

Image & Form are, as a game studio, good at making short, tightly executed games populated by charming characters. Steamworld Quest is their attempt at a card-based RPG something akin to Slay the Spire. Your deck is determined by which characters you're bringing with you and which abilities you want to use for them. It's possible to win the game with the starting three characters without making too many changes to their decks if you want to treat it like a JRPG and grind out levels and gear upgrades, but if you prefer tinkering with your deck until it has just the right synergies and combos, you can get away with much weaker characters and fewer upgrades. So the gameplay is simple but fun, and the visual style is like the rest of the series but with a fantasy bent. I happen to like their art style, but you can judge that for yourself. The soundtrack is excellent - there aren't that many variations on the combat theme, but that's the only complaint I have, and the two main combat themes have probably the best use of marimba I have ever heard in a sweet rock jam. Like most of the Steamworld series, this isn't a very long game for its genre - about 20 to 25 hours your first play through. It has a small cast - I counted 11 characters that had more than 3 lines. But here's the thing - these characters are predictable, and this story isn't a whole lot better, but I still loved it. Armilly is clumsy, and charming, and heroic, and even though she embodies the expression "never meet your heroes," I empathize with her so hard. You'll probably see the final plot twist coming from a mile away, but it still hit me in the feels. I know it's cheesey, but it just makes me a big, blubbery mess that she doesn't see how much better she is than the people she's measuring herself against. In a genre that seems mostly filled with stories about unlikely heroes, this is a story about a likely hero and the friends she drags along for the ride. And I love it for that.

I love the art style and story and overall the battles are engaging and mercifully well-timed. Story is ok and things keep moving along nicely. Boss battles are fun and provide the necessary break for regular groups. Characters are well defined and have corresponding skills to match. But... (a) it's too-short (b) there's not much need to use any of the other characters beyond the inital three (c) the extra cards are there I sense to cater for different playstyles and add variety but it really didn't need them and attention would have been better spent on adapting/upgrading fewer cards, perhaps (d) it's a deck building game with a limit of 8 cards (why?) and while the simplicity is much appreciated in a genre where game designers are complicating for complicating sakes, here it feels like untapped potential that towards the end felt underwhelming (e) I have no feeling to go back and play it again, which is a shame.

I was hoping for Steamworld: Heist 2 but now I want Quest 2 as well! Not usually into card builder, but it is nicely made for turn-based RPG. Cool characters and their skills to mix together for combos. Unlike Battle Chasers, didn't feel to grind to beat some bosses. Just with one boss it was not optimal to have mostly heroes with physical attacks. Great quirky Steamworld vibe with dialogue and visuals, can run on potato computer, and banger soundtrack!

Really challenging on the hardest difficulty.