Tactical combat, great story and dialogue, and a much-needed return to the sort of games Bioware was once famous for making. Larian made a great game in Divinity Original Sin II, and they knocked it out of the park with this one. Very happy to see that story-driven, heart-and-soul RPG's aren't just a retro, niche relic of the past.
Having played Final Fantasy Tactics to death (then having revived it repeatedly and played it back to death), I've felt the itch to find a good new tactics game for the last several years. While fans of the genre often recommend going back and playing games from 20 years ago, I personally can't get back into 16 / 32-bit era graphics. Many newer games haven't quite pulled me in, and the plethora of freemium mobile gacha 'tactics' games has disappointed, to say the least. Here, finally, is a game that (1) isn't mobile garbage and (2) strikes the right balance of theme and game-play. Like many adults of my generation, Dark Crystal struck a chord and remains etched into my psyche such that the new series was a welcome mix of nostalgia and world-building (as well as an entertaining story). To hear that the series had launched so specific a game as a tactical RPG (rather than a simple adventure game or even a Telltale-type story game) was quite a positive surprise. To break the game down into pluses and minuses, the classes, combat options, and tiered / tiled battle maps are very satisfying and make for interesting and, often, strategic battles. One minus would be that some of the jobs/classes (including two of the three tier 3 jobs) feel underwhelming compared to others. Some basic number re-balancing could help with that, but I often feel like the few jobs I've been developing are better than the options I've been able to unlock later (not to mention the fizzgigs and podlings feeling less useful than the gelflings' job options). The graphics are nothing to write home about, but they fit the genre and the theme nicely (as above, obviously better than PSX or Game Boy Advanced graphics). The menu selection system could be improved, and implementing a means of selling unused equipment would also be a welcome addition, but the UI works alright and the gear options seem meaningful enough. For the price ($20), this is well worth buying for tactical RPG fans.
