If you liked Age of Decadence, this is a purely combat part of it, but with a party = more strategy. Plus: - Challenging tactical game - AoD combat system, but with a party - HAS high enough difficulty level to be replayalle Minus: -Do not expect any kind of significant story. There is some flavor text, but it doesn't matter for gameplay. Not really a minus, as it says so "on the box" -Combat is a little too random at ironman style for my liking -- I wish death mechanics worked like in Colony Ship by same developer (and perhaps to keep similar difficulty level, enemies could be slightly tougher) -- would make a better strategy experience imho. But I'm rating this 5 stars and colony ship 4 stars because colony ship does not have high enough difficulty level. This one does. P.S. If you are like me, and try to ironman game from the start at highest difficulty... for this one start at lower difficulty. A lot of games now days at "impossible" level are "still easy". This one is not. Love it for it!
I really liked the system, and figuring out it in real time. One pet peeve of mine (minor for most, but a star off for me), is the game making most battles fleeable (I like that, at resource cost is OK), EXCEPT some major boss battles. It doesn't matter for people playing with save/reload. It lowers strategic value a lot when playing ironman style -- either be overprepared for every battle making it boring and potentially time consuming, or know what's coming (which makes the game trivial). Also a lot of busy work (like butchering every corpse... no reason not to, would've loved for it to be automated -- skill system behind it I like, but same manual action every time is not fun even if it gives resources) , And lots of same not very challenging battles -- could be OK if those could be done quickly and fairly carelessly, but some nonfleeable bosses make it a non-starter ironman style. And as a lot of decent RPG games (For which I wouldn't fault it if not the first point) it is fairly trivial with safe/reload for a decent strategist.
Several game breaking early bugs (at least as I play ironman style, as I usually do -- non-ironman for most games just tends to be too easy strategy-wise). Major one is sometimes some fleets when moved to a save system (where my fleet was before, completely 0 indication of danger) just dies, for no reason. I don't mind if it's difficulty, or something to solve (perhaps if it was intended there'd be at least a message to the tune of "fleet has been destroyed, we don't know why), I wouldn't mind, I don't mind difficulty. But there is no reason given at all looks like a bug. A few other more minor bug-like behaviors as well. I asked in discord channel, that did not help much. A pitty, I was looking forward to story and strategy combination based on other reviews (some also encountered game breaking bugs, but later), but for me bugs game too early to be able to enjoy the game.
I thought I'd love the game..... but strategy wise it just... doesn't seem to do _anything_ other games don't do better. Tutorial is very long, and not really challening... there might be challenge somewhere down the line, but it just feels like a chore to try to get to that point. The top/bottom of the card mechanics seemed like it would be interesting tactically.... but it just was not. I don't know if the strategy aspect would get better, but it's one of the few games that just felt completely like a chore.
One of my favorite games for its atmosphere. A (small!) city builder, where individual people make decisions base don their needs, I like immersion, atmosphere, and music. Decently thematic too...
What's not too like -- good story, challenging enough for an RPG, good graphics. All the positives of the King bonuty: Knight's legend, a game I really loved, with perhaps slightly, but not much, less compelling story. It covers little new ground though relative to its predecessors -- "if you played one, you played them all" vibe. Yet it was enjoyable.
First the good -- the game has a lot of what I wish good strategy games had: The explanation of effects of buildings and actions is very crisp and clear, making winning or losing a function of how good your strategy is, not whether you misunderstood what a button does. Tradeoffs, at least as I thought of tutorial, are very interesting -- support acts as a soft time limit, so do you raise support (extending the limit, but it will run out eventually), or accomplish other objectives? I like the "luck" balancing -- good or bad events will happen but (according to manual) it is balance by support decrease events, a great way of balancing luck without making everything repeatable. Building system -- every turn you get to choose one of three (there are ways to increase it) semi-random buildings that you will be able to build later. It requires adaptation and choice. It does not have graphics or immersion of city builder or adventure game, but as a fan of strategy games, based on tutorial, I thought I'd love it... Except I found it borningly easy. Inexplcably it locks higher difficulty level scenarios until you play enough easier ones, unlocking difficulty levels very slowly (and no, not just new scenarios, you can play a scenario, but if you only crushed the game 3 times, only easier difficulties are available). Sadly, it means at no point did it provide a challenge. All the balancing and support/time limit mechanism (which I love in principle) is for naught if there is no doubt you'll win from turn 1. Not every game has to be hard, a good city builder or RPG game can have other big draws. But this one is neither, it has simple enough setup. It makes some awesome choices within it, and I hope there more games that treat strategy elements similarly, but without providing a challenge most of those good choices are for naught.
