It is a fun, simple in an elegant way, and not very difficult game. I enjoyed it quite a lot and have finished it, Each location is a more or less static screen you interact with by clicking on marked icons (there is no depiction of your character, you act through your mouse cursor). You have options of gathering resources, visiting shops, completing quests etc. Actions cost you time (and, sometimes, HP), which can be replenished by sleeping (which costs you other resources). At times you need to grind (for example, for gold), but it doesn't get out of hand. You usually have several screens accessible at the same time, and, as the story progresses, new appear and old lose usefulness. There is no time pressure, no danger (combat is of the form "to win this battle, come with these resources"). The story and art style remind me of a colorful fairy tale - a story of a rise from a simple farmboy to the hero of the land. There are no depressing or difficult themes. There are achievements, and if you want to complete the game 100% it will challenge you a bit more. It is not an RPG, not an adventure game, and not a puzzle game in the strict sense of the word. It tells an interactive story and has you progress through it at your own pace.
Run the file "RegVideosDLL.exe" located in the main game directory as administrator, otherwise the videos might not play (tested on Win10).
It is, at its heart, a puzzle game. The mechanics is a new and interesting idea. However, please read the last paragraph of the game description carefully. Right now there is a standard, ranked and endless run, and 4 out of 13 campaign scenarios implemented. With over 50% of the content replaced with placeholders I feel it would be more honest to label this game as "in development". (There have been no updates to the campaign since the release 5 months ago.)
Overall, this is a playable roguelike dungeon crawler with nice graphics. However, it has been released with multiple bugged features and the work on it seems to have stopped. There are, for example, achievements impossible to complete (Possessive, Deep Fried). Other do not work as intended (Sniper, Master of Magical Mayhem). Sadly, this seems to have been a fire-and-forget release.
Important technical matter first: there is only autosave in the game, you can't save it manually. While it saves often, it is not immediately obvious when it does; you can tell this happens when a small icon flashes at the bottom right of the screen. Fortunately, you can pass by an autosave point multiple times and it will keep activating. This is a strange design decision, though. Also, there is no autosave in the tutorial, so you have to play several minutes before you get to keep your progress. As far as typing games go this one is on par with Epistory, but with a more relaxed, fairytale visual style and narrative (or, at the very least, this is the case for as far as I have gone into the story so far). The gameplay consists at least in half of exploration and gathering knowledge. The other half are puzzles, tactical encounters with small packs of enemies, and grand battles that are resolved by frantic typing. If you like the typing games genre you will probably have fun with this title. If you are not sure, you might want to try Epistory first, which has similar mechanic and is right now at a discount.
There is a "redeem code" option in the menu that can be used to unlock card packs ( a kind of free DLCs). At the moment of writing (1 Mar 2021), there are four booster packs: H4B12WL-02 Magical Preparation W3R3WLF-03 Werewolf Booster Pack RTIFACT-05 Artifact Starter FIREWRR-06 Fire Warriors It is unknown to me whether there will be non-free card packs or what are Booster Packs 01 and 04.
Good thing: mechanics wise the game is very interesting and keeps opening up new options as you progress. Disturbing thing: the story is pretty much about your characters being bullied around and shaken down, not only by brutes who use pure strength, but also by their weak but sadistic lackeys who come just to rub it in and delight in your inability to do anything about it. You are not really given any choice but to select in what way you want to be humiliated. This continues pretty much throughout the entire game and the conclusion of the story did not leave me with a feeling of closure. Thus the main line of the story took away most of the enjoyment of the game I might have derived from the mechanics and side stories, which are interesting. So, if, like me, you have been subject of bullying at young age you might buy this game expecting fun and trigger flashbacks instead. I have finished this game as a kind of therapeutic exercise, but I can't say I would wish to come back to it or look for something similar. Anachronistic thing: the dialogues and relationships between characters portray Vikings just like an American family from a modern sitcom, including a hefty amount of very modern profanities. I found it somewhat hard to suspend disbelief around it.
This game is good fun as long as you do not expect it to be what it does not aim to be. The gameplay is strictly combat oriented, with a few puzzles thrown in. The dialogues are limited and serve to point the player to the next location. The story is mostly linear, though the world is open and many locations can be visited ahead of their relevance to the story. The party of four has three classes to choose from: knight (fighter), cleric, and wizard. There are three races to choose from: human, half-elf, and mul (half-dwarf). The story is geared towards a lawful good party (well, this is a game about knights). You can expect to take your characters from level 1 to 20. The 3.5 system has been modified and abridged (for example, skills were totally removed). There have been some serious modifications to the magic system (clerics need to learn spells from scrolls or level-ups like wizards do, but both don't have to prepare spells ahead of time). The item selection is limited - there is just one item in the game to fit in the boots slot, one to fit in the belt slot, two types of bracers etc. The spell selection on the other hand is bountiful, and weapons and armor come in variety. The playthrough (with moderate amount of grind) took me about 20 evening sessions. The world map has 14 locations, and each location consists of 1 to 3 floors/maps. The final fights are difficult, but winnable if you know the system well and have maxed out the potential of your party. To enjoy this game you probably should be a person who knows the 3.5 system well and likes to optimize character builds and equipment choices, as well as the grind to stay ahead of the difficulty curve. An interesting touch is the incentive to take item creation feats, which usually are avoided, but in this game shopping opportunities are rare and if you want the optimal set of weapons and armor you have to make them yourself. What is somewhat disappointing is a limited selection of items for some slots.
A note: even though the protagonists are children and the graphics is colorful, the story of the game is dark, grim, and depressing. It is a very strong and well told tale, but be warned - this is not a lighthearted game. The game mechanic is fresh and interesting, and the game has surprises in store for you up to the very end of campaign. I had a lot of fun with this title.
[This regards version 1.0.0] After about 1 hour of play, the game crashed on exiting the dungeon, corrupted the autosave, and I lost all progress (there is no way to save manually). It looks like a nice game, but I will refrain from investing any more time into it until the bugs are fixed.
