SHOCKER! This blog talks about stuff that is not Anime Fighting games lol.
Yes, we are actually talking about something different today but also very familiar as well. If you do not know, I am am a massive fan of Roguelites. Specifically, deck building ones. Well last week, Steam in its infinite wisdom decided to do a whole sale dedicated to them and well, I could not resist and I brought a game I've had on my radar for a moment.
The game in question is called Tainted Grail: Conquest. It is based on a tabletop RPG/ board game by Krzysztof Piskorski. LOL you know if I actually said that allowed I would butcher that poor name. Tainted Grail: Conquest is actually a 'companion' piece for the big scale RPG that the studio Questline is making called Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon (which is currently in early access).
Funny story, for the brief time I had PC Xbox Game Pass, I had this in my que but I never got around to playing it so when I got a chance to actually play it and it on a discount I could not turn it down. I mean it has all the elements I enjoy as well. I am a big fan of dark fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons settings and as fan of medieval stuff, I also am interest in Arthurian legends as well. Adding this is a challenging roguelite with perma progression, multiple classes to unlock and a deck-builder, this was entirely up my alley.
So enough with the history, how does it play?
Well, the good news is, its amazing. The atmosphere suits the game, the art style is very dark gothic which I like and pulls no punches. Now Darkest Dungeon and Iratus was also suitably dark but with a animated flair, this game aims more for the realism and its good.
The gameplay format is tried and true, with your deck being filled with different types of attacks, blocks or buffs. Some of the card combos I've found in my short time so far are satisfying to pull off. However the game is also very unforgiving like it should be especially in the early runs. Each runs is not for naught tho as you unlock more cards, characters and more just by playing. A first boss, which I've beaten a couple days ago now was previously a unsurmountable goal until I got the right cards but the game also never feels unfair. Also once a boss is beaten it stays dead and you progress to the next big bad, which is surprising but also a nice change. The game even gives you goals to aim for 'aka save this many NPCs, beat this boss or complete this side quest for to build bonds with people' which nice to have in a game like this. Also if you restart a run as soon as you die, the game even offers you buffs like more health potions and what not or even no buffs if you are a purists which I must say is pretty cool and low-key reminds me of King Of Fighters games when if you continued the game will offer you some buffs like infinite super meter or opponent is at half health for continuing.
The game's soundtrack is surprisingly robust with some heavy rock music and the NPCs are fully voiced which is a nice surprise. This feels like an indie sometimes but it also feels like a Double A (at least) as well. My only real gripe right now is some spotty performance and frame drops but its not bad enough for it to be distracting.
Overall, I am enjoying it and I feel a RAVE coming on depending on how the rest of the game treats me. Enjoying everything about it even made me look up the proper RPG video game Fall of Avalon but its a first person RPG in the vein of Skyrim and I am not a fan of that style of RPG. However I did get a good deck-builder out of it at least. Once I 'conquer' it, I'll be back with more.
AV
No comments:
Post a Comment