Wartales

[shinymcshine]

Newly added to Gamepass, it's an open world party based RPG, which seems to have a rather sandbox approach (in terms of letting you decide whether to go & what to do - rather than (currently) a directed main quest).

 

Create a party of 4 based on their background (reason for being together) and off you wander, in a high level world map (a bit like Mount & Blade). You encounter people, places & settlements, the latter where you can pick up paid missions. Then its off for some turn based combat, leveling up, camping, reskilling etc.

 

Driving force in the early stages is getting gold (to pay your party) and to buy food (consumed when resting).

 

Seems pretty positive so far (about 90 mins played). 

[shinymcshine]

There's a relationship mechanic within the party system, so your crew can get on or fall out - certainly an errant shot by my archer into melee (hitting a crew member) didn't help their liking of each other !

[shinymcshine]

Another nifty feature is that your crew each can have a sub profession alongside their main character class, and these are used for downtime activities (some having a related mini-game too.)

 

So far I've got:

 

Artificer - makes simple equipment (Inc hooks & lockpicks).

Blacksmith - crafts weapons / armour

Cook - reduces food usage/ can make recipes

Thief - can steal, lockpick & fence items

Angler - can fish (with hooks & bait)

 

It seems that you unlock more professions as you go - and can retrain crew members, albeit they lose their previous professions exp.

 

Nice addition - makes your characters feel a bit more 'rounded' than, say, having to stick to predefined (D&D) class constraints.

 

Now - positives aside for a second - it does at times look & feel a bit like one of those F2P browser games from 10 yrs ago - you know where it was like complete a mission then wait 12 hrs for the next one etc - but of course without the waiting, and missions are pretty short so far, go from A-B-A and collect reward - but there has been some moral choice of which side to assist etc.

[shinymcshine]

The turn based combat here is really good. Your crew can have a selection of different builds, with heavy combatants standing toe to toe, archers providing cover fire, and rogues sneaking in to backstab and panic the enemies.

 

There seems to be a huge amount of skill variables, some class specific, others tied to your particular weapon, plus there's environmental effects too (mud slowing movement, fire giving a burning effect, deadly lightening strikes).

 

Whilst there's apocathary potions and remedies, there doesn't seem like there is any direct magic system - instead the game has that gritty medieval 'reality' - noting combat can be pretty deadly, with a small window to apply first aid to a dying crew member before you lose them and look to recruit a replacement.

[shinymcshine]

I lost a party member today - couldn't get to them in time, but it was one of the 2 cutthroats that I had, and it felt that the party wasn't that well balanced (even though they had different skill sets).

 

I thought about reload, but instead just rolled into the village and recruited a spear user (impale damage and double damage if they attach from a couple of paces back). I had to buy & sell a bit of kit in order to equip them, and retrain their secondary skill (as it was the cook I'd lost) but things feel good with them now.

 

I really like this game.

[shinymcshine]

Hitting about 20 hrs having 'completed' the first area, and now progressing in another.

 

Not much more I can add to this (I love the way you can trade with other wandering groups on the road)- but time flies by when I'm playing it.

 

If you're on the fence, then it's Vandal Hearts mixed with FF Tactics/ Disgaea in a brutal medieval setting, with free world exploration - but I know for some people the graphics will make their eyes weep.....

[mfnick]

41 minutes ago, shinymcshine said:

Vandal Hearts mixed with FF Tactics/ Disgaea

Ok you may have sold me on it now, seeing as though it’s on GP I’ll give it a go. 

[shinymcshine]

There's a couple of good guides on the Steam page - esp. to explain a few of the things that the tutorial doesn't.

[shinymcshine]

Now I've just found a Tomb - which is pretty different in its approach once you get inside !

 

Fantastic.

 

My present company size is 10 (8 + 2 ponies) - I think the only limitation you have is the cost of wages & food - but 8 seems a good manageable size (esp. on the battlefield).

 

And now there's an arena, and wandering (but benign) elite bosses, and animal companions.....

[shinymcshine]

Completed the Tomb in Tiltren - was a nice change of pace, with an additional combat dynamic, puzzles and the need to recruit another crew member (certain profession required).

[shinymcshine]

40+ hrs in and opened up another area, and found another tomb (yet to explore). 

 

The battles continue to evolve and remain fair but challenging.

 

So BG3 (on Xbox) will have to wait, I'm still having loads of fun with this game !

[shinymcshine]

Found a couple of gladiator arenas, where you have to pick a squad of 4 to battle through 4 fights (with a small opportunity to fix armour or heal between fights) but I'm struggling to progress beyond fight 2. 

 

They're optional so might be something for the later game.

 

Also now got a couple of epic weapons (from the tombs) and an armoured war pony (which fights in the battles).

[shinymcshine]

So, I had an armoured pony (RIP) as unless you train someone to control it to just uses its own AI on the battlefield - and TBH I didn't even particularly realise it was in any peril until the battle was won, and I'd moved on, then noticed it wasn't around in the next fight, and I'd a pony body in my inventory to bury 😞

 

Now in an area fraught with plague and mosquitoes.

 

This game is certainly hitting top marks for me.

[shinymcshine]

Sadly, now around 70 hrs, and the game has started to become a bit less stable and now prone to the occasional crash (to dashboard) or freezing up.

 

Fortunately it auto saves at the start of each battle, and I've been playing with the free save option (save whenever you want) - so it's just a bit irritating (as only tend to lose 5-10 mins of progress) rather than catastrophic.

[shinymcshine]

I'm just wrapping up the 3rd of 5 areas to explore, so based on 70 hrs so far, it'll probably be a few weeks more before I'll be ready for BG3.

[shinymcshine]

Moved to a new area, Grinmeer Province, and there's a new mini game called Rouste Ball - which is a 6v6 version of Bloodbowl but played with 2 balls!

 

Pretty amazing how they kept adding new things to the areas to keep your interest (plus it now suggested I'd unlocked Rouste pitches in other regions too).

[shinymcshine]

90 hrs and still going - albeit I've hit a bit of a difficulty spike whilst trying to solve a murder in Grinmeer.

 

Progress seems to require becoming champion of the arena - where you have to fight through 4 consecutive rounds of combat (with restricted opportunity to heal or fix armour between fights).

 

In addition there's a special rule in this particular arena that enemies aren't retreated when down to 1 HP - and they heal at the end of each round, unless you get them all down to 1 HP in the same round.

 

And so I eventually worked out the tactics in order to do it, and progressed to the final round - when out rolls out Ornstein & Smoughs much bigger brothers (they'd got 500 armour, 400 HPs each, whereas my best fighter has 150 each, and I can do ~50-100 damage per round) - erm yep, even starting with full armour & hits these would be challenging - but by now each of my party either had some armour or some hits left - and, of course the enemies had a massive movement range, and big hits, so there was nowhere to hide.

 

Oh well, the benefit is I can clean up the rest of the area, and move on to a new area, and maybe I'll someday be strong enough to put up a challenge - just not now.

 

On the plus side I won another couple of games of Rouste Ball, hunted and killed the Ghost Pack, completed the Tomb of Ancients, and took out the Rat Nest - so it's not been completely frustrating.

 

 

[shinymcshine]

Became arena champion in Vertruse (Smot) - which was the first one I came across ages ago, but now suitably levelled up it wasn't too bad.

 

Also found a Sepulchre Door (Vertruse)  - which you can only unlock after solving the various codex, so fortunately I had, so in I went !

 

I've now moved into Drombach, which is the final area.

[shinymcshine]

105 hrs and that's the final area (Drombach) wrapped up - only main thing outstanding is the arena events - I've completed a couple of them, but they aren't really much fun - so I'll give the others a miss and move on (noting that the game doesn't ever 'end' it just keeps giving you new minor quests).

 

Really enjoyed this - but acknowledging it's probably a bit niche.

[shinymcshine]

And I'm back already.....

 

So I was intending to play BG3 which my missus has started on her account (same console) but when I went to play it said it would delete her "quick resume" save - so noting the other potential save issues thought I'd better not do that !

 

Apparently you can only have 1 quick resume save per game per console - so I'm guessing BG3 will be a few months away for me now.

 

So back to Wartales for a bit longer.