Wildermyth: Game Review

Heroes are not born, they are made. Usually after some traumatic event. And then life goes on as usual, the characters grow up, they have children, and those have their own children. The old guard is replaced by a new one. And that’s what Wildermyth is about. This is a collection of endless stories about how the characters live their busy lives, grow old and leave.

Randomness is a feature of Wildermyth

If you describe the Wordwalker Games project by well-known genres, then Wildermyth resembles a tabletop turn-based role-playing game. Five global plots differ only in the introduction, transitional chapters, opponents and finale. Everything that happens in between is randomly generated events.

Heroes are also randomly generated, as are their roles – warrior, archer and mage. At first, these are just residents of some local village, armed with pitchforks, nets and frying pans. After passing the introduction, the player dresses his characters in armor, gives them normal weapons and sends them on a variety of journeys.

Randomness is the main feature and disadvantage of Wildermyth. The main stories are written in an interesting way, however, going through new scenarios, you constantly meet all the same situations, and the very first passage can be called truly unique. And the illusory nature of decision-making is not yet so striking. It seems that the further development of history depends only on you.

For example, in the first campaign, you can sacrifice one of the characters to kill the last boss and save the rest – this is a difficult but interesting decision. But in subsequent chapters, there is no longer such a binding to doodles. The player begins to understand how Wildermyth works, where and what is better to answer and do, and therefore you get less pleasure from the game.

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What can not be said about the pumping of heroes – it is made more interesting than in most modern projects. Increasing the level makes it possible to acquire active and passive skills, but strengthening the character is done through decision making in dialogues and tasks. So, in my party there was a place for two warriors with divine transformations. Having received power at an unknown altar during random events, one destroyed everyone with lightning, and the other with fire.

I would like to separately note the magicians. Their abilities look the coolest of all, and the methods of application are sometimes unexpected. For example, having gained a level, a sorcerer can choose a special passive skill that allows using a bookshelf to fill the enemy’s head with unnecessary information and thereby cause damage. Or, having charmed a tree, press the opponent’s legs to the ground with the help of roots and prevent him from making a move – and this is a standard initial spell! Magic is very inventive and fun to use.

Game mechanics Wildermyth

Movement on the global map takes place with the help of special hero chips, and it takes days to move from point A to point B, as well as other actions. It takes a certain number of days to build a fortification in a location where enemies are defeated, but in the end, the player will receive the necessary resources to improve armor and weapons. At the same time, the timer for the appearance of new types of enemies and hordes is reduced, which makes it faster to complete the main tasks of the scenario. You need to have time to complete the chapter before the horde begins to capture your territories. Their attacks can be repulsed, and the fortifications can delay enemies, but this can be difficult to do – especially in late campaigns.

When the goal of the chapter is reached, the stage ends. A number of years of peaceful life pass between chapters. Heroes get married and have children if they had a romantic relationship during the adventure, and also experience the consequences of their decisions.

When all the events have passed, a window for upgrading weapons and armor opens. Here, the resources that the player has collected throughout the chapter, building fortifications and exploring the world, will come in handy. Each thing has three options for development and three options for strengthening. For example, an epic bow of the third level is expensive, it will take all the resources of the party, but it’s not a fact that you won’t find a better weapon in the next part of the adventure. You constantly have to make compromises.

The combat system also forces you to sacrifice something to achieve the result. The map is surrounded by the “fog of war”, in buildings without open doors it is dark and nothing is visible. To detect the enemy, you need to send someone ahead. And, most likely, it is this hero who will receive the first damage. You have to think, send forward an archer who will run further and see more, or is it still a warrior who can give an answer to the enemy?

Enemies are varied. If in the first campaign the gorgons are weak, then the mechanisms and lizards from other scenarios can put the party in the first skirmish – no one is going to spare the player. And the constant amplifications that occur after some time make some representatives of the hostile fauna afraid, especially closer to the finale.

Diagnosis

Wildermyth is a great example of the turn-based RPG genre. An interesting style of a children’s folding book, good stories and random generation can entice for a very long time, along with combat system and local magic. But random events begin to repeat over time. A fairly complex English language can also scare away players from Wildermyth, and Russian localization is not expected in the near future.

Pros

• Stylistics
• Combat system and character development
• Scenarios
• Interesting Enemies

Cons

• Random situations quickly begin to repeat
• Difficult language