Wildermyth

[alaterdate]

Remember how part of my blog is supposed to be about videogames? Yeah, me neither. Just kidding! I'm finally doing another post about a game! Wow!

This one is called Wildermyth and I'm obsessed.

It's a papercraft D&D-type campaign generator. There are campaigns with stories, but there are also procedurally generated maps and campaigns to take characters on. The cutscenes are cute little comic strips.

Watch on YouTube

The trailer video is cute, but it does not even do this game justice. The gamplay is superb.

Let's take a walk through a bit of an encounter:

You choose a campaign you would like to do, either a story campaign or a randomly generated one. You create three characters, one for each class: a warrior, a hunter, and a mystic. You get to change their name, gender, sexuality, and appearance with custom skin tone, hair color, and outfit colors. You get to choose three main traits (Hooks) and arrange the stats of the rest of their personality. You can even write a personal history or just edit the generated one (history is flavor text).

Then the story starts! You're treated to a comic strip cutscene about your characters beginning their journey to become heroes. But wait! You're presented with a choice within the event: are these two characters now rivals, friends, or sweethearts? The choice you make changes what kind of bonus your characters get from one another in battle.

Now, it's time to fight! Creatures are out to get your characters. Guide your heroes across the gridded battleground one by one during your turn, setting up your offense and defense for the next turn.

Here the mystic is an interesting class. Their magic gives them the ability to "interfuse" with items on the map and then use them to attack. Do you want to send shrapnel damage at your foes or leave that barricade up to hide behind? How about interfusing with a boulder to then throw it at an enemy for a hefty hit to their HP? Or maybe interfusing with that lamp over there to send the flames after an unfortunate foe?

Once the battle is won your enemies become more aware of you and they bolster their forces. Okay, maybe not exactly that, but the next time you end up in a battle you will face more or even stronger foes. The enemy forces are made up of a random collection of "cards" in a deck that the enemy can play from. These cards are randomly added to the deck and then randomly deployed on every fight.

And look at that, your character leveled up! You get a choice between a few different randomly offered abilities or upgrades. There are some that are available to all three classes and some that are class locked. After that take a look at the loot you got from the fight. A cute necklace that grants a stat boost. You can choose to give it to a character based on stats or on aesthetics. The items really equip to your character! But be aware that items are non-transferable, once you give it to someone it's theirs forever unless you replace it with a different item for that slot.

And voila, that's your first little foray into the world of Wildermyth! But there's even more!

Uncover the randomly generated map and complete objectives by directing your heros on an overworld map. Scout new tiles, trigger events, fight enemies, craft weapons, and help towns rebuild. While you do this your enemies are also working their way to an incursion. Keep an eye on the number of days before they rise up to take back territory. And try not to dilly-dally lest the enemy become stronger while you meander about! Cards are randomly upgraded or added to the enemy's deck after every battle and once every hundred or so days, keeping your heroes on their toes. There is a chance for you to spend points to negate the upgrades that happen over the days, but those points are also used to recruit more characters and craft weapons or clothes.
While you work on saving the world your heroes' stories will develop and relationships will form. Eventually your heroes can have children that join the adventure. Then one day their parents will retire, handing them the mantle of the new hero of your story.

It's super fun. I've done two story campaigns and one randomly generated one so far.

In the longer 5 chapter story I got to generation 3 of heroes and I loved them all! My party started with three guys, two who fell in love with each other and their two kids ended up joining the campaign. The two kids became rivals when the younger one put everyone in danger by snatching a twig off of a magical tree giant! Then those two had one kid each with NPCs they fell in love with during the years of peace they had worked hard for. The original two (grandparents now) both retired in the same chapter, but their childhood friend (a rival to one) was still spry enough to keep fighting. Grunkle Katari took great care of his friends kids & grandkids and it was so freaking heartwarming!!!

In the randomly generated one I did 3 chapters and I modeled the personalities off of some of my OCs and it was so awesome to see little events that really felt like them. I wouldn't recommend going in trying to specifically make an OC of yours off the bat, but loosely based should be alright. The Hooks I chose for each of them ended up landing really well though. And I fell in love with a favorite OC again in a new form xD I can bring her into a new campaign by recruiting her as a legacy hero and each time I save her at the end of a campaign she can level up her hero status until she's a Mythical Hero. Wildermyth!

The combat is no joke either! It can get pretty tactical if you're unlucky enough to collect some difficult cards. There was also a map where you have to defend a castle wall which was pretty hard at first because the enemy mystics kept interfusing with my cannons and barriers lmao. I also do most of the game with just my three characters until the game has some kids join my empty slots. It adds difficulty to the fights, but I like to stick to smaller numbers. There's also an escort mission, oof. Your heroes can get pretty OP as they get older and it's really fun, but you got to remember to work with the youth so they can become powerful too before their parents retire and leave you with those fresh faced babes xD I really liked that this game has a group of older people saving the world, it's refreshing.

The game is on Steam and Itch.io priced at $24.99 on both.
I got it on Steam just because it's easier to pop in mods and I really wanted more hairstyles. People have already created more events and game modes (2 character start, 7 chapters) in the Steam Workshop too. While I've only seen two mods for it on Nexus so far.
And here's the game's website: wildermyth.com
I recommend checking out just about any gameplay video on youtube because the trailer certainly doesn't sell it and my little paragraphs are not the same as seeing the game play out at all lol.
If you do check it out, hope you enjoy!

Comments

[pauraque]

Looks like fun! I added it to my Steam wishlist. :)