I wrote about Rhythm Hive earlier in the year. As I play more Wildermyth and see events repeated, rather than feeling like I’m going back over ground I’ve already covered, I feel like a regular returning to my favorite restaurant and ordering at random, content in the knowledge that I like everything on the menu. The result is richly fulfilling gameplay that makes me curious to go back again and again. The variations in character builds can often mean that even repeating the same campaign can feel completely different with a new party. You can bring back old characters as legacy recruits or create new ones from scratch, giving future parties different feels. Characters who die in combat (and they will!) can choose to take an enemy down with them as they die, grant a buff to the remaining party as their final act, or fall back and survive, nonetheless permanently changed by the severity of their wound.Īs the campaign goes on, your characters age and eventually retire, passing on their knowledge to a newer party member. The characters’ growth and relationships are seamlessly weaved into the (very satisfying) tactical combat, with mechanics allowing close friends to defend each other, or rivals to try to outdo each other. The monsters and foes that you’ll fight against are cool-looking, fresh and intriguing, while the country villages you have to protect are comfortingly familiar. As you progress, your crew finds powerful accessories, cool spiritual weapons, materials to upgrade their gear, and sometimes entities to make pacts with, turning them from little nobodies into the kind of crow-headed, storm-channeling, expert warrior heroes that befit a badass fantasy setting. There are also character-enriching side quests and events along the way. Wildermyth is “a character-driven, procedurally-generated tactical RPG,” which basically means that you start out with a bunch of bland-looking guys (you can change skin color, hair color and style, and pick from a selection of faces) and guide them through a campaign defending fantasy villages from lizard people, creaky bone robots, underground cult creeps, messed up forest animals and cosmic bugs. It’s fun and has a sense of humor, but isn’t weighed down by quippy dialogue or a twee sensibility. Sad things happen, and they feel sad, but the game isn’t trying to make you cry. ![]() Tonally, it’s the perfect fantasy adventure game - the stakes feel high, but not stressfully so. The reason Wildermyth is my game of the year is pretty simple: it does nothing I don’t like. Game of the Year, Period, 2021: Wildermyth
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