Tainted Grail: Conquest

Not sure why so many people give this game positive reviews. This is a fairly run of the mill deck building game. Your starting deck is very basic, and there is not much flexibility in customizing to your play style. I found it to be very grindy, and the few interesting moments were blighted by the mundane boredom. The graphics are not good, unless you mod the game, and I found it to look nothing like the example screens. Very dark and gloomy, and not in a good way.

This game is a mess. It seems fine at first blush, but go even slightly below the surface and it falls apart. None of the gameplay systems work particularly well. You don't have to make choices while moving around the map since you can simply fight everything without issue. The balance is all over the place. The starter deck is okay, but the other two are janky as hell. The story is one of THE stories of all time. If you get the game super cheap and just want to get a win or two and stop playing, then I guess it's alright? But you're better off playing literally any other card-based roguelike.

TG:C is a very unique rouge-lite deck builder. Over the course of repeated runs you will progressively move the narrative forward as you interact with the large roster of dark and odd NPCs, typically learning their tragic backstories. Through your actions and choices, each character's story will reach resolution, ultimately unlocking some permanent boon upon future interactions with them. The "StS-type" nodes are replaced here with a dark 3D over-world which you navigate in third-person. Each NPC will be guarded by a troop of fantastical weird enemies. After dispatching these foes, you may interact with the NPC who will either provide you the opportunity to move their quest along and/or aid you in your journey via traditional deck-building effects or resource-gathering. The card play is set apart by each playable character's unique power, which differs from all other characters in both effect and the method in which it is charged-up. There are 9 playable characters each belonging to one of three factions (melee, ranged, and summoner). These factions share a common set of cards. At level-up you are offered the choice to add one of three cards to your deck, as well to add a passive talent. After the run, win or lose, you will unlock new cards for the faction and new talents for the unique character. As you resolve certain NPC quests, some will join your village permanently, which each hosting a station affected by your meta-progression. There is a lot to like about TC:G. The story-telling is well done and the fact that the many stage-gated stories/quests progress over multiple runs keeps engagement, above and beyond that typically involved in trying to just get to the next "ascension level". The 9 characters play quite differently, even though there is such a large overlap in available cards. The meta-progression is a bit on the slow side, but is satisfying none the less. That said, there were a few aspects which I found less than desirable. There was a hint of "choices-matters" present, with the prospect of permanently-locked content looming. Not sure if this remained the case with the build I played on, but the Wiki seemed to think it was true at one point. Not wanting to permanently lock myself out of future advantages, this prospect had me running to the Wiki for every decision. That is obviously not what I am looking for in a deck-builder. The battles themselves were middling, with my motivation to keep playing primarily driven by my desire for meta-progression as well as game completion (which I defined as resolving all NPC quests). Finally, the fact that the three characters within a faction shared a deck meant that most of the cards offered were sub-optimal (beyond what I deem normal for a rougelite/like deck-builder). On the whole, I found TG:C to be a very unique entry into the deck-builder genre, with enough positive to give it a pretty solid recommend. You may not play it over and over (like StS), but I think there is enough here to keep you occupied through to the game's conclusion (i.e. saving all NPCs). Overall 7.5/10

Nobody reads my reviews anyway. I'll throw in a recipe for Varenyky. Recipe for Potato Dumplings (Varenyky) Ingredients: For the dough: Wheat flour – 500 g Water – 200 ml Egg – 1 Salt – 1 tsp For the filling: Potatoes – 1 kg Onions – 2 Lard or butter – 50 g Salt – to taste Ground black pepper – to taste Preparation steps: Making the dough: Sifting the flour: Sift the flour into a large bowl. Making the dough: Add salt and the egg to the flour. Gradually pour in the water, constantly stirring. Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic. Resting the dough: Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or cover it with a towel and let it rest for 30 minutes. Preparing the filling: Boiling the potatoes: Peel the potatoes, cut them into large pieces, and boil until tender in salted water. Preparing the onions: While the potatoes are boiling, finely chop the onions. Sauté the onions in lard or butter until golden brown. Making the potato puree: Drain the potatoes and mash them. Add the sautéed onions, salt, and pepper to taste, and mix well. Forming the dumplings: Rolling out the dough: Roll out the dough into a thin sheet about 2-3 mm thick. Use a glass or cutter to cut out circles approximately 7-8 cm in diameter. Forming the dumplings: Place a spoonful of potato filling on each circle of dough. Fold the dough in half and pinch the edges tightly to seal the dumplings. Cooking the dumplings: Boiling water: Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add salt. Cooking the dumplings: Gently drop the dumplings into the boiling water, stirring carefully to prevent sticking. Cook until done (approximately 5-7 minutes after they float to the surface). Serving: Removing the dumplings: Remove the dumplings with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate. Serving: Serve the dumplings hot, optionally drizzling with melted butter, sour cream, or sautéed onions. Enjoy your meal!

Better than Slay the Spire for sure.

Great art, world building and presentation, game though: Frustrating and Redundant. Giving the player an extra .05% damage (effectively) every 50 runs does not a game make. A junk starter deck of Block and Strike cards (for 20% of the needed and obviously intended damage). Heaps of worthless perks and absurdly valueless buffs, while AI mobs have several multiples of your health and damage and come in packs, no tactics at all. Just a theme less grind climb wall. I'd like to use a script to grind the first 20 hours of samey pointless deaths outside my own front gate, and then start the real game. Not how I want to spend my time. After I got an achievement for doing no damage 3 turns in a row, I realized the experience broke. They actually built that? As in "HA HA you cant even fight yet, ISN'T THIS FUN?" No it isn't. I had to try and play my crap blocks to survive a group of 3, and then they started doing multi strike....forget this.

After 12 hours, I was extremely bored with the combat. Even after winning a battle I was just not looking forward to slogging through yet another one. There is just something dragging down the feeling of excitement of winning. I just couldn't care enough to finish a run even though I could have done so. Everything feels so slow and grindy which is too bad because there is a lot to the game. I think it was the candle aspect that really took me out of enjoying the exploration. I wanted to stroll through the area and scope things out but every movement causes the candle to deplete. After awhile enemies just seem to be damage sponges just to drag out yet another tedious fight. The fight loop is lower the enemy armor, stun them if you can, take a few shots, barrier/block yourself up and then repeat. Yawn. After X amount of times performing the same mechanic, meh, I'd had enough. No, I can't recommend as it is just too boring. Maybe if I would have infinite patience and time I would sink more time into the game but since both come in limited quantity I will move on to something else.

It's a good game, just not quite my thing so I probably will not sink too many hours into it. I am simply not patient enough for card based combat as is, and with the naturally slow-ish progression of a rogue-lite.... it makes me want to look for shortcuts lol. I mostly bought it because of an easter-egg in Fall of Avalon to be honest - the goat seemed like fun. voice acting is great, and I like how you unravel the different NPCs stories bit by bit. Classes give very different playstyles, even if they are similar at first look like summoner and blood mage you soon realize you need to play completely differently. All in all: a solid game with lots of options and re-playability.