Wildermyth

If you've ever played a crpg where you had a bunch of lil guys whose stories you became emotionally attached to, you owe it to yourself to play Wildermyth. Wildermyth is at all times fun, and often funny, and at its heights, moves me close to tears by the love it shares with me for my characters. its tactics and buildcrafting seems simpler than many other grid-based tactics games on the surface, but it achieves an astounding amount of complexity with its parts. The abilities and items aren't so numerous, but feel vast and varied due to the way your characters earn and use them. Each power, technique, and piece of equipment are made memorable and meaningful by the stories they help build, such that this little tactics game seems to reach far, far beyond its own means and claim a place among the best of them, for me. but what makes me adore this game is its writing. I was put off at first by some of the banter between characters - it has a not-insignificant amount of "well that just happened" dialogue - but that quickly grew on me due to how those bits support and work alongside some heroes' goofy personalities and rivalries. and anyway, it didn't take long for wildermyth to show me some of the most beautiful stories and poetic writing i've encountered in a long time. Dozens of times i've found myself stunned, needing to take a long moment to appreciate how much i loved a vignette, and stop to write down the name of it before moving on. Book of Stars, Phantom of the Range, Fading Constellations, Answer to Austerity, A Mending Path, to name a few. Wildermyth's affection for people and for stories is infectious, and delightful.