Oathsworn is Unbelievably Thoughtful
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- Опубликовано: 11 мар 2024
- After 5 chapters, Shelfside gives their impressions on Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood! A 1-4 player dark fantasy board game, Oathsworn brings an epic story driven campaign alongside a solo friendly boss battler combat system full of customization for player accommodation and accessibility, with 12 unique characters to boot. With beautiful components and minis and an amazing organization insert, it's smooth to run, but as yet another kickstarter gamefound project with a massive box, it does run into the classic issue of rules jank, typos and errors.
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Outro:
Monster Hunter 3 OST - Jhen Mohran (part 2)
#boardgames #tabletop #tabletopgames 
Игры
Finished Oathsworn year ago. Still best game i ever played.
My game of the year for 2022 and definitely in my overall Top 5. Opening each boss box when the time came to do so was always exciting. And, the boss battles were pretty unique.
“Try it out, try it out man” what a reference! 😂😂😂
It caught me off guard... not expecting it in the board game side of my life
Yeah that threw me off too 😂 Decent RPC impression 😜
But does the game come with a lease and a key?
@@NubbyBob gotta try it out man, try it out
I do love Oathsworn, but I was surprised at "Tales from Red Dragon Inn". It sticks even closer to the Gloomhaven model for many things, but the way it handles....everything is so nice.
Tales from the Red Dragon Inn is just so smooth and satisfying, and in a reasonable package! It might be physically "budget-tier", but the execution of its elements punch far above that.
I’m on Chapter 11 now in a co-op campaign with my gf. It’s one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had. It’s the “RPG in a box” I’ve always wanted with simple story progression and branching paths, cool gear to loot, and fun combat that feels epic. And the story ditches most of the usual fantasy tropes/ fanfare for a grim dark setting which I LOVE. The writing is so good! And James friggin Cosmo!
OMG me and my 2 gfs are also on ch11 right now! totally agree with it. we are doing the encounter today. it just keeps getting better.
@@otakuofmine it’s like the perfect couch co-op campaign board game imo. The story exploration and boss battling are a match made in heaven for me
@@EarthenGames agree. one of my partners got it and i was wary of the boss part first, but it is butter smooth and fun, and how it is impacted by the story part is cool.
Thanks for The review,no only Kingdom Death Monster is needed in order to complete the trilogy
This game is amazing, the story is so well written and the narrator is perfection. My wife and I are at chapter 12 at the moment, playing alternative story and battle sessions to reduce playtime to a very manageable 60-90 minutes session time.
How are you playing alternative story? Are there rules for it? 😊 very interested cus 3-4 hours sounds abit intimidating😅
@@MadassSoerensen I think he meant to say "alternate", as in, he probably does a story session, then a battle session in separate game sessions. Since he's playing with his wife and not a friend group, this is a very viable way to keep going.
You are channeling Captain Harlock 👍
Blistering Barnacles!
YOU ARE AWESOME! ❤❤❤
Love this game so much!
Love this game! Played the complete campaign. One of the best games I have ever played!
Any chance your willing to sell it? Want to play with the wife and son
@@grimrider3807 not looking to currently. Plan to play it again with different characters
I beat this game a couple months ago. Yes this game is amazing. Yes the story is amazing even through the end. And yes I would play it again. I don't know if I would do the full story again. But you would with instant action mode. Each character felt so different and fun.
I actually personally feel that a number of the lower complexity characters play a little too similarly, but harbinger, witch, and huntress definitely feel very different haha
-Daniel
@@Shelfside i used the bear and witch and the combos felt super cool. Once I got the grove maiden I switched witch off and used her. And she felt completely different than any one.
Wish I had the time for this one, it looks great
This one is probably one of the more easier campaigns to get into due to its chapter structure, since there's very clean start/stop points for story vs encounter sections, definitely not a lifestyle campaign kinda game!
-Daniel
Where did you buy that game table?
I want to play oathsworn but I'm always conflicted if to get the standee version or miniatures. I would want to paint the minis first but would that really spoil everything that badly? Or is standee the way to go with this game?
If you paint all the minis beforehand you'll spoil the monster hunting investigation aspect of the story, so to avoid that you'd have to finish the story part of a chapter and reveal the boss, then paint it so that it's ready for next session when you're doing combat.
-Daniel
I'm playing solo, about half way through and loving the game. But i think the system would truely shine with a sequel to polish and tune it even further. Similar to what happened with Tainted Grail.
Imo the game is great, but overproduced. The linear story definitely limits the longevity. I can see myself doing 2 campaigns at most and being done, expecially considering that the characters don't exactly give much in terms of build variability. People that enjoy deterministic gameplay are gonna enjoy this one, it's pretty much the anti KDM game in that regard, there's enough predetermined stuff and mitigation options that when you fuck up you know it was you fault.
The first mission is definitely a as far as tutorials go, because the limited equipment and ability options mixed with a lot of mechanics to remember and a constant spawn of minions make for a somewhat difficult introduction to the encounter part of the game. It also highlights how some rules were halfcooked since their creation because it feels like they didn't even attempt to address some common case scenarios.
Overall I think it's a 8,5/10 that could become a 9 as I keep playing, however there are many situations where the game feels a little rough around the edges (the item system sucks and bloats the card numbers by about 400 extra cards), the box logistics are a nightmare, I have the peasant edition with the enemy standees, with those the overall volume is like Frosthaven, everything is piled up and almost nothing is put in a parallel position, when you play an encounter you MUST take out about 80% of the box material. As I said the game is great, but some things feel like they didn't wanna put some extra thought in how to do them. For example, there are two trays of miniatures in the core box: one of them is for the 12 playable characters, the other tray is basically useless and the extra space could have been used to have better card organizers and whatnot. That being said, for people that like boss battlers the core box is a must have.
You mentioned there's 21 chapters. How long are the chapters/how much content is there in the game? Want to tackle this after Frosthaven, but wondering if there is enough content to justify the price.
its essentially 21 play sessions, each session is a story and battle which averages 4 hours. We are playing oathsworn while also playing frosthaven, both at 4players.
a chapter consists of a story part and an encounter part. on average each takes 1h, so 2 for both. though u will take MUCH longer the first chapter at least, if not 2 and 3 to really get into the flow of things, especially with the encounters.
I recommend to share responsibilities (one doing boss, one doing storymode e.g.). also totally doable to do story and encounter seperately, we do that often if there is not much time.
@otakuofmine that's surprising for you guys to finish in 2 hr. Is that 4 players? We are at 4 players with very different motives and it's always at least 3.5 hours to play a chapter.
There are several story chapters that alone take around 1h30 with the narration. We’re playing with 4 and it takes 3h30-4h to get a chapter down.
Ok guys help me out. I don’t know I’m just constantly glazing over the section of the rulebook that explains it, but I cannot figure out if and how much loot you get after you win a scenario. I played through and won chapter 1 but I stopped because I couldn’t find the answer and I even tried bgg and google with no luck.
If you do get loot from a win, is it a random draw from the common chapter items or the unique/rare items? (Sorry don’t remember the exact terminology) And what is the quantity? One per character or one for the entire party?
You have to read the epilogue of the story chapter. Then, try to check the encounter rulebook to see how to to level up and gain extra stuff. Unique items are 2 base + 1/2 for extra difficulty levels +1 if you get it during the story part of the chapter.
So if you just want the page number, it's page 24 in the "Tally Level, Loot, and Losses" sidebar of the Encounter Rulebook. But for a full breakdown it works like this:
1. Gain 3 random common items from the NEXT chapter's item deck (So if you beat chapter 1, get common loot from chapter 2).
EDIT: Your rulebook may say 4 common items. This was errata'd in the second printing. It is supposed to be 3.
2.Gain 2 random unique items from the CURRENT chapter's item deck (Again, beat chapter 1, get chapter 1 unique items. They'll always be themed to the boss so it'll be real obvious if you drew from the wrong place).
3. If you are playing on Grim Company difficulty, get an extra (1) unique item for a total of 3. If you're playing on Dread Company get a second (2) unique item for a total of 4.
4. Every individual character loses 1 item that was used during the boss battle, no matter what. If they were knocked out in the boss battle, they lose a SECOND item from what was equipped (NOT from the backpack).
I skipped over leveling and injury since you wanted to focus on items.
Ok thanks so much for your responses! I shall go look back at the rulebook again when I pull the game out. I swear no matter hoe hard I looked I could not find that info 😅
It's okay. It can definitely be overwhelming at times. My group spent the last 11 months playing through the whole campaign and it's absolutely worth it. Just take it slow and don't be afraid to ask more questions.
"tally loot, losses and level" section in the encounter rule book.
3 common item cards from the NEXT chapter, 1 unique item card of the CURRENT chapter. this is a pool for all players, u have to decide who gets what. and yes, u pick them randomly - best put them face down and pick.
one extra unique one if it was NOT covered up on the story tracker.
im trying to decide between this and frosthaven :( any thoughts?
They are different: Frosthaven is very close to Gloomhaven. Oathsworn story mode is way more exciting, for me at least.
The combat system is in both of course good.
Frosthaven is faster, less setup, less break down for every session and a lot of fun.
But when Oathsworn arrived we stopped Frosthaven to play only the new boy, so you can imagine who wins for me
FH/GH are dungeon crawlers with a minimal branching story and euro-card play mechanic.
Oathsworn is a boss-battler with deep linear story with a different euro-card play mechanic.
Oathsworn takes much less time to complete.
Insanely well done! OS is my #1 of all time. So good and as you state, the flexibility and options are just wild.
I ordered OS before playing gloomhaven. While waiting for OS to arrive I got Gloomhaven.
I like both but gloomhaven has the edge
Both are great and it just depends on what you're looking for imo, and the only 2 factors I can think of that are immediate decision makers are time and money, cause Oathsworn is definitely more time friendly and cheaper if you get the standee version. Otherwise figure out if you'd rather play really good boss battling or really good dungeon crawling lol
-Daniel
You didn’t mention the free app with amazing narration! Also, if you paint minis, the mystery boxes are fab.
he actually did mention it in the beginning?!
1:49
I did mention it! Though I forgot to point out it's free haha
-Daniel
My bad, you did mention it 👍
that is why I painted all heroes and slowly, once opening envelope paint all monsters. Game is amazing
Wake up honey. New Shelfside video just dropped. I'm glad Shadowborne reached to you guys. I've approached the game and the quality blows many of the boss battle out of the water. The mini are gorgeus, CHUNKY, came pre assebled (you still have to do a little bit of work cleaning them tho). This should be the standard for a boss battle, nice to handle, a joy to paint and look good on the table. The thing i love the most is that everything fits in the boxes (yes they are huge, but still better than buying storage option from 3rd parties)
It gets harder. I think we had no one hit zero through the first 4 or so missions, then one character go down a couple times before we fully wiped on chapter 8... Amazing game, both the story and encounter mode.
Hopefully they’ll have a new game found campaign
You can still buy the 2nd edition for almost the same price. For a short time there are only a few copies available on the Shadowborne homepage. I highly recommend the Terrain Pack along with the Standee version (no spoilers and great immersion)!
Do you save on heating to have money for games? 🤔
He said the copy was supplied by publisher. And it's kinda their job sooo...
@@user-nd1mz4hp6wI think the comment was because he’s wearing a sweater and a coat… whoosh
That room has very thin walls and isn't attached to the house's main temperature control it's basically just like being outside without the wind lmao
-Daniel
@billable1861 oh I didn't even notice. Haha. I live where it's cold so I wear sweaters all the time too.
Thinking the standee version would be good enough. Dont fancy painting lots of huge critters for a game with some limited replayability.
Yeah I think in most cases I'd recommend just getting the base game unless you're super into the minis or give them a second life in TTRPG's.
-Daniel
I'd recommend the standee version unless you plan on painting everything. It comes with minis for all of the heroes anyway, so even if you did want to try your hand at painting you still have that option
One of my gripes with game is that combat is extremely facing based, but standee for monster is round. Partially solved that by placing aoe hex thingy under the standee so we can better track facing.
I've never had that issue thanks to the directional arrow on the base, but that would make their placement even easier to visualize! I usually get caught up on the AOE's more.
-Daniel
There's an arrow on the base of the standee....
Thanks both ,I know about arrow, but 1 its not always perfectly visible specially when facing is away, second it solves question where is front , but there is still 7 facings and after fight drags for bit it becomes bit tedious to check all the arcs. Maybe its my brain that doesnt allow for fast visualization so possibly issue is exclusively on my side, but specially when all sort of push effects are in question and arcs of non-front facing need to be visualized. When we added aoe pattern under the standee so its elevated a little bit and we can see which facing aligns with what line of board it became way more easy for us. So just thinking it was bit of a lost opportunity to make hexagonal for bit of QOL improvement standees which of course would be harder to make.
Love your videos. Still on the fence about this game. KD:M is my favorite game, so I feel like I should love this game. Anyone have any play-through video recommendations that would get me interested?
Only an impression video, but hell was I excited already and glad to hear that you like it so far. I wanna give some (spoilerfree) impressions on my own (having it not finished either yet). Before we were a few chapters in, but recently there is more time and we try to get some mileage, doing the encounter of Chapter 11 today. It is funny how my impression would be exact the same as yours, but since then some things happened that absolutely blasted us and we got pretty invested in the now bigger connected story. So far it feels like I could give it a 9 (there still a few downer, but nothing massive).
I play it with my 2 partners and one of them controls an Ally (the simplified version). She has the Huntress, which can use her eagles to harass and make bosses bleed (which are minis as well), while the Ranger fittingly also has a bow. Cant say too much as we got some sick new cards that change gameplay (to be better). My other gf has the warbear - its kinda sad that she cant hit when the boss moves away a lot as walking is "expensive" (minor bad), but if she does, sheesus. I play the witch (as i am myself) and yeah its complex, but it is so fun to spread fire tiles to then consume them to make a big fireball or barricades that depletes mobs. The built up pays off.
The boss variety is incredible and every encounter has different mechanics or even objectivs (protect, kill, flee, save, puzzle to stay vague enough). u never know what u r getting and u have come with a general tactic first. and the makes u feel like u r still the experts they claim u to be, encounter or story. and there are many opportunities to roleplay in the story. deciding the story path aka what to focus on, where to go, investigating and questioning, sometimes personal stuff depending on ur character even.
and even the maps get creative and surprise u in ways. i just say "magic book". u will see, not taking that surprise from u. hard not to gush about it hehe. or where it become a different mechanic as well altogether. the only really negative experience i had, but only the first time for wrong expectations. the 2nd time it was fun. (i am talking about the "z" box).
looking forward massively to the full review whenever that is and how far we came than.
p.s. seeing the Bastone map still makes you sad. if you know, u know.
Spoiler free review, proceeds to end its spoiler free review with a spoiler.
Smh go away please.
@@marinn00 where the heck do you read a spoiler in this? xD
a super vague reference only players get who played that part? yeah, super spoiler *facepalm*
maybe you "go away" with such nonsense.
of course they like it. It's a sponsored video.
@@deanogorman6335 seems you are new to this channel. they are usual not sponsered and if, they mark it and tell you (also per youtube guidelines). on top of that, they dont skew any ratings because of this.
aaand this just one of their many first impression videos (of a not super new game).
this is so easy to find out by simply watching the video, do a quick research maybe. it just shows ur confirmation bias.
Not having to pay for the game
Is a huge deal. What you have there is a MONUMENTAL COST. It’s a great game but that cost yo…
like said, base is like 140, still a big box with a lot of stuff. u technically dont need the minis and special stuff to be able to play it.
Yeah the deluxe all in is pretty ridiculous, and if it were me buying it I'd probably only get the mystery boxes since I don't usually get deluxe components, which at that price point is pretty comparable to every other big box campaign game out there.
-Daniel
@@Shelfside likewise. my gf bought it, just the mini one. we just upgraded it secretly for her birthday that was coming up :)
Despite this being a sponsored cheerleader video devoid of actual reviewer scores and all... Oddly Goth-Looking Daniel is completely right on the money because Oathsworn is bonkers well done from start to finish.
If I had to give all of my campaign games away and only keep exactly one I'd have an incredibly difficult choice between Aeon Trespass: Odyssey and this one on my hands. But Oathsworn definitely has the chin up on convenience by design.
I wish they had different language options
Thank you for being the only youtuber that said "I've solo played 5 chapters out of the 21. Not enough for a review in my opinion".
I see so many other youtubers uploading a "Review Video" after playing 1-3 chapters of a campaign game. That absolutely blows my mind. How can you give me an informed opinion when you have not played through to the end?
Because they were paid for this video
Sponsored doesn't necessarily mean money, if any form of compensation is received to make the video (in this case just the game), it's sponsored.
-Daniel
You don’t have to play 21 chapters of a game to know if you liked it or not. Especially if you have reasons to not like it.
Hey, the video is awesome, but you got a very high white noise throughout it, kinda hurts my brain. should check it out for the next one
Oh thanks for pointing that out! I usually playback on low volumes I guess cause I listened again louder and noticed it, definitely gonna address that in future videos.
-Daniel
@@Shelfside To be honest I only notice these things cause I use a soundbar on my PC, so it's more sensitive to varying frequencies, most people wont notice. But better to fix than remedy right? haha, cheers from Brazil!
Lovely. Hate the editing with you cutting out literal breath pauses, but love the content.
Yay, a Daniel (sry, the Daniel)
Brilliant 'first impressions', one of your best Michael, although I could not help think that Ashton might have handled much of the scripting as his 'turn of phases' keep appearing. Good work you both.
who is Michael? this is Daniel.
Haha that is Daniel, cheers!
@@otakuofmine Opps....... sorry, I mis-named you. I meant Daniel (just spelled it Michael lol).
@@PsychicLord no worry, I am not Daniel myself. I think Daniel goes under that name on youtube too when he replies.
The main gripe our group has so far is that the Oathsworn combat system is less interesting than Gloom/Frosthaven but the story is definitely better than Gloomhaven.
So far (6 chapters in) I feel that even the "hardest" character (Witch) is really not at all that complicated to play and based on other comments on bgg, the complexity doesn't increase either.
The story is top notch so far though, which is the main reason that keeps us going.
Yeah I am worried a bit once I try playing with a group, because obv doing 4 headed is decently crunchy, but if I'm only playing 1 dude, it looks like having a hand of only 7 cards no matter what is never gonna reach the peak of Frosthaven or Spirit Island hilarity.
-Daniel
I get what you're saying, there is less complexity in the cards but I think the combat is so much more fun. The complete information between players let's you synergize abilities between characters without accidentally having the wrong initiative and the monsters or mercenaries being in the wrong spot.
Also, none of this wasting a loss card because the monsters are in the wrong position or you draw a miss card. In Oathsworn, if you miss it's your own stupid fault for pushing your luck too much, also you get a consolation battle token 🙂The randomness is not nearly as frustrating here.
Best game I've ever played full stop - incredible world building, incredible mechanics, incredible miniatures - I'm done.... BYE
My issue is I love miniatures but these are way too big and give the impression that it's all about how big the minis are and charge more. In some games of this type the actual game is a afterthought and all a out the miniatures. I mean they could of scale down the minis to Destinies size and if the game play is that good it would still work fine as the game is the main focus. It does sound interesting and people seem to love it alot.
They released standee verison. Only the heroes have miniatures, the rest are cardboard standees.
I think the miniatures size is actually fine and feels more epic when you fight those big bosses. The downside is just the amount of boxes needed to store them. You can always go for the standees version to reduce the size.
You really are amazing at reviewing this game. It’s the first time I have come across your material. Could I please give you some constructive criticism? All those who appreciate your content won’t care if you decide to swear or not, but there are many who will be turned off by your language. I loved your insights but I don’t want to hear bad language and I don’t want my children to either. Please think about this. Every gamer desperately wants their children to join them in the joy of gaming but they also don’t want them to hear bad language. This is such an easy fix. Whenever people swear in the business, educational, governmental, or day to day world, we immediately throw up red flags and wonder if this person is trustworthy. All this to say there is no benefit to swearing, please don’t continue to do so, because I want to promote you and your videos based on your incredibly smart dissection of the product, but I can’t because of your profanity which I cannot promote.
Counterpoint: your kids are hearing worse at school and should know that swearing isn't the end of the world. If they ask you about it, you can explain some about how swearing is sometimes used in entertainment or by other people, but that doesn't make it acceptable in your household or by you or by them. Our children have responded well to that approach --- our 9 year old chastises mom routinely for the occasional swear or for watching a video with a swear .....
All that said, don't disagree with what you said. Some of the casual swear gave me a chuckle, but from a "growing the brand" perspective our friend shelfside should probably consider this change.
Either way, best of luck getting your kids into board games!❤
Counterpoint most countries and most people who aren't super conservative/religious really do not care. Pretty sure the f word is just the national word here in Australia.
you guys gonna play the new dune game?
Why are those minis so huge? Well, a game won't ever be perfect in every requirements...
Doesnt sound biased at all.. having played the game, i think you're overselling half of it.
I felt the polar opposite of user friendliness xD they make a campaign game and the cards are packaged randomly?? We had to unpack everything and sort everyting ourselves, it took 1.5 hours.. I'm also surprised by the big compliment of the narrative side, we only played the first chapter, there were barely any choices to make, just go to a place, read what the npc has to say, that's it. Also the game is so fiddly, with the time tracker, the different tokens, dice, so many deck trays. Manage the boss and minions postions, movement, collision yourself. There is the companion app that COULD help with all of these but its basically just for the narration.
that is normally not the case. maybe your copy was faulty? it takes time to sort in the sense of seeing where section starts and one ends cause they cant make huge packages with this wrapping machine sadly, so its a compromise. i wouldnt call it a problem really.
the introductory chapter only shows you the necessary things to ease you into the game? much wow. you expect the game to overwhelm you with everything? that would be the opposite of user friendly. "judging a book by its cover" syndrome.
how is the time tacker fiddly? you put either a time token or the number u went to on it and done...?
u got encounter AI cards, item cards (normal and unique), injuries and allies. all what is needed. but u got 4 neat boxes with seperators. this is super user friendly. u dont have to search anything.
if you mean the combat ones - there are 2. and 1 u can ignore if u use dice. and the dice are to upgrade them aka better probabilities. i dont know how that is a bad thing. and the red ones just show health of u/enemy. or do you wanted more cards there?
also it is a boss battler, what did u expect? get mad at the genre, it is no urs than. with other players it is smarter to let everyone deal with one part of the game for the others.
yeah, the app could help with that, but than u could just do everything digital - oh wait, thats a video game, innit?
to say its only for narration is also a blatant lie. go on, use the story books and the journal without it, maybe than u notice how much more it does.
only with the tokens i wholeheartedly agree. they should have integrated it into the player boards.
@@otakuofmine lol its my experience... looks like I struck a nerve there xd
Thoughtful ??????
They created a game you can’t even put back in its box !!!
Ok you have 5 boxes but for those who only bought the standee version it’s just a joke.
The rules are not consistent so it’s a mess because they use different words for same things.
So really, there are positive things to say about this game, but thoughtful ??
That plus the fact the encounter really sucks with no interesting choices to make…
Ok the story is cool… even if your choice don’t have an impact.
I sold it as soon as I could.
lets see:
u can put everything well back into the box, there is literally a guide in it how to do it. not their fault if you ignore that.
why is the standee box a joke? it has all you need to play in it.
the rules ARE consistent. we played 11 chapters and never ever had a problem with the rules (and we are easy to confuse there. out of experience). there are NOT different words for the same things. either it is a misunderstanding of ur part or u r lying.
he explained in the video WHY he calls it thoughtful, maybe watch the video before writing?
every encounter is different with increasingly different mechanics and objectives (experience as above). you say encounter, singular - does that mean you played the first? "judging a book by its cover" then.
stories dont have an impact? there are literally story paths where it MATTERS how you decide and almost always also impacts the encounter. sheesus.
to me it sounds like you only played ch1 at a con once and had a bad time. i am sorry for that, but this isnt representative of the game at all. maybe think next time before you write such a thoughtless (pun intended) "review"
@@otakuofmine you can’t put everything back in the box without massive lid.
I played 11 and a half chapters and confirm the encounters are dull. Very little impactful choices to make. You could attack and defend every turn and could win the encounter. No need to be smart about it. It’s like a complex yatzhee… and way too long for what it is.
The story is great but your choice have no impact on it. Probably you didn’t check what could happen if you had chosen otherwise. Well 98% the same. Still it’s very cool.
Why would you assume things ? It’s very weird and actually funny how far from reality you were.
I tried every difficulty and all the heroes.
I tried cards, dice and both. I tried 1 player with 1 full hero, 2 full heroes, 4 full heroes, 2 players , 3 players.
After the rush of novelty I realized the game was too long, and my impact on it was minimal. Exactly the opposite of what I like.
One thing is true though. I disagreed so much on the video I didn’t watch it till the end.
Weird how you tried to diminish my comment just because you had an other experience.
It’s like I told you : my guess is that you are very dumb, and that’s why you like shitty game.
Think before you write comments.
@@otakuofmine oh and by the way : the rules are that well written there are 1028 entries on the bgg rules forum…
For me unfortunately I'm not a fan of the art style. If there was a game with ATO art/graphics and Oathsworn gameplay it would have been great
For me Tainted Grail Kings of Ruin absolutely dominates the art category, but I doubt most other game designers are willing to shell out so much cash on having that much art lol
-Daniel
A game where no mechanism works as it should. This game is a pure crap. Comedic value of the video - sure. Any substantial thoughts? Nope.
1. The game's quest-like structure is flawed due to the lack of support in its game design. It exhibits weaknesses in terms of interconnectivity and the absence of any global mechanism to track progress.
2. The "Stories" sections serve as mere token randomizers that are disproportionately emphasized. This is evident from the fact that players can easily ignore any choices there without consequence and just play with a built in "skip it mode".
3. The game suffers from non-consequentialism, rendering choices in battles or story mode meaningless. Moral decisions are reduced to selecting different types of tokens, and everything done in the game only results in temporary and random gains. As a player, I am fully aware of the lack of substance, leading to a lack of caring about my actions.
4. The narration and writing quality are inconsistent and lackluster. The chosen narrative structure lacks support for replayability.
5. Events from the Deepwood and City decks are too infrequent to carry any significant meaning or weight. Since replayability is not integrated into the game, the potential of these events remains untapped, rendering them as yet another token randomizer with no impact, significance, or real choices.
6. Acquiring allies is a bit nonsensical - what they are for in a deepwood if a deepwood is so dangerous, and if they can easly survive venturing into a deepwood - what the oathsworns are for then? The game designer was aware that we get them too many and he set two story traps that effectively remove allies from gameplay. They serve minimal purpose in story as well as in battles since players rarely face defeat during battles.
7. The loot and economy mechanics suffer from inflation. Random loot having no correlation with the defeated opponents. Weapons lack strategic value, fail to introduce new gameplay mechanics, or influence fighting styles. They merely provide incremental stat boosts, such as "+5 to hit," throughout the game.
8. The "fail forward" concept and the ease of using allies during battles result in minimal consequences for losing. Only the option of choosing permadeath might address this issue, as the normal setup implies that battles cannot be lost.
9. The battles lack the need for coordination or teamwork, as players mainly hoard tokens for themselves and unleash them in a few attacks. The limited number of significant decisions during a short battle session (usually 3-4 rounds) means that cooperation, planning, and tactical thinking are unnecessary. Ranged attacks prove overpowered and dominant, overshadowing other options that should matter.
10. Consequently, there are no truly significant decisions to make throughout the game. Nor in battles nor in story sections. The game constantly talks about choices, only talks... - final story is an epithome of that. It delivers you no space for any real choice at all. Especially the last choice at the very end of the game - a real joke.
There is quite the difference between "crap" and "just not for you" - here it is most definitely the latter
@@Maspital It's the other way around. Subjectively people may like it, but when you analyse the mechanics and narration in the game - it's all just a form with no substance. Non-consequential fights, non-consequential story, idiotic economy, non existing progress, absolutetly bad gameplay loop and phenomenology of fights. Can you even lose a fight!? There is no such part in a rulebook... The game is badly designed on every level I can imagine. This is an epithome of how to not design a board game.
I'm not far enough in to really make a call on how much decisions matter throughout the campaign, but atm it seems to be at a similar level to a lot of other medium sized campaigns and done fairly well as it stays very clear of overly complicated status checks that have a tendency to break things if they start overlapping. Skipping story sections also isn't indicative of lack of consequence, you could design a similar thing in most games assuming the shortened text picks all the choices for you, which Oathsworn is doing because when I went back and read some of the instant action modes it's basically just simulating if you bum-rushed through the story and doesn't include any of the fun detours and neat interactions you can run into. And I don't know how you aren't drawing events enough cause even now my starting city deck is down to 2 cards and I've drawn half the starting deepwood events, and this is even after adding in some more cards.
Iirc, the loot is usually described in the epilogue as your guys just looting the area/the monster. And stat bump gear tends to be the norm in this space, and the only campaign that sticks out to me with having particularly whacky items that drastically change gameplay patterns is Frosthaven so it's not really a slight against Oathsworn.
Then when it comes to fail forward rules, I'd rather that be codified when people tend to just cheat to not lose anyways cause they'd rather progress. You don't even have to use that rule and can replay as usual, or yeah just play hardcore mode. And when it comes to coordination, I agree it probably isn't necessary at normal mode cause I was usually winning with decently healthy guys, but I'm basically coordinating 4 guys as if they were 1 since I'm doing solo; so damage is being spread perfectly evenly and the monster is always moving into super ideal spots since I'm moving the target to places where everyone else can immediately punish the boss, which I'd imagine is mandatory if everyone has less health. I will say though that ranged attacks do feel very strong on companions, less so regularly.
-Daniel
@@trepanator6 I bet you are the life of the party.
Sponsored. Shame to see your reviews go this way, this is basically a commercial :(
I just wonder if it would have been the same if you received your copy of Aeon Trespass: Odyssey for free.....
Both this video and the AT:O videos are sponsored, with neither involving a cash payment.
-Daniel
The underlying logic of the game is unbelievably bad, excessive repetition, lack of meaningful choices in the story... The most overrated game since years.