COMPONENTS - The game is HUGE. The organization works well, with a ton of labeled smaller boxes inside the main box. The only weaker part of the components is the two spinners, which are SUPER loose, but you can probably put something in between to tighten them up. 0:00 - Introduction 0:45 - Enemy variety 1:32 - Development 2:29 - Narrative adventure 3:04 - Combat combos 3:54 - Video game grind 5:17 - Final thoughts
Greetings from Sky Kingdom Games! We just want to thank Mike for his time and providing his coverage and review of the game! Indeed, The Isofarian Guard was designed and inspired by many old-school jrpgs with that open world feel and sandbox nature. It really does allow you to focus on what you want to when you sit down and play. Regarding some of the points covered in the review, there’s a couple clarifications we’d like to share. 1. Equipment that you craft does mostly provide a base increase in either attack or defense, but there’s other factors to consider when picking your Guards’ gear. Equipment has ‘Stone Slots’ which allow you to attach Speaking Stone Cards to them. These stones are where the customization really begins. The stones are one of the main elements that build your Guards’ chip bags by adding additional chips, providing bonus health, more action points and other effects! So, how many Stone Slots your equipment has massively affects a Guard’s build. 😊 2. Regarding the grind of progression in the game; there’s several new systems to alleviate this. Like Mike mentioned, you can always skip battles when exploring across the map. As long as your Guards have ‘Active’ actions points available you can move freely without battling at all. This makes resource gathering much quicker than it was before. Combine that with the new Commissions system that automatically gathers resources for you and a building in your Fort where you can trade experience for resources, the progression is much quicker. 3. One final point regarding referencing the information in the books used in the game; we’ve partnered with Rulepop to provide an incredible tool for rules reference and index reference in this game. You can easily find what you’re looking for using this resource (instead of flipping through the books). Lastly. Rulepop also has a built-in campaign tracker so players can save their progress while playing. Check it out using the link below. 😊 Thanks again to Mike for covering the game, and make SURE you play The Isofarian Guard with the Forteller audio narration. The story was written with voice acting in mind and we had over 10 hours of orchestral music composed to each scene (and unique boss music for each battle!). There's over 25+ hours of narration to listen to while experiencing the story! Regards, Eric Bittermann Sky Kingdom Games Rulepop link: isofarian-guard.rulepop.com/#
Gregory´s combo is pretty obvious, you just go through the motions every single battle activating the abilities through the same order. Perhaps the other characters were exciting, the 2 first ones werent.
Loved the fighting mechanic and drawing tokens from the bags. Absolutely hated walking one node and fighting to only walk one more node to fight again. Sold it.
Agree with your review, Mike. I have about forty hours put into campaign one. In some ways, it is a fascinating look under the hood for what a computer RPG looks like in pen and paper format, with all the array tables spelled out for you in a big, chunky book. And, given its scope, this may be one of the most ambitious single games in my collection. Without any expansions or other content to purchase, my guess is it has well over 120 hours of game in that box (comparable to a similar CRPG). But as you note, the grind is real and a major part of those hours. One other point I would have made is that while it officially can take up to 2 players, it really feels designed as a solo game. For example, one of the two starting guards is a support character and it is his job to power up the other one or hand out debuffs rather than dealing his own dps. You'll barely notice it if playing alone but I could see it being very tough to main Alek for a full chapter.
Yes, though I don’t think a board game can ever capture my favorite part of Skyrim and games like it: cresting a hill and seeing the huge, beautiful landscape sprawling before you, waiting to be explored
@@OneStopCoopShop thanks! One question though, if I may still: is it true that during solo play one still needs to play 2 characters? How did you find it sir, given your overall solo board game experience (on a scale of "completely not a problem 0 - big hindrance 10)?
@DukeJohnny yeah, it’s pretty much always 2 characters. I think the combat would be much less interesting with one character, as a lot of the actions boost each other or tank for the other character
Just got my copy, and looking forward to the narrative adventure. I would imagine you could house rule the travel to be a one time draw as opposed to each node. Also, word of the video is “caveat.” Haha, cheers Mike! Excellent job as always!
@@OneStopCoopShop I actually have a very different question. BGG community says 10+ age works for this one. I have my middle son turning 10 next week. I would play with him as he lives narrative types of games, and thus complexity isn’t an issue. But regarding the narrative content and language, is it appropriate for a 10-year-old? Violence isn’t as big of a deal as darker or demonic or hyper-sexuality within the narrative. I don’t want to ask on BGG as I’d likely bias the results.
@@BlakeAustin2011 In the portion I played (partway into the 2nd campaign), I didn't read anything hyper sexualized or inappropriate. My 11 year-old was fine with it.
@@OneStopCoopShop Fantastic, thanks! Probably not a common comment, but the fact you (and I think Colin?) have kiddos and keep the channel appropriate for them to watch is what drew me in the first place. Such a great hobby to unplug and still be engaged with the family. That goes for Bairnt and Steve and Canje as well. Just love the energy and vibe of the channel for years now! Cheers!
The grind sadly made me selling the game long before the story became interesting. Too bad as I was looking forward to play it. Maybe if I didn't have a wife, full time work, kids etc i could handle the grind, but time gets more valuable the older you get. Great review of a good game.
I got my copy a couple weeks ago and I’ve been playing it non-stop. Importantly, they added a whole bunch of stuff to reduce grind. At first I was worried, then I started discovering the improvements. Some specific tips: - You can get a travel cloak early that puts another compass in the event bag - You can get travel boots in a nearby town which let you redraw a chip once / node! - You get some workers at Fort Istra that you can send out to gather resources & fight enemies for you. They also make nodes they are on safe - This also allows you to get a boat quite fast in Chapter 2, which is almost like a fast travel system - You can upgrade some building which let you trade Lux (XP) for resources All this combines to let you choose when to fight and when not too… most of the time. But it’s enough for me. Loving the game!
@philthephreak Wow, it sounds like they changed a lot of what made me quit! I liked the combat phase a lot, and I liked to traverse the world as wel, but the time I wanted to progress the story or get specific items/minerals etc, it took way too long to do so. I remember I was at the bottom of the map and needed ore that was almost at top. I could risk meeting enemies almost every step on the way, and the same when I was heading back again. It really took away the immersion for me. I'm glad they fixed this and that people are enjoying it. It seems like a great game, to be honest.
Yeah I mean Mike’s not wrong, you do still need to fight plenty of enemies to get what you need for gear and leveling up. It’s just that I feel like it’s reduced, and you can decide way more easily when and where to do that. Not sure if this is new, but there are expanded satchels which let you carry twice as much gear too, so you have to worry less about going back and forth. They are next on my list to acquire. Oh and now you can gain prestige with towns which makes it cheaper to rest at the inn, and gear costs less money and materials!
Your number 1 con compared it to the grind of Tainted Grail. For Tainted Grail I “hand waved” a lot of the grindy parts (most of the gathering of materials for lighting menhirs) Is that something you can do in this game if the narrative is the driving force? Thanks, I love watching your 5 minute reviews!
@@randothomas3733 many of the story encounters are against bosses who sometimes have unique mechanics, but other than that no, the combat mechanics remain the same for everything.
Thanks for the review Mike. Given you #1 , I will most likely approach this game campaign by campaign once I receive the upgrade pack. I don’t want to burn out because of the grind. That will give me the opportunity to intercalate some other games between campaigns.
Didn’t they update the rules with the upgrade pack? In the 2nd crowdfunding campaign, I believe they talked about being able to skip combats on the nodes for a small penalty if you just want to be able to move faster. I was concerned about the grind too but the update was a big selling point
@philthephreak you can skip a combat by losing one of your token draws for the next time you fight, up to 2 skips in a row generally. Then you’ll have to fight (and get your butt kicked the first round with no tokens to use) before you can skip fights again. It helps a little, but it’s not like the grind suddenly disappears
@@OneStopCoopShop One more question on that point, if I may - how long did it take you to complete each of the campaigns? If short enough, maybe the grind is worth it? I recall them saying it was 20-30h per campaign, depending on how much side questing and optional content you do.
@philthephreak I only finished the first, and started the second. It was probably 12-15 hours? I did skip more fights and such when the grind got annoying near the end
I'd refer to my video earlier this year on my top 20 adventure games - ruclips.net/video/QKayTH6h3Pc/видео.htmlsi=gx3wEP-D6YiK2t9A Though I'll note that list is already slightly out of date because some more amazing games have come out since.
The grind in combat and harvesting is actually pretty easy to houserule, so no problem there but I thought they were gonna get rid of it with the 2nd edition? So, they didn't? Also, all points listed were applicable to the 1st edition as well so what were the differences? Weren't there now also mini games with the chips you could play and a massive addition of event cards?
I never played the first printing, so I don’t know what’s new specifically, but here’s what’s here: - you can run from combats, so that can reduce the grind a bit, but it comes at a cost, is limited, and you still need money and materials to keep up with leveling, so at least for my tastes it didn’t help much - you can send out workers to collect materials, so yes, that saves some time running around and collecting stuff - there are event cards when you draw the non-combat tokens from the encounter bag several times… are those new? They weren’t very frequent or impactful, so not worth mentioning in the five points - I didn’t see any bonus games… maybe I just didn’t do those side quests?
Im waiting for my copy :) Quick homerule that i can think of one CON is don't put chip back to the bag. IDK how many other chips are in but as long as it has no enemies just put 1 random back. Maybe that would cut the grind :)
It's generally 5 chips, 3 being combat encounters and 2 being non-combat. So yeah, that would limit the combat to 60%, and with the new official rules about being able to flee from some combats that might help!
There are ways in the game to reduce the traveling grind. Items you can buy in a town make traveling the map much faster. I highly recommend buying 2 of these!
Maybe some brains like the Baldur's Gate 2-style grind but it killed it for us because cheating and just choosing higher level gear really took away from the fun, too.
I felt exactly the same as you. I don’t mind grind, but it became too much here and I traded it away. I also felt the combat really became extremely repetitive so other than the story, I wasn’t enjoying it much. I made it through 1 chapter but couldn’t keep going.
This is with the modified rules, and it does help some. The auto collection of resources means you have to schlep around for crafting a bit less. The ability to run from fights reduces them a bit, but since you still need to fight to level and such you shouldn’t do it often. So long story short, the grind is less, but like 10% less, and it’s still going to be the make or break aspect of the game for most players.
@zifnabdr I never played first printing, so I don’t know which of these are new. But you get to send out your workers at the start of each chapter, and then at specific points as you complete quest lines they will return with resources. If you send them against monsters you might get more or fewer monster materials based on die rolls
I like the game, and I will play through the whole adventure, but I do not see me playing through the game a second or third time. That was my experience with Gloomhaven, I did not find myself needing to play through the game a second time, so I sold it after I was done. I still enjoyed the experience of but given how many games are available to play, this is not going to hold me to play more than once.
Ok i guess we can still be friends even though your number one is a con. However I feel like you faiied to mention one important thing about the "grind". Whenever you fight you are rewarded with money and or materials and xp that can be used to upgrade you're hero so its not just pointless fighting. Thats why i had this gane on my table for 2 months before putting it away to wait for upgrade pack. I could play for 30 minutes to a couple hours a night and make some sort of progress in the game whether that be gathering resources to upgrade your village, or upgrading or crafting a new piece of equipment, or completing a side quest etc. along with 7th citadel I find it to be a game you can just leave set up and have some easily accessible fun with even if youre tired or don't want to fully devote yourself to a long playthrough
Agree, though I would say 7th Citadel often lets you finish a full SCENARIO in the campaign in 60-90 minutes, while IG lets you maybe get materials for one upgrade and finish one part of a quest in that same length of time.
@@OneStopCoopShop true but I find the combat much more engaging in Isofarian guard so I don't mind. 7th citadel is just flipping cards so it obviously goes by much faster. But yes I would never play isofarian guard anything but solo and of you want a game where you can finish a scenario in 60-90 minutes this game is not for you. Id recommend 7th citadel or tales from the Red Dragon Inn for those who want that kind of game (or maybe Agemonia but I have yet to get that to table)
The other thing about this game for those of us who backed the original campaign was the value. Believe it or not the original pledge price was 79 dollar. 80 bucks for this much game is insane
Unfortunately, the grind is why I sold this game. I wanted to enjoy it, but it was a lot of repetition and very fiddly to work through. I’d hoped that this was smoothed out a little in second edition.
Wanted to love it but in the end i had to sell my 1st edition. Game was a grind, i left it setup up at my dedicated table and found that it was much more the days that i didnt felt like playing it than those that i did. I´d rather sit on my couch and play an rpg on the PS5 than to go through all this grind. The combat was pretty boring because as soon as you find your combo out, at least on the 1st campaign, you kinda always try to do the same actions in the same order because thats how Gregory works. I reached a point where i was spending more time setting the enemies up and getting them back to the box than actually fighting so i just gave up. Seemed like a game i would love, ended up "hating" it because of all it could have been.
the grind was too much for me.. and the battles are kind of lame, if you play a lot of them.. why have two same decks for the same opponent and not just draw from one deck for both, or both do the same..? besides, some actions don't really make sense, they add blue tokens, then end their turn (blue tokens are removed at the end of turn), etc. etc. I still ordered the upgrade pack, but am not sure if I want to play this again.. we stopped in chapter 4 of campaign 1 and just read the story to the end.. which is the only huge pro imho, the story is great, especially with the forteller narration app! :)
@@Vardakula not really, I was quite disappointed when I saw that all doubles look exactly the same and their decks are exactly the same.. they're maybe clones of each other.. 🤷🏼♂️
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
COMPONENTS - The game is HUGE. The organization works well, with a ton of labeled smaller boxes inside the main box. The only weaker part of the components is the two spinners, which are SUPER loose, but you can probably put something in between to tighten them up.
0:00 - Introduction
0:45 - Enemy variety
1:32 - Development
2:29 - Narrative adventure
3:04 - Combat combos
3:54 - Video game grind
5:17 - Final thoughts
Greetings from Sky Kingdom Games!
We just want to thank Mike for his time and providing his coverage and review of the game!
Indeed, The Isofarian Guard was designed and inspired by many old-school jrpgs with that open world feel and sandbox nature. It really does allow you to focus on what you want to when you sit down and play.
Regarding some of the points covered in the review, there’s a couple clarifications we’d like to share.
1. Equipment that you craft does mostly provide a base increase in either attack or defense, but there’s other factors to consider when picking your Guards’ gear. Equipment has ‘Stone Slots’ which allow you to attach Speaking Stone Cards to them. These stones are where the customization really begins. The stones are one of the main elements that build your Guards’ chip bags by adding additional chips, providing bonus health, more action points and other effects! So, how many Stone Slots your equipment has massively affects a Guard’s build. 😊
2. Regarding the grind of progression in the game; there’s several new systems to alleviate this. Like Mike mentioned, you can always skip battles when exploring across the map. As long as your Guards have ‘Active’ actions points available you can move freely without battling at all. This makes resource gathering much quicker than it was before. Combine that with the new Commissions system that automatically gathers resources for you and a building in your Fort where you can trade experience for resources, the progression is much quicker.
3. One final point regarding referencing the information in the books used in the game; we’ve partnered with Rulepop to provide an incredible tool for rules reference and index reference in this game. You can easily find what you’re looking for using this resource (instead of flipping through the books). Lastly. Rulepop also has a built-in campaign tracker so players can save their progress while playing. Check it out using the link below. 😊
Thanks again to Mike for covering the game, and make SURE you play The Isofarian Guard with the Forteller audio narration. The story was written with voice acting in mind and we had over 10 hours of orchestral music composed to each scene (and unique boss music for each battle!). There's over 25+ hours of narration to listen to while experiencing the story!
Regards,
Eric Bittermann
Sky Kingdom Games
Rulepop link:
isofarian-guard.rulepop.com/#
My favourite game, it doesn’t feel grindy to me because the chip drawing/card playing combat mechanics are legitimately exciting.
That makes sense. If the combat doesn’t get repetitive for you, it can be great
Gregory´s combo is pretty obvious, you just go through the motions every single battle activating the abilities through the same order. Perhaps the other characters were exciting, the 2 first ones werent.
I highly recommend to get the Forteller narration. It's absolutely brilliant and wonderful.
I love their work!
Really looking forward to getting this one back to the table with the updated information!
Loved the fighting mechanic and drawing tokens from the bags. Absolutely hated walking one node and fighting to only walk one more node to fight again. Sold it.
Agree with your review, Mike. I have about forty hours put into campaign one. In some ways, it is a fascinating look under the hood for what a computer RPG looks like in pen and paper format, with all the array tables spelled out for you in a big, chunky book. And, given its scope, this may be one of the most ambitious single games in my collection. Without any expansions or other content to purchase, my guess is it has well over 120 hours of game in that box (comparable to a similar CRPG). But as you note, the grind is real and a major part of those hours.
One other point I would have made is that while it officially can take up to 2 players, it really feels designed as a solo game. For example, one of the two starting guards is a support character and it is his job to power up the other one or hand out debuffs rather than dealing his own dps. You'll barely notice it if playing alone but I could see it being very tough to main Alek for a full chapter.
Yeah, I played with one of my sons a good bit, and while he enjoyed it we weren't both making a lot of decisions :)
Spot on review. Nice one Mike!
Closest thing to SKyrim in a board game. Really captures that open world, leveling up experience.
Yes, though I don’t think a board game can ever capture my favorite part of Skyrim and games like it: cresting a hill and seeing the huge, beautiful landscape sprawling before you, waiting to be explored
Nice review, it gets my hopes up while waiting for the game to arrive at my doorstep :)
Hope you enjoy it!!
@@OneStopCoopShop thanks! One question though, if I may still: is it true that during solo play one still needs to play 2 characters? How did you find it sir, given your overall solo board game experience (on a scale of "completely not a problem 0 - big hindrance 10)?
@DukeJohnny yeah, it’s pretty much always 2 characters. I think the combat would be much less interesting with one character, as a lot of the actions boost each other or tank for the other character
@@OneStopCoopShop oh I see, THANK YOU! :)
Just got my copy, and looking forward to the narrative adventure. I would imagine you could house rule the travel to be a one time draw as opposed to each node.
Also, word of the video is “caveat.” Haha, cheers Mike! Excellent job as always!
Caveat emptor!
And yes, absolutely, the game is VERY friendly to you handwaving some things if it gets in the way of your enjoyment.
@@OneStopCoopShop I actually have a very different question. BGG community says 10+ age works for this one. I have my middle son turning 10 next week. I would play with him as he lives narrative types of games, and thus complexity isn’t an issue. But regarding the narrative content and language, is it appropriate for a 10-year-old? Violence isn’t as big of a deal as darker or demonic or hyper-sexuality within the narrative.
I don’t want to ask on BGG as I’d likely bias the results.
@@BlakeAustin2011 In the portion I played (partway into the 2nd campaign), I didn't read anything hyper sexualized or inappropriate. My 11 year-old was fine with it.
@@OneStopCoopShop Fantastic, thanks!
Probably not a common comment, but the fact you (and I think Colin?) have kiddos and keep the channel appropriate for them to watch is what drew me in the first place. Such a great hobby to unplug and still be engaged with the family. That goes for Bairnt and Steve and Canje as well. Just love the energy and vibe of the channel for years now!
Cheers!
@@BlakeAustin2011 I did accidentally drop an f bomb during the 7th inning stretch video, but yeah generally we keep it kid friendly 😅😅😅
The grind sadly made me selling the game long before the story became interesting. Too bad as I was looking forward to play it. Maybe if I didn't have a wife, full time work, kids etc i could handle the grind, but time gets more valuable the older you get. Great review of a good game.
I got my copy a couple weeks ago and I’ve been playing it non-stop. Importantly, they added a whole bunch of stuff to reduce grind. At first I was worried, then I started discovering the improvements.
Some specific tips:
- You can get a travel cloak early that puts another compass in the event bag
- You can get travel boots in a nearby town which let you redraw a chip once / node!
- You get some workers at Fort Istra that you can send out to gather resources & fight enemies for you. They also make nodes they are on safe
- This also allows you to get a boat quite fast in Chapter 2, which is almost like a fast travel system
- You can upgrade some building which let you trade Lux (XP) for resources
All this combines to let you choose when to fight and when not too… most of the time. But it’s enough for me. Loving the game!
@philthephreak Wow, it sounds like they changed a lot of what made me quit! I liked the combat phase a lot, and I liked to traverse the world as wel, but the time I wanted to progress the story or get specific items/minerals etc, it took way too long to do so. I remember I was at the bottom of the map and needed ore that was almost at top. I could risk meeting enemies almost every step on the way, and the same when I was heading back again. It really took away the immersion for me. I'm glad they fixed this and that people are enjoying it. It seems like a great game, to be honest.
Yeah I mean Mike’s not wrong, you do still need to fight plenty of enemies to get what you need for gear and leveling up. It’s just that I feel like it’s reduced, and you can decide way more easily when and where to do that.
Not sure if this is new, but there are expanded satchels which let you carry twice as much gear too, so you have to worry less about going back and forth. They are next on my list to acquire.
Oh and now you can gain prestige with towns which makes it cheaper to rest at the inn, and gear costs less money and materials!
Your number 1 con compared it to the grind of Tainted Grail. For Tainted Grail I “hand waved” a lot of the grindy parts (most of the gathering of materials for lighting menhirs)
Is that something you can do in this game if the narrative is the driving force?
Thanks, I love watching your 5 minute reviews!
Absolutely! You can skip some fights, fast forward travel, just give yourself materials, etc. it’s easy to do if you want
@@OneStopCoopShop Is there an obvious diffence between a normal (grindy / material gathering) encounter and one, that moves the story forward?
@@randothomas3733 many of the story encounters are against bosses who sometimes have unique mechanics, but other than that no, the combat mechanics remain the same for everything.
Playthrough video now that updated stuff is out? Pretty please?
So unfortunately (as you can probably tell from the review), I didn't enjoy this one much, so I'm not going to do a playthrough.
Thanks for the review Mike. Given you #1 , I will most likely approach this game campaign by campaign once I receive the upgrade pack. I don’t want to burn out because of the grind. That will give me the opportunity to intercalate some other games between campaigns.
I think that’s a really smart idea. And with the 2 campaigns I played, each had a satisfying conclusion, so they provide a nice stopping point
Didn’t they update the rules with the upgrade pack? In the 2nd crowdfunding campaign, I believe they talked about being able to skip combats on the nodes for a small penalty if you just want to be able to move faster.
I was concerned about the grind too but the update was a big selling point
@philthephreak you can skip a combat by losing one of your token draws for the next time you fight, up to 2 skips in a row generally. Then you’ll have to fight (and get your butt kicked the first round with no tokens to use) before you can skip fights again.
It helps a little, but it’s not like the grind suddenly disappears
@@OneStopCoopShop One more question on that point, if I may - how long did it take you to complete each of the campaigns? If short enough, maybe the grind is worth it?
I recall them saying it was 20-30h per campaign, depending on how much side questing and optional content you do.
@philthephreak I only finished the first, and started the second. It was probably 12-15 hours? I did skip more fights and such when the grind got annoying near the end
This game looks like it could benefit a lot from an app or steam version.
Thanks for the insightful review. What’s your current favourite game in this genre?
I'd refer to my video earlier this year on my top 20 adventure games - ruclips.net/video/QKayTH6h3Pc/видео.htmlsi=gx3wEP-D6YiK2t9A
Though I'll note that list is already slightly out of date because some more amazing games have come out since.
The grind in combat and harvesting is actually pretty easy to houserule, so no problem there but I thought they were gonna get rid of it with the 2nd edition? So, they didn't? Also, all points listed were applicable to the 1st edition as well so what were the differences? Weren't there now also mini games with the chips you could play and a massive addition of event cards?
I never played the first printing, so I don’t know what’s new specifically, but here’s what’s here:
- you can run from combats, so that can reduce the grind a bit, but it comes at a cost, is limited, and you still need money and materials to keep up with leveling, so at least for my tastes it didn’t help much
- you can send out workers to collect materials, so yes, that saves some time running around and collecting stuff
- there are event cards when you draw the non-combat tokens from the encounter bag several times… are those new? They weren’t very frequent or impactful, so not worth mentioning in the five points
- I didn’t see any bonus games… maybe I just didn’t do those side quests?
I saw Corrupted Lobster in the enemy card box. 😊 makes me think of Dire Badger.
The only creature more dangerous is the enraged meerkat
Im waiting for my copy :) Quick homerule that i can think of one CON is don't put chip back to the bag. IDK how many other chips are in but as long as it has no enemies just put 1 random back. Maybe that would cut the grind :)
It's generally 5 chips, 3 being combat encounters and 2 being non-combat. So yeah, that would limit the combat to 60%, and with the new official rules about being able to flee from some combats that might help!
There are ways in the game to reduce the traveling grind. Items you can buy in a town make traveling the map much faster. I highly recommend buying 2 of these!
Wow I heard so many good things about this I Gamefounded the all-in but you tore it apart lol😂
I hope you heard some positives in the review! And this is just my take. You still might enjoy it
Maybe some brains like the Baldur's Gate 2-style grind but it killed it for us because cheating and just choosing higher level gear really took away from the fun, too.
The grind of this game was really dissatisfying after waiting a few years to play. Hoping future products focus on mechanics without grinding.
I felt exactly the same as you. I don’t mind grind, but it became too much here and I traded it away. I also felt the combat really became extremely repetitive so other than the story, I wasn’t enjoying it much. I made it through 1 chapter but couldn’t keep going.
I got a bit into chapter 2, and enjoyed the new guards, but yeah…
Hey Mike, I know they made some tweaks to this one to reduce the grind. Do you know if you were playing with the original or modified rules?
This is with the modified rules, and it does help some.
The auto collection of resources means you have to schlep around for crafting a bit less. The ability to run from fights reduces them a bit, but since you still need to fight to level and such you shouldn’t do it often.
So long story short, the grind is less, but like 10% less, and it’s still going to be the make or break aspect of the game for most players.
Thanks, good to know. I guess the nice thing with board games vs video games is you can just pretend you did the grind. 😉
@svachalek it’s POSSIBLE I did that several times when playing 😜
@@OneStopCoopShop What are the rules for the auto collection now?
@zifnabdr I never played first printing, so I don’t know which of these are new. But you get to send out your workers at the start of each chapter, and then at specific points as you complete quest lines they will return with resources. If you send them against monsters you might get more or fewer monster materials based on die rolls
I like the game, and I will play through the whole adventure, but I do not see me playing through the game a second or third time. That was my experience with Gloomhaven, I did not find myself needing to play through the game a second time, so I sold it after I was done. I still enjoyed the experience of but given how many games are available to play, this is not going to hold me to play more than once.
It's a ton of time to play through it all, so you got your value's worth!
Waiting for the upgrade pack to start playing, I'm sick that EU is always last ....
Hope you get it soon!
Ok i guess we can still be friends even though your number one is a con. However I feel like you faiied to mention one important thing about the "grind". Whenever you fight you are rewarded with money and or materials and xp that can be used to upgrade you're hero so its not just pointless fighting. Thats why i had this gane on my table for 2 months before putting it away to wait for upgrade pack. I could play for 30 minutes to a couple hours a night and make some sort of progress in the game whether that be gathering resources to upgrade your village, or upgrading or crafting a new piece of equipment, or completing a side quest etc. along with 7th citadel I find it to be a game you can just leave set up and have some easily accessible fun with even if youre tired or don't want to fully devote yourself to a long playthrough
Agree, though I would say 7th Citadel often lets you finish a full SCENARIO in the campaign in 60-90 minutes, while IG lets you maybe get materials for one upgrade and finish one part of a quest in that same length of time.
@@OneStopCoopShop true but I find the combat much more engaging in Isofarian guard so I don't mind. 7th citadel is just flipping cards so it obviously goes by much faster. But yes I would never play isofarian guard anything but solo and of you want a game where you can finish a scenario in 60-90 minutes this game is not for you. Id recommend 7th citadel or tales from the Red Dragon Inn for those who want that kind of game (or maybe Agemonia but I have yet to get that to table)
The other thing about this game for those of us who backed the original campaign was the value. Believe it or not the original pledge price was 79 dollar. 80 bucks for this much game is insane
@@erikpeters7072 that is WILD to me!
@@erikpeters7072 This was my first kick starter game. A year in the Dev made the content like 30% or 50% more or something.
Unfortunately, the grind is why I sold this game. I wanted to enjoy it, but it was a lot of repetition and very fiddly to work through. I’d hoped that this was smoothed out a little in second edition.
It is smoothed out a bit... but not enough for my tastes :)
Wanted to love it but in the end i had to sell my 1st edition. Game was a grind, i left it setup up at my dedicated table and found that it was much more the days that i didnt felt like playing it than those that i did. I´d rather sit on my couch and play an rpg on the PS5 than to go through all this grind. The combat was pretty boring because as soon as you find your combo out, at least on the 1st campaign, you kinda always try to do the same actions in the same order because thats how Gregory works. I reached a point where i was spending more time setting the enemies up and getting them back to the box than actually fighting so i just gave up.
Seemed like a game i would love, ended up "hating" it because of all it could have been.
the grind was too much for me.. and the battles are kind of lame, if you play a lot of them.. why have two same decks for the same opponent and not just draw from one deck for both, or both do the same..? besides, some actions don't really make sense, they add blue tokens, then end their turn (blue tokens are removed at the end of turn), etc. etc. I still ordered the upgrade pack, but am not sure if I want to play this again.. we stopped in chapter 4 of campaign 1 and just read the story to the end.. which is the only huge pro imho, the story is great, especially with the forteller narration app! :)
Pretty sure blue tokens boosting their defense stick around until their next turn, but that’s a minor thing 😅
Blue tokens are removed at the start of their next turn.
@@OneStopCoopShop probably one of those rules which I missed thanks to those really bad rulebooks, sadly.. 😖
@@wicked8576 and the two decks is kinda nice, even if they are the same enemy it gives them a "personality"
@@Vardakula not really, I was quite disappointed when I saw that all doubles look exactly the same and their decks are exactly the same.. they're maybe clones of each other.. 🤷🏼♂️