Its a game for people who play something like Fire Emblem Awakening and craft narratives in their heads when their best fighter stays behind to fight off a horde of enemies while the rest of their army escapes. Instead of being head-canon, Wildermyth revels in using failure as a vessel for actual story telling. Even whole chapters can be failed, yet the story goes on. Instead of dying, heroes can become maimed, lose limbs, hindering their effectiveness in battle somewhat but making them that much more unique and memorable in the process. Out of combat procedural story decisions can permanently alter characters as well. Almost every important gameplay decision is accompanied by some level of procedural story telling. Its a great example of utilizing the strengths that are unique to videogames as a medium to create unique stories that players can get invested in.

For example, by the end of my first campaign, I had a party with a broken-hearted sorcerer with a hook for a hand, who was friends with a partially petrified but absolute badass ranger, lead by a peg-legged jester of a warrior and her husband and daughter. Through the course of the campaign the sorcerer would reveal his tragic long lost love story only to his dear friend the ranger, and those two would end up being long-running heroes as the leader of the party retired early to live out her days with her family. The two vets helped coach a whole new generation of heroes, including another badass warrior woman who gained a mischevious creature as a pet, and would go on to barely survive as she defended the party against an onslaught of enemies, losing an eye by the time the final battle of the campaign was ended. All those characters can go on to re-appear in future campaigns. The way the story and characters evolve through failure makes it so much easier to get invested in their adventures, as every encounter could have dire, but not game-and-story-ending consequences for your band of heroes.

All that said, if all you care about in videogames is gameplay, then it might not be for you. The combat is enjoyable, but not nearly as difficult as, say, XCom. If you're experienced with tactics type games you may want to play on a harder difficulty to start. The game is at its best when you're not quite sure if you'll succeed in a given encounter. Or, more accurately, when you're not sure how much you'll need to sacrifice to succeed.

TL;DR, if you're a fan of emergent narratives and stories in videogames, or the improvised style of storytelling of some D&D campaigns, then the game is probably right up your alley. If all that isn't particularly interesting to you, the gameplay might not be enough to keep you engaged the whole time.

Its a game for people who play something like Fire Emblem Awakening and craft narratives in their heads when their best fighter stays behind to fight off a horde of enemies while the rest of their army escapes. Instead of being head-canon, Wildermyth revels in using failure as a vessel for actual story telling. Even whole chapters can be failed, yet the story goes on. Instead of dying, heroes can become maimed, lose limbs, hindering their effectiveness in battle somewhat but making them that much more unique and memorable in the process. Out of combat procedural story decisions can permanently alter characters as well. Almost every important gameplay decision is accompanied by some level of procedural story telling. Its a great example of utilizing the strengths that are unique to videogames as a medium to create unique stories that players can get invested in. For example, by the end of my first campaign, I had a party with a broken-hearted sorcerer with a hook for a hand, who was friends with a partially petrified but absolute badass ranger, lead by a peg-legged jester of a warrior and her husband and daughter. Through the course of the campaign the sorcerer would reveal his tragic long lost love story only to his dear friend the ranger, and those two would end up being long-running heroes as the leader of the party retired early to live out her days with her family. The two vets helped coach a whole new generation of heroes, including another badass warrior woman who gained a mischevious creature as a pet, and would go on to barely survive as she defended the party against an onslaught of enemies, losing an eye by the time the final battle of the campaign was ended. All those characters can go on to re-appear in future campaigns. The way the story and characters evolve through failure makes it so much easier to get invested in their adventures, as every encounter could have dire, but not game-and-story-ending consequences for your band of heroes. All that said, if all you care about in videogames is gameplay, then it might not be for you. The combat is enjoyable, but not nearly as difficult as, say, XCom. If you're experienced with tactics type games you may want to play on a harder difficulty to start. The game is at its best when you're not quite sure if you'll succeed in a given encounter. Or, more accurately, when you're not sure how much you'll need to sacrifice to succeed. TL;DR, if you're a fan of emergent narratives and stories in videogames, or the improvised style of storytelling of some D&D campaigns, then the game is probably right up your alley. If all that isn't particularly interesting to you, the gameplay might not be enough to keep you engaged the whole time.