Okay so there is a bit to unpack with this game.

TL:DR is: Has mobile game trappings, extremely grindy, shallow combat, meh story.

The longer version:

The game has quite a bit of potential, though much like Graveyard Keeper, leaves a lot lying on the table. If you don't like idle games, or games that have LOTS of grinding, then I would suggest not reading the whole of this. This game is likely not for you. If you love grinding in games (like me) then there is a lot that this game brings to the table.

The story is sort of typical, but it really isn't the main draw of the game. Bad guy wants to do bad things, but will be thwarted by heroes who have set out to retrieve something for the king.

The combat system is set to auto-run, which will put off a lot of people, but its kinda nice to not have to focus on all the time. Each "run" through a zone takes on average 30 - 90 seconds depending on which enemies you come across or how well geared your characters are. The most you can impact each run is by casting spells to either debuff/damage enemies, or heal your characters or decide when they should retreat. The biggest drawback to combat is that there is no auto-repeat option on a board, so you are forced to watch like a hawk when to repeat a run (if you are super concerned with efficiency). Overall, the combat is just a vehicle to get materials that are needed to craft gear in town.

The crafting cycle is a beast of it's own. This is the meat of what you will be doing in the game. When your characters bring back materials to town you use those materials to create specific materials needed to craft weapons/armor/accessories. This is where the mobile game trappings come into play. If you want to turn logs into planks, gotta wait. Wanna take your planks and turn em into magic planks? Gotta wait some more. Want to take those ingots and magic-y planks and make a sword out of em? Guess what! Waiting again. The wait isn't too arduous on most of the materials, but when you start doing large batches of materials, the wait can be 2+ minutes for something to be done. But when you get deeper into the game, you can get bonus materials if your character tacked to a building has a lot of skill. (Most I have seen is 3x)

Now for the gear. The gear is the main draw for the game in my opinion. This is where the game is at it's best, but also leaves a bit out. First, the game does not take its gear seriously. Want an astronaut helmet? Game has that. Want a musket? Or how about a watermelon cannon thing? The games got you! The gear that you make has multiple rarity tiers, and higher rarity tiers have more potential to be awesome. The game has quite a bit of depth here. There are loads of combinations of different gear items, and lots of different stats that can roll on items. There are some that seem useful, but kinda suck depending on your characters, and vice versa. Each item has guaranteed stats that will roll with a few (?) spots. One of the problems is that it seems like any stat can roll on any (?) spot on an item. This means you can roll a mage staff that buffs both intelligence and strength which limits the usefulness of an item. This also means you can get stupid lucky and get a very low level item that has great stats and outperforms higher level gear. There is a surprising amount of depth here to be completely honest.


Lastly, the Swag in Swag and Sorcery. The game has fashion shows! The gear you craft or get as quest rewards has a few categories on it. You have color, material and style that you have to consider for your fashion shows. There are three judges that you have to please, and if you have extra gear that you don't want you can bri...I mean gift to the judges to figure out what they like and dislike. The game will also tell you what color is currently trendy. You can get a general idea how to dress depending on the "theme" of the show. Early in the game you won't have a lot of gear to get really specific in how you dress your character so you just throw your guys and gals out to the mercy of the judges. Now, should you win the show, you will be given Reputation points, currently I have no idea what these do to be honest. But along with the Rep, you also get given a sum of money and materials that can be used for crafting more gear.

Hopefully this helps someone out there make a purchase decision. Decided to write this because most of the reviews I saw were 4-5 sentences without much context.

Okay so there is a bit to unpack with this game. TL:DR is: Has mobile game trappings, extremely grindy, shallow combat, meh story. The longer version: The game has quite a bit of potential, though much like Graveyard Keeper, leaves a lot lying on the table. If you don't like idle games, or games that have LOTS of grinding, then I would suggest not reading the whole of this. This game is likely not for you. If you love grinding in games (like me) then there is a lot that this game brings to the table. The story is sort of typical, but it really isn't the main draw of the game. Bad guy wants to do bad things, but will be thwarted by heroes who have set out to retrieve something for the king. The combat system is set to auto-run, which will put off a lot of people, but its kinda nice to not have to focus on all the time. Each "run" through a zone takes on average 30 - 90 seconds depending on which enemies you come across or how well geared your characters are. The most you can impact each run is by casting spells to either debuff/damage enemies, or heal your characters or decide when they should retreat. The biggest drawback to combat is that there is no auto-repeat option on a board, so you are forced to watch like a hawk when to repeat a run (if you are super concerned with efficiency). Overall, the combat is just a vehicle to get materials that are needed to craft gear in town. The crafting cycle is a beast of it's own. This is the meat of what you will be doing in the game. When your characters bring back materials to town you use those materials to create specific materials needed to craft weapons/armor/accessories. This is where the mobile game trappings come into play. If you want to turn logs into planks, gotta wait. Wanna take your planks and turn em into magic planks? Gotta wait some more. Want to take those ingots and magic-y planks and make a sword out of em? Guess what! Waiting again. The wait isn't too arduous on most of the materials, but when you start doing large batches of materials, the wait can be 2+ minutes for something to be done. But when you get deeper into the game, you can get bonus materials if your character tacked to a building has a lot of skill. (Most I have seen is 3x) Now for the gear. The gear is the main draw for the game in my opinion. This is where the game is at it's best, but also leaves a bit out. First, the game does not take its gear seriously. Want an astronaut helmet? Game has that. Want a musket? Or how about a watermelon cannon thing? The games got you! The gear that you make has multiple rarity tiers, and higher rarity tiers have more potential to be awesome. The game has quite a bit of depth here. There are loads of combinations of different gear items, and lots of different stats that can roll on items. There are some that seem useful, but kinda suck depending on your characters, and vice versa. Each item has guaranteed stats that will roll with a few (?) spots. One of the problems is that it seems like any stat can roll on any (?) spot on an item. This means you can roll a mage staff that buffs both intelligence and strength which limits the usefulness of an item. This also means you can get stupid lucky and get a very low level item that has great stats and outperforms higher level gear. There is a surprising amount of depth here to be completely honest. Lastly, the Swag in Swag and Sorcery. The game has fashion shows! The gear you craft or get as quest rewards has a few categories on it. You have color, material and style that you have to consider for your fashion shows. There are three judges that you have to please, and if you have extra gear that you don't want you can bri...I mean gift to the judges to figure out what they like and dislike. The game will also tell you what color is currently trendy. You can get a general idea how to dress depending on the "theme" of the show. Early in the game you won't have a lot of gear to get really specific in how you dress your character so you just throw your guys and gals out to the mercy of the judges. Now, should you win the show, you will be given Reputation points, currently I have no idea what these do to be honest. But along with the Rep, you also get given a sum of money and materials that can be used for crafting more gear. Hopefully this helps someone out there make a purchase decision. Decided to write this because most of the reviews I saw were 4-5 sentences without much context.