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 Current Release: Alpha build #2, the "Save the Yote" update. Griftlands is an alpha-release card-driven roguelike made by Klei, the creators of Don't Starve, Invisible Inc., and Oxygen Not Included (among others). It clearly owes a lot to similar games like Dream Quest and Slay the Spire, but it has some changes that make it more than a knockoff:
What's in the game right now? There's "Sal's Story", which appears to be one of three planned characters. Klei has mentioned that the new characters will have all-new decks (and maybe even unique mechanics), but no details yet. Sal's Story goes for four-in game days of a planned five. You can grind up 7 "Prestige" levels, akin to Slay the Spire - conducts that make the game harder and stack as you go up in levels. (There were 6 in the first alpha, but they added a new one.) So each run is maybe an hour or two, you can make it harder 7 times, but you can only play with the one set of combat and negotiation cards. It's a fair bit easier than Slay the Spire or Dream Quest right now, but not trivially easy or anything. You decide if this much is worth it to you. The feedback screen is very easy to use and Klei has been pretty receptive, so playing with the motivation to make it better makes more sense here than most games. Where is it, and how much? Griftlands is currently available exclusively on the Epic Games Store as a timed exclusive, with a planned Steam release in June 2020. It's $15, and Klei plans to increase the price at some point between now and release when the game has more heft to it. If you sign up for a (free) Klei account and link your EGS and Steam accounts, you only need to buy it once - getting it on EGS will give it to you for free on Steam when it launches there. I don't like the Epic Games Store, and I want to make the thread about that instead of the video game. Please do not do that. You can use the time you saved to read a book or something. Can I watch it played to help make up my mind? I did a Let's Play of the Alpha 1 build where I go into a fair bit of detail on the game's systems as they stand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBSkNOaQL6M How come the thread title isn't some funny observation about the game? First I want to just describe it straight so someone who might be interested has a hint this might be their jam. After a week or so I'll change it the next time someone has a funny one. hito fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Aug 2, 2019 |
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Aug 2, 2019 03:25
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Was interested in it until I saw it's an EGS exclusive. I'll wait for it on steam when it's a little further ahead. It's a shame because I really loved invisible inc.
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Aug 2, 2019 03:53
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Bring this to Switch so I can play it on the john, thanks in advance.
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Aug 2, 2019 03:58
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tithin posted:Was interested in it until I saw it's an EGS exclusive. I'll wait for it on steam when it's a little further ahead. I'm not sure how they worked this out but apparently anyone who buys in to early access on epic will also be entitled to a steam key when the game hits full launch
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Aug 2, 2019 04:12
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Oh poo poo, no way. That should 100% be in the op with sauce. I might need it immediately.
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Aug 2, 2019 04:59
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Glory to Italia!
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ILL Machina posted:Oh poo poo, no way. That should 100% be in the op with sauce. I might need it immediately. Yep, although you need to go through the step of making a Klei account:  I'll put it in the OP.
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Aug 2, 2019 05:14
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Love the edit in after the fact to make me look like an rear end in a top hat  If buying one gets me it on both, definitely interested.
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Aug 2, 2019 05:59
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tithin posted:Love the edit in after the fact to make me look like an rear end in a top hat You win this round, Tencent. Well played.
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Aug 2, 2019 08:00
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I wonder if we're seeing the start of a new genre, the roguelike deckbuilders. We just need a fancy name,. Spirelike? (Other games in the genre include nowhere prophet and trials of fire)
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Aug 2, 2019 13:53
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Walh Hara posted:I wonder if we're seeing the start of a new genre, the roguelike deckbuilders. We just need a fancy name,. Spirelike? Slay the Likes
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Aug 2, 2019 13:59
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Walh Hara posted:I wonder if we're seeing the start of a new genre, the roguelike deckbuilders. We just need a fancy name,. Spirelike? Dreamquestoids
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Aug 2, 2019 14:07
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I call them Spirelikes already to my increasingly annoyed friends. I may be addicted. I have like 10 lovely Chinese Spire clones and I'm building one for fun. That said I do think either Griftlands or Roguebook are the next big game in the genre. Nowhere prophet is pretty fun, as well, although I really can't play it for long.
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Aug 2, 2019 14:21
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Walh Hara posted:I wonder if we're seeing the start of a new genre, the roguelike deckbuilders. We just need a fancy name,. Spirelike? Dustlikes.  E: I would also accept Heartslikes, though that is even further a stretch. Orv fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Aug 2, 2019 |
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Aug 2, 2019 14:26
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Hugoon Chavez posted:I call them Spirelikes already to my increasingly annoyed friends. Any that are worth trying out?
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Aug 2, 2019 17:28
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Dackel posted:Any that are worth trying out? Dream Quest is deep, but butt-ugly, poor at communicating mechanics, and has a lot of "gotchas" when you're starting out. But if it wasn't good, it wouldn't have launched the genre, and it's worth it if you're willing to put in the time. The designer of Dream Quest also latter joined the Hearthstone team and made simple single-player deckbuilder modes (Kobolds and Catacombs, Monster Hunt, some third one that isn't as good.) They don't have the staying power of the full games, but they're free and fun so why not? Nothing right now has Spire's combination of polish and depth, but Griftlands could easily get there after a couple of years.
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Aug 2, 2019 17:47
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Dackel posted:Any that are worth trying out? I've tried Griftlands and I think it has great potential, but for some weird reason I didn't find it fun just yet. Not sure why, perhaps I should give it another chance. I quite like Trials of Fire, the core gameplay loop is extremely solid. It has some quite unique mechanics and they work well in my opinion. That said, it is very much still in early access. Just like slay the spire did the devs do weekly patches with lots of balance tweaking. The AI is pretty solid. I'm mostly curious about nowhere prophet, haven't tried it yet though.
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Aug 2, 2019 18:48
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Yeah I spent lots of time in hearthstone's PvE modes. Also have Night of the full moon on mobile which I love. I have Card quest on steam but honestly it didn't grip me. Been eyeing Trials of Fire and Nowhere Prophet looks cool. Thanks for the suggestions
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Aug 2, 2019 18:59
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Neoverse is also pretty good I thought, with some interesting classes and mechanics plus a polished weird 3D art look. Its biggest drawback is that one of its mechanics (gain a skill point for precisely getting an enemy to 0 hp) encourages unfun play patterns. You feel pretty smart when you manage it though.
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Aug 2, 2019 19:28
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Dackel posted:Any that are worth trying out? Griftlands is super polished, and the negotiation battle mechanic is different and fun, but I feel that the possible decks aren't that interesting. I'm 100% sure this will improve as I unlock more cards, and the remaining characters will bring more variety than just the decks with their new stories, as well. I'll end up playing this a lot. Roguebook was just kickstarter'd and there's a backer alpha. It lacks a lot of stuff but I've had a lot of fun with it already, maybe because it's a very different take to the game. I've stopped playing it but I'll pick it back up whenever it's in beta. It's done by the same devs as Faeria, which I haven't played but everything I hear from them sounds like they're pretty good and community oriented, so that's a plus. Deck of ashes is another good one! It's very similar to slay the spire in core mechanics, and plainly worst at it, but the changes to how the game plays are pretty fun. The runs are waaayyy too long though. I can go into more detail if you really want a goon opinion I guess, although maybe in the roguelike thread as to not derail? These are the Good New Ones, but there's plenty more if you're obsessed with roguelikes deckbuilders. Ha ha. Can you imagine.
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Aug 2, 2019 20:44
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Wasn’t there some controversy around Roguebook and the financial stability of the developer?
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Aug 3, 2019 00:50
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I'm not sure if griftlands is popular enough for its own thread, but perhaps a thread for all these kind of games makes sense. edit: welp, RPS just claimed "Fate Hunters" is pretty good as well. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/08/02/unknown-pleasures-against-the-odds/ Walh Hara fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Aug 3, 2019 |
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Aug 3, 2019 10:38
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Walh Hara posted:I'm not sure if griftlands is popular enough for its own thread, but perhaps a thread for all these kind of games makes sense. I've been playing it for a while and it's ok, it's not super strategic or anything, but good fun for a few runs. I should give it another go, haven't played it after it fully released. I didn't like two of its classes, but maybe they've improved them.
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Aug 4, 2019 02:39
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The Death Trophies update is live: Excited to (at least potentially) have a reason to ever bother killing people - the balance on surrender vs. not seemed totally bonkers before.
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Aug 22, 2019 20:18
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For people using this thread to follow the game and haven't played it (and don't want to read/comprehend patch notes), can you explain what this means for gameplay?
ILL Machina fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Aug 27, 2019 |
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Aug 27, 2019 07:09
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ILL Machina posted:For people using this thread to follow the game and haven't played it (and don't want to read/comprehend patch notes), can you explain what this means for gameplay? I haven't tried the update, but before trophies, killing people was almost entirely bad for your run, since it caused their friends to hate you (giving you a debuff) and a reputation for violence to be created, which meant a few helpful cards with big downsides attached. Now it seems that if you kill someone you get powerful limited use cards? That could be interesting to work with.
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Aug 27, 2019 08:23
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How’s this game going? Any interesting updates over the last year or so?
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May 27, 2020 07:25
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There's a second character fully implemented and a third one coming soonish. Game is quite fun, but (imo) lacks the replay value of something like Slay the Spire
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May 27, 2020 10:16
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peer posted:There's a second character fully implemented and a third one coming soonish. Game is quite fun, but (imo) lacks the replay value of something like Slay the Spire The runs are way too long for the game to be as replayable as StS. Even if the run is going poorly it may take you an hour or so to actually lose, and it's very possible to have a "good" run through diplomacy that is actually completely unwinnable because bosses are always physical fights. The game is pretty good but it's definitely tiresome to play for long. I'd still recommend it for anyone into deckbuilders, but it's not a replacement for StS by any means.
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May 28, 2020 08:18
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Hugoon Chavez posted:it's very possible to have a "good" run through diplomacy that is actually completely unwinnable because bosses are always physical fights. This is just so baffling to me. It feels like they really painted themselves into a corner with the two decks concept, cool as it is.
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May 28, 2020 08:50
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Got this when it hit steam, really liking it. Won a couple of times as each character, starting to climb prestige. I like that the two characters play totally differently and how different deck archetypes have different story results -- I took a booster clamp on Sal and once I realized I literally had to murder everyone I had even the slightest scuffle with, I went full murder-monster, leaning on pure red for my negotiation, etc.
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Jun 21, 2020 15:48
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Once you beat the story you unlock Brawl mode, which is just a series of random battles/negotiations. It might be where the real replay value is after you do the story a couple times. Still not sure if it will replace Slay the Spire for me, but it is a very cool deckbuilder all the same. Rook seems to lack defensive options but maybe that's just because I need to unlock more card packs. His coinflip mechanic is fun, I ended up with a coin that drew a card on heads, and a graft that gave me an action every 4 flips, so I took a bunch of gamble cards and could rush through my deck super quickly.
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Jun 21, 2020 19:22
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Got this when it hit Steam, really loving it. I found something neat, while Rook always gets that big parasite card combo, there is a way to mitigate their downsides. A couple NPC Boggers have a boon that makes you heal instead of take damage when you draw the parasite cards, or draw more. Handy. Also, sucking up to the civilian laborer NPCs is great, a lot of them give the Voice of the People boon, which stacks, and does a lot of damage to enemy negotiations.
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Jun 23, 2020 20:53
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For me it's too early to say that there is not enough replay value since the game is not out yet but then again I'm pacing myself. I've went into StS on release and it was incredible but I would surely be burnt out if I invested heavily in EA. Right now I've played both Sal and Rook a couple of times over some time and had a very good time without exhausting everything. I was going to play again when the third character is released but this thread showed up and there is a hankering. Like there is some new mode? Maybe negotiation decks are not as easy to break now? Oh poo poo it's that EA burn out curse need to control myself! Okay fine someone said something about it getting out on steam so I guess I can get my steam key now or something...
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Jun 23, 2020 21:23
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I've had a few events happen in several games that changed the entire flow of the run. In particular, some hesh worshippers opened up this training yard where I could spar once a day to get card XP. That was neat.
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Jun 24, 2020 02:55
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Been playing this on and off over the last few days, just finished unlocking all the unlockable cards. Some random thoughts: - I too wish it was possible to go full negotiation for the entire run, the game tries to throw you a bone by having negotiation preludes to big fights that give you a bit of an edge, but it's not quite enough if you've been completely neglecting your battle deck. But I suppose knowing how to balance the two is an inherent part of the challenge. - I think I like the secondary minigame of managing your relationships and who loves/hates you more than the actual deckbuilding, hopefully that plays a bigger role in the upcoming third character. - It's hard to go back to Sal's campaign once you've gotten the hang of Rook. His story mode is generally better, has more interesting challenges and is more fleshed out, and once you unlock a few of his card packs you get way more strategic options. Sal's campaign just feel way too simplistic by comparison. Blisster posted:Once you beat the story you unlock Brawl mode, which is just a series of random battles/negotiations. It might be where the real replay value is after you do the story a couple times. Still not sure if it will replace Slay the Spire for me, but it is a very cool deckbuilder all the same. For defense in Negotiations, one of the coins that Pengemunt can trade you on the third/fourth day is the Turtle Coin, which gives Composure to your main argument on heads and slightly less composure to all your arguments on tails. If you've been making a Gambling-heavy deck, then you can end up being nearly impossible to take down with it. For defense in combat, he gains bonus defense at the end of his turn based on how many empty charges he has, so you can build a deck based around emptying all your charges and picking up cards with bonus effects when at zero charges. If the 'Admiralty Gunsmith' event shows up, you can pick it to increase/decrease your charge chambers once - free for one chamber more/less, 300 shills for two.
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Jun 24, 2020 08:08
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Osmosisch posted:This is just so baffling to me. It feels like they really painted themselves into a corner with the two decks concept, cool as it is. That's part of the challenge. You should be taking opportunities to strengthen your battle deck as well. Part of the fun of this game is planning out what you need to do next and balancing your negotiations vs. battles. Also, someone said rook is missing too much defense but part of that is his charge mechanic. Each empty charge will add 2 defense at the end of your turn, so cards that spend charge will help you defend. I see this is the slowest thread right now but Rook has Brawl now fyi How Rude fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Jul 13, 2020 |
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Jul 13, 2020 15:15
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I bought this a couple days ago and played through a few times. I've played tons of Hearthstone, a fair amount of Slay the Spire, and liked Gwent in W3. That's my card game experience. I also thinks Klei's games are great. I almost never buy EA games but figured this one would be worth a shot. It's. . . OK? has potential anyway. I like some concepts like playing cards to upgrade them. The art style is excellent. There's balance issues that I'm sure will be resolved but also some structural issues that I think just suck. - My first run as Sal, I lost to the last boss, then on my 2nd run I crushed him. I'm confused because the first run he was splitting into copies, but the 2nd he just summoned a robot and mostly got his rear end beat in a few turns via massive stacks of bleed. I'm not sure what Sal's other options are... there's combo, which is confusing honestly, and I guess discard? There's a card that is like StS's shiv, which should combo with Wound, but the shiv cards are drawn in place of your other cards. Just doesn't seem like enough card draw for that? - My one run as Rook ended because I was going all-in diplomat and then had a forced battle and lost. Which just aggravated me. - There's this massive level of abstraction that my brain is required to jump through for negotiations. Like if I see a battle card that says "apply bleed", I've played enough video games to get an idea of what it does even without reading the card text. In negotiations, I am constantly reading the card text over and over to get a sense of what the hell is happening and even then, there is no real connection as to what the card is doing and what is happening with the characters on the screen. It does not feel like a discussion between two people the same way a battle is me stomping on a bug. 1000% biggest problem with this game imo. I gradually stopped negotiating and just ended up playing like a killer rear end in a top hat. - The above problem seeps into battle too. Just accept that Blizzard is good at refining basic usability mechanics and use their names. "Discover" is way better than whatever the heck Griftlands calls it (introspect? intuit?) at describing what happens. I'm sure I will understand these over time, but it's irritating to keep rereading or trying to remember. By contrast, nearly everything is obvious in Slay the Spire after like 1 run. - It's way too long. I haven't tried brawl yet, but maybe it's OK without all the dialogue. The relationship system is interesting, but I'm not sure how it fits with the pacing of this style of game. - Pets die so fast I don't see the point. Why waste defense cards on them so that they will maybe survive when I can instead murder everything on the screen? Sure, I'll take the graft that trades a pet slow for an action every time. - StS nailed transparency of information like few games ever have. Griftlands UI isn't bad or anything, but it feels busy and slower to read compared to StS.
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Jul 14, 2020 19:32
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ultrachrist posted:I bought this a couple days ago and played through a few times. I've played tons of Hearthstone, a fair amount of Slay the Spire, and liked Gwent in W3. That's my card game experience. I also thinks Klei's games are great. I almost never buy EA games but figured this one would be worth a shot. - You will unlock more cards the more you play -- you get points after you fail/win the campaign which unlocks new things. Combo is a resource some cards can generate, and you expend it to get additional effects, or spend it all in a Finisher-type card. Another focus for Sal is a Bleed deck, which uses cards that capitalize on stacking bleed/gain effects based on enemy bleed stacks. Also, what bosses you fight will change with each play through, currently there are 2 different types for each day in the story you can possibly get. The opportunities you get between missions also change and a huge part of managing your decks is looking at the different rewards/challenges from each mission and figuring out which ones will help you the most in the long run. - You get used to it the more you play. The most important thing to understand with resolve (your argument health meter) is that it regenerates a bit after every battle. You can afford to take hits to resolve. Part of the challenge of the game is balancing the benefits from winning arguments (which, sometimes, you might want to enter combat so you can win more battle drafts/exp for battle cards). - Another huge issue I see newer players having in this game is not picking Grafts (permanent upgrades) and taking hits to their health to get more upgrade slots from the graft merchant. You need to treat your health meters like expendable resources to get stronger, because the bosses in this game do not gently caress around and will destroy you if you don't keep your battle deck as healthy as your negotiation deck. Remember that at the end of every day Sal and Rook will refill their health and resolve to max again when you sleep after that day's boss. - Again, you get used to the terms. It's also early access beta so some things are liable to change with each update (a lot sometimes). The weakness status effect was already renamed to impair for example (probably more accurate wrt reducing enemy damage dealt to you I guess). - Brawl makes the gameplay rapid fire fast, so if you prefer that to the narrative-type, decision-making gameplay, you can give it a go. Also, you can suspend your playthrough at any time if you need a break. - Pets are really goddamn strong in Sal's campaign (Rook doesn't have a pet merchant to upgrade his pets unfortunately). If you decide to roll with a pet, keep your eyes peeled for a limited time event between missions that will let you train it. This will make it help you out in arguments instead of hinder and massively increase their stats for combat. Also remember that the, I think 5? different monsters you can get as pets are all different. The Razorbeak and Yote are both the strongest. The former gets 1 dodge each turn, the latter has tons of defense and can increase its own Power. It's definitely a good way to spend shills if your decks/grafts are looking good and you want more help for the bosses.
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Jul 14, 2020 21:14
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Also I agree the animations could use some work and maybe more visual clarity in arguments can help as well. I expect Klei will continue looking for ways to improve the characters' expressions but I'm satisfied with their current progress for now.
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Jul 14, 2020 21:22
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ultrachrist posted:
I'm not sure if the game ever makes it explicit, but there's a selection of grafts/items available in the final auction. You can requisition/steal one prior to the auction, and if you take part in the auction you have a chance of negotiating your way to up to one more. Whatever you don't get your hands on, Kashio gets in the final battle (and of course she gets a super buffed version of whatever benefit you would have gotten out of it), so it's best to aim for denying her the strongest items. The 'split into copies' buff was because she got her hands on a Hologram Projector Belt - it's one of the most challenging buffs she can get, so it's one of the highest-priority targets if it shows up in the auction.
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Jul 15, 2020 04:26
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