COMPONENTS - They sent me the deluxe version, so I can't comment on the retail version. But the tokens, organization system, and thick wooden enemy tokens are lovely. 0:00 - Introduction 0:36 - App integration 1:14 - Character progression 2:11 - Narrative campaign 2:48 - Dice and combos 3:42 - Combat scenarios 4:30 - Final thoughts
My son and I were able to play maybe 2 fights and one camp/leveling stage in maybe 75-90 minutes, and there are 2-3 groups of those for each of the 3 acts. So that adds up to… somewhere in the realm of 15-20 hours maybe? We didn’t finish act 3 yet so I can’t say for sure.
Looks great! I've been on the fence on this one, but I like everything you just mentioned, so I think I'm going to have to check this out. Thanks Mike!
Wow! Looks like a lot going on in a pretty compact set. Neat to see this kind of thing not take up a ton of space and come with a daunting ammount of tokens and minis and such.
Yes,this is one of my favourite campaign games too. I payed 200€ to get the Kickstarter to Belgium 😮 But I love it so much. First campaign game that I will play again. App is fine. I prefer this over campaign and scenario books. But the app has it flaws. If you click to fast, you might miss something important. In act 3 I had to return an allie that I must have missed receiving. A return button or overview with your stats and cards would be fine . And in act 3 building the map becomes worse. But overall almost perfect!
Would you put those in the same genre/category? I didn't look into Malhya much, but Arydia seems very much a zoomed out adventure game, and not a zoomed in crawler-ish game like this.
So, my wife (Rogue) and I (Mercenary) just finished Act 1 of Fateforge and yes, the fact that both new skills and healing costs money is a little frustrating. However, what we realized is that it's there so you don't just run in recklessly and tank hits. You're not superheroes, you're a fantasy SWAT team. You have to predict the enemies' actions and take out the big threats while ignoring the small fry, all the while grabbing what coin and treasure you can manage. Since it cost 1 coin/gold to heal two damage (at least where I am in the story), if getting a yellow gem worth 1 coin/gold means you'll take two damage in the process, it's absolutely not worth it. However, red gems are worth 3 so taking a hit or two in the process is still a new positive. There's also the fact that you only have a limited number of rounds to compete a fight so every round you're spending getting items instead of completing the objective is a dangerous proposition. Two serious cons for the game in my mind are that (1) the app doesn't appear to tell you how many rounds of combat a given scenario will be and it REALLY SHOULD, and (2) the app desperately needs an undo button in case you make a mistake. If you press Fail instead of Succeed in a narrative section you might lose out on a trait point and since the app tracks those there's no easy fix for that.
I asked them about the undo button, and they said they aren't adding that in the app yet... hopefully they will one day! But they absolutely DO tell you how many rounds the combat is going to last. If you look at the very top of the screen, where it says what phase you are in, underneath in small print it'll say "round x of x". Unless your device isn't displaying things correctly?
@@OneStopCoopShop Yeah, I just started a new campaign to check and you're right, it's in very small text at the top of the screen. I must have just missed it! Thanks again.
I wil say app wise as a guy who normally does not like app integrated board games , fate forge handles it very well , not intrusive at all , it’s not “well I might as well play a video game”. Narrative wise was a nice surprise as well. I found oathsworn narrative so dull and not engaging so I was expecting fate to be the same , but color me surprised I actually enjoyed the narrative.
I think Fateforge does a really good job of not spending too much time world-building at the front end. They get you to exciting events and meaningful consequences very quickly. "Don't like your homeland get conquered"... I can do that!
Hey Mike, I have a question for you. I was looking for a quicker, lighter, yet crunchy dungeon crawler/skirmish game that would be great to solo. This looks like a wonderful option for me. Would you recommend this one or Tales of the red dragon inn? I know you loved that later one as well. Thanks!
They are both among my favorites! Fateforge has more narrative and is the more punishing and luck-based option. Red dragon inn tends to be more of a run romp unless you play on the highest difficulty
@@OneStopCoopShop hey Mike, I just got Fateforge for cheap and am finishing the rules. Would you recommend to play it with the 2 players solo mod or just take 3 players?
@@OneStopCoopShop hey Mike, I just got Fateforge for cheap and am finishing the rules. Would you recommend to play it with the 2 players solo mod or just take 3 players?
@timotheedavi6578 I wouldn’t play the “solo mode”. Just makes the game harder, and it’s already quite tough. As for 2 or 3 characters, it’s your call. I think 3 is more tactical if you don’t mind the extra overhead
All these campaign games; Tidal Blades 2, this, Tales from the Dragon Inn, Middara ... which one do you actually prefer and recommend most or in the ranking?
Yeah, it's been a bit crazy. All 4 that you just named, even though they've mostly come out in the last year or so, are in my top 5-6 crawlers of all time. But all of them have caveats, so they might not work for people: Fateforge has the app, hunting for tiles, the really tight timer, and dice luck Tales from the red dragon inn has the initiative bag, it's all combat, and it can be a little bit on the easy side Middara is HUGE and LONG and act 2 and 3 aren't even out yet Tidal Blades... well, I don't think I have any caveats with Tidal Blades, it's just great. But you also can't buy it yet!
The prototype experience jumped from moment to moment, so the story was fragmented and confusing. Also they piled on too much narrative from the start, where now the balance feels much better. It also helps that my 11 year-old adores the game and wants to keep playing it 😁
They are very different. Fateforge is almost entirely combat-focused, while Agemonia has pretty weak combat but really great exploration. Fateforge is definitely quicker to play though!
Great game. My only criticism is the fact that the Kickstarter version barely qualified for the 'Deluxe' tag and to justify it's price the publisher absolutely gutted the component quality of the retail edition.
@@OneStopCoopShop The custom wooden health and energy tokens in the KS version are cubes in retail and the custom wooden time and food tokens are cardboard tokens in retail.
Glad you like the game! I am not sure what you mean about the "gutting of quality" though. The difference between the Deluxe version of the game and the Retail version are: all the enemy tokens including Bosses are wooden in the Deluxe version and come with one sectioned box to store them in, while in the retail they are cardboard and each faction has its own mini box to store them in. The health and energy tokens are custom wooden tokens in the Deluxe while the Retail they are translucent red and blue cubes. Finally, the food and time tokens are custom wooden tokens in the Deluxe and in the Retail they are cardboard. So the difference is 99 wooden enemy tokens and 65 wooden resource tokens. We think that justifies the Deluxe tag. When it comes to the retail, I don't understand what you mean by "gutting". We actually changed the enemy tokens to make them chunkier and thicker - 45mm cardboad. Both versions are solidly made products with no corners cut in production or expenses spared. This is all for a game that retails for $89 and whose base pledge level on Kickstarter was $99 - a $10 difference to get the deluxe components + Boss Minis that retail for $30 + art prints and other small cosmetic goodies.
COMPONENTS - They sent me the deluxe version, so I can't comment on the retail version. But the tokens, organization system, and thick wooden enemy tokens are lovely.
0:00 - Introduction
0:36 - App integration
1:14 - Character progression
2:11 - Narrative campaign
2:48 - Dice and combos
3:42 - Combat scenarios
4:30 - Final thoughts
... I won't buy another campaign game, I won't buy another campaign game, I won't buy another campaign game *add to cart*
In this game's defense, it's a faster campaign with more branching/replay.
oh look that was me watching the playthrough
How long to play a full campaign? (In hours and/or game sessions?)
My son and I were able to play maybe 2 fights and one camp/leveling stage in maybe 75-90 minutes, and there are 2-3 groups of those for each of the 3 acts. So that adds up to… somewhere in the realm of 15-20 hours maybe? We didn’t finish act 3 yet so I can’t say for sure.
Looks great! I've been on the fence on this one, but I like everything you just mentioned, so I think I'm going to have to check this out. Thanks Mike!
Hope you enjoy it!
Such a great game that allows very quick sessions and with a fun use of both app and physical map.
Fully agree (though if you hunt for the specific tiles it's quite a bit less quick!)
The dice based activation system looks very good. Thanks for the video.
Wow! Looks like a lot going on in a pretty compact set. Neat to see this kind of thing not take up a ton of space and come with a daunting ammount of tokens and minis and such.
This looks good! Thanks for sharing, this one wasn’t on my radar yet. I hope to find a copy at Spiel 24.
Yes,this is one of my favourite campaign games too.
I payed 200€ to get the Kickstarter to Belgium 😮
But I love it so much.
First campaign game that I will play again.
App is fine. I prefer this over campaign and scenario books. But the app has it flaws. If you click to fast, you might miss something important. In act 3 I had to return an allie that I must have missed receiving. A return button or overview with your stats and cards would be fine .
And in act 3 building the map becomes worse.
But overall almost perfect!
Yeah, I would love an "undo" button, and also if the app would keep track of cards I've unlocked that would be grand!
This might be my favorite game in its genre so far. Love rhe action filled combat and combos!
Now to see if Malhya or Arydia will top it!
Would you put those in the same genre/category? I didn't look into Malhya much, but Arydia seems very much a zoomed out adventure game, and not a zoomed in crawler-ish game like this.
@@OneStopCoopShop probably vastly different but I'm more thinking about the genre as a 30+year old rpg veteran 🧔⚔️👺
This looks cool! I love a good app-based adventure game.
So, my wife (Rogue) and I (Mercenary) just finished Act 1 of Fateforge and yes, the fact that both new skills and healing costs money is a little frustrating. However, what we realized is that it's there so you don't just run in recklessly and tank hits. You're not superheroes, you're a fantasy SWAT team. You have to predict the enemies' actions and take out the big threats while ignoring the small fry, all the while grabbing what coin and treasure you can manage. Since it cost 1 coin/gold to heal two damage (at least where I am in the story), if getting a yellow gem worth 1 coin/gold means you'll take two damage in the process, it's absolutely not worth it. However, red gems are worth 3 so taking a hit or two in the process is still a new positive. There's also the fact that you only have a limited number of rounds to compete a fight so every round you're spending getting items instead of completing the objective is a dangerous proposition.
Two serious cons for the game in my mind are that (1) the app doesn't appear to tell you how many rounds of combat a given scenario will be and it REALLY SHOULD, and (2) the app desperately needs an undo button in case you make a mistake. If you press Fail instead of Succeed in a narrative section you might lose out on a trait point and since the app tracks those there's no easy fix for that.
I asked them about the undo button, and they said they aren't adding that in the app yet... hopefully they will one day!
But they absolutely DO tell you how many rounds the combat is going to last. If you look at the very top of the screen, where it says what phase you are in, underneath in small print it'll say "round x of x". Unless your device isn't displaying things correctly?
@@OneStopCoopShop I'm playing on a phone not a tablet, maybe that's it? I'll double check next time I play. Thanks for letting me know!
@ObsidianKnight90 I’m playing on an iPhone and the round counter is definitely there. Good luck!
@@OneStopCoopShop Yeah, I just started a new campaign to check and you're right, it's in very small text at the top of the screen. I must have just missed it! Thanks again.
I wil say app wise as a guy who normally does not like app integrated board games , fate forge handles it very well , not intrusive at all , it’s not “well I might as well play a video game”. Narrative wise was a nice surprise as well. I found oathsworn narrative so dull and not engaging so I was expecting fate to be the same , but color me surprised I actually enjoyed the narrative.
I think Fateforge does a really good job of not spending too much time world-building at the front end. They get you to exciting events and meaningful consequences very quickly. "Don't like your homeland get conquered"... I can do that!
Take my money Fateforge! Thanks for the playthrough.
They updated the app to be even better, so now it’s a stronger recommend
I hate the app integration, but I may just give this one a try, it sounds pretty darn good.
You can watch my play. I think it’s pretty unobtrusive during battle, but you might feel differently
Bummer. Big no with apps. Thanks for the review!
Hey Mike, I have a question for you. I was looking for a quicker, lighter, yet crunchy dungeon crawler/skirmish game that would be great to solo.
This looks like a wonderful option for me. Would you recommend this one or Tales of the red dragon inn? I know you loved that later one as well. Thanks!
They are both among my favorites! Fateforge has more narrative and is the more punishing and luck-based option. Red dragon inn tends to be more of a run romp unless you play on the highest difficulty
@@OneStopCoopShop thank you very much. I think I will go with Fateforge then. Never read « run romp » before. Thank you for the English expression ;).
@@OneStopCoopShop hey Mike, I just got Fateforge for cheap and am finishing the rules. Would you recommend to play it with the 2 players solo mod or just take 3 players?
@@OneStopCoopShop hey Mike, I just got Fateforge for cheap and am finishing the rules. Would you recommend to play it with the 2 players solo mod or just take 3 players?
@timotheedavi6578 I wouldn’t play the “solo mode”. Just makes the game harder, and it’s already quite tough.
As for 2 or 3 characters, it’s your call. I think 3 is more tactical if you don’t mind the extra overhead
All these campaign games; Tidal Blades 2, this, Tales from the Dragon Inn, Middara ... which one do you actually prefer and recommend most or in the ranking?
Yeah, it's been a bit crazy. All 4 that you just named, even though they've mostly come out in the last year or so, are in my top 5-6 crawlers of all time.
But all of them have caveats, so they might not work for people:
Fateforge has the app, hunting for tiles, the really tight timer, and dice luck
Tales from the red dragon inn has the initiative bag, it's all combat, and it can be a little bit on the easy side
Middara is HUGE and LONG and act 2 and 3 aren't even out yet
Tidal Blades... well, I don't think I have any caveats with Tidal Blades, it's just great. But you also can't buy it yet!
@@OneStopCoopShop Crazy indeed :D It's a crazy time and tough decisions among all these good games ... Thank you, Mike!
Of course, the one dungeon crawler campaign game that I didn't back because I have too many!
Sorry! There are a lot of them, lol
@@OneStopCoopShop this one was on KS like 2 years ago, right? I don't remember seeing it but it says I saved it but never backed
@@brianw3880 looks like my preview was from September 2022, so yeah just under 2 years ago.
Hey Mike when you first covered this game I feel like you weren’t too hot on it, I’m curious, what changed your opinion?
The prototype experience jumped from moment to moment, so the story was fragmented and confusing. Also they piled on too much narrative from the start, where now the balance feels much better.
It also helps that my 11 year-old adores the game and wants to keep playing it 😁
Looks so good. Too bad it has an app 😢
Thanks Mike. Which did you prefer between this and Agemonia?
They are very different. Fateforge is almost entirely combat-focused, while Agemonia has pretty weak combat but really great exploration.
Fateforge is definitely quicker to play though!
App 😢
Great game. My only criticism is the fact that the Kickstarter version barely qualified for the 'Deluxe' tag and to justify it's price the publisher absolutely gutted the component quality of the retail edition.
I haven’t seen the retail version, but I really like the wooden tokens in the deluxe
How so?
@@erikpeters7072 I know the wooden tokens are cardboard instead. I'm not sure what else is different.
@@OneStopCoopShop The custom wooden health and energy tokens in the KS version are cubes in retail and the custom wooden time and food tokens are cardboard tokens in retail.
Glad you like the game! I am not sure what you mean about the "gutting of quality" though. The difference between the Deluxe version of the game and the Retail version are: all the enemy tokens including Bosses are wooden in the Deluxe version and come with one sectioned box to store them in, while in the retail they are cardboard and each faction has its own mini box to store them in. The health and energy tokens are custom wooden tokens in the Deluxe while the Retail they are translucent red and blue cubes. Finally, the food and time tokens are custom wooden tokens in the Deluxe and in the Retail they are cardboard. So the difference is 99 wooden enemy tokens and 65 wooden resource tokens. We think that justifies the Deluxe tag. When it comes to the retail, I don't understand what you mean by "gutting". We actually changed the enemy tokens to make them chunkier and thicker - 45mm cardboad. Both versions are solidly made products with no corners cut in production or expenses spared. This is all for a game that retails for $89 and whose base pledge level on Kickstarter was $99 - a $10 difference to get the deluxe components + Boss Minis that retail for $30 + art prints and other small cosmetic goodies.
I wont buy app driven games anymore😅