Armello
Armello is a strategy board game with card and dice mechanics implemented into. There's multiple ways to win but you have to strategic about it. While there is a story. There isn't much to it. You generally get a prologue on how to play the game and that's pretty much your story. The rest is on you.
-Planned for Offline Play
Story
The story is certainly engaging enough for me to get sucked into it. But anything outside of the prologue well there is none??? The kingdom of Armello was once ruled by a noble king who united all of the clans together. But of course that harmony is disturbed by an evil darkness called "The Rot" that slowly decays one's mind and drives them to become power hungry dictators. So the King suddenly starts making moves that breaks the alliance of all the clans of Armello. And now there's a 4-Way battle for who will rule the kingdom.
That's pretty much it. There is more backstory in the form of E-Books but I haven't bought those yet. Not sure if I should.
Gameplay
The gameplay is surprisingly deep. It's pretty much in a sense a simplified D&D session. From what I hear D&D sessions get far more complex than this game. It's you versus 3 other clans. And there's multiple ways to win the game.
- Politically - You earn the King's favor to the point that he gives you the throne.
- Kill the King -You manage to slay the King therefore making yourself the new king
- Corrupt the Kingdom - By making yourself more infected with "The Rot" you eventually overpower the king making yourself the new Lord of Calamity.
- Purify the Land - Collect Spirit Stones and purify the kingdom
So you have a lot of ways of going about it. Earning prestige, gaining allies, etc. You move around the board and make decisions to save towns, set traps for the others, gain experience. It's where the card aspect comes into play. By gaining cards you can get equipment, spells, traps, and allies. Each have there own check. Like equipment sometimes requires that you have enough gold to even equip it in the first place. Spells obviously have a Magic check. Traps depend on various stats like your prestige. Allies I find are generally free.
While moving around the board each area you come across might have a Peril. A challenge to take. Some you can avoid and take the easy way out but you get less rewards. But others you have to fight and pray you come out on top. To help with this. You can actually burn your cards, use them in an alternate way to make the challenge a bit easier for you. Then it comes down to a dice roll. If you roll enough to clear the challenge then all's well. But if you don't you fail and take damage.
For battles. You roll to determine how many attacks and blocks you'll get. The more dice you have the better your chances. Getting die is dependent on your character and cards you have. If a character dies. They're sent back to there starting point and lose prestige. But if you lose to a Rot Infected character. That character also becomes infected. Quite a lot to consider.
During my play I did end up making some bold moves and praying the AI wouldn't catch on to my plans. Another part I ended up making desperate moves just to win. So I could see games getting crazy and easily a game where you try to hold a player underwater. In my opinion getting prestige and winning the King's Favor each turn seems to be the best plan. Each day while you still hold the King's favor you can affect everyone on the board. Like making every other player pay there taxes (how evil).
I only scratched the surface of how deep the gameplay goes.
My Only Disappointment
Probably my main disappointment in gameplay is that after the prologue that's pretty much it. I was expecting there to be a single player campaign with each clan/hero. But nothing. After the prologue you're immediately thrown into the game. No story after that. I guess you make your own story.
Well if you to take my point of view from this prologue. I could see myself as someone trying to unite the 4 current clans. There's plenty more thanks to DLC but I'll focus on these 4.
The Wolf Clan is the hero. Thane has decided since the King is corrupt, breaking alliances, and oppressing the people. He needs to go. You could probably convince him that there's another way through gathering the Spirit Stones.
Mercurio of the Rat Clan. They're just siding with ones with power. They know what's going on and through trickery would look to usurp the throne. Although that can't possibly go well considering they're willing to infect themselves with The Rot.
Amber and the Rabbit clan once had the King's favor. But due to sudden changes she has to focus on reestablishing her clan politically. She would be key to reuniting everyone or at least taking down the King.
Sana of the bear clan. They knew this day would come and have prepped for The Rot. Getting the Spirit Stones together to cleanse The Rot would be key. If you side with her you could save the world.
Now obviously the problem would be getting everyone to listen and make alliances. Even if you made an alliance it would be shaky considering that they would never agree as to how to save the world.
Music
The music fits the mood. I mean it's not a war. So I don't expect some crazy battle music. But it definitely sets the mood. So I have no complaints about it. I imagine during main games you probably won't focus on the music.
Graphics
I'm honestly impressed by the graphics. For one this runs pretty well on my Desktop and my desktop is pretty much out of date by a few years. I enjoyed the Prologue movies.
Overall
I'd be more impressed if there was a single player campaign. I wish there was a single player campaign. I mean this series even has a book series that acts as the game's prequel to it all. My main problem with this is that like many games there's a huge focus on playing online rather than offline. I don't mind this but it is hard to get friends together to play games like this. Still a great game and I wish I got around to playing it sooner. I had this on my steam for years but never had the time to actually play it.
