Foretales
- September 14, 2022
- Alkemi
Foretales spearheads the card-based genre into an unexplored amalgamation of narration and choose-your-own-adventure though I wish it hadn't strayed from its card battler roots so much, which ultimately leads to a simple gameplay loop.
Get on Steam"Foretales" is a single-player Role Playing game with an intriguing story about a small-time thief tasked with saving the world from a terrible curse. The game features expansive branching storylines, multiple endings, and card-based gameplay with a unique "board game" feel. With superb artistic direction, an original score by Christophe Héral, and turn-based card combat, Foretales offers great replay value and plenty of humor.
Nintendo Switch
PC
Windows
Reviews
- Foretales offers a unique blend of narrative-driven gameplay and card mechanics, allowing for multiple paths and outcomes that enhance replayability.
- The art style and audio design are beautifully crafted, creating an immersive atmosphere that complements the storytelling.
- The game encourages exploration and experimentation, rewarding players with new interactions and character developments as they progress through different playthroughs.
- The game can become repetitive, as players are required to replay missions multiple times to unlock the true ending, which may lead to frustration.
- Certain mechanics, such as the RNG-based card draws and the lack of clear guidance on how to progress, can result in tedious trial-and-error gameplay.
- The dialogue and narration, while charming, can become grating due to their repetitiveness during multiple playthroughs, detracting from the overall experience.
- story237 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 68 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The story in *Foretales* is a unique blend of card-based mechanics and narrative-driven gameplay, allowing players to navigate a branching path through a save-the-world plot set in a medieval world. While the art and writing are praised for their creativity and charm, the non-linear structure can lead to frustrating experiences, as players often face repetitive missions and dead-end branches that require multiple playthroughs to fully explore the narrative. Overall, the game offers an engaging storytelling experience, but its reliance on repetition and unclear progression can detract from the enjoyment.
“A card-based narrative letting you choose your own path through its story.”
“Great use of cards to tell a grand story!”
“Witty and fun writing, lots of excellent art of animal folk, and an intriguing story with a couple of twists that caught me off guard made it a fast favorite!”
“As for the narrative, Foretales at its core tells a rather benign 'save the world' story, set in a similarly bland medieval world.”
“The overarching story progression is full of restarts, replays, and dead-end narrative branches that really make it overstay its welcome.”
“It feels so bad to find yourself at the beginning yet again, staring at the first mission after all that time you put into the narrative, realizing you have to go through it all yet again.”
- gameplay93 mentions
- 42 % positive mentions
- 51 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The gameplay of *Foretales* is characterized by its unique blend of card mechanics and narrative storytelling, offering an engaging experience with a charming atmosphere and clever interactions. However, many players find the gameplay loop becomes repetitive over time, particularly due to the game's structure requiring multiple playthroughs to reach the true ending. While the mechanics are generally well-received for their creativity and depth, some users express frustration with the lack of variety in repeated scenarios and the illusion of meaningful choices.
“Foretales incorporates a refreshing blend between card play and narrative storytelling that really engages your investigative intuition.”
“The gameplay is absolutely unique, the humor is spot on, it was fun and challenging from start to finish.”
“The core gameplay is very good too, and the 'decisions matter' aspect is well made.”
“Well, despite the gameplay loop being solid, the overarching structure of the game is so grating and irritating that pushing myself to sit down and play this is like pulling teeth.”
“Beautiful artwork, nice writing and innovative storytelling through card play, but the gameplay becomes repetitive and boring just after a couple of hours.”
“After a few missions you've seen everything, you know how the mechanics work, just grab some resources, find the key card, move next.”
- graphics35 mentions
- 54 % positive mentions
- 37 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beautiful artwork and engaging art style, reminiscent of classic Disney animations. Many players appreciate the innovative storytelling through visuals and the immersive atmosphere created by the detailed design. However, some reviews note that while the graphics are stunning, the gameplay can become repetitive, detracting from the overall experience.
“The artwork is gorgeous and the story so far is engaging.”
“The artwork is outstanding, the music feels like it belongs there and in turn, you as a player, belong in the world.”
“I also really love the art style and sound design, there is a lot of attention to detail to keep you immersed in the world.”
“Innovative game, pretty graphics, but the experience is so boring and repetitive.”
“So many cool enemies and effects, which I, besides the artwork, completely ignored my whole playthrough.”
“Some missions are straight up puzzles that involve carefully reading card descriptions and studying card artwork to figure out what needs to be on the board and what cards you need to interact with in order to get to the end condition.”
- music23 mentions
- 52 % positive mentions
- 35 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its captivating and fitting quality, enhancing the overall atmosphere and experience. Reviewers highlight the soundtrack as a standout feature, describing it as catchy and integral to the game's immersive storytelling and art direction. Overall, the combination of beautiful music, sound design, and visual elements creates a satisfying audiovisual experience that players find enjoyable and memorable.
“The turn-by-turn card play is fun and alluring, and the music and atmosphere is captivating.”
“The art, music, and atmosphere of each location makes it a joy to play.”
“The music feels like it belongs there and in turn, you as a player, belong in the world.”
“Beyond its sound effects, Foretales also features a fitting if basic soundtrack and a narrator voicing out most of the actions you take as well as story transitions.”
“The presentation of each location in the narrative is basically done with different lighting, card art, sound effects, and music.”
“It seems well-made and well-polished in every aspect -- the music is catchy, the artwork is high quality, and I'm enjoying the gameplay.”
- humor15 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Foretales is praised for its charming and irreverent humor, featuring a quirky world and a hilarious narrator whose snarky commentary enhances the experience. Players enjoy the comedic interactions and unexpected responses during gameplay, which reward exploration and experimentation. While the humor is consistently entertaining, some reviewers wish for deeper character development.
“Foretales is a charming narrative-based card game with a fun cryptic gameplay loop set in a quirky world with some irreverent humor and personalities.”
“A hilariously narrated card game starring a bunch of wacky ragtag misfits.”
“The narrator is the best and is really hilarious; listening to his commentary is very snarky and never gets old.”
- replayability14 mentions
- 36 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The game exhibits significant replayability through its branching story paths and key choices that influence outcomes, encouraging players to experiment with different strategies. While some players appreciate the depth and variety offered, others feel that the experience can become repetitive, particularly after reaching the endings. Overall, it provides a unique experience that can keep players engaged, especially for those interested in exploring all possible outcomes.
“The game offers much replay value with key choices made along your journey that will have you better understand what you can optimize to achieve a specific ending.”
“There are also quite a few branching paths through the story for replayability.”
“Definitely a unique experience and very replayable, at least until you unlock all the endings and side stuff.”
“I get that this was done to add some replayability to the game, but in execution it just feels like I’m being punished for experimenting with card combinations.”
“The ending, once you finally reach it, is very abrupt, and outside of achievements I wouldn't say there's a ton of replay value unless you intend to try and speed run the game.”
“Unfortunately, one of those will be almost identical to your final run, and the replay value is atrocious.”
- grinding10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, particularly when it involves repeatedly completing missions for materials or secrets, which can detract from the initial enjoyment of exploration. While some appreciate the lore and narrative elements that accompany the grinding, many feel that the necessity to replay sections for resources or completion can become unnecessarily drawn out and frustrating. Overall, the grinding is seen as a mixed bag, with some players enjoying the process while others view it as a hindrance to the game's storytelling experience.
“Grinding for materials gets tedious.”
“When you are relying on random cards from multiple decks, and have only limited room on the board, this can become more tedious than fun.”
“In my opinion, that was unnecessarily grindy for a storytelling game.”
- atmosphere7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised for its immersive 3D environments, captivating music, and inviting art style, which enhance the overall experience. Players find the combination of visual and auditory elements to be refreshing and enjoyable, contributing positively to the gameplay. However, some critiques mention that while the atmosphere is strong, it is somewhat undermined by a repetitive meta-story progression.
“While most of the game is visualized just through cards, these are placed in a 3D environment matching the atmosphere of the places you're exploring, which does a great job of immersing you in the game's world.”
“The turn-by-turn card play is fun and alluring, and the music and atmosphere is captivating.”
“The art, music, and atmosphere of each location makes it a joy to play.”
- character development2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Character development is intricately tied to various details within the game, enhancing the overall experience. However, some users feel that the lack of consistent character development detracts from the narrative, leaving uncertainty about the characters' significance.
“The depth of each character's backstory adds layers to the overall narrative.”
“I love how the choices I make influence the growth and evolution of my character.”
“There is no character development because, as I mentioned, it doesn't account for whether you'll have those characters.”
“Character development goes hand in hand with all sorts of neat little details.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players express a mix of frustration and appreciation regarding the emotional impact of the game. While they enjoyed the voice acting, art style, and character development, technical issues, such as a black screen after a key interaction, detracted from their overall experience, leaving them feeling stuck and unfulfilled.
“It’s a shame, I enjoyed the voice acting, the art style, and the characters, and some of the ideas in the gameplay, but in execution, it just made me feel like I was trapped on a Mobius strip.”
Critic Reviews
Foretales Review – A Deep Deck of Fun
Then again, even with its issues, Foretales has been an entertaining ride, especially when it comes to the writing and the smart way in which cards are used during the non-combat sequences. The way the story expands and changes based on decisions means there is much replayability and more great writing to enjoy, and as long as you can avoid too much combat, Foretales has every reason to be a game to look out for when compared to contemporaries like Inscryption or Voice of Cards, or the real-life counterparts like Yu-Gi-Oh!.
70%Foretales Review (PC)
Foretales manages to be both innovative in its gameplay and deliver an engaging story, a rare combination in the world of card-driven video games. It’s fast-paced, asks players to think about actions and consequences, and deals with the fate of the world and with more personal relationships. The combination of systems might be a little overwhelming initially, but it only takes about an hour before the game reveals its depth and variety. The developers at Alkemi have created a deep game that encourages players to think outside the box and minimize casualties as much as possible. Foretales will reward players for giving it their time and energy. Review code provided by the publisher.
85%Foretales
The systems and inner workings of Foretales create a captivating, addictive experience, but the repetitive nature of character and location cards stymies an otherwise magnificent experience.
79%
