Card-Based Gordian Quest - An epic deckbuilding RPG inspired by classics like Ultima and Wizardry

[kreight]

https://www.mixedrealms.com/gordianquest/




https://af.gog.com/game/gordian_quest?as=1649904300

Spoiler

An epic RPG inspired by old-school classics like Ultima and Wizardry, using modern gaming concepts like deckbuilding and turn-based strategic combat. Lead and nurture parties of heroes. Forge bonds and discover new skills among them. Journey forth and unravel the ancient curses set upon your land.

 

[Butter]

How is this anything like Ultima or Wizardry?

 

[kreight]

How is this anything like Ultima or Wizardry?

Don't ask me, I didn't write this introduction.

 

[kreight]

You fucks are beyond redemption I swear.

 

[Grokalibre]

It's a good card game. And it's rpg enough compared to games like naheulbeuk, cyberpunk or eye.

 

[curds]

using modern gaming concepts like ... turn-based strategic combat.

Thank god firaxis invented TB combat when they made XCOM: Enemy Unknown

 

[Maxie]

Imagine some schmuck coming up with an entirely original gameplay without resorting to calling himself inspired by Buzzword Old Game #221

 

[nlfortier]

Looks like it could be fun, but I'm not seeing the UIltima/Wizardy connection here. No first-person dungeons, combat is card-based and looks nothing like Wizardry or Ultima. It feels a bit dishonest.

 

[V_K]

- Deck building;
- Skill trees;
- Procedural levels;
- Pregenerated characters;
- No exploration, neither dungeon nor overworld;

Yep, totally the Ultima/Wizardry hybrid we've all been waiting for.

 

[kreight]

The devs are from Singapore right? Give em some slack. Play the game first and then shit on it.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The portuguese description omits the "inspired by" bit, so I was confused for a bit. On their page they say this, which is more reasonable (the games inspired them to create their own)

Gordian Quest is best described as an old school RPG presented in a modern way. We are huge fans of old cult classics like Wizardry, Ultima, Dungeons and Dragons and Might and Magic. There is something charming about the old-school way of forming your team of heroes to go on adventures, accepting quests from NPCs, leading your heroes to engage in battles, making them stronger, mastering skills, forging new weapons and discovering powerful relics. In Gordian Quest, we have preserved all these elements – made better and fronted by more modern concepts such as deckbuilding, turn-based tactical combat, a skill-grid system, equipment crafting, procedural maps and uncovering deeper skills brought about by forging bonds among your heroes.

 

[Agame]

"Deckbuilding"...

 

[Reader]

Okay clickbait works

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Yeah, my interest rapidly declined with "procedurally generated".

With "deckbuilding" it dropped to zero Kelvin.

 

[jac8awol]

Wizardry and Ultima were computer games. Gordian Quest is a computer game. Case closed. That's why first person walking simulators are now turning up on my steam queue as strategy RPGs.

 

[Hag]

Terrible padmasana technique. This guy is actively destroying his knees and ankles at the same time. Will not play.

 

[vazha]

The devs are from Singapore right? Give em some slack. Play the game first and then shit on it.

Whats the rationale behind that? To make it taste better for them?

 

[Daemongar]

Well, at least they got the "epic rogue-like adventure" part right...

 

[Inhabitants of Khorinis]

It's out, btw. Fun little game.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

had fun for about 2 hours but I hate deckbuilding shit so meh, if you don't like that you won't like it. Too bad because it otherwise seems decent.
I don't really see how it's like ultima or wizardry at all

Yeah, my interest rapidly declined with "procedurally generated".

It's not, there's a full campaign, game says it's about 30 hours long. Some elements are randomized e.g., what other heroes you encounter, but the overall campaign itself seems fixed.

Wouldn't mind a game that has the RNG of "card-based" to remove determinism in ability selection but without the deckbuilding crap.

 

[Bara]

Played the game and finished it.

It's fun time waster but Trials of Fire was better card based rpg and had a semi more interesting setting though I don't think it'll get anymore updates.

Gordian Quest is way more like deck builder Diablo than any other rpgs. Even has a infinite endgame mode that's about running slay the spire style paths, though not as fun, or randomized dungeons all in the pursuit of more levels and gear.

I never tried the other heroes though always stuck with the warrior, mage, and healer. The game never really got hard but I'm going to try to up the difficulty later and see if that changes anything.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Played it some more and it's pretty decent. Still hate deckbuilding, but meh.
Rusty Mini-Review:
For storyfags: There's nothing here for you, continue to the next thread.

Everyone else: It's actually hard to describe what this game is. "like Ultima and Wizardry"? No... not at all. But there's a lot of character building, different combos, unique items(and sadly, color coded generated puke loot).
There's survival elements, you have to manage your camping resources. These are expended when you camp, travel, and through using various abilities at camp. When you camp, each character has their own abilities to use to prepare/heal up/etc., and you can also use generic 'abilities' related to camping available to everyone which may produce other abilities and eventually lead to things like your adventure team having fireside chats and gaining permanent companionship bonuses(or whatever they're called.) That is rather important, as there's special companionship-only abilities you want to unlock.

There's something like 10 heroes(classes) and each one has 4 "subclasses"(starter decks/branches). There doesn't seem to be much toe stepping here, all well defined and such. If you're familiar with Path of Exile or Final Fantasy 12(was it only the special Zodiac version?), character customization is a bit like that but with a twist in that you lay out the grid yourself, but once you place a 'brick' of the grid, it's fixed.
On top of the skill tree, there's also a more classical talent(?) tree that's about the attributes rather than the hero so each hero has the same one.
Gear can be heavily customized via enchantments and gems, upgraded, and so forth.

Combat: It's turn-based, played on a grid. There's a lot of grid shuffling going on, environment effects to watch out for, and so forth. Most abilities have reach and range, meaning you have to be within distance to hit your target.
I played on the hardest difficulty and the combat is difficult but fair. I got close to wiping a couple times but managed to move it back into my favor through careful use of cards/consumables.

Artstyle: It's less anime than it seems. It's basically only the characters themselves, everything else seems like it's pulled directly from a D&D adventure... which this game actually feels a lot like and therefore...
-> Other gameplay: There's fair bit of interactive CYOA-style adventure stuff with a lot of dice rolls. This impacts loot you get, changes encounters, etc., You can 'exhaust' cards to get a bonus to your dice rolls but then you can't play those cards in combat until you rest or remove your exhaust somehow.
Encounter modifiers: There's a lot of these, at least on the hardest difficulty. Plenty of different battlefield modifiers, modifiers on enemies, unique elite enemies with unique abilities/modifiers, and so forth.

Technical side:

• Apparently the GOG version is not kept up to date like the Steam version is.
• Lots of tooltips, tooltips for everything! Don't have enough tooltips? Press CTRL to get even more information on your tooltips. Love it.

Verdict: Recommended, with exceptions.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Played it some more and it's pretty decent. Still hate deckbuilding, but meh.
Rusty Mini-Review:
For storyfags: There's nothing here for you, continue to the next thread.

Everyone else: It's actually hard to describe what this game is. "like Ultima and Wizardry"? No... not at all. But there's a lot of character building, different combos, unique items(and sadly, color coded generated puke loot).
There's survival elements, you have to manage your camping resources. These are expended when you camp, travel, and through using various abilities at camp. When you camp, each character has their own abilities to use to prepare/heal up/etc., and you can also use generic 'abilities' related to camping available to everyone which may produce other abilities and eventually lead to things like your adventure team having fireside chats and gaining permanent companionship bonuses(or whatever they're called.) That is rather important, as there's special companionship-only abilities you want to unlock.

There's something like 10 heroes(classes) and each one has 4 "subclasses"(starter decks/branches). There doesn't seem to be much toe stepping here, all well defined and such. If you're familiar with Path of Exile or Final Fantasy 12(was it only the special Zodiac version?), character customization is a bit like that but with a twist in that you lay out the grid yourself, but once you place a 'brick' of the grid, it's fixed.
On top of the skill tree, there's also a more classical talent(?) tree that's about the attributes rather than the hero so each hero has the same one.
Gear can be heavily customized via enchantments and gems, upgraded, and so forth.

Combat: It's turn-based, played on a grid. There's a lot of grid shuffling going on, environment effects to watch out for, and so forth. Most abilities have reach and range, meaning you have to be within distance to hit your target.
I played on the hardest difficulty and the combat is difficult but fair. I got close to wiping a couple times but managed to move it back into my favor through careful use of cards/consumables.

Artstyle: It's less anime than it seems. It's basically only the characters themselves, everything else seems like it's pulled directly from a D&D adventure... which this game actually feels a lot like and therefore...
-> Other gameplay: There's fair bit of interactive CYOA-style adventure stuff with a lot of dice rolls. This impacts loot you get, changes encounters, etc., You can 'exhaust' cards to get a bonus to your dice rolls but then you can't play those cards in combat until you rest or remove your exhaust somehow.
Encounter modifiers: There's a lot of these, at least on the hardest difficulty. Plenty of different battlefield modifiers, modifiers on enemies, unique elite enemies with unique abilities/modifiers, and so forth.

Technical side:

• Apparently the GOG version is not kept up to date like the Steam version is.
• Lots of tooltips, tooltips for everything! Don't have enough tooltips? Press CTRL to get even more information on your tooltips. Love it.

Verdict: Recommended, with exceptions.

Is this an open ended gameworld or are we going through FTL style nodes and all that?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Played it some more and it's pretty decent. Still hate deckbuilding, but meh.
Rusty Mini-Review:
For storyfags: There's nothing here for you, continue to the next thread.

Everyone else: It's actually hard to describe what this game is. "like Ultima and Wizardry"? No... not at all. But there's a lot of character building, different combos, unique items(and sadly, color coded generated puke loot).
There's survival elements, you have to manage your camping resources. These are expended when you camp, travel, and through using various abilities at camp. When you camp, each character has their own abilities to use to prepare/heal up/etc., and you can also use generic 'abilities' related to camping available to everyone which may produce other abilities and eventually lead to things like your adventure team having fireside chats and gaining permanent companionship bonuses(or whatever they're called.) That is rather important, as there's special companionship-only abilities you want to unlock.

There's something like 10 heroes(classes) and each one has 4 "subclasses"(starter decks/branches). There doesn't seem to be much toe stepping here, all well defined and such. If you're familiar with Path of Exile or Final Fantasy 12(was it only the special Zodiac version?), character customization is a bit like that but with a twist in that you lay out the grid yourself, but once you place a 'brick' of the grid, it's fixed.
On top of the skill tree, there's also a more classical talent(?) tree that's about the attributes rather than the hero so each hero has the same one.
Gear can be heavily customized via enchantments and gems, upgraded, and so forth.

Combat: It's turn-based, played on a grid. There's a lot of grid shuffling going on, environment effects to watch out for, and so forth. Most abilities have reach and range, meaning you have to be within distance to hit your target.
I played on the hardest difficulty and the combat is difficult but fair. I got close to wiping a couple times but managed to move it back into my favor through careful use of cards/consumables.

Artstyle: It's less anime than it seems. It's basically only the characters themselves, everything else seems like it's pulled directly from a D&D adventure... which this game actually feels a lot like and therefore...
-> Other gameplay: There's fair bit of interactive CYOA-style adventure stuff with a lot of dice rolls. This impacts loot you get, changes encounters, etc., You can 'exhaust' cards to get a bonus to your dice rolls but then you can't play those cards in combat until you rest or remove your exhaust somehow.
Encounter modifiers: There's a lot of these, at least on the hardest difficulty. Plenty of different battlefield modifiers, modifiers on enemies, unique elite enemies with unique abilities/modifiers, and so forth.

Technical side:

• Apparently the GOG version is not kept up to date like the Steam version is.
• Lots of tooltips, tooltips for everything! Don't have enough tooltips? Press CTRL to get even more information on your tooltips. Love it.

Verdict: Recommended, with exceptions.

Is this an open ended gameworld or are we going through FTL style nodes and all that?

The campaign is played on a premade game map that expands as you explore it(once you get past the tutorial part.) You move across the map in a strategic/board game fashion.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

If anyone is curious about campaign length, it took me roughly 13 hours to finish the first act. No idea if they're all evenly distributed in length, but I believe there's 4 total.

I'm divided on deck-based combat. I dislike the gameplay/gameworld segregation, as there's typically little reason for you not to be able to use an ability other than "game rules say so." But I like having to work around getting a bad hand for a round and still making a good play from it. I also like how many abilities the games tend to offer, which isn't necessarily inherit to deck-based. Perhaps there's some middle ground here that feels less gamey, but I can't quite think of it right now.