Kingsvein Reviews

Really great stuff, as expected. A lot of people recommended Horizon's Gate over this, and while Horizon's Gate was also really good, I preferred this one. Exploring the actual dungeons and world was a lot more satisfying to me than the non-boat on foot sections of Horizon's Gate. Hopefully their next game pulls elements from both. Also, quite a few people complained about the change in the turn system, and while I do think I preferred the time based system of Horizon's Gate (plus a mod I used that added an initiative roll system), I didn't mind the way it was done in this game either. It's not THAT hard to hit delayed skills, and the enemies avoiding them when possible gives you other tactical options, like keeping a group of enemies separated so you can deal with some before their allies get to you. All in all, really impressed by this dev's work and can't wait to see what they do next.

Honeslty just another great tactics rpg from rad codex which has easily become one of my favorite rpg series in general.

wonderful, tightly scoped and designed strategy rpg and a worthy follow-up to horizon's gate. after that game's sprawling world, class roster, weapon system, etc., kingsvein offers a much more refined, focused vision which feels refreshing and appropriate. the more modest scope and structure balance encounters more carefully and show off the design chops they've honed across four srpgs now. barring a couple early battles i missed and came back to late, every fight felt varied and pushed me enough to think hard about what i was doing without getting overly stressed or decision fatigued (this was on normal difficulty btw). i loved horizon's gate for how much it understood and embraced the spatialization of rpg combat compared to inspirations like final fantasy tactics advance. kingsvein takes it even farther, limiting your ability to stack up raw damage and demanding you engage with pushing/pulling, level geometry, and environmental hazards. horizon's gate was excited about all this stuff too, but kingsvein was much more successful in getting me to foreground these elements in my strategic thinking... beyond combat it's thrilling to finally dive into the setting of graven and getting intimately acquainted with its alien landscape. kingsvein's aesthetics are the other major pillar of its identity for me, between the moody pinks and purples and grays of its soil, the strange bubbles and protrusions that pockmark the physical landscape, the idiosyncratic, setting-specific classes like "chisel" and "melder" and "eidolith"... while the core story is, on some level, standard fantasy fare, it sees a full and satisfying dramatic arc with a big, rich climax, and is a perfect excuse to explore a strange and original setting. my only regret is that we didn't get to go even deeper into this world - something to look forward to in future titles, perhaps. as a fan of the series, kingsvein was everything i wanted and more. for players new to the series, kingsvein represents rad codex at their very best, as their art, design, and vision only get sharper and more robust with each game