Wartales

I played Wartales back in 2023, and then started a new campaign a few months ago. Just like my first playthrough, I made it through two (of 6) regions and then lost interest. I was determined to make it later in the game this time around, so instead of shelving it I just took a break to do other things. Today I tried to pick the game back up, and I just can’t do it. It’s a pretty fun game for awhile, but then it just turns tedious.

Wartales has a fun map exploration campaign structure. You start with four characters, and have to collect crafting materials and additional mercenaries to continue your progress. All of that is great, but the tactical combat/strategy part of the game is lacking. There is not enough of a variety between what the characters do, so most characters end up feeling similar to each other. More importantly, if one of your mercenaries dies, he or she dies for good. If you don’t mind that mechanic, you will probably enjoy this game more than I do. I found that once my band of mercenaries grew to a large enough size, it became problematic to finish large scale battles without any casualties at all. I don’t like gearing and leveling characters to just lose them, which left the option of frequent saves and resets as my best option. That is tedious and boring, which makes the game tedious and boring.

There is still a variety of good elements to the game, and I’m not mad that I played it even though I can’t make it more than 33% of the way through the content before getting bored. It’s solid and gets a 6 out of 10.