Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest

The game is very polarizing, but a real gem if given a shot.
It's got a rough start which makes it look more unforgiving than it really is, but if you play in Normal it quickly stops being a problem due to your options broadening and letting you control the fights more. Timed missions are common, but rarely lead to major consequence- usually you can just keep fighting without headaches.

It does a great job at capturing the fairy tale atmosphere, the aesthetics are campy and great- and gameplay has an element of uncertainty and threat during fights that makes victory very satisfying. It's also really not a puzzle game at all, in fact it's ripe with different viable approaches within the limits of its cast.

The story is passable, but the writing is terrible. There really should've been someone reading the script and making sure it was tonally coherent because you can't have people whose expletives are "Bloody roots!" and "Oh, seeds of the forest" at the same time as others call someone a b*tch (it happens often).

Overall if one engages with the systems of the game it's a very rewarding experience. There are new enemies and environments with cool mechanics being introduced until the end, and while there are only 35 missions, I could see other games stretching all those unique ideas a lot more.

PS: The Incurable has the key. The reward is really worth the drawbacks.

Very clever and addictive, just the essence of strategic RPG ;)

Fun "little" game with surprisingly complex battles. Highly recommended if you are fan of isometric RPGs and Turn based.

This was honestly quite a fun game, it's a shame that the modding community never took off since the dev's took the time to implement Steam Workshop features and an editor to make your own missions.

It's a tactical turn-based game with a hint of puzzle elements to it for some of the battles.

Despite some negative reviews lamenting on the puzzle side of the things, claiming it's less tactic and more puzzle, needing to use optimum skills and items, I didn't find it that way at all.

There were plenty of different abilities you could unlock and choose from every time you levelled up and you could create many different tactics to make use of that synergies well.

I'm by no means an expert tactician in these types of games, I actually find myself quite bad at them, needing to reload often. But as a person who usually opts to play on the easiest difficulty mode to get through games quicker, I usually tend to play turn-based tactics games on normal, and I didn't have too much trouble on that difficulty with this game, beating it with my sub-optical character builds and completing most missions 100% with all their bonus objectives complete.

Obviously I didn't do them all, but that wasn't my goal. If I really tried, I'm sure I could've done it without too much hassle.

But I play games mostly for their story, not a challenge, that's just the type of gamer I am.

In the story department, it wasn't a bad story at all, not a particularly good one neither, though. The dialogue felt a little stiff and off at times, it gave me the feeling that it was perhaps written by someone who isn't a native speaker, so maybe some translation barriers there.

But I managed to find enjoyment in its simple story and what character development there was. But if you're playing this with the story, don't go in with too high expectations. It's perfectly serviceable and the turn-based combat was actually pretty fun.

I'm glad that I played this game.

Genuinely surprised how good of a time I had with this game. Druidstone is a Tactics/Strategy RPG that combines an amalgam of ideas from across the genre's history and sub-categories and STEEPS it in the energy and writing of Your Roomate's Dungeons and Dragons Game. So much is thrown together and at the wall in such a short runtime for this genre that I've come away with very few truly bad things to say.
Its tactics gameplay is overall quite strong, combining elements in equal measure from a more traditional Strategy RPG (Character Progression, flowing maps with mixed objectives and ganks/twists) and the more recent trend of Strategy Puzzlers (simplifed hit point system, undo-ing moves, heavy emphasis on micro movements and manipulation). I thought it came together quite well, with just enough give and take between playing the game's game and feeling like I could break the game over my knee with clever build ideas.
The whole package is really elevated by its its feel: the rawness, long shots, and occasional baffling misses that come from a smaller team making this.
This is felt especially in the writing: simultaneously bland on its face and occasionally quite striking; oscillating between nonsense, cliche, offensive, and confusing until all I feel is a general and perhaps misplaced charm.

Bought this game because it was made by the devs of The Legend of Grimrock and was not disappointed. Beautiful graphics, fun and challenging gameplay, but all very intuitive and easy to pick up. RPG elements let you customize your characters playstyles.
I look forward to whatever they make next!

Wow! I'm late to the party, but this game is great. I recommend skipping the tutorial and getting straight to it. I let this sit on the shelf for quite a while after losing interest during the tutorial back when I first bought it, but I'm glad I picked it back up the other night and jumped straight in. I'm definitely hooked now and excited for the play-through. I love the art style! Having a blast. Thanks Devs.