Foretales Review

Whilst on a quest to steal a lyre, Volepain — our protagonist — and his partner-in-crime Léo eventually realise they've bitten off a bit more than they could chew, as the lyre gives our quick-handed thief visions of terrible events to come to pass. This unleashes a string of events that ultimately leads to your friend Léo getting captured and waking up with a terrible decision at hand: do you delve into the jail alone and tackle the guard in an attempt to save your loyal friend, or do you try to stop a siege that threatens the life of a bunch of miners, rioters, and — most importantly — your own father?

This is but one of the many complex choices you'll have to make throughout your journey with Foretales, as you'll soon discover that, despite how hard you might want to, you simply cannot stop every horrible fate that befalls this anthropomorphic world. This card-based adventure innovates where few have thus far by creating a narrative story rather than a combat-based one, and the love and attention that Foretales received to accomplish this doesn't go unnoticed. Unlike traditional card games, this one seeks to tell you a story through a unique tabletop style. That said, I do feel that some of the elements were a bit lacking, as Foretales tries not to boggle the experience down by adding a lot of dialogue, which makes connecting to some of the characters a bit difficult. Although logically, I understood why Volepain cared to save his father, I had connected to neither the thief nor his father enough to have a reason, as the player, to care enough; I was more concerned about saving Léo than I was Volepain's father.

You'll experience this narrative through the numerous visions that Volepain sees of horrible fates, as you'll embark on quests to try to avoid as many as you can, though these doom events (as the game calls them) are oftentimes inevitable despite your best efforts. Although it's frustrating to choose between what feels like a loss-loss scenario, this warrants a perfect second playthrough of Foretales to see what you missed or how your choices made the entire playthrough completely different. Each new area you complete unlocks new things you can use to complete any missions, and often you'll find that completing some missions will facilitate finishing others, though the time limit won't let you prepare for some of the more perilous ones.

Each card interacts with the world differently, as you'll have to use the cards on your deck to interact with some of the Exploration Deck cards to advance forward on the story or even convert them into other areas to see more interactions. Each character brings their own deck of specialities that allow you to complete missions and change how you interact with the world around you. Growing up with nothing, Volepain's learned a set of skills that ensure his survival at any cost, and with his nimble hands, aptitude at eavesdropping, and numerous trickeries, he's perfect at getting things, no matter the consequences. Meanwhile, Léo's survival instincts, including his heightened sense of smell and bow and arrow skills, allow him to find food whenever you're in a pinch and help out a lot in combat. As you unlock more characters, more interactions with the Exploration Deck ensure that you can tackle quests in numerous ways, and you'll often find you'll have wanted to try out a mission with another companion. Despite being a card-based game, Foretales manages to feel more like an RPG than some of the latest RPG titles I've had the opportunity of playing recently; exploring and trying to find which are the best ways to complete every mission felt immersive and incredibly fun. In fact, Foretales more closely resembles a choose-your-own-adventure and puzzle title than it does traditional card games, and it's a unique amalgamation of genres I welcome with open arms.

Each mission in Foretales does a fantastic job at simulating a sense of urgency early on in the game, as the gameplay mimics a borderline claustrophobic feel as you make enemies throughout your adventures. With guards, bandits, and the foes you make from committing devious acts chasing you and often closing your exploration options and having to choose between engaging in combat or venturing down alternative cards to explore further. While battle discourages bloodshed and favours bribing or talking your enemies down from a fight by reducing their morale until the rest flees, this doesn't make for the most compelling combat system. I enjoyed being discouraged from spilling bloodshed, but the gameplay loop between missions suffered drastically due to this system, as I swiftly learned to get some money to give to the poor and get Fame to talk down enemies. This is what differentiates Foretales from other card-based titles, as the combat feels secondary in place for puzzle, exploration, and choose-your-own-adventure gameplay mechanics instead.

After using enough cards, your characters will slowly start running out, and you'll need to draw from the Rest Deck to replenish three cards per adventurer on your team. The Rest Deck isn't all good, however, as some of the cards within these will demand that you pay a certain fee to gain a benefit or avoid a perilous effect; rest too many times, and the final card will lead to a Game Over, forcing you to start your mission again. This system kept me trying to use my cards smartly and prevented me from hoarding too many resources, especially as doing so proves worthless once you've finished all of the regions on a particular mission and all of your acquired items (food and money) are reset. I thought this system would be far more bothersome than it was, but it kept every mission interesting and stopped me from getting too powerful before it was intended. That said, once I learned the gameplay loop for Foretales, getting a lot of materials became easy and made the experience far too unchallenging. Most of the time, by the first region, I already had enough materials and resources to bribe my way out of every encounter and dealt with little resistance from my foes. The Rest Deck also proved to be too forgiving, as I rarely faced issues with a dwindling number of cards, especially once I had three characters in my party in contrast to only Volepain and Léo, essentially trivialising the Rest Deck's sense of urgency.

The simplicity of Foretales was all the more obvious after I completed my first encounter with a boss. After scrambling in search of ways to ensure the safety of miners and creating a small army to fight back against an oppressive force, I returned to the battlefield (after numerous warnings by Léo that we were taking too long) in order to prepare for the coming battle. This encounter was set up as a timed situation that was supposed to feel limiting, and I managed to recruit a small group of mercenaries and arm some civilians to fight back. After the fight started with what was supposed to be a daunting force, I quickly bribed my foes with a little over 10 Fame and trivialised the entire fight. Although this might sound like it was me over-simplifying the combat encounter, this wouldn't be the case if Foretales hadn't built the combat around punishing you for bloodshed.

One of Foretales' greatest aspects was its graphic design. Each new world includes its own tabletop environment that feels immersive and beautiful, as the music seamlessly loops and incorporates ambient noises that really make you aware of where you are — the table beautifully imitates the environment Volepain and his crew are in. In foresty areas, the trees surround the table in a beautiful yet unobtrusive way, and the environmental noises meld gorgeously with the music. Meanwhile, whilst in caves, the lighting casts a gorgeous shadow over the table, the music feels colder and eerier, and cobwebs fill the board. It's a very small detail, but it really adds to the immersion and feel that Foretales has.

Despite its lack of 3D environments, Foretales manages to be some of the most fun I've had exploring a world; finding my way around felt enjoyable and exhilarating. That said, the more adept I became at the game, the more the experience became a repetitive loop rather than an adventure to be had; I knew what to do, where to go, and what my course of action was before I'd delved too deep into the individual missions. As a choose-your-own-adventure and narrative title, Foretales succeeds and pioneers the card-based genre into a new amalgamation unexplored before — I can assure you've never played anything like Foretales before. That said, as a card-based battler, or anything outside of a narrative adventure, Foretales can feel a little lacking due to an unengaging and easy gameplay loop.