Fabled Lands

I've tried several times to get into the game, but I just can't.. I dunno.. it's just kind of annoying to play. Not necessarily because the game is punishing or feels unfair at times. I'm not really a fan of that "toxic GM" spirit a lot of older RPGs/CYOAs have either, but the game [i]is[/i] designed around "♥♥♥♥ around and find out".. then get rekt, learn from your mistakes, reload and pick a different option next time. Tbh, most of the time, you don’t even have to do that, since you can recover after a setback. Once you realize how the game wants you to play it, it’s not that bad. What bothers me more is how clunky the game feels to play. For example, why do I have such a tiny inventory when I’m expected to carry around so many quest items? It’s just inconvenient. Blessings are very helpful, but they’re one-time use, so if you want to play it safe (hello Ironman), you have to travel back to a temple every time you use one to renew it, which happens quite often. Why can’t I see how much damage I’ll deal before attacking an enemy? The fading text which causes a small delay also gets annoying when you’re buying drinks for rumors in the tavern for the 50th time or want to do other…

A strangely addictive game with more content than I expected.

absolute piece of ♥♥♥♥, instant death and permanent debilitation everywhere that persist through resurrection like permanent max hp reduction - unavoidable so your stats, gear and combat skill often don't matter and you either reload so it feels like nothing matters as there is no danger with just reloading to avoid or until you roll well, or you take it in the chin enough times until you end up with 1 max hp or several other stats reduced instant death without being allowed to fight is at least mitigated to an extent by resurrection deals, but if on champion difficulty you're going to be grinding gold to get your stuff back constantly which is easy but boring asf - and good luck finding rank ups to increase that max hp when you go down a road and take 1 dmg if you don't want to play guideless like most games and not reload after anything bad happens ur gonna have to make a guide for urself and write everything down that ♥♥♥♥♥ you over, you'll have a full book when you're done

Many good and some bad elements. A significant downside is there are a lot of 'roll or lose' situations that are not well telegraphed in advance, which makes for frustrating play where you either save scum or start over from 0 repeatedly. On the other hand, the mix of narrative adventures and combat hex grid works well and the sound design is good.

I had fun and it was pretty good.

Not really what was described. Controls have a problem on Steam Deck.