Review: To The Grave: The Wildlands of Faenora Demo

Developer/Publisher: 2TG Entertainment/2TG Entertainment
URL: To The Grave: The Wildlands of Faenora on Steam

I just found out about To The Grave: The Wildlands of Faenora recently and I was immediately sold because the previews alone gave me instant nostalgia of one of my favorites, Suikoden for the Playstation One. The art style and angle of the turn based combat instantly gave me that feel of playing Suikoden 1 and 2 all over again.

However, getting into To The Grave: The Wildlands of Faenora and giving it a try the game gave me more of Soda Dungeon 1 and 2, but mixed with Final Fantasy Tactics’ characters and Suikoden’s combat style but all bundled up in a tactical turnbased RPG roguelike.

The demo for Review: To The Grave: The Wildlands of Faenora isn’t super in-depth that i’ve found as of yet. Your main goal as the hero is to pick your party, and go out with your team of six to destroy the legendary gryphon that no-one ever returns from that goes to fight it.

(Image Credit: 2TG Entertainment)

You’re approached by a few towns folk that give you basic tutorial steps and how to pick your team. This team consists of 5 randomly selected heroes. After this you are sent out into the world. This is where the rogue-like elements begin. You’re given 10 rounds of choices before you meet up with aforementioned gryphon to have your battle with it once more. Each round you’re given 1 of three choices. From what i’ve seen thus far it’s usually a battle, a harder battle, and a mystery. Sometimes there’s a shop or a heal or a treasure mixed in one of those options.

(Image Credit: 2TG Entertainment)

The loop of the game is where I get the Soda Dungeon vibes. Because as you lose, you’re revived back at town. You’re then given some XP for both your hero, and the types of fighters you brought out with you. So, say you bring three fighters, and archer and a cleric out. You’ll get credit towards unlocks for using their abilities or doing damage with them, etc. All of this giving a nice bit of meta-progression element to let you get the perfect team to take on the gryphon fight.

To The Grave: The Wildlands of Faenora is definitely a bit of a grind so far. I’ve gotten a couple hours into it and only unlocked a few things. It’s very much just do as much as you can, perish, and then go back and try again. Which to some i’m sure is a fun loop, but not so much for me. I want more “meat” to my meta progression and less random-ness to it. I want some kind of control over my power and progression instead of just grinding RNG all day.

So far i’ll give To The Grave: The Wildlands of Faenora and easy 8.3 / 10. There’s not a lot i’d necessarily “fix” about the game, but the style of RNG loop gameplay isn’t for me. I’ll still give it some more time and keep my eye on the game to see what comes. However, I’m Interested to see more.

Check out To The Grave: The Wildlands of Faenora on Steam, and the latest trailer below!

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