Wildermyth: Console Edition

Genre: Turn-Based Strategy-RPG

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local Alternating)

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Review:

Note: This review has been directly sponsored by a kind donation from Jamie and His Cats. Thanks again for your generous contribution!

Wildermyth is a Turn-Based Strategy-RPG with Roguelike elements released in 2021 on PC and ported in 2024 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in a “Console Edition” of the game. This game follows a party of player-created characters in a medieval fantasy setting who must contend with a spreading corruption causing monsters to invade the peaceful territories of the land.

Explaining what makes Wildermyth so unique may be a bit difficult, so I’m going to try to do so by going on a bit of a tangent by talking about Miitopia. Miitopia, along with its predecessor Tomodachi Life, took an unusual approach to storytelling by slotting in your custom-made Mii characters into the game’s stories and roles, letting you create absurd scenarios like having Inigo Montoya falling in love with Iron Man. The story elements themselves were constructed from premade components, but by combining this with something the player had a hand in making, it made the story a bit more personal, silly as it was.

Something similar is going on in Wildermyth. Every character that players add to their party is a random assortment of attributes and physical features, but you can customize these however you want, including different stats and personality traits. What’s more, though “choose your own adventure”-style choices throughout the game’s story, you can further flesh out these characters’ personalities and relationships, deciding if two characters are friends, rivals… or perhaps lovers. Alternately, characters may develop these relationships on their own through the story. Eventually your characters can even grow old together and even have kids, who can become new members of your party

Unlike Miitopia, these character and story elements are more than just skin-deep. At each new location you visit, your characters will banter, talk about their fears, hopes, and passions, with these story beats presumably influenced by the characters’ personalities and backgrounds. And this mix of customized elements and well-written procedurally-generated story beats makes for a surprisingly personal tale where you can easily grow attached to your heroes.

At one point during the game, I encountered a particularly tough battle and one of my heroes was slain by an enemy, and the game gave me a choice: I could have them limp away to fight another day with permanent injuries but leaving the remaining teammates to face the ordeal in reduced numbers, or I could have them make a heroic last stand, dealing one final blow to the enemy before dying permanently. While the latter would ensure my success, it was a surprisingly difficult choice, and I ultimately chose to keep the hero alive and hope the remaining party could manage the rest of the battle on their own. After all, if she fell, I felt that her partner would surely be heartbroken at the loss, especially after everything they’ve been through together.

While the story here is quite unique, the gameplay is no slouch either. Wildermyth’s combat straddles both “Tactics-style” and “XCOM-style” Strategy-RPG types, with movement and attacks being grid-based, but some abilities and projectile attacks dependent on line-of-sight with cover being an important gameplay mechanic. And while characters using swords, spears, and bows all work in a relatively traditional manner, the way this game’s mages do spellcasting is really unique and inspired.

Magic users don’t cast spells directly, but instead “interfuse” with objects in the environment, causing those objects to do things based on their component elements. Wooden objects can be made to explode in a hail of splinters at nearby enemies, while lit torches can spout flames, and so on. And while magic users need to be within range to interfuse with objects, once they’ve set things up, they can use these abilities at any distance, essentially allowing them to set up booby traps to be activated at whim. Combining this with more traditional Strategy-RPG classes makes for some really unique strategic possibilities.

The other excellent mechanic at work here is the game’s Roguelike elements, where characters get randomized class-based bonus abilities when they level up, and completing battles sees them getting randomized gear. It was an absolute delight seeing my archer gain the ability to move stealthily and be unseen by enemies, though I had to turn down an ability to target an area for an ambush if enemies walked into it. These creative ability upgrade choices only added to this game’s sense of guiding your own custom characters in a unique journey.

On the game’s overworld map, things play out a bit like a Real-Time Strategy game, with players exploring the world territory by territory and fortifying areas against enemy incursion while building up controlled territories to better gather resources needed to buy better equipment, all while managing where your heroes are going and what they’re doing for the most efficient use of manpower. I think this gameplay element could have been better-developed and better-explained to the player, but overall this was a nice addition to the gameplay.

The presentation in Wildermyth is a bit of a mixed bag. The game uses simple, cartoony hand-sketched 2D visuals in a 3D space, and while the enemy designs aren’t bad, the human characters all look somewhat generic in a way that slightly undermines that feeling of custom personalization that the game otherwise nails very well. These simple visuals also don’t quite mesh with the game’s lovely somber acoustic instrumental soundtrack which fits better with the story’s mostly serious tone.

However, now we’re getting into the complaints territory, and I do think that the “2.5D” visual style hurts the gameplay by making it harder to tell when an object might be blocking your way, or making it harder to see walls or other obstructions when they’re turned to a 90-degree angle to the game’s camera, like looking at a piece of paper on its edge. What’s more, the lack of good camera control can make it far too easy for things to hide behind objects.

However, my other major problem here is that this game often does a poor job of conveying information. If there’s a way to see how far enemies can move on their turns, I still don’t know it. I wasted a lot of time on the map building up defenses to hold back the spreading corruption only to see it pass through those areas anyway, and this game repeatedly makes it clear that time is a valuable resource, as enemies permanently grow in power at regular intervals. This put me at a disadvantage through the entire rest of the game’s campaign, and this game is already difficult enough as-is!

It’s a shame Wildermyth’s visual issues and poor communication skills mar what is otherwise an outstanding game with some excellent ideas in both its story and gameplay. However, despite these issues, I strongly recommend this game, especially for fans of Strategy-RPGs. There’s nothing else quite like it, and once you get a better feel for this game’s mechanics (perhaps through trial and error), I think you’ll find this to be a refreshing take on the genre.

tl;dr – Wildermyth is a Turn-Based Strategy-RPG with some Roguelike elements and some “choose your own adventure” elements, with a unique blend of custom character creation and procedurally-generated story beats, combined with some really unique and clever gameplay mechanics. While this game’s visuals can be confusing at times, and the game isn’t always great about conveying information, this is overall a truly delightful take on the genre, and one that Strategy-RPG fans should consider a must-play.

Grade: B+

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