Bramble Royale: A Meteorfall Story pops D&D party mechanics into a roguelike deckbuilder reminiscent of Adventure Time
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I am torn between being deeply annoyed at the fact roguelike deckbuilder Bramble Royale: A Meteorfall Story allows me to poison skeletons, and actually finding it very funny. I suppose it would take an unnecessary amount of setup to lampshade that my dexterity brawler, Mischief, actually switches out her regular poison for bone-hurting juice when fighting skeletal undead. So, you get a pass for now, game. Here’s a trailer:
The name Meteorfall might be familiar to long-term members of RPS’ deeply nourishing supporters program. Matt Cox (RPS in peace) found a lot to like in the mobile roguelike. Or, rather, a lot to get sucked in by. “Screw you, John,” he wrote. “You can't just go around recommending games like Meteorfall - not to people who've already sacrificed so much of their lives to The Spire.”
While that one was a more traditional spire-like card affair, Bramble Royale mixes in elements of partyful turn-based tactics, alongside some board positioning. You have a pool of energy each turn, which you’ll spend on either instant attack or guard actions, or else queuing up equipment to use after you’re counterattacked by the enemy brawlers. You’re given perfect information on what to expect, and you can also switch grid positions freely if, say, you want your beefy fighter to take a hit meant for your brittle mage. You’ll also sometimes get requests to perform feats from the crowd - the classic ‘do slightly unintuitive or specific thing for a nice bonus’.
There’s a stonking dollop of Adventure Time inspiration in both the art and humour, which is fine by me, big twee idiot that I am. Also, it’s not a straight crib job - it’s very vibrant and well-done in its own right. Let’s see what the Steam page has to say. I know you lot like having ‘information’ about the ‘games’ that you’re ‘reading' about on our ‘website’.
Play cards, maneuver your allies, and brawl in fast-paced battles.
Winning the Bramble Royale isn't about fighting fair - it's about winning. The crowd demands spectacle! Take advantage of Wild Cards to change the rules of the brawl, exploiting them to your advantage.
- Mix-and-match multiple upgrades on a single card to build overpowered combos
- Impress the crowd and power-up in battle by completing challenging feats
- Build your dream team of 3 heroes (from a pool of 8), each with their own unique set of cards
- Discover more than 200 cards to turn the tides of battle in your favor
A demo is coming “in the next few weeks”, and my official clickman opinion is that yes, it’s worth clicking on. Just look at that bear, man. He's seen some shit. Poisoned skeletons, for one. My favourite take on skeletons is from Kingdom Death creator Adam Poots, who I once listened to on a podcast, going on a long tirade about how impractical they are. There are 206 bones in the human body, Poots reasoned. At that point, a necromancer may as well just use all that energy to throw 206 knives at you. You can't poison knives! It just makes them stronger.