B&B Wartales

Welcome to Brew and Breakdown. Let’s begin.

Our game featured today is Wartales. Wikipedia states, Wartales is a tactical role-playing game with sandbox gameplay developed by Shiro Games and published by Shiro Unlimited in 2023. Players manage a mercenary band as it attempts to survive in a low fantasy world that is trying to recover from a plague.

After being hit by a magical plague, a medieval land suffers shortages and banditry. 

The game has an open world in which players traverse an overworld map, encountering points of interest, such as towns, dungeons, and other mercenaries. When the player's group encounters hostile non-player characters or animals, turn-based combat is resolved on a tactical map. There are elements of survival games, where characters gather necessary resources, such as raw food or leather, and craft items from them, such as cooked food or clothing. Characters tire as they travel, and camping is necessary once they have become exhausted. If players' mercenaries are not fed while camping, they may desert. While camping, characters can engage in a variety of actions related to their profession, such as cooking, blacksmithing, and appraising relics found while adventuring. Players can optionally enable level scaling. If they choose not to, regions on the map become progressively more difficult as players travel further. Players are presented with narrative choices, and each region has a story line that players can investigate, but there is no main quest or overarching storyline. The game takes on elements of an economic simulation instead, forcing players to find ways to finance their growing mercenary company. Also, it has cooperative multiplayer.

The Decision

Xbox Intel says, “Wartales is audacious. Tactical cunning rules the sandbox. Balance priorities. You knew you were always destined to be a bandit. Now be one to your fullest.”

Brew and Breakdown gives this title 4.7 out of 5, Coffee Beans.

In closing for the day, just know to stay cozy and enjoy the other wonderful views.

Thank you for tuning in to Xbox Intel. Intel next time.