Why Y'all sleeping on Griftlands?

Was hunting around the sales list on my switch, when I came across Griftlands; thought the name was cool, but became really interested once I did a bit of research about what it actually is. It's a deck builder where you take control of bounty hunters and go on quests and stuff. The twist is is that the rpg mechanics also apply to conversations and debates, so you can potentially avoid conflicts by simply convincing the other side to see your point. Apparently this is made by a indie developer named Klei which seems to be getting a lot of indie buzz for some of their games. So I went fuck it and took the plunge.

This game is fucking awesome and Im surprised that not a lot of people are talking about it. The setting is this cool cyberpunk/western feel to it, the character designs are all unique, and the battle system is really fun. Also of note: a lot of female representation in this game. No, it doesn't really draw attention to it, but a large majority of the characters featured in the game are women. Nothing revolutionary, but it is cool to see. It's on sale for $15 on the switch--I think its on other consoles too, and of course the PC, but these types of games are perfect for a handheld--so I highly recommend anyone picks this up.

They did an unfinished of this a year or so ago(?), and I thought it looked really cool. I've always liked Klei's games anyway. I just haven't had a chance to actually pick this one up and play it. Glad it sounds like this one is good also.

It's very good. Insane levels of polish like every Klei game with great art and character designs.

It's also a nice change of pace from most deckbuilders to have these lengthier more RPG-like unique campaigns with a ton of great writing and world-building.

Two words: early access. I am just waiting for the 1.0 release.

Personally, while it does look cool, I already have Slay the Spire to scratch my non-physical deckbuilder itch.

@infantpipoc: It hit 1.0 last week. Hence the Launch Trailer in the OP.

Time for me to grab it before the Steam sale ends.

I've played a fair amount of it and while I really like it I'm also a little disappointed in certain aspects. I don't feel like the cards tend to combo in the really fun ways you can get in Monster Train or Slay the Spire where you just build totally broken decks that slaughter everything. It's a little more balanced than that which also means that the fights tend to take a while.

That segues into my biggest issue, which is that it tends to be very talky for a roguelite. It's well made in that you can skip over many of the conversations you've already seen, but there's an absolute ton of plot and story and unlike in something like Hades it's interspersed throughout the game. Runs are long and slow, and a complete run can take like 2 hours. There are three different characters and multiple factions to side with in each story so there's lots of content there even if you don't replay a ton, but it seems paced somewhere between true linear RPG and roguelike and I don't think they quite pull it off. It just takes too long for new runs to ramp back up.

The two decks idea is neat but also contributes to the "no broken decks" issue because even if one of your deck has strong combos (which tend to be just...good...not broken in the way I like) the other might not.

Again, I like the game. The art is really good, the writing is surprisingly great, and the battles can be tense and fun because they are so well balanced. There are multiple difficulties and unlockable cards and permanent perks and all the rest of it. I'm not saying it's not a good game or that I wouldn't recommend it for someone who likes the sorts of things it does. I will play more of it. It's good!

But I felt like this was going to be a slam dunk for me with how much I like Klei and deck builders, and it wasn't. It's just...really good, but I'm not totally hooked by or obsessed with it.

@bigsocrates: I will definitely agree that the narrative focus is at odds with the roguelike deckbuilder nature of it at times. Hades nailed that combo, but it's a bit more of an interruption in the action here and there isn't the seemingly endless variety that Hades had.

That segues into my biggest issue, which is that it tends to be very talky for a roguelite. It's well made in that you can skip over many of the conversations you've already seen, but there's an absolute ton of plot and story and unlike in something like Hades it's interspersed throughout the game. Runs are long and slow, and a complete run can take like 2 hours. There are three different characters and multiple factions to side with in each story so there's lots of content there even if you don't replay a ton, but it seems paced somewhere between true linear RPG and roguelike and I don't think they quite pull it off. It just takes too long for new runs to ramp back up.

But that's precisely why I like this game. I don't skip over the dialogue because it adds world buiiding and flavor to both the player avatar and the people he/she meets. The problem with stuff like Hades, where the story is more background, is that it lives or dies by its gameplay. And unlike most other people, I wasn't in love with Hades' gameplay loop, so I ditched the game pretty quickly. This game, so far, I'm getting really into.

"It's a deck builder".
Wait it's a rogue-like too? Even better.

@kemuri07: I also like the writing (as I said) and I don't skip the dialog...the first time. But it's not worldbuilding on subsequent runs. There's no variation that I can tell. I mean you get varied events and jobs offered to you and that sort of thing, but there's no variation in all the optional dialog you can ask of the main characters or what they say or do.

That's why I say there's tension between it being that talky and it being a roguelike. It's all good stuff the first run through. Then you go back and it's like "Oh. I get to see this exchange for the third time. Fun."

Hades did a good job of feeding you only new stuff. This game repeats itself a lot, and with some pretty drawn out exchanges. Even some events you think might be randomized in fact are not. The story just plays out the same way each time. If it were a linear RPG this wouldn't be an issue but for a roguelite it bogs things down.

Playing the demo and it's pretty good. I don't like the sim voices though, I'd rather it just be silent or have real voices. The gameplay and story seem real good though.

I played it for several hours in early access and ran into the same issue others have mentioned about repeating story beats in my runs. I haven’t checked it out for a long while now, but now that it’s hit 1.0, I think I owe it another look.

Has anyone put significant time into this game both early on in EA and post-1.0? I’d like to know what quality of life improvements it’s received since it was first available.

I've been enjoying this a lot, but it doesn't have QUITE the staying power of say, Slay the Spire. That said, I've got approx 100 hours in Griftlands as opposed to 450+, so it's still quite a lot by most standards.

As of yesterday afternoon's Steam update the Mac version has a nasty tendency to crash on launch, but Klei is usually pretty quick with patches.

I love this game, and had been waiting for 1.0 to finally finish Smith's story.

Personally, I've found there to be enough variety in the story to be fine with it, I love the writing and look, and if I want to just try out decks against increasing difficulty, Brawl mode is great for that. I'm also psyched to be able to double dip on the Switch.

I feel a similar way to others about this game. The story is solid, the world building is fantastic, the writing is great. The deckbuilding is pretty good, even though the number of status effects is a little too high. The problem is that they don't seem to work in concert with each other. The system (similar to Slay the Spire) where subsequent runs get more difficult, is at odds with the RPG/story element. I skip through the early story because I've seen it more than a couple of times before.

Overall though, I'm quite satisfied with my purchase.

@spacebutler: Has Brawl mode changed? Because in my experience that is where to go to do different encounters similar to Slay the Spire without the story.

Obviously not to the degree of StS, considering that is what that entire game is.

I've played nothing but Griftlands since its release. I think it's fantastic.

I'm on roguelike total-exhaustion mode. Will definitely check it after a few linear, finishable-in-a-few-hours games.

I tried this really early on in early access before it had a tutorial and it was difficult to get into! Maybe I'll give it another whirl!

I played a lot of it about a year ago so it's good to hear that it hit 1.0, gives me a good excuse to run through everything 1 more time. That being said, unless something has changed drastically since the last time I played it, I don't see it having much more staying power than it already did for me. The threading of dialogue and worldbuilding was really great the first 2 or 3 times through each campaign but was really just a drag every time after.

Ultimately I still feel like its a great game, I really like the gameplay systems it has, but it does sort of feel like Hades came and ate its lunch with respect to the intermingling of story and roguelike that it wants to do.

I agree with this. I'll probably complete each campaign in Griftlands once, but I don't really feel compelled to play through on higher difficulties or to experiment with different deck builds.

I bought the EA and beat the story with the first character. It got a little annoying on repeat runs since there is a non-trivial amount of repeated dialogue and scenarious. Perhaps it's more varied now but I felt like I was done with it. Spent around 20 hours total which I'm perfectly content with.

I will also say it didn't make me as annoyed as Slay the Spire, which I don't enjoy at all.

I LOVE Klei games, but sadly I'm at a point where even seeing a card on the screen drives me completely off, it was just too much deck building games, I'll detox for like a year and come back to play just the best ones :P

bought it myself sometime within the last yr or so after hearing about it on waypoint, really liked what it had going for it but only touched it for a few 'runs' since i was waiting on full release but the early access stuff was good and now with that done i should go back to it.

i'm a sleepy boy i guess :)

It’s a deck building game so I’m sleeping on it. Now if they say they’re making another Mark of the Ninja then I’ll be wide awake.

They're late to the party for me unfortunately. I've played enough Slay the Spire and Monster Train, I don't really need another deckbuilder right now and I'm not sure adding story to the endeavor does much for me personally.

When I play those other two games, it usually is when I'm kinda in brainless mode listening to podcasts and don't really want to think too much between my card battles.