When I was younger, I spent much time in the library. I read everything from information books about the most random subjects to fantasy and sci-fi books and, of course, comics. And yes, I also read many history books since I already loved them. However, one of the book genres that was a bit more challenging back in the day was the choose your adventure books, in which you had to pick a path by making a choice on page x and moving towards page y. Foretales is the modern-day equivalent of that genre, and it combines choose-your-own-adventure gameplay with stunning art. Shall we dive in?
Alkemi
Let’s talk about the studio first; Founded in 2011, Alkemi is a small team of craft people making their games and other visual products. The studio focuses on medium-sized, polished games, with an emphasis on making unique titles that are unlike anything else out there. Its previous works include the horizontal-scrolling shmup / RPG hybrid Drifting Lands and the twin-stick shooter / match-3 mashup Transcripted. And Foretales is their latest ambitious undertaking.
The developer of Foretales, Alain Puget, shared some information about the game with us:
Welcome to Foretales, our narrative game based on cards. What does it mean? Well, let’s just say that we drew our inspiration closer to Cultist Simulator, Reigns, or TIME Stories rather than Magic, Hearthstone or Slay the Spire. The game has systems, some similar to other video card games, some closer to board games, but they are all designed to support and react to the story you’ll create with your choices. There are combats in Foretales, but another pillar of the game was not to make them central in the experience so that you would not be tempted to solve everything through violence.
I got to play a press copy of the game, which meant that I could play the first chapter of the game, roughly a minor third of the content. Then, based on the choices, I could reach different endings with different companions. But since it’s a beta release, I review it as a beta release since some assets are still missing from the final product.
It’s all in the cards.
The gameplay in Foretales revolves around playing cards – just like in Voice of Cards. The main difference between the games is that in Foretales, everything looks straight out of a Disney Pixar/Dreamworks movie. It’s very stunning to look at and helps with the whole aesthetic they are presenting. Each gameplay loop revolves around playing cards to progress or to make moves with the people on the board. This means either engaging in battle or using food/coins to gain intel/bribing them into doing certain things to progress.
This system reminded me a lot of the way Undertale handled its game since you can choose to murder every guard you find – but this will make people around you a lot more suspicious. Instead, you can bribe them with gold to make them lose morale, which will be less body heavy – just moneybag-lighter. The same goes for gaining access to a locked place; recruit a local to help you, or use force and break in yourself. Foretales presses you towards the latter in the first chapter, and that’s fine since you gain familiarity with the core concepts of Foretales this way. Each choice leads to a different outcome or action, so be wary of what you pick. And if you can, always go for apples.
I can’t wait to see what the final product has in store. When finishing the tutorial and the first leg of the story, you delve into the branching paths I mentioned in the first part of my review. This makes the game interesting since the outcomes differ from that point. This way, the replay value of Foretales highly increases.
Conclusion
Since I haven’t seen everything Foretales offers, I will write a conclusion based on my beta copy. Foretales provides a highly unique card-adventure game with great storytelling and artwork. The music and art combine the game into a feast for the eyes, which leads to magical gameplay in the likes of Disney and Dreamworks. I highly recommend this game to anyone who loves card games, chooses adventure games, or plays games for replay value. Art and music are a bonus.
