So what is Armello? Well, it's a video game, done in the style of a board game with a card game with miniatures. Except it's characters aren't miniatures, but animal anthropomorphics and it's bloody brilliant game.
Don't be fooled by the lovely animated trailers, the only animated cut-scene is the intro trailer in the game and yet, that doesn't take away from the experience. The art is beautiful and the music just suits this games style and aesthetics. It's smooth and surprisingly it has very few bugs that I've noticed (and after playing multiple games, I've noticed all of one bug that was in one game and it sort of fixed itself).
So what is it all about? Armello features four clans (Rabbit, Wolf, Rat and Bear) who were united by a Lion and he became King. However, a corrupting power called the Rot has infected the King, driving him mad and slowly killing him. As such, it's a race against time for you to complete objectives and take over as the new ruler in one of four victory's you can win with. They are Presage (the highest when the King dies wins), Combat (beat the King in combat, you must survive that combat to win this), Corrupt (same as Combat, but you must have enough Rot to be corrupted when you kill him) and Spirit Stone (collect four Spirit Stones before you confront the King)
Obviously, this is a 4-player game, though single player can be challenging enough. You can pick from one of eight characters (one male and one female from each clan) and each one has their own stats and an ability. The clans themselves gain a bonus on the type of day (yes, there is a day/night cycle) and you can pick one ring and one amulet to help give your character an advantage. Most a locked, but rings are earned by playing games with that clan where as the amulets are unlocked by getting that victory type (boosting your chance of getting that victory type if you choose it). Each turn starts with the King, who by day two will give the player with the highest prestige (declared the Prestige Leader) a choice from one of two cards that will take effect. Then the Kings guards move around before the players get to go. The night turn has corrupt crow creatures (called Banes) move (guards are day) and getting killed by a Bane will increase your Rot level by one.
I'm still not sure how the card draw phase works as it seems to screw me over all the time, but when you do draw it's from one of three decks: Equipment, Spells and Trickery. There are other cards like Followers and Royal Items, but these are obtained through quests or exploring a dungeon tile. Equipment, Followers and Royal Item cards can be attached to your character (at a cost) where as spells can be cast if you have enough spirit and trickery can be used to help better yourself or screw over others. Each card also has a symbol. These are used for both combat and in perils. Perils require a combination of symbols, which you get by rolling dice. You can sacrifice a card so that one of those die matches the symbol on the card. Combat works slightly differently with shields giving one block per shield and swords giving one attack per sword. Other symbols also affect the combat (like the time of day affecting if a sun or moon symbol will help) while rot ones tend to benefit the most corrupt. Each character has a certain number of hit points (a.k.a the Body stat which is shown in hearts) and when reduced to zero you die and re-spawn at your clan grounds.
Needless to say, some victories are easier to obtain then others and you can find yourself one minute with the best run only for your opponent to play a card that turns all your card symbols into rot symbols (damn it Thane!). Yeah, there have been one or two games where I've felt cheated, but then I just keep getting the eager to have another go. The graphics and art is simply amazing, with the cards also having their own lore text, along with the name and signature or the artist for the art and the animator (for the cards that are animated). The music works well too and most single player games run just over half an hour if things aren't being dragged out. Some people do have a gripe about not skipping over the computer opponents turns to speed things up, but for me it's only a slight annoyance. That said, this game does have multi-player, but I have yet to play that, though like most board games it's best to play amongst friends and have a good old time.
If your interested then go check out a game or two that's probably been played by a Let's Player (heck, might do a video myself on it), see what you think and if it's for you then it's available on Steam.
Edit: So apparently, this thing was a kickstarter at some point and has been in early access for a short while. How did I not know about this? I mean, the company that made it got Australian funding from the Australian Government and Film Victoria, so how was something like this missed? I feel bad about this now, cause this is one of those projects I would have loved to have backed on kickstarter. Come on Australia, we gotta pick up our act if we expect good things from this industry. Oh well, I did buy the game and the soundtrack so at least they got that (and I am enjoying playing both).
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