Runespell Overture

Runespell Overture
by Mystic Box - 2011

Available at:
Steam



Runespell: Overture is a role-playing game combining poker mechanics with power ups and collectable cards. The world is set in an alternate medieval Europe linking historical characters with Norse mythology and sagas. The player takes on the role of the Changeling, the son of a monster god, in search of his nemesis.
Key Features:

• Innovative mythic poker system using poker mechanics to battle your opponents
  
• Unlock power ups and special attacks available as collectable cards in the game
  
• Combine your skills in short bursts of active play or long sessions of questing and battles
  
• Defeat more than 30 monsters types each with a unique card set and attack style
  
• Defeat enemies and make them your pets or allies
  
• Unlock new battle locations through questing
  
• Mix of beautiful hand painted backdrops and evocative 3D characters
  
• A compelling and original story set in an alternate medieval Europe
  
• Local and online leaderboard
  
• 20 Steam Achievements
  

Runespell Overture (Card/Poker/RPG/Strategy Hybrid)

For options we have Graphics Quality (Fastest, Fast, Simple, Good, Beautiful, and Fantastic), Windowed or Fullscreen, Drag and Drop or Click and Click (when moving cards around), and Sounds (Music and SFX).  You can also choose a screen resolution anywhere from 640x480 to 1920x1080.

The tutorial is very well-done, teaching you the ropes without being annoying.

So what kind of game is this?  It looks like an RPG that you play with cards, but that's not it at all.  The primary thrust is actually a solitaire game...  It's battle-solitaire-poker with RPG elements!   Whee~!

How does that work?   Looking at the screenshots will help a bit.  As you can see, we and our opponent are each dealt a set of cards, solitaire-style.  Ours is on top, theirs is on the bottom.  We need to create poker hands by grouping cards in sets of five.  If you don't know the poker hands, no worries -- the game will show you what groupings are "legal" to play.  Each "hand" will deliver a certain amount of damage, depending on the cards you've chosen.  For instance, a pair of cards (the other three cards in the group would be non-related) will deliver less damage than a flush. 

In each round, you have three moves, and then your opponent gets three moves. 

But wait, there's more! 

You can steal your opponent's cards, and vice versa!  If you grab a card from his area (or the other way around,) the card underneath does NOT flip over until it becomes his turn, but whenever you clear a pile on your side, you can immediately have access to whatever card is next in the pile (assuming that it's still your turn.)  You CAN'T grab more than a single card from each others' piles -- if something is stacked on the other side (grouped,) it's off-limits to you.  You can of course move multiple, grouped cards around on your own side

Here's an example of how it might work: 

You already have three Kings grouped, and take a fourth King to add to the pile, then grab a King from your enemy's cards to make five-of-a-kind (yes, unlike real poker, you can have five of the same card.)  You use your third turn to select the five kings and deal damage.

This is where the strategy comes in.  Now that it's too late and you've used all of your turns, you see your adversary grab that Jack of Hearts from your cards to complete a Royal Flush!  EEEK~!!  

Here's what you could have done to prevent it and still get your five Kings: 

Forget about your three Kings for right now, grab his king, and place it on your single King, making a pair.  Grab the Jack of Hearts and put it on top of another card -- ANY other card!  It's better if you can do something with it, of course, but the point is to keep that card AWAY from your opponent.  Now you can do one of two things:  Do something beneficial (like moving a card to help yourself and/or hurt his progress) or you can move the pair of Kings on top of the three-of-a-kind, and make your attack in an upcoming round.

But wait, there's more! 

Along the way we earn (via battles) and find special-use cards that can do anything from give you extra moves before your turn is over to poisoning to shielding yourself, to adding to your hit points, and more! You can only have a certain number of cards with you at the time of each battle, and (most of) the cards have finite-uses.  When they run out uses, you can use the money you earn to recharge the cards.

Be sure to SAVE before each battle!  You can abandon your progress if you wish -- it's an option to exit or go back to the main menu without saving.

There a bit more to it than that, including a storyline, but I'll let you discover that for yourself.

This game was a huge surprise to me -- I never expected it to be so fun and addictive!  A definite thumbs-up from me!

Runespell Overture (Battle Poker-Solitaire)

This is a game that I originally tried and reviewed back in 2014, but have just finished my first playthrough, and wanted to write a fresh review, so here we go~!

Besides the usual options for graphics and sound, we also can choose between Drag-and-drop or Click-and-click for moving cards around.  Remember that SAVES are manual.

So how does battle poker-solitaire work?  I'm glad you asked!

Two solitaire hands are laid out on the screen - one of you and one for your opponent.  You have three moves each turn, and you can use not only your own cards, but any single cards from your enemy's stacks as well.  Create combos of five cards in order to have an attack available.  Each poker hand is worth a certain number of points, and in addition to the usual pairs, full house, straights, etc, you can also have five-of-a-kind. 

Don't know poker?  No problem!  There's a Poker Help button at the bottom of the screen that will tell you the name of the hand, a description and number of points each hand will do in damage.  Very nice!

The game starts with a very helpful tutorial that I recommend using, even if you know your poker well, as it will explain some of the nuances of the gameplay.

As we progress the story and defeat enemies, we'll find Powercards that will help us along the way.  We can equip up to eight cards at a time, although we can only have one Secret (to increase our hit points), one Blessing (to increase our "Rage" points) equipped at any given time. 

In addition to the Secret and Blessing cards, there are also cards for various kinds of attacks and defenses, and you will need to build up your "Rage" in order to use them.  When you're hit or make an attack of your own, your rage meter will increase, giving you the ability to use those special cards.

There is one additional kind of card, and these represent your allies.  Each ally has their own special attack or defense, and are equipped and used (with rage points) just like the other cards.

Inventory can be adjusted before each battle, or if you can see you're really going to need a certain kind of defense/offense, you can "Flee" (bottom left of the screen), regroup, and go back in.

Have I mentioned that these special cards have a finite number of uses?  That is where the merchants come in.  Winning battles will net you new cards to use, as well as Hacksilver to spend.  Use your hacksilver to add uses to your favorite cards, and you'll be good to go.  The silver is not easy to come by in quantity, so keep that in mind!

There are 35 Steam Achievements, and while they are not impossible, you'll definitely need to work towards some of them.  I found out the hard way that when you fight the final battle, you lose all of your progress.  If you choose Continue+ from the main menu you'll find that you still have all of your Powercards (except the allies), but if you were looking for the Obtain All Powercards achievements, you need to be sure to do so BEFORE you fight that final battle!

I enjoyed both the music and the sound effects, and despite the age of the game, some of the cutscene art is quite lovely.  The storyline is interesting, and you'll generally have a choice between two responses.  In the end you'll have the same result, but it's cool that the choice is there.  All cutscenes and interactions are skippable by using the Esc button.

I feel that Runespell Overture deserves a lot more attention than it has received.  This is an incredibly addictive and fun title which I absolutely recommended for anyone who is looking for something a little different out there in the world of card games.