Kenam Moorwak - Chronicles of the Moorwakker

This game was originally made as a tabletop RPG and then converted into Twine years later.

It features a pretty great storyline about seven women who conceived children from a devil (or so rumours go), one of which is you. You have demonic power like using spectres and giving your blood to spirits for more power. Your goal is to find out the truth behind your birth and to determine your future.

The game is very complex, with multiple areas, each with their own encounters, and each encounter being a large puzzle.

There is art (handdrawn and then enhanced by AI, a process that makes it more coherent than pure AI), which helps the game quite a bit.

The big draw here, outside of the art and story, is the combat. And this is also why I'm giving a lower score than the other reviewers (but would be happy to revise upward if the author feels it's unfair).

You see, the way combat works is that you and your opponent(s) alternate turns. You have 2 actions (at first) and your opponent has a varying number of actions.

One action can be used to summon a spirit or spectre to help you. Doing so costs blood. Each spirit starts with one ability that costs a few 'control points' and one that costs all control points. It's helpful to save the 'all control' points one for last.

You can also spend you action using an item or attacking with a relic (a weapon).

The issue is that using your abilities gives yourself damage, and your enemy gives damage. That means you lose health very quickly. You have two rations in your inventory that can heal you, and occasionally you can rest, but essentially there is no way to just go out there and grind combat to level up. In 3 different attempted playthroughs on three different difficulties (completed only on easy) I wasn't able to level up myself (apparently there are classes?), barely levelled up one relic by paying for it, and never reached the level 2 abilities of the spirits. Every early enemy is very hard, each beatable alone but not 2 or 3 in a row.

Reading other reviews, it seems like everyone is in the same situation. Rovarsson beat it on hard with 5 fights by save scumming but mentions never having health. The other reviews on here also mention that as well.

Even on the easiest mode, there isn't really a way to heal, just skip fights.

Now, I'm sure there is some reasonable way to play through and hit up a lot of encounters and level up items. The author mentions some combos of attacks; there are spectres with abilities like 'boost next attack' and 'do triple damage' which could theoretically one-shot people. But all of that takes damage to summon the spirits.

I think this would work better as a TTRPG, as intended, because there the DM or player can 'fudge' things if it gets too intense. But for right now, as a computer game, I just don't see any way to play through and level up yourself or abilities. If the author provided a sample walkthrough for the first two chapters, like suggestions on who to fight first or how to get stronger, that would be interesting and helpful.

Chronicles of the Moorwakker has plenty of content which will keep you occupied for some time.

Your task here is to investigate the death of your mother, on a journey that takes you through fantasy medieval Germany. As a twine game, it felt really well-designed with that open-ended adventure vibe, as you decide which way you will travel and the things you can do in each location. There are some sections which will require you to go through different rooms to hunt down the various items you need to unlock stuff and proceed, including the section right before the final boss. It added to the feel, but it can get tedious at times.

I failed the starting battle twice, with my opponent suviving with one health point on both occasions. (Something must really hate me.) Afterwards, I decided to do this true story mode, and skip all the battles. A lot of work must have went into scripting the battle system, and I liked all the little details, just that I felt that it required a lot of clicking. You are allowed to retry or skip battles (I can't remember which difficulty I picked) so the game is still pretty forgiving there.

Once you finish, you can restart the game entirely, or at a chapter of your choice.

The art and sound, along with the gray color scheme, also fit the game pretty well. That said, the art is at least partially AI generated, with some human modifications.

In Chronicles of the Moorwalker, you play as a budding witch investigating the mysteries surrounding your birth and your mother's murder, while evading the grasp of the Inquisition. As you hone your skill in blood magic, you'll discover relics and talismans, collect potions and trinkets, and improve your relationship with your familiars.

I floundered on my first few attempts, since I struggled with the combat mechanics. There's a quick tutorial for your first fight, but to fully understand the stats involved, I highly recommend reading the rules in the Settings page. I played on the medium difficulty level, and found the encounters to be tough, but fair with a good dose of strategy and some chance. I ran into some difficulty trying to replenish my Vitality outside of encounters, though maybe that's because I couldn't figure out how to develop my alchemy skills. Towards the end, I started avoiding and outright skipping encounters, because I couldn't get my hands on healing potions until I was quite literally at the Big Bad's doorstep. Even so, the fights were rewarding to play through, with the generous use of the save/reload save button.

While the plot was a little predictable, I really enjoyed exploring the map and learning about the magic system. Alternate 13th-century Germany felt rich and full, no doubt enhanced by the sound effects, music, and illustrations. I especially appreciate the detailed accessibility settings for screen readers and touchscreens.

Finally, a little bug catching: A few times during the game, I couldn't return to the main story after opening the Journal, Inventory, or Settings page. Sometimes, there would be a pop-up that would give me the option to go back to the previous passage or completely restart the game, but more often than not, I would be stuck on a blank page. There's also some small typos here and there (E.g. "lose" >> "loose," "through" >> "trough"), but for a game of this size, I'd still consider it pretty polished.