It's like playing TFT, except you don't have the desire to unalive yourself.

I don't usually take the time to leave reviews on games I enjoy but Tales and Tactics is very deserving. It was quite the journey following this game through its beta cycle which I have 50 hours in. Never before have I seen a more committed developer that takes actual community advice to make the game more accessible to all sorts of players. I've followed a few games through their betas and nothing has me more excited than this game.

Made by the devs of some of the best Slay the Spire mods, had to show my support. Game is quite simple to pick up.

Also thanks Frostprime_ for showing me this game. 22?

An auto-battler which puts all the information you need in game. No having spreadsheets or cheat sheets up on a second screen like when you are learning TFT. All the info you need on weapon combos, and units is easy to get while playing any run.

A combination of D&D, auto-battlers, and Slay the Spire.

Everything about this from the demo, to now the full game feels great. This is what gaming should feel like!

One of the coolest parts of this game is the meta progession is not buffs to make the game easier. Instead its a series of mechanics you unlock over time. Each one might give you something new, but also provides a new challenge or buff to your enemy. Thus it allows the game to not only be very customizable or which mechanics you enjoy, but steps you into the action at your own pace.

Very smart auto-chess roguelite that saves me from ever having to play TFT and get mad at it, myself, and others.

I really wanted to like the game but, for now, it s too random and too predictable at the same time for my taste. I won't recommend it in that state.

It s too predictable in the way that an Excel table solves the apparent complexity of building comps.
So depending on which units the game feeds you, there are only a few different combinations that works, and as long as you get a few 3-cost units and 2 or 3 traits actives, you ll win. Like no sweat.

Unless, and that s the too random part for me, unless you fight against a team who has a random effect that just wrecked your comp and you are done in one swoop. I explain. When you fight against another team, there is a random effect that takes place, that can overule any mechanic of the game. Like, "no unit can cast their spells", or "traits don't work that round". So the fight is difficult, not because the other team is strong, but because the game removes certain mechanics without you having any chance to prepare against it or adapt (there are a lot of those effects and not two run will have the same "challenges").

So I either found myself stomping on the game through the whole run, or I found myself stomping on the game until a random effect killed it. Either way, it didnt feel satisfying to win, nor empowering to do to better when I lost.

I dont know how the devs cant tackle this. Hope they'll manage.
Otherwise, all the rest is good. That s the heartbreaking part.
Mind you, it s still early access.

---EDIT---
Thank you devs for your comment. It doesnt answer my concern at all.
The game is too easy. And if removing core mechanics of the game is how you view adding "complexity" (instead of adding content), then it just reinforces my stake : I DONT recommend this game.
Either get creative with what you already did, or just be a pale copy-paste of TFT with the added difficulty that some fights wont be by the rules you created... (which is a lazy and common way to do things in video games). Be bold or be bland.

Single player TFT is all i ever wanted.

Was super excited to play this game, and honestly the gameplay doesn't disappoint, that being said and as petty as it is I struggle to get over just how ugly the selected heroes are, spanning every color of the rainbow every hero you can play is a grotesque blob-like cal-arts inspired marshmallow of a creation. Again the gameplay is great but my god these characters are sin-ugly.

Would rate 7/10. There's a lot of good and a lot of bad. Edit: The dev team have continued to improve the game and I'd now rate it 8/10.

Good:
+Captures the essence of Auto-battler strategies: racial traits, roles and positioning.
+The actual unit arts and battle animations are great. likewise for most enemy portraits.
+Most of the game is explained visually without requiring using a Search engine to check a mechanic
+Some interesting events and reward choices.
+Mildly humorous naming conventions that give me a chuckle every so often.

Bad:
-Initial player Character portrait art is beyond awful.
-Out of the box difficulty is too easy.
-Poor meta-progression implementation. Unlock more game mechanics as you progress, pre-defined Ascension difficulty levels required e.g. slay the spire. Edit: This has now been fixed for the most part.
-Far too many event choices with an "optimal" pick.
-Runs are somewhat "samey" and repetitive at the moment.

Game is very fun but unfortunately at 5 hours I've already unlocked all of the available content. This isn't worth a not recommend as there's more coming in the future but an Ascension type system is absolutely needed and I think it would be good for the progression system to allow you to spend Mastery to unlock new batches of units (not trait specific cause that would be OP, but like one batch would add one minion from each trait into the mix) or something like that. There definitely needs to be more things to spend Mastery on and an Ascension system. They try that with the Challenges but it doesn't really feel right. Gameplay is very fun and addictive though, I'm happy I bought it.