If you're interested in narrative, there's a theoretical game you've already dreamed up. It is an impossible fusion of deliberate narrative and purely system-driven anecdote, all lent to your own narrative, like procedurally generated bricks.

Wildermeis is its game. It is real. And wonderful. This tactical RPG breathes life into any fantasy adventurer, turning dynamic character hooks and subplots into characters you recognize and care about. Funny, thoughtful, and painfully mortal people.

The campaign begins with a few randomly selected heroes defending their homes. They mean nothing to you in the first fight. They are just a jumble of parts, an old police composite. But soon something starts to happen. They will help the chickens as they travel to their next encounter. The hunters refuse to enter the village, prompting you to ask if you want to push them. You will notice that two of the party are rivals, and that by hunting each other down they gain a bonus to the probability of a critical hit.

And then they die. However, they probably won't die right away. When someone falls, you can choose what happens to them. You may lose a limb if you run away. Someone could push a friend away in order to save him or her, causing permanent injury to himself or herself. Or they could let the other person die and take their attacker down with them. This sounds like a bad tactical deal. But before you know it, they will do so. Because it is the right time and the way they want it done.

Over multiple chapters, you explore strategic maps and fortify areas to flush out the creepy atmosphere of monsters, ward off ambushes, and repel periodic invasions. You also build workshops, restore cultural heritage, and enjoy side adventures. And it's the little things that matter.

At every step, there are opportunities for vignettes between characters. Everything is contextualized by excellent micro-stories, turning a series of battles into arcs co-written with the developer. Even the events we have seen are transformed by character traits and relationships. And the monsters always get stronger and the heroes get older. As the final goal is hastened, the power of the enemy weakens, but the land becomes infested and the years of peace in the world are shortened.

I was too late in one chapter to unravel the enemy's plot. The finale saved the world, but permanently damaged it. Another group won 14 years of peace between chapters. Many things happen in peacetime. The protagonist falls in love, starts painting, walks around all night, and comes back a few months later, withdrawn and sad. In my latest novel, I am a retired judge, saving lives and imparting wisdom to the daughter of a friend who died.

Wildermyth integrates all of this beautifully into the design. The lower difficulty levels are solid role-playing with drama in hand. The middle levels are a perfect blend of tactics and character-driven decisions. The most difficult level is a bloody and desperate war that spans multiple generations. It is satisfying to develop vulnerable starters into champions, but the key is to protect and teach the younger players with their old hands. It seems illogical, since the items exchanged cannot be redistributed, but it means differentiating everyone rather than being efficient and giving good items to weaker members who need them more. Think like a hero who helps the young, not like a tosaka who keeps the best gear to himself.

Leveling up also encourages role playing. When leveling up, one randomly chooses one of four skills from a much longer list. Mechanically, there is always a good choice, but frankly, it is wrong play not to prioritize the skill that best suits a person's personality. When young Shay first leveled, she had just lost her brother Uvwane, so of course she took the first aid skill over the better magic. She never wants to lose someone like that again.

But Uvwane lives on. Heroes who die or retire become available as "legacy" heroes, allowing later groups to recruit them as already skilled youth. One campaign featured Parel, one of the B Heroes from earlier games. She has never shined, but is now the leader of a group of fellow adventurers, including one from the 2019 game.

This is why we replay the campaign. Imagine the inworld villagers hearing these stories and the details getting jumbled up in the retelling. Eddien was the naughty little thrush who found the library of light. No, Destan found the library. They were on the "Unbroken String" together. But when Logsa was killed in the last battle with the Gorgons, Eddien protected the thrush rascal. Logsa didn't die, she just lost her leg. She's in all the pictures, that's why she's in the Vine Sisters story. No, Logsa was not a Vine Sister. Lunantha joined after Parel left to form the Stone Maidens. No, no, Parel was the kind of person who could write about these women all night long. And about all the people who play these songs. It's magical.

They are also excellent in tactics. Class is important, but no two hunters are the same. Every story affects the combat. The type of weapon, skill, and whether or not you dipped your hand in the strange fountain will change your behavior on the battlefield. The combination of skills is very challenging and a great challenge on the really brutal high difficulty levels. Magic is worth a whole article. Mystics fight by "interfering" with items on the landscape. Borrow a stone from the arch to protect the archer. Blinding the enemy with lamp flares. Interfere with the trees and blast them at the crowd, shattering their armor so that the macemen can rush in and knock them into the fire set by the sentinels with the power they inherited from the old shrine last year.

It pains me to report that there are still some frustrations with the Wildermite. Everyone is fragile, both in the campaign and in the battles, and can reach a point where there is no hope. Some of the chapter finals are close to trial and error, which is unfortunate after the beautiful and tense first victory in the previous game. In the Incursion (invasion) defense, even if you spend a month solidifying the map, you have no control over where your army will start. And the order confirmation option is desperately needed; I can't believe I have to say this over and over again in 2021.

But I totally love Wildermyth. The addition of five main campaigns in this full release, fleshed out into an endless generic campaign, will satisfy my thirst for RPGs like no other.