Fantasy stories often revolve around the concept of corruption, whether that manifests politically, spiritually, or physically. In Solnox – Grimoire of Seasons it’s mostly the latter although the former two definitely play some role.
You play as The Warden, a title that may evoke memories of Dragon Age: Origins to those of a certain tenure, tasked with investigating something called The Rot and putting an end to it if possible. Not a particularly original concept, indeed Dragon Age had you dealing with The Blight, Lord of the Rings uses The One Ring as it’s corrupter and many other fantasy epics over the years have had a fascination with the concept of a world decaying to the point of collapse.
Other genres explore the same concept, look no further than Fallout, Silo or The Hunger Games for more futuristic ideas about broken worlds and societies.
The spin that ByteRockers’ Games have chosen to put on this is that of an isometric, turn based, card battler. Imagine XCOM or Marvel’s Midnight Suns but instead of aliens or superheroes, we’ve got monsters, wizards and weird corrupted things. Each turn you draw a hand of cards, or runes, that give you tactical options. Attack, move, defend, the choice is yours. With each victory comes the chance to select new runes to add to your deck, increasing your options. Navigate battles, choose a new route and pray you don’t get brutally murdered along the way.
The battles themselves are relatively simple affairs on a mechanical level, move around the small map, trying not to get surrounded, dart in, do some damage and then either get out or stack levels of block to tank hits instead. Changing up the tried and true formula are the titular seasons. Each season grants different buffs and they cycle each turn. There are runes that allow you change the season for a select area of tiles, so act wisely.
Adding into the battles are scenarios that reminded me of The Oregon Trail but instead of dysentery you’ve got to worry about being infected with The Rot. Select between various options on how to tackle these scenarios, and once again, pray you don’t choose poorly.
The overall aesthetic is that of a book, describing in vivid and enthralling detail the actions of your party of characters. The tone is dark, but in a similar vain to that of The Witcher, drags you along with excellent writing and an effective score underneath. The world, although simple, draws you in and has you wanting to know more, but only your skill can decide whether you will or whether you’ll die again and again.
Because of course, this is a roguelike, prepare to die a bunch. In this, I find the game’s biggest frustration. The telling of story can have unique paths and choices, that’s fine, but combine that with having to start again after every failure is irritating, especially so here. I don’t begrudge anyone wanting the challenge, and I’ve even enjoyed roguelikes before but those always felt more geared towards the combat and challenge as opposed to building a world. Whereas here, I want to know more about the world ByteRockers’ Games have concocted, but in order to do so I’ll have to experience it fifteen times before finding an ending.
It’s a draining experience, one that leaves me not wanting to do “one more run”, which roguelikes live or die on.
Maybe that’s just me, because the game is well built, animated well enough and does a decent job with the story. Tactically there’s enough depth and challenge to satisfy the mad bunch who enjoy suffering. And for £6 what do I really expect?
Personally, I just wish I had the energy to experience it to its entirety. But alas.
