This marks the second game I’ve reviewed within a couple of weeks that’s both set in Arthurian mythology and evokes pleasant memories of Darkest Dungeon. Considering how much I like both of these things, I certainly won’t complain. The game under my reviewing microscope today is Tainted Grail: Conquest, a self-described as an “infinitely playable, story-driven hybrid between a deck-building Rogue[-lite] and an RPG[.]” Join me as I set sail for the mystical island of Avalon, but steel yourself and make sure you’re properly equipped. Things are about to get particularly weird in more ways than one.

Tainted Grail’s story centers around the fact that several ships’ worth of King Arthur’s subjects sailed to Avalon because “King Arthur promised [them] safety on these shores, but instead, [they] found stormy seas, rocks like shark teeth, and treacherous mists.” Comparatively very few of those who sailed to Avalon were able to actually make landfall, while the rest were likely claimed by storms and shipwrecks caused by those sharp rocks. Due to the malevolent magic that has infested Avalon, however, those who survived the journey have largely ended up wishing they had perished at sea.

That eerie, malevolent magic is known as Wyrdness (pronounced “weirdness”). Wyrdness manifests in many ways, most notably by wreaking havoc on the minds of every human settler present on Avalon and by spawning eldritch horrors that pose a more physical threat to said humans. For a time, the settlers found solace when they established their habitats around a strange-looking statue because, even though they “didn’t understand its origin or purpose, the enemy seemed to avoid it.” However, the statue eventually could no longer protect the settlement from being overtaken by Wyrdness. This is where things become much harder to explain.

The Wyrdness then basically erased all of reality as you know it, with the notable exception that your spirit has somehow survived and remains conscious in a void of nothingness. A bipedal goat creature appears before you and informs you that you were somehow saved from death to keep your reality from falling apart. The goat explains that you have “a small chance – an infinitesimally tiny chance, really – to bring it all back.” The question of exactly how you can go about restoring reality brings me to Tainted Grail: Conquest’s core gameplay loop. Some parts are difficult to describe, though, so bear with me.

At the start of each run in Tainted Grail, you can choose one of nine character classes your spirit can inhabit for that run. However, you only start with one class, the Wyrdhunter, available. You’ll unlock the rest as you play through more and more runs and gain enough experience. Everything you accomplish during each run will get you closer to unlocking permanent rewards, even if you fail the run. This includes how many battles you win, how many random encounters you interact with, any side quests you complete, and any progress you make towards completing main story quests.

At the end of each run, regardless of your success or failure, Tainted Grail will show you what you managed to do during that run, how much closer each of your accomplishments has brought you to unlocking your next major reward, and if you unlocked any major rewards (including new classes), what those may be. Once you’ve chosen your class for your next run, you’re dropped into somewhere that looks like a heavily distorted version of reality. You’re told that this place contains the source of the Wyrdness, which you need to find and destroy.

You advance the story of Tainted Grail by completing major story quests. The catch is that you’ll start much too weak to tackle those quests head-on right away. Thus, you’ll have to do as much as you can in several runs before dying to eventually become strong enough to complete those quests. That brings me to one of the things I particularly like about Tainted Grail. Each time you launch the game, you’re shown a screen that thoroughly explains what you’re in for. I could see this being really helpful for players new to the genre.

Tainted Grail goes out of its way to explain what a Rogue-lite game is, what you should expect from its mechanics, and that you shouldn’t feel bad for failing any runs because that’s part of the whole point. You’re supposed to die multiple times while trying to accomplish the objectives of the main quests because each time you die, you progress and become permanently stronger. Very few aspects of your progress are reset when you die during a run, and the things that reset are fairly minor; virtually everything else permanently carries over.

That’s the main reason I’m glad that Tainted Grail’s core gameplay loop is easy to get the hang of, especially if you’re familiar with other games in the same vein. Some reviews of Tainted Grail that I’ve read on Steam mention that Tainted Grail’s implementation of standard Rogue-lite mechanics makes progressing feel unpleasantly slow. I understand where that point comes from, but I’ve personally never experienced it. Every run I’ve failed in Tainted Grail has only served to put me in that addicting “just one more run” mindset I’ve discussed before. The process of unlocking new goodies every so often intensifies that feeling.

Despite the bleak atmosphere in which Tainted Grail is set, its developers still found ways to inject some enjoyable humor. For one thing, that bipedal goat fellow I mentioned reminds me rather strongly of Wheatley from Portal 2 because of his accent and his manner of speaking. I also got a hearty chuckle out of a joke I encountered early on. When you initially meet the blacksmith, one of seven NPCs whose services you can permanently add to each run’s starting point, he pokes fun at infamous RPG “fetch quests” and those games’ insistence on “proving your worth.”

The well-written dialogue and occasional injection of humor both benefit greatly from superb voice acting all around. The only thing I dislike about Tainted Grail is that its graphics look rather lackluster when you’re navigating the overworld outside of combat, even on high settings. That can be made worse by the fact that the Wyrdness causes a blur effect as it grows more intense around you, though you can turn this effect off in the options menu. The graphics look quite a bit better in combat, though. Speaking of combat, that’s where the deck-building elements within Tainted Grail enter the equation.

You have certain types of cards in your deck with various effects based on your chosen class. You have a limited number of action points (called “Energy” here) that you can spend each turn; you can see the Energy cost of each card in its top-left corner. During your turn, you can mouse over enemies to see what they intend to do on their next turn. To name a few examples, you’ll be able to see if any enemies plan to buff themselves, heal themselves, debuff you, or attack you. Certain aspects of combat can get a bit complicated.

Each attack made by both you and your foes is divided into individual hits. If an enemy plans to attack you, you’ll see how many times they intend to hit you and how much damage each hit is likely to deal. If you’re playing a class whose cards let you gain stacks of Block, each stack of Block you have active will only protect you from a single hit. Thus, if you see that an enemy is about to hit you three times and you have one stack of Block, you’ll still take damage from two of those hits.

You and your adversaries all have a certain percentage of armor. Certain classes can use cards that give them bonus armor or reduce an enemy’s armor for a while. Armor can be reduced into negative values or increased well past 100%. While armor doesn’t entirely negate damage like Block does, your current armor percentage will affect how much damage each incoming hit will inflict. If you or an enemy has armor above 100%, you’ll minimize most incoming damage. Likewise, if a combatant’s armor is reduced to a negative value, being hit can cause more damage than it otherwise would.

Each class starts with relatively few cards in its deck. That’s where Tainted Grail’s permanent progression mechanics really come into play. In several different circumstances during a given run, like when your character levels up, you might be given the chance to add a new card to your deck. Additional cards are the main thing you permanently unlock between runs. When you unlock a new card, it gets added to the pool of cards you can add to your deck when you’re given the chance to do so. The more runs you complete, the more powerful cards you can use in later runs.

I mentioned that Tainted Grail evokes memories of Darkest Dungeon. The main reason for that is the Wyrdness mechanic. As you spend time in the overworld, the Wyrdness will grow more intense around you. Your main defense against the encroaching Wyrdness comes in the form of consumables called Wyrdcandles that you can burn to keep it at bay. The more Wyrdcandles you use, the more protective light surrounds you. The brighter the light that surrounds you, the likelier it is that the random effects caused by the Wyrdness will actually benefit you, and vice versa. That’s quite similar to the torchlight and darkness mechanics in Darkest Dungeon.

I’m comfortable categorically recommending Tainted Grail: Conquest if you have even the slightest interest in games of this ilk. That addicting “just one more run” mindset I discussed earlier, combined with the gripping story elements and the intuitive core gameplay loop, signal to me that I’ll end up whiling away quite a few hours playing Tainted Grail before I’ve had my fill of it. If you enjoy deck-builders, Rogue-lites, RPGs, Arthurian mythology, or any combination of those, I’m confident you’ll enjoy Tainted Grail as much as I do. I would also let Tainted Grail explain why you shouldn’t take any advice from King Arthur.

A PC review copy of Tainted Grail: Conquest was provided by Awaken Realms for this review.

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Tainted Grail: Conquest

$19.99

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Fascinating story.
• Intuitive core gameplay loop.
• Pleasantly addictive Rogue-lite mechanics.
• Great voice acting and sense of humor.

Cons

• Graphics can look rather unpleasant.
• Progression can feel too slow at times.