RPGWatch Feature - Armello Review

Forgottenlor send us this review about the computer board game Armello.

There are four ways to win Armello. The first is to have the most prestige when the king dies. Prestige is collected by completing quests, slaying rival characters, and destroying rot beasts. Prestige is lost by dying or slaying royal guards. Some cards also reduce or raise prestige. The second way to win is to gather four soul stones and then confront the king. Soul stones appear at random in magic circles in the evening, and they also can be gained in certain quests. There is also one spell which lets you create a soul stone. The third way to win is to slay the king without dying, which is a daunting task as the king is a combat monster, and if one slays the king and dies, then the prestige leader wins. The last way to win is to get more Rot than the king, and then confront him.

Rot can be gained when the character is slain by a rot monster, or by casting some spells and by using some items. I found gathering rot extremely luck based and I often got more rot when I didn't want any than I did when I actively tried to collect it. Also Rot damages the character every morning and being killed by the Rot or a rot monster is an active hinderance to fininshing one's quests, which makes it a hard victory condition to attain. While having four victory conditions is great they are not at all balanced. Winning by being prestige leader is by far the easiest condition, as one can win without completing all 4 quests, and by squashing high prestige rivals. Collecting soul stones requires completion of all 4 quests and a little luck, but is still easier than trying to kill the king, which in turn is easier than collecting rot, which requires a good deal of luck with the cards. At least in the single player game, I was able to win fairly easily by concentrating on prestige, and the only games in which I lost to the A.I. were when one of my 3 A.I. opponents managed to win a prestige victory.