Tainted Grail: Kings of Ruin Prototype Review Ch. 1-5 — I’m hooked!

The new prototype for Tainted Grail: Kings of Ruin is out! There’s now Chapters 1-5 (previously 1-2), and I played through the entirety of this solo with Iunis, which is actually half of the actual game! Tainted Grail is still the dark fantasy adventure that reminds of Dark Souls, where you take a character and go through the island of Avalon, a land stricken by Wyrdness. You will face encounters for combat/diplomacy, talk to NPCs, and upgrade your combat deck. In this campaign specifically, you have to deal with said kings of ruin, meaning there’s boss fights with monstrosities like Claudyne the Unknighted. With Wyrdforms and Companions added to the mix, as well as cleaned up issues from the previous prototype we reviewed, Awaken Realms promises to stick the landing with this campaign.

FYI, this will be covering the new changes to the KoR playthrough, so be sure to check out our previous review, where we further discuss the improvements over the Fall of Avalon campaign. Remember, there are entirely new characters, no more open world for chapters, and Menhirs have been replaced by Waystones.

Table of Contents:
Intro- (0:00)
What is this review? - (0:39)
Quick Overview/How to Play - (2:03)
New Pros - (3:09)
Cons - (10:52)
Tentative Score - (15:37)
Ashton's Personal Score - (17:34)

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[nte]

i'm so excited for the AT:O review

[richardkerr]

i absolutely love the first game and already pledged this one cannot wait to play. many late nights to come. great review

[kaibe]

You're so good at reviews, honestly - my favourite for boardgame reviews. Good job :)

[Noobwater]

Y'all's first video made me back the campaign. This video solidified my decision :D Great to hear the quality keeps up at least halfway through the game

[indeimaus]

when's that kingdom death review coming ;-)

I gotta see your guys take on that one

[joncarr]

Thanks for the updated overview! Convincing me to late back. Just a matter of what extras…

I only ever played Fall of Avalon despite having the other campaigns. I had to houserule too many things and couldn’t find mojo to keep going. FoA was a top gaming experience though. The single campaign focus for KoR is a lot more appealing.

Re: tutorial stuff I’m sure it will be there. The first game had it. And this one has 1 or 2 prologue type chapters I think serve as a tutorial. Was a stretch goal.

[PermianTemplar]

Great Review! Backed since the pledge manager opened. Can't wait to get this on the table.

[sebastienvivas]

I can't wait to get this to the table. Thanks for covering it!

[tomlangan]

Awesome, thank you for the video. Did you find the difficulty challenging? How long did it take to play through the first five chapters? Cheers!

[Paddle]

Never played the first game, and backed the second game, looking forward to playing it. As a solo player how many characters would you recommend playing with. Thanks

[adityam]

Based on the scenario are all the miniatures actually gonna be used that often? Otherwise just the core seems good since both iss vanguard and Etherfields didn’t really make a lot of use of the minis

[danykira]

Are the minies useful? Or it's like the first game that they appeared and after 10 seconds was gone :/

[Filthyy]

How you seen any of the one shot scenario content?

[cobtyrannon]

If i would play this, it would be with 4 players.... Still good?

[nifarious]

Hey, I want my floating candles off of AR Pyramid Head!!

[Zilong]

The Cons further my disinterest in these sort of games anymore. They're awful in space ergonomics. AR really frustrated me with Etherfield, and I can't picture trying to go through this.

[kosterix]

Good I didn’t back this out of fomo. It has everything I try to avoid in board games.