As a newly grouped band of would be soldiers, your first moments of the game are spent allocating their traits; some positive traits require that you take a negative trait with them, more on that later. After creating your most perfect recruits you’re set free on the world to better it, or to wreak havoc. The choice is yours. You learn through several plot devices be it an emissary at the tavern, or a dialogue box thrown at your face; that the world of Edoran is both beseeched by war refugees (that are heavily discriminated against) and a plague carried primarily by rats. The way you choose to interact with the world will as mentioned before, shape the way that the people view you. Whether you choose to be a goody two shoes law abider that will bring all those who oppose you to justice or a rebellious outlaw set on assisting the refugees or any combination in between you will be met with rewarding gameplay that leaves you wondering what the depths of the carefully crafted progression system will hold.

For my own playthrough thus far I’ve gone the law abiding route so far and will follow it to the extremes that my band of justice wielders will allow. Upon creation I was met with something that I could not have expected to experience in any game. Your faithful pack animals also have access to their own skill trees (which also means beasts tamed later in the playthrough will also have access to such things). For my starter pony I stared in disbelief as I saw the opportunity to make the pony a drunkard (when resting alcohol must be consumed with the meal to upkeep the party's happiness). Upon inspecting the skill trees again I saw the option to make my steed into a war pony. After a few encounters were handled ‘righteously’ my drunk war pony was ready for battle. Simple things like this are absolutely scattered across the game and I feel as though I’ve found barely a fraction of the options available to me. Even though all these options seem overwhelming on paper, the game does an excellent job of drip feeding you information as to not overwhelm the player.

In the open world you move to locations similarly to how a MOBA would control; however, the combat itself is turn based strategy which could lend itself to you losing a few of your friends along the way (including my beloved war ponies). Depending on your choices at the start of the game, you will be able to save scum to try again without repercussions as you learn the simple yet intricate workings of the combat in Wartales.