I'm not good at writing a structured review, but after spending a bit of time with the most recent playtest, I'd like to share a few of my impressions.
(gave feedback on small problems via the game itself and the Discord already, this post is meant to give an overview for others and my general impression of the game)
First of all, the character creation. It's short and simple for now, because at the moment you can only play the minotaur Atticus Daley, the other options aren't available yet. You can choose a focus that gives you a bonus to certain status attributes and a Major Arcana card to boost one of your decks (more about that later).
In this screen, you can only see the background story and the attribute bonus and perks the choice gives, but not the effect the Major Arcana card has on the tarot decks in the game. Maybe that's intentional, or maybe it would be an idea to add that information here already, to make it easier to see the consequences of your choice when you're still unfamiliar with the cards.
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The first time I chose The Hermit, with a starting focus on Wit and a bonus to Persuasion checks, but later played with the other 3 choices as well to see what they change. The different attributes and perks make for different outcomes in skill checks, obviously, and the influence of the Major Arcana can be huge, but you can gain one or more of the other cards you didn't choose in the beginning during later level ups.
I don't think the starting text of the game counts as a spoiler, so here it is, to get a first idea.
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Text and dialogue or self-talk contain several words that might be a bit old and unfamiliar or have a street slang meaning in the context. They're highlighted with a different colour and you can hover over them for explanation. In this particular case I happen to know what laudanum is, but I find this feature very useful, especially for people who, like me, aren't native speakers.
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This example is also a warning, there's quite a lot of talk about and use of drugs and alcohol, as is being mentioned in the game description, so people who feel uncomfortable with hanging out in opium dens might want to consider in advance if this game is for them, see also here:
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By picking certain dialogue choices, you can gain yellow bile, black bile, phlegm or blood points (as in the 4 temperaments described by Hippocrates), which in return let you gain levels in their according attributes:
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So, as
@IsaacCHS mentioned somewhere earlier in this thread, you don't assign attribute points, you earn them by picking the according dialogue choices or actions.
Skill checks happen in the dialogue window, too, for example if you want to persuade or intimidate someone, open a lock or cast an illusion.
They cost either Vigour or Nerve (the two symbols next to the portrait) and require you to draw a card.
Hovering over the according dialogue choice shows your odds, which can be helpful to decide if trying is worth it.
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In this case it's rather easy, of course, but there are situations where your chances are 4%, for example, and you might not want to try that.
In the tarot tab you can see the 4 decks and the situations when they're used, like this:
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I still haven't figured out yet how exactly the tarot works, but during a skill check you usually select one out of 3 covered cards from the deck, and the value of the card together with the calculation shown in the previous screenshot determines if you pass or fail.
This is where the Major Arcana can have an influence. In this picture above, I have The Chariot bound to the yellow deck, and that one means during a skill check, one of the 3 cards I draw will be revealed already. Some others have effects like drawing 4 or 2 instead of 3 cards, highlighting the card with the lowest value in the row while they're still turned, or gaining 1 point of vigour or nerve every time a face card is drawn.
What the advantages or disadvantages of that are, I'm not 100% sure, because if I have understood the system correctly, you need to memorize which cards are still in your deck to know your chances, because the full deck will only be shuffled and started again when all cards are drawn, or when you draw the Fool.
If anyone who knows better reads this, correct me please.
At level up, you can choose betwee 3 things: Either increasing the leveled attribute permanently by +1, or gaining a few perk points on something, or selecting a new Major Arcana card.
And how do you regain the Nerve or Vigour you spend on the skill checks? Sometimes by drinking alcohol, sometimes by proper hygiene! (and probably by other actions, soon to come)
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So my little minotaur spent his time pickpocketing a sleeping drunkard, getting a rat bite, talking to an automaton, trying to persuade an engineer, saving a cutpurse, only to lose his patience with wires and electricity and decide to try to run through a werewolf containment fence just to find out what's on the other side. The fence was not as much of a problem as the electricity, but at least it allowed me to see a very nicely done death screen.
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My conclusion is that I like how the game looks, the setting, the dialogue-based gameplay and the general tone. The little piece I have seen of the story was enough to catch my interest, and once I started to figure out how the tarot system works, I got better at improving my chances with the skill checks and how some build choices lead to this or that outcome or unlock situations that are otherwise inaccessible.
Minor issues I had were draining of nerve and vigour (but that was obviously because playtesting I tried every skill check, even those that made no sense at this point, and I'm sure more options to recharge them will be added), understanding the card system, the fact that you can't retry several skill checks after failing once (so either replay the game multiple times or save before every choice!), the fact that you have only 4 save slots and that some situations seem unsolvable at this point, but I'm quite sure that's because it's still only a playtesting build and some parts of this area will probably still be accessible later in the game when you are better leveled or equipped to solve them, or because you just have to live with the randomness and try often enough. I just hope there won't be situations that must be passed and therefore lead to save-scumming.
I can definitely see the potential of this game, was happy to hear today that it has been selected for more funding and will therefore have the capability to grow further in the future, and hope to see more of it soon!
