Wildermyth: Console Edition (Nintendo Switch) Review

Wildermyth: Console Edition is one of those games you might show non-gamers or indie sceptics as an example of what can be achieved with smart design, rather than large budgets. It’s an RPG/visual-novel hybrid that pulls off the rare feat of being charming and accessible, while still providing tough decision-making moments, plenty of expected and unexpected outcomes, and no shortage of turn-based combat. The core mechanics and assets might be limited, but the emergent storytelling elements and an evolving cast of heroes make every adventure feel epic without demanding vast swathes of your time. Unfortunately, the Wildermyth: Console Edition currently has technical issues more impactful than the occasional framerate drop or sluggish round transitions on the Nintendo Switch.

I want to start with the positives though, given it’ll hopefully be patched into better shape. The best way I’d describe Wildermyth is as a table-top RPG brought to digital life thanks to an easy-to-understand mechanics, lightly animated comic-style panels, a stylised overworld map, striking paper-craft visuals during combat encounters, and a limited but evocative soundtrack. I’m just surprised it took three years to make the transition from PC to console, as while its indie roots do become obvious the longer you play, the emergent storytelling mechanics are a much-needed breath of fresh air in a genre saturated by JRPGs with rigidly linear narratives, and far too many western-style RPGs so fixated on production values that actual role-playing opportunities and divergent outcomes are rare.

Wildermyth goes in the opposite direction, simplifying or streamlining the gameplay, and designing both environments and storytelling assets (backdrops, sprites, and some animations) to be reused in multiple configurations. There’s no voice acting, so the focus is on writing elaborate campaign scenarios and hundreds of mini-scenarios that can pop up during any campaign – think brief visual-novel sections that integrate party names and sprites, accounting for both cosmetic choices and gear, many of which have follow-up events to ensure every campaign is full of compelling side stories. Some are simply moments of bonding between your heroes, but there are also frequent choices that allow for more direct role-playing or altering upcoming battle conditions for better and sometimes worse.

It worth noting that Wildermyth demands a lot of reading if you want to get fully invested in your heroes’ legacy and the extensive background lore. You can start a campaign by simply randomising their looks and attributes before picking a combat class – think melee warrior, ranged hunter, and mage archetypes – but the attribute system is surprisingly deep and defines not only their initial personality, but how they’ll interact during encounters with allies, strangers, and villains down the line. That said, I never found it essential to tailor these attributes for every hero, as there’s still plenty of entertainment to be had simply watching events unfold and gently guiding a group of strangers that come together to save the Yondering realms from a myriad of threats throughout their lives.

Saving the realm by investigating and defeating a major threat typically plays out over three or more campaign chapters, in which you explore an overworld map, liberate and secure regions, intercept incursions heading towards your villages, and hunt down primary objectives that progress the overarching story. Between battles, your actions – be that travel, recruiting and training new heroes, crafting gear, constructing an outpost, or fortifying a town – all consume days, weeks, and eventually years over the course of a campaign. It gives Wildermyth a generation-spanning scope that allows heroes to become rivals, fall in love, have children that grow up to join the adventuring party, retire in peace, or perish in glorious battle. Naturally, your foes don’t remain idle as time marches on, and your chosen difficulty dictates how quickly events escalate.

Enemy goals shift between chapters; new “calamities” emerge (think stacked cards that progressively bolster enemy forces); incursions can become larger and more frequent; and supernatural disasters can slowly claim chunks of the map. There’s a strong time- and resource-management element that’s simple to understand, yet I still found stressful and engaging. The expanding map often places new objectives days or months of travel apart, but while you can recruit up to 10 heroes – two full parties worth – that means consuming accumulated legacy points that could also offset new calamity cards. Securing and fortifying a region means access to crafting materials and armed villagers to fend off incursions, but you’ll need to decide if pushing towards the source sooner is the wiser choice. Some campaigns allow you to continue past fail states – but it reduces the number of “years at peace” between chapters, limiting the potential buffs your heroes might attain, and making subsequent chapters tougher with ever more calamity cards stacked against you.

Now, I’ve left the turn-based combat for last as despite it taking up a good chunk of any campaign, it’s streamlined and fun – but probably never as deep as fans of turn-based tactical games might want. Each battle spawns a random grid-based map based on your current tile-set and enemy type – with calamity cards modifying their abilities and composition – but on the default “Adventurer” difficulty, I found keeping my party together and prioritising the toughest targets got me through 90% of the time. A mix of tough warriors, versatile hunters, and object-infusing mages ensures you cover all bases but, if you play cautiously, a steady stream of XP ensures a selection of new active abilities or powerful passive buffs to choose from at each new level. Tiered gear can be crafted or found after battles and encounters, some of which grants elemental attacks or enhances basic attributes like damage, accuracy, speed, and magical potency.

It’s a decent combat system with both your party and enemies capable of dealing heavy damage each turn, keeping the stakes high. It was only on higher difficulties that I appreciated tactical options like blocking paths with a warrior’s guardian or counter abilities; having my mages infuse with rocks and vegetation to bolster your parties armour or shred enemy armour; and I had to keep hunters on the flanks of enemies to guarantee hits and negate cover bonusses. Early on it could feel like simply slogging it out, but an experienced party of five, with dozens of abilities and passive buffs shared between them, could shred an advancing army before they get close. All that said, I still found battles were just a mechanical means to a narrative end – namely the next story panel, emotional interactions between my heroes, and player choice moments.

So, I’ve spoken a lot on what I enjoy about Wildermyth: Console Edition and, 80% of the time, the Nintendo Switch version plays great in handheld mode or when docked. There are some framerate dips when panning across larger battles and the game can hang for a few seconds when transitioning to a new round, but those were issues I could look past given its turn-based nature. Harder to ignore were hard crashes during larger battles that often occur towards the end of campaign chapters – a problem on all consoles based on early user feedback. Sometimes it was while initialising a battle map and a quick restart took me straight back to that point. Sometimes it was at the end of a large battle that I’d have to replay. More worrying were two incidents where both my recent manual saves and autosaves were corrupted, setting me back over an hour. As such, console players should hold off until a few patches have improved stability before picking this excellent indie RPG up.

Wildermyth: Console Edition was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/5.