Yeah tales is basically just a party game for two people and lacks the main appeal of a competitive card game; that being the ability to build your own decks in interesting ways. By making it so you get all the decks from the beginning, and unlocking more cards as you play (that your opponents get to use too) it makes the game more accessible, but loses longevity in the process. I also see it dying off fairly quickly after launch. RN, there's not many people left testing it on the PTS, and people that wanted a card game probably don't test things on the pts and therefore are not there to play. There's likely to be a dedicated but small community that'll arise.

The problem though is the game design. It's not really accessible or new player friendly; you don't have much time to read things when you're starting out, and the main way you'll get better at the game is practice and memorization. This game is akin to chess imo; people that play for a long time will dominate the game, and people that just play it for daily rewards, and new people that are trying it out, will get wrecked by long-time players.

Anyway, I'll be playing it regularly for the rewards. I think it's ok, but would have preferred TESL.

It will depend on what the special rewards and incentives ZOS ties to playing it are.

Kelinmiriel wrote: »

I'll be playing it, and helping my guildies and friends learn the game, because if the tutorial hasn't been improved, I really don't think that's a good way to learn. It's way too confusing.

I didn't like the game at first, but I kept playing it until I got comfortable with it, and it really grew on me. I like it a lot now. I've only played a few times against players, so that'll be interesting.

Rewards on the PTS for the dailies vs. NPCs have included some nice recipes and patterns sometimes, so that was good. Unfortunately, they've also continued to include junk clutter that we've been asking to have removed, like plain white foods. We'll see how that comes out when it hits live.

Big advantage to the game: It's relatively quick. A match usually runs no more than 15-20 minutes; but can be as short as five or so when it's a fast one.

I do wish there was an option in-game for observers. It'd be fun to watch others play, if they're willing to be observed. We'll just have to use Twitch or Discord streaming for that, I guess.

Btw, my background: I've been playing a fairly wide variety of board and card games for decades, but had never tried a deck-building game of this type.

For sure the tutorial is not sufficient. I think it will be a lot of ppl playing like the poster who have experience in board games.