Lands of Galzyr Game Review

 I've had my eye on Lands of Galzyr for a long time. Basically, it's an advanced book-game like Sleeping Gods and Tales of the Arabian Nights. You just don't need to flip through the pages of a thick volume here - one click in the online application is enough for the text to appear on the screen. The gameplay is very similar: you move around the map and immerse yourself in various stories.

 Many other story-driven games can't decide which is more important to them: gameplay or story. Lands of Galzyr stands out in this regard because it focuses entirely on story, strongly rejecting many board game elements.

 There are no complex combat mechanics here.

 There is no possibility to create various characters.

 There are no complex combinations, no complex rules.

 From a logical point of view, it sounds terrible, but in practice it turns out to be a very easy to lay out and assemble board with a living world full of exciting adventures, from which I cannot tear myself away.

 The absence of complex mechanics and the application perfectly integrated into the game removes almost all obstacles between you and the story being told. The closest analog to Lands of Galzyr is the game books, but Lands of Galzyr has more freedom of action.

 A whole world opens up for you to explore.

THE WORLD OF GALZIR

 The gameplay is extremely simple: you move your character (an anthropomorphic animal) to a couple of cells and then read a few paragraphs of text describing what adventure your character got into. Periodically, you need to pass checks on the dice. Here, in fact, are all the main mechanics.

 But the strength of Lands of Galzyr (as in the previous game from Snowdale Design - Dawn of the Peacemakers) is a well-developed setting and an exciting narrative that makes you get attached to the fictional world and keep playing again and again. It is very interesting to read here.

 Immersion in the story is also facilitated by the application, which removes the typical for similar games from the need to tediously flip pages until you find the desired paragraph. Here, nothing distracts you from the story.

 The Lands of Galzyr setting is very elaborate, since this is not the first game about what is happening in the world of Daimyria; there were others before her, starting with Dale of Merchants, one of the best deckbuilders in the world.

 As in other Daimyria games, here each species of animal has its own character and distinctive features; this is evident in every character you meet in Lands of Galzyr. Not only do you help them, but you also unwittingly become attached to them.

QUEST SYSTEM

 Although Daimyria is open world, the presence of quest mechanics makes it steep like the characters in Darling I Shrunk the Children. You always have a quest or an indication of where to go. On the one hand, you won't have to wander around aimlessly. On the other hand, it prevents you from freely exploring the world and seeing all its sights. Which is disappointing considering how big the setting is here.

 However, apart from this point, I can name only one drawback of Lands of Galzyr: weak character development. The fact is that it has a leveling cap that you reach pretty early in the game. After that, you continue to pump, but you almost never exceed the ceiling. So, while the adventures themselves are amazing, your character usually doesn't change at all after them. Sure, Lands of Galzyr emphasizes an awesome story, but I still would have liked to see more character development.

THE WORLD IS CHANGING

 As a reward for completed quests, you receive various rewards depending on its result. Some of the rewards are new quests that are placed at the bottom of the quest deck. After a few games these quests will hit the mountain and you can take them. So from game to game the world around you changes a little under the influence of the decisions you make and the dice you roll.

 It is also worth noting the mechanics of time - days and months. Each game comes in a new month, and each game round is a new day of the week. I'm not sure yet if this affects the story from the app in any way, but it adds a sense of time passing, which is atmospheric.

 In general, Lands of Galzyr is a beautiful board of its kind, which took the risk to bet purely on a great plot and did not lose. Most likely, its simple rules and slick gameplay will attract you, as it did me, and you will not be able to tear yourself away from the adventures of the inhabitants of Galzir.