Foretales

Foretales drops you into the boots (well, paws) of Volepain, a small-time thief who gets swept up in a much bigger story than she bargained for. A curse is unraveling the world, a family of god-like siblings called the Nymphants hold the tools that could fix or finish it, and a shadowy cult has its own plans for how this all ends. It’s a tale-spinning adventure that leans hard into choice and consequence, and the framing device, a deck of cards representing the story itself, is what makes it stand out from the usual narrative-adventure crowd.

How it plays

Instead of clicking through dialogue trees or wandering a map, you’re working through a physical spread of cards laid out like a board game. Each card might be a character, a location, an item, or an event, and playing one triggers the next beat of the story, sometimes combining with other cards on the table to unlock new outcomes. Combat shows up in card form too, playing out as turn-based skirmishes rather than the story-only encounters you might expect from an adventure game. The whole thing is built around branching choices, so decisions about who to trust, what to steal, and which of your companions to lean on actually reshape where the plot goes and how it ends. Christophe Héral’s score and narration from Travis Willingham fill in the atmosphere while you’re puzzling out your next move.

Who it’s for

If you like games that treat storytelling as a puzzle, something closer to a solo tabletop session than a traditional RPG, this is worth your attention. Fans of narrative games with real branching consequences, or anyone who enjoys deck-based mechanics layered onto a story rather than pure combat, will feel right at home. It’s less suited to players chasing fast action or open-world exploration. There’s no roaming 3D environment here, just cards, choices, and a story that reacts to how you play them, so go in expecting something cerebral and slower paced.

Is it worth grabbing?

For an adventure fan, yes, easily. The card-based structure gives it a distinct identity instead of just retreading familiar narrative-game beats, and with multiple endings on offer, there’s a real reason to replay it and see how different choices play out. It’s a low-risk way to try something a bit different from standard point-and-click or visual novel storytelling, especially since it won’t cost you anything to add to your library. Players who enjoy games they can pick apart and second-guess, wondering what would’ve happened if they’d made a different call, will get the most mileage out of it.

Quick facts

Genre: Adventure. Developer: Alkemi. Publisher: Dear Villagers. Platform: PC (Epic Games Store). Released: September 15, 2022.