THE WIND AND WILTING BLOSSOM
After Ring of Pain, and also being of roguelike structure, The Wind and Wilting Blossom’s difficulty settings were a welcome change. I started on easy. It reminds me of other games; Heroes of Might and Magic, Curious Expedition, 80 Days, Ticket to Earth, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, FTL and so on. With a rich story, gentle branching, turn-based combat and weighty decision-making, it is all of what I wanted to play in one, neat package. It’s set as an alternate Japanese history and it is like playing inside of a beautifully illustrated storybook.
You traverse maps to their exits, but can’t visit every location, due to the wave of evil magic on your tail. Food is consumed with every move and hunger will slow you down, trigger battles and other events. Additional resources, like coins and ki, must be carefully managed in order to ensure you have the strongest army, weaponry and flexibility, at all times. New units, food, healing and more can be won during quests and random encounters, or purchased from shops, as marked on your map. Often, navigating to a shop will take you dangerously off course.
The battlefield is not as similar to HOMM as it may look from screenshots. Firstly, each unit can move and attack in the same turn. Given that treasure and dropped coins won’t persist beyond defeating the last enemy, collecting can be
as valid an option as attack. Also, as units don’t heal after battles, you may want to protect the damaged, while the stronger units fight, hoping to heal at an inn, or by other means, later. Weather effects, which you can see in advance, on the map, also complicate the battlefield with lightning strikes, earthquakes and more.
There’s lots of variety to combat. An enemy will have to deplete your armour before they can hit you, unless they have a bleeding attack. A large opponent may be able to knock you back. There’s a fascinating part-woman, partflaming wheel, who explodes on death, leaving fire on hexes. Archers are mobile, so rushing them isn’t always a great option. By the end game sequence, I always felt weak, outnumbered and at the mercy of luck. Apart from the occasional mistake caused by aspects of the UI being obscured, I enjoyed it being necessary to “play perfectly.”
I’m a firm believer in the idea that games don’t have to be explicitly innovative to be worth playing. The Wind and The Wilting Blossom is more an amalgamation of ideas, for those who want thoughtfully crafted, turn-based strategy and roguelike experiences, with an engaging story and choices to make. In comparison to Ring of Pain, many aspects of play do seem to be somewhat more based on luck, which can be both exciting and frustrating. I’d suggest learning to play on the easier difficulties, so that you can make informed decisions when it counts.