Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall is a fantasy tabletop adventure published by Incredible Dream Studios. It’s a mid-weight game with deckbuilding, unique heroes, and a fully cooperative campaign that includes over two dozen scenarios.
In Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall, players will aid the city of Din’Lux and adventure beyond, into the world of Atios. Din’Lux has a Kinfire Lighthouse that protects citizens from Starless Nights and the dangers they bring.
You’ll upgrade your hero’s deck, make impactful choices and perform skill checks during your adventure, and battle on unique minimaps. Between scenarios, there are many NPCs to meet, as well as secret items and side quests to unlock.
Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall released earlier this year. For a brief gameplay breakdown and components review, you can watch the original Kickstarter trailer from Incredible Dream Studios:
At first glance, Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall might resemble every other conventional RPG. The premise itself is hardly revolutionary, and there are traditional roles and familiar imagery. But the gameplay, characterization, and tone do transcend that and subvert expectations.
To begin with, Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall is one of the most accessible games I’ve ever played, in any genre or medium. It condenses many different mechanics from classic RPGs into something that is easily digestible and purely fun.
As a result, this game serves as the perfect bridge between lightweight and heavyweight games.
But this does bring me to my only gripe about the game. The rules are separated into multiple books.
While this makes it effortless to pick up the game, it’s harder to reference the rules later on. They even ask that you skip certain rules and return later, but there are no reminders about when to do that.
So, it can be annoying to overlook something and shuffle through different books in search of the rule you need.
Other than that, Kinfire Chronicles’ first outing thoroughly impressed me. The game flow is intuitive, smooth, and exciting.
Because everything is so easy to understand, the game moves swiftly without losing strategic depth. The tidy structure of adventuring, battling, and exploring also has an ideal pace.
Discovering new minimaps is always a thrill, and choosing different paths can affect both the story and your deckbuilding opportunities.
The characters and dialogue also sparkle with creativity. Each hero and NPC has their own personality. Heroes even have unique backstories that you’ll gradually uncover throughout the game.
The playful sense of humor is very entertaining, and often present in the cards’ flavor text. The writers are certain to charm you. This plays a large role in distinguishing Kinfire Chronicles from similar games.
But the story and action consistently evolve, and you’ll have a rewarding sense of cooperation. Players genuinely need each other, and will frequently boost each other’s actions. You can also play to each hero’s strengths during skill checks and battles.
Final Thoughts
Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall features a sprawling and engaging story full of humor, and unusually friendly gameplay. It’s easy to follow, deeply cooperative, and moves quickly. It offers extensive content and depth without overwhelming you.
This is currently my favorite tabletop game of all time, and I don’t say that lightly. So, I am delighted to end the year with LBR’s very first perfect score!
Score: 10/10
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