The Gloomhaven-like Sunderfolk certainly feels geared toward community nights. The app that acts as a controller is free and available on every device. It’s as easy to stream a version for sessions over distances as it is to gather a group of people at a home for a campaign. All of its characters can fill niches and work well together on quests. Of course, this does mean that you really do need to get the whole band together for a proper party.
Arden is a peaceful town filled with various anthropomorphic animals living together. The brightstone, a fixture of the community, helps with its protection, and each player is one of six heroes who helps protect the people living there with various skills. This is a very real danger, given the opposing shadowstone can corrupt unprotected individuals. After an unusual assault by orcs that involved parts of town being destroyed and the brightstone assaulted, it’s up to the crew of four to rally, then take on missions to help deal with these new threats.
Sunderfolk is a turn-based tactical game like Gloomhaven, as I mentioned before. Each of the six classes in the game fills a specific role, and these can be combined to help achieve goals. For my campaign, I controlled an Arcanist crow that could move themselves and others around the board to more quickly reach or complete objectives and cast spells. My Pyromancer could burn places on the grid, then walk on that to power themselves up for attacks or hope enemies would walk there and take damage. My ally controlled the tank-y Berserker polar bear, who would draw ire, deal melee damage, and push people (allies and enemies alike) around. Our crew was rounded out by the deer Ranger archer, who could half enemies in tracks or help speed up our own movement. Weapons and items could affect their stats, we could pick up to three skills to equip, and decks of cards could positively or negatively affect actions from those skills.
Each mission can feature varying objectives, and additional ones can come up as your group achieves goals. For example, one early case involves removing barrel bombs from a bridge. Another involves rescuing two merchants who got attacked outside of town by first reaching them, then protecting them as they make their way back to Arden’s gates. So success doesn’t always stem from “killing everything.” There can even be puzzle elements to these quests, with labels applied ahead of taking them so you can pick the types you like. One early example is reaching and rescuing a kidnapped bug, then interacting with it during the mission to ensure it runs to the exit of a cave. All allies act on their turn, with each person handling movement in the app on their phone and selecting actions and items, and enemies or NPCs take turns after that.
The Sunderfolk app works quite well! I did find actually moving characters a little finicky, since you’re drawing lines in a blank space on the screen. It works, but you might find you’ll run out of space quickly if you’re on a phone and not a tablet. Information is clearly organized, and it’s very easy to parse your actions and cards in decks to make informed decisions about your build. Likewise, since there are no timers of any kind, it is very easy to coordinate with fellow players to decide on how to approach each turn, and there’s even a way to bring up a cursor on the communal map and screen to more precisely point out possible moves, enemies to target, or places to investigate.
In between missions and major story segments, Sunderfolk gives players time to interact with the townsfolk they protect. Every character can engage in three conversations during these downtime periods, as well as manage their own equipment, get new cards, swap items with other campaign characters at the post office, and rebuild facilities in town. Each playable has one character they’re tied to via friendship or relation. That person, and all others, have a relationship level. As it grows, you can get gifts. (Those gift conversations don’t use up one of your three conversations per rest period.) These discussions also unlock supplemental missions, which can help provide quests to take to advance time until the next story task starts.
The most important observation gleaned from Sunderfolk sessions is this is a game absolutely made for a full group of four. It’s fine with two people! Someone playing alone could probably enjoy it just fine. But with the time the town socializing segments take and the nature of the experience, I feel like it you don’t get the full measure of it unless there’s a full crew.
I really enjoyed playing Sunderfolk, and I would love to go through a second time with a larger group and different characters. Though honestly, I’d also be equally happy to go again with the same avatar (I love my Pyromancer) and make different choices. It’s a lot of fun, and the nature of its additional objectives, varying missions between the campaign quests, and possible party compositions means it is the type of title that could be worth replaying with different folks or on varying difficulties. Sunderfolk works quite well and I’d recommend a it for a series of game nights.
Sunderfolk is available on the Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, and the controller app is available on Android and Apple iOS devices.
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Sunderfolk
Sunderfolk is a shared turn-based tactical RPG adventure where your phone becomes the controller. Inspired by gathering around a table with friends, it is built with a couch co-op experience in mind. Up to four players adventure across the magical and dangerous Sunderlands. PC version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes.
Sunderfolk works quite well and I’d recommend a it for a series of game nights. Just make sure you bring a full party.