Talespinner News

[h2]Strategy, patience, and skill are essential to surviving the hordes of yokai within Talespinner.
[/h2]

A true storyteller knows exactly when it's their turn to share their craft, weaving legends of old and myths yet to be born into life’s long tapestry so....

We’re thrilled to announce that Talespinner has been selected for Turn-Based Thursday Fest!




#TurnBasedThursdayFest is a seven-day online festival celebrating turn-based video games.

Talespinner is a roguelike deckbuilder that has been delicately hand-drawn to resemble traditional Japanese paintings and features multiple creatures torn straight from Japanese mythology. With its strategic turn-based combat, it was a natural fit for an event like this!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1725410/Talespinner/


[h3]If you want to stay up to date on our latest news, don’t forget to wishlist Talespinner, join our Discord, and follow us on social media by clicking the buttons below 🌸[/h3]

[h2]General changes [/h2]

We have added some music, quality of life changes and new options within the shop!

• • Added new music tracks.
  
• • Added a Refresh Shop button to the shop.
  
• • New shop options have been added:
  
  • Upgrade a card
    
  • Remove a card
    
  • Add a Companion slot
    

[h2]Balance[/h2]

We have added some small changes in regards to balance!

• Channelling cards with negative status is now possible but it costs 2 HP
  
• Meditation cards can no longer be affected by negative statuses on cards.
  
• Gathering Cold narrative now adds 4 Freezing statuses instead of 5
  

Let us know if you run into any bugs or have any feedback on the demo, in our discord found below or in the Steam forums.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1725410/Talespinner/


[h3]If you want to stay up to date on our latest news, don’t forget to wishlist Talespinner, join our Discord, and follow us on social media by clicking the buttons below 🌸[/h3]

[h3]In Talespinner, every thread you weave creates a unique legend. No two journeys are the same when you forge your path, craft your myth, and become the author of your own fate.

Every time you play Talespinner is different, the hero you choose or the cards you win will be different. So we thought it was the perfect fit for the Tiny Roguelike event!

Check out our demo in the event! It runs from 31st of January to 14th February
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Talespinner is a deck-building roguelike adventure set in a captivating realm steeped in the exotic and bizarre tapestry of Japanese mythology. As the storyteller, you will guide your chosen hero through an ever-changing narrative shaped by your decisions and deck construction.


Each character has its own distinct gameplay mechanics and a powerful set of cards that can be upgraded as you play. In the demo, you’ll get to play as Gyokushin, 1 of the 3 unique characters that will feature in the final game. Whenever you start a new run, you’ll need to choose a scenario that will determine the location and the types of enemies your hero will encounter.


From there, you’ll face off against a variety of yokai, each with their own diverse set of skills. How to deal with them is up to you. Crush them in decisive combat or make them your allies through charm and cunning.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1725410/Talespinner/


[h3]If you want to stay up to date on our latest news, don’t forget to wishlist Talespinner, join our Discord, and follow us on social media by clicking the buttons below 🌸[/h3]

[h3]Talespinner is full of branching narratives, which mean you’ll encounter different biomes and bosses depending on which path you decide to take.

In our demo, we’ve included 2 different mini-bosses and 2 bosses that you can encounter depending on the path you choose, so we thought we’d take a closer look at some of them in…

A Tale of Two Bosses![/h3]



The first mini-boss you could encounter on your hero’s journey as Gyokushin is the Ronin.

Unlike many of the other enemies and bosses in Talespinner, the Ronin isn’t based on a yokai, but is instead a warrior with a deathly sharp blade that you’d do well to avoid.

In Japanese culture, a ronin was once a samurai, a caste of powerful warriors who were highly trained in the use of many weapons but were arguably most well-known for their mastery of razor-sharp swords. Samurai who did not have a lord or a master were referred to as ronin. In some cases, they may have even cut ties with his family or clan. The term itself can be roughly translated to mean “drifter” or “wandering man”, which gives a hint as to the status of such people.

According to the traditional code that samurai were meant to follow, known as the Bushido Shoshinshu, a samurai was supposed to commit ritual suicide after the death of his master. Any samurai who did not honor this code would be labelled as a ronin and suffer great shame as a result.



In Talespinner, the Ronin has a chance to inflict a status effect known as Nasty Cut on one or more of your cards. You can tell if your card has been subjected to a Nasty Cut by the large slash running diagonally across it. This renders the card totally unusable for the duration of the turn. We wanted to incorporate the ronin’s history as a samurai into his mechanics in-game, which is why he uses his skills with the blade to slice your cards!



If you make it past the Ronin, you may have the misfortune of facing off against the devious Kitsune!

In Japanese mythology, the kitsune are highly intelligent yokai that are known for their magical abilities and their distinctive fox-like appearance. What sets them apart from wild foxes, however, are the multiple tails that they are often depicted with.

According to most tales, kitsune would target wicked priests, greedy merchants, and boastful drunkards for punishment. They were portrayed as magical tricksters, who would vex their target by creating phantom sounds and sights, steal from them, or find other ways to humiliate them publicly. In other words, they were the pranksters of the yokai world!



We wanted to incorporate their playful and mischievous nature into their mechanics, which is how we ended up with the Prank status effect!

When you face off against Kitsune, there’s a chance that one or more of your cards will be “Pranked”. A Pranked card will have a bow neatly tied around it with a mocking fox face at the front. If you choose to play a Pranked card, you’ll then have to choose between one of two pranks. The choice of pranks won’t always be the same, but you can rest assured that they certainly won’t benefit you!

You could end up having to choose between strengthening your enemy or adding a negative status effect to your card, or you could have to decide whether you’d rather give your enemy a turn to dodge or add a Rotten Fish to your draw pile! This adds a layer of complexity to the fight with Kitsune, since you have to calculate any potential risk you might be taking if you want to play a Pranked card.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1725410/Talespinner/

[h3]What would you like to see in our next dev diary or yōkai tales?

Let us know in the comments!

Don’t forget to click the buttons below to join our Discord and follow us on social media for more updates 🌸[/h3]

[h3]Before you embark on your hero’s journey, it’s important to know what your hero is capable of!

That’s why we’re taking a deep dive into the first of the three playable heroes in Talespinner: Gyokushin, who is currently available to play in our demo. Each hero in Talespinner has unique cards and mechanics that lead to different playstyles, so it’s important to consider what strategy you want to follow when choosing your hero.

Gyokushin is a seasoned warrior monk with a heart of pure jade, who is able to channel the power and fury of a dragon into his moves 🐉[/h3]



Gyokushin is a slow and steady character, with plenty of defensive capability and hard-hitting attacks, but with some high cost cards that require careful planning to pull off. This makes him more suitable to those who prefer a calculated playstyle, where developing a strong defence and building up resources allows for big payoff attacks during later turns.

He has four unique mechanics: Exposing Weakness, Channelling Jade, Dragon Cards, and Fury.



As a keen-eyed monk, Gyokushin excels at spotting and exploiting an enemy’s weaknesses. Each enemy has a set number of Weak Spots. Dealing unblocked damage will reveal 1 Weak Spot. Once all of the enemy’s Weak Spots have been revealed, they become Exposed. The next attack on an Exposed enemy deals +50% damage!

Certain cards also have special effects when used on an Exposed enemy, such as Shattering Grasp, which causes the enemy to lose 2 Strength if they’re Exposed. There are even cards that allow you to reveal enemy Weak Spots much faster, such as Pulsing Frailty, which reveals all Weak Spots and exposes an enemy instantly.



As well as doing damage or providing defence, some of Gyokushin’s cards can also be channelled. This means that, instead of playing the card and spending motes, you discard the card instead and receive a certain amount of Jade. This means that, once you run out of motes, you can channel any remaining eligible cards in your hand into valuable Jade for later turns!

Gyokushin’s Dragon Cards can only be paid for using Jade, so channelling cards in the earlier turns and building up your store of Jade will allow you to have bigger, more impactful turns in the late game. Alongside being particularly powerful, there are also other cards in Gyokushin’s deck that have special synergies with Dragon Cards, such as Crushing Stomp, which deals an additional 3 damage for each Dragon Card in your deck.



Fury is another mechanic that allows Gyokushin to have powerful and impactful turns when used strategically. Certain cards will give you an amount of Fury, which will enhance any following attack. For example, if you play the card Dragon’s Wrath, you’ll get 2 Fury and your next attack will do an additional 2 damage. It’s important to remember though that Fury only lasts until the end of the turn, so you’ve got to use it or lose it!

This is where your store of Jade can become especially valuable. With a large store of Jade, you can play multiple Dragon Cards even when your motes have run out. Gather up your Jade, build up a high level of Fury in one turn, and have each attack hit for massive damage, devastating your enemies and ending the battle in a succession of crushing blows.

You can discover more of these synergies and see what you think of Gyokushin’s playstyle by trying our demo!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1725410/Talespinner/

[h3]What would you like to see in our next dev diary?

Let us know in the comments!

Don’t forget to click the buttons below to join our Discord and follow us on social media for more updates 🌸[/h3]