1. Talespinner
  2. News

Talespinner News

Choose Your Hero: Gyokushin

[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]




Check Out Our Brand New Gameplay Trailer!

[h3]We’ve taken another step along our hero’s journey…

We just released an extended gameplay trailer as part of the Winter OTK Games Expo ❄️

Check out our brand new gameplay trailer here 👇[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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. 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. 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.

We’ve got a public demo out now, where you can play as Gyokushin, 1 of the 3 unique characters who will feature in the final game. We’d love for you to try it out and give us your feedback by leaving a review, letting us know in the Steam Forums, or following the link at the bottom of this announcement to join our Discord.

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]




We've Added More Languages to Our Demo!

[h3]How will you tell your tale?

Now you'll have even more options, because we've added 7 new languages to our demo![/h3]

Alongside English, our demo has now been localized into:
  • French
  • German
  • Spanish - Spain
  • Russian
  • Japanese
  • Chinese (Simplified)
  • Portuguese - Brazil


We've also added the following changes to enemies:
  • In the Tanuki fight, the Sake they give you is now removed at the end of the battle.
  • Daitengu now Enlightens after playing 4 Skills instead of 6.


In terms of card statuses, Envenomed status damage increased to 2 (up from 1). It is now removed after being played, instead of transferring to another card.

We've also made the following changes to the Prank status effect:
  • All enemies now gain 1 Dodge (previously it was 2).
  • All enemies now gain +3 Strength (previously it was 4).
  • Now applies Muddy to 2 random cards (previously it was “Lose 10 HP”).
  • Exhaust 2 random cards in hand (previously it was “Exhaust all cards in hand”)
  • Add Rotten Fish on top of Draw Pile (no changes)
  • Add Pranked to 2 random cards. (no changes)


And finally we've balanced the following cards:
  • Rotten Fish card cost reduced to 1 (down from 2) and is now removed at the end of the battle.
  • Sad Memories cost reduced to 3 (down from 4).
  • Power-type cards now grant 2 Jade when channelled (down from 3).
  • Song of Dragon now Exhausts when played.
  • Double Heartbeats cost reduced to 5/4 (was 7/6).
  • Death Between Heartbeats is now a Dragon card with cost 6. It's effect is to Deal 30/40 Damage.
  • Fists Follow Fury's damage has been changed to 7/7 (it was 10/10) and its Fury has been changed to 3/5 (it was 3/6).


We have also resolved the issue with the demo launching on Steam Deck, so you can now play it on your Steam Deck without any issues!

Thank you so much to all of the players who have taken time to give feedback on our demo! If you have any more feedback you'd like to give, we'd really appreciate it if you could leave our demo a review, let us know in the Steam Forums, or tell us on Discord.

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]




Talespinner will be in the Winter OTK Games Expo

[h3]The leaves may have begun to wither and life is going into hibernation, but we’ve still got one exciting update to share before winter is in full swing ❄️

We’ll be premiering a brand new trailer for Talespinner as part of the Winter OTK Games Expo![/h3]



[h3]To catch the trailer as it goes live, you’ll need to tune in to the OTK Games Expo Twitch channel or YouTube channel as soon as the showcase starts at 15:00 ET (12:00 PT, 20:00 GMT) on Saturday November 22nd![/h3]

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]






Our Demo is OUT NOW!

[h3]Every great tale needs a beginning…

And this one is ours![/h3]

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve released our first public demo for Talespinner 🌸

We’d love for you to try it out and give us your feedback by leaving a review, letting us know in the Steam Forums, or following the link at the bottom of this announcement to join our Discord.

If you want to get a sneak peek at what is waiting for you in our demo, you can check out our latest features trailer, which we revealed as part of the Galaxies Autumn Showcase 👇

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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.

We’ll be gathering feedback and bug reports on our demo from reviews, our Steam Forum, and our Discord, so we’d really appreciate it if you could share your thoughts with us!

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]