Yes I found and killed the god, but it was a bloody close-run thing. Two of my fighters went down and the third, the only one left, wasn’t far off joining them. One basic slice attack did it, with only a sliver of health remaining. Glory was mine, victory against all odds.
He’s right, my other voice: I haven’t finished the game. I’ve only really just begun. Trials of Fire is designed to be played over and over, like Slay the Spire, each time gradually unlocking and understanding more. My victory rewarded me with a new hero to use next time, and I earned soul levels I don’t understand yet. Now, I pick another quest and jump back in, the world procedurally generating around me.
Trials of Fire is part deck-building, part RPG, part storybook, and you get one life to see how far you can make it. It’s the work of teeny tiny UK studio Whatboy Games, which was created a couple of years ago by former Rocksteady (Batman) duo Adam Doherty and Dax Ginn. Trials of Fire has been on Steam Early Access since May 2019, and will be released later this year on PC, with tablets and consoles (Switch included) to follow in 2021.
It works like this. You pick a team of three (you only have three at the beginning), adjust their loadouts and choose a quest to take them on. This all plays out in a big book. When you’re exploring, you are a cut-out bobbing around a scruffy map, investigating points of interest. When you get to one, the page turns and words describe what’s going on. Maybe you’ve bumped into some ratlings with human slaves. What will you do? Help set the humans free, trade with the ratlings, or walk away?