Card-Based Knights in Tight Spaces - fantasy followup to Fights in Tight Spaces

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2315400/view/4103415032711044713

Build your deck and get medieval with Knights in Tight Spaces!
From the creators of Fights in Tight Spaces

We are excited to introduce Knights in Tight Spaces: A tactical deck-building fighting game from Ground Shatter, the creators of 2021’s highly-acclaimed Fights in Tight Spaces. It is a standalone title that sends us back to medieval times, introduces whole new ways to play, and all while maintaining the same stylish look-and-feel and thrilling animated fight sequences as the original.

We revealed our announcement trailer during the
Future Games Show Expansion Pack showcase,
and
we will be part of the Deckbuilders Fest next week
with our very first online demo.

Knights in Tight Spaces' battles have a striking and stylish appearance, with strong action-movie visual effects and animations. Fight your way through challenging scenarios packed with enemies, while you vibe with the elegant soundtrack.

Winning is not just a matter of playing your best hand, but also learning how to control the environment. You’ll have to position your characters carefully around enemies and obstacles, making sure that you keep your tactical advantage. Don’t lose sight of your pool of momentum and combo points to release powerful special moves!

Recruit new characters and assemble your party as you travel and reveal new areas in the procedural map, unveiling the mystery of the secret society that has hired you. Discover team-up abilities and experiment with deck combinations. But remember, always be careful with who you choose and who you reject in your team! Friend or foe, sometimes they are just two sides of the same coin…

With 300 cards, different classes and gear to equip, and the upgrading system, Knights in Tight Spaces offers you countless hours of deckbuilding fun, whether you are an experienced turn-based tactician or new to the genre.

Wishlist now and follow our social media channels to be up to date with all the news!

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[spectre]

Are you sure it's not an rpg? There's character classes and gear equips.

Funny to see them reuse all the animations from FITS, though hard to blame them, they did an excellent work there.
I also actually really like the art direction on this. Looks stylish and actually quite readable.

My biggest concern is how they're going to handle three characters (probably) drawing all from the same deck
and still maintaining that feeling of fluid mobility they managed to achieve earlier.

Well, I'm a big fan of the FITS formula, so it's great to see it expanded.

 

[Lemming42]

Fuck yes, FITS was one of the best deck builders of the past few years. Very heavy on the RNG but I like it that way.

EDIT: Trying the demo now and it's definitely not just a straight-up FITS clone. The party and weapon aspects are already a whole new realm of shit to get into. Seems very interesting.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[spectre]

Crap, totally missed that there's a demo out. Downloadan!

 

[spectre]

I played the demo. Basic concepts are pretty much identical to FITS. You get a tutorial with a single string of fights leading to the boss.
There are two characters (decks, fighting styles) to choose from, a Brawler and a Fighter,
and you pick two additional guys along the way (ranger and mage). Especially the brawler moveset is directly lifted from the earlier games
with cards like grapple or knockdown + stomp combo performing pretty much the same.

So, what's new? Obviously the whole "party" mechanic - you pick up new characters along the way, and they come with a small selection of new cards.
More importantly, you will need to position them on the battlefield and when you attack an enemy adjacent to them, they will get a free strike in.
The card pool is shared, and you can play different cards on each char depending on their skills and loadout - pretty much everyone can use the move card
and basic attacks such as push, bowshots will be cast exclusively from the ranger and fireballs need the "attuned" trait which
can be transferred by the mage or gained from gear.

The long and short of it is that playing solo (seems possible, I had the option to decline all additional chars) is really close to the original FITS,
duo felt somewhat novel, but with three characters, the result felt a bit chaotic as my hand kept getting swamped with shit cards that didn't
click together, but then the third character did some heavy lifting with their opportunity attack. I wasn't 100% happy about this implementation,
but it still turned out surprisingly fresh and decent.

Could be the starting pool of cards with few options to upgrade, but what was missing some flexibility - more 0 cost cards, more options for draw manipulation
(the game still has some built-in mechanics, the draw isn't random, but it is tweaked that you will get a usable card for each char).
So what's my grudge against this system exactly? E.g. the brawler deck comes with a built in combo of two cards: leg sweep and stomp,
which lets you drop a guy and curbstomp while on the ground, but needs the two cards to be drawn on the same turn. It was difficult enough
to pull this off with a solo char, but with three it's nearly impossible and rather than follow any sort of consistent strategy, I would
basically play what the rng gave me.
It's not that big of a deal and the game has the mechanical tools, I'm only saying the devs will need a bit of diddling
to get it to a good place.

The setting is medieval this time, rather than the goofy, special agent spoof thing with everything in it we had in FITS.
Perhaps that's for the better, it does feel more consistent (also in art style) this time. Unfortunately, they also decided
to seriously try their hand at writing some kind of a story. To those unfamiliar with FITS, that story was more of an excuse,
so don't expect high literature here. Best not expect any kind of literature tbh.

I may sound overly critical here, the demo is obviously early, but seems to be built on pretty solid fundamentals.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Also played the Demo and it's pretty decent. The problem is the AI seems to be too exploitable and doesn't really work when they try to fight 3 characters on the board. FITS works due to simplcity of the AI not really mattering because the point is just to swarm you. With 3 characters on the board there are a lot of options as a player (although as noted above it sometimes fuck with your draw).

 

[spectre]

I completely forgot to check what happens if a character dies. Is it permadeath and are you stuck with a (bigger or smaller) pile of dead cards?
I would really have to go out of my way to test it cause demo is easy (I was playing on the "intended" difficulty).
Perhaps it's all those FITS hours showing, but I didn't really feel like I needed to try as hard.
One character is ranged so naturally will stay out of trouble and you get plenty of hand fixing to draw movement cards, so beating the demo without taking damage isn't that hard.
Of course, this will depend on the difficulty setting, following the FITS formula, you will get varying degrees of hand assistance,
from guaranteed movement and action draws for all characters, through minor (just a free movement card if you drew none) to no draw fixing at all.
The latter is actually worse than you think, because at the end of the day, this leaves a lot at the mercy of RNG.
You usually can't afford to take damage in FITS, and the best way is getting out of the way with movement cards.

Did a second playthrough, this time with the warrior character and only teaming up with the wizard (who got a different set of spells this time
a rather useless combo of channel, heal and debuff - it's either randomized, or depends on the initial deck).
Went rather well, the demo is not terribly challenging. The magic cards weren't of much use (the healing is a one-off and a very minor effect), they
only clogged up the draws, but the main character enjoyed the extra action point you apparently get from the extra party member (I was stuck at 3 when solo),
because the warrior deck has a strong 2AP attack an AOE and another attack which eats up all the AP for damage.
The wizard was mostly there to deal opportunity attacks, so wasn't entirely useless. I think the way they designed it sorta balances itself,
but imo the starter deck design is weaker than FITS.

I agree with InD_ImaginE that AI simplicity starts becoming an issue. FITS works as an ad hoc generated puzzle which punishes
not thinking a bunch of moves ahead by dealing massive damage (which will eventually cost you the run). I didn't get that feeling here,
and 5 vs. 3 fights don't exactly have the same ring to them like 5v1.
Though I fully expect the devs to throw in a bunch of borderline unfair difficulty spikes down the line.

Just to add to the previous stuffies, the game also has an equipment system, but I didn't really get to play with it much because there are
very limited spots to do so in the short campaign, and gold is another limiting factor as the gear gets expensive.

I had a sad panda moment when I saw quite a few cards couldn't be upgraded, but otherwise the deck upgrade/thinning process follows the same logic as in FITS,
although upgrading two cards has turned them really OP.

So, from what I've seen, you can get armors that soak up damage at the expense of mobility - could be a way to get a counterattack/riposte build going
(which sucked in FITS, perhaps they've overcorrected?), trinkets which add character traits (turning a non-caster into a caster) and
weapons which effect which attacks a character can use, draw guaranteed attack cards each turn and add extra damage and effects (like poison or armor piercing).
Overall, lots of potential for customization and a definite improvement on the FITS formula, we'll see where they'll take it, because it's pretty barebones in the demo.

I really enjoy the music and the new aesthetics, unfortunately it has the side effect of making the interface less readable.
Perhaps I need a readjustment period from FITS, because I kept misreading the icons, but some info is genuinely awkward to find.

EDIT: added a few things.

 

[Harthwain]

I would really have to go out of my way to test it cause demo is easy (I was playing on the "intended" difficulty).

The highest difficulty makes it tough when you get no mobility cards to bypass attacks. Or when all enemies close in on you right before your turn.

 

[spectre]

The highest difficulty makes it tough when you get no mobility cards to bypass attacks. Or when all enemies close in on you right before your turn.

Well, it's the first campaign, it doesn't really need to get that tough.
It's the same thing as in FITS. Personally, I don't think the game was even intended to be played like this because it's less about being challenging than just opening up another way for the RNG to fuck you over
(and there's already plenty). It is possible that they'll have gear options to let you fudge the mobility draws, and that would change my opinion about this. Would be a cool way to make it actually a viable setting.

 

[Harthwain]

(and there's already plenty). It is possible that they'll have gear options to let you fudge the mobility draws, and that would change my opinion about this. Would be a cool way to make it actually a viable setting.

I found the lack of mobility cards encouraging me to buy more mobility-related cards in shops (and shield-related cards as well). But I need to try how effective this is (so far I got halfway into the campaign on the hardest difficulty).

Also played the Demo and it's pretty decent. The problem is the AI seems to be too exploitable and doesn't really work when they try to fight 3 characters on the board. FITS works due to simplcity of the AI not really mattering because the point is just to swarm you. With 3 characters on the board there are a lot of options as a player (although as noted above it sometimes fuck with your draw).

The big downside of having more than a single character is that there is more potential for them to be attacked and having less options to do something about it. With a single character it is easier to move around (provided you have appropriate cards for that). Then again, having more than a single character also means being able to deal more damage. All in all it is interesting, and I like trying to combo character's attacks in some way.

 

[spectre]

I found the lack of mobility cards encouraging me to buy more mobility-related cards in shops (and shield-related cards as well). But I need to try how effective this is (so far I got halfway into the campaign on the hardest difficulty).

Yeah, for hardest difficulty in FITS you basically needed to run an even split of mobility and non-mobility. I imagine the same logic will apply here.
It worked most of the time, but sometimes the rng just rngs you and you'll get all kinds of wrong cards for the occasion.
Unfortunately, this approach also often leads to turns where you can do fuck all, just move out of the way, which doesn't feel like the most inspired way to play this game.

I need to revisit the demo and see if the deck draft mode is working. For what little content it has, it sure is growing on me and actually has surprising replayability.
EDIT: Of course, draft isn't working. Shamefur dispray.

Played the demo for the last time, I think. Finished with solo brawler on Hardy and it was basically like playing FITS again but in a medieval setting.
I'm actually pretty glad they've done away with increasing trader cost (for removing cards, upgrading and buying) after you do anything at the vendor.
Overall, my biggest complaint thus far is that the information is sometimes very difficult to read on screen.

At one point you'll get a choice to accept a sidequest, it's pretty easy to miss, but it spawns two additional missions on the side of the map
(I've actually managed to not see it on the first play, I think they've done a silent hotfix to the map view) one is fighting skeletons, the other pits you against knights.
The skeletons seem a bit easier.

I also noticed that the characters have a paper doll now, all equips are visible. Nice. You still need to go to the character screen and put shit on manually.
Look out for card synergies, I managed to fuck up half of my brawler deck by equipping a dagger, turns out you can't, among others, grapple with it.
Once you're in combat, it's not possible to go back and swap it out and it nearly cost me a run.

If you play with Dodge, bear in mind it doesn't prevent the 4 bonk damage you get when a guy is pushed into your square.
Also, perhaps I caught a bug, but unlike FITS the stun from throat punch doesn't prevent counter attacks, and that one did actually cost me a run.

 

[Harthwain]

OK, I won on the highest difficulty on my third try. Secret to my success?

Spoiler

1) Solo Brawler.
2) Take mobility- and push-related cards whenever you can.
3) ???
4) Profit.

I defeated the final boss (crazy monk capable of wielding magic) on my first turn by pushing him out the door. 120 HP gone. Just like that. The rest was somewhat similar, sometimes I managed to get off down+facestomp combo or some other kind of damage, but most of that was done via pushing enemies out of bonds. Having a lot of mobility helped a lot to position myself AND to avoid incoming damage.

By contrast, having more characters means less opportunities to avoid damage or get situationally useful cards, so it is bound to be much harder to beat enemies with a team than it is solo. Which is very counter-intuitive. I feel like teams should be guaranteed to gain cards that help the team, no matter what difficulty.

 

[spectre]

Yep, pushing guys out is a legit tactic (shame they don't seem to have it properly animated yet). Also good fun to drop all those heavily armored knights.
You could do this in at least one boss fight in FITS to end it quickly, it also trivialized the boxing ring random encounter.
It's pretty much guaranteed the devs will add a bunch of "fuck you, cannot be pushed" enemies at some point.

I had a similar impression, solo brawler is just good enough on xir's own, while the knight might enjoy the +1AP buff.
Still, it's a good change of pace, running with a party and I think it may balance itself better over a course of a longer run (this campaign is pretty short, basically an equivalent of FIT's introductory chapter)
you will get more opportunities to trash those unwanted cards as well as afford gear for more than one guy.
I've also seen at least one card buffing opportunity attacks, so it may end up being a rewarding build.