Mike Morhaime’s Dreamhaven has a potential cozy hit on its hands with Sunderfolk, the cutest freaking Tactical RPG I have ever seen

According to the official Sunderfolk site, the upcoming first outing from former Blizzard head honcho Mike Morhaime‘s Dreamhaven Studios  is intended to be, “a turn-based tactical RPG adventure for one to four players that’s tailored for a deeply engaging couch co-op experience.” However, it also reminds me a lot of games like Wildermyth and TTRPGs like Pugmire, Wanderhome, or even the tabletop RPG adaptation of the board game ROOT that Magpie Games is working on.

Another way to describe it would be “What if X-Com and Redwall had a baby and you could play it with your phone as the controller while sitting on your couch?” Looking at the various articles and  gameplay trailers for the game, it seems to have mashed the more hardcore gameplay tactical RPGs like Expeditions: Rome or the aforementioned XCOM series with the lighthearted elements of games frequently described as “cozy,” like Bear and Breakfast or Stardew Valley, while bringing in the feel of tabletop RPG gameplay in the mix. The game uses a tactical card system that players of Marvel’s recent Midnight Sons might find familiar, while they’re at it.

To be sure, this is a role playing game and it feels like one, complete with quests where your monster slaying adventuring party has to go find someone’s beetle.

Getting cozy and fighting evil

To my eyes this is an inspired combination. Stardew already does this to some degree — many people seem to have not noticed just how much of an RPG that game can be, with monsters and dungeons and magic weapons galore if you want to look for them. But having a game that takes the cute animal aesthetic of Bear and Breakfast or even Pokemon and plays it straight instead of going for a tongue in cheek parody like PalWorld or a subversion like Cult of the Lamb provides Sunderfolk with the potential to be a real bridge game between Action RPGs like Diablo or Grim Dawn, tactical RPGs, and full on CRPG games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

By making this a tactical role playing game, the couch co-op aspirations of the game are served, because tactical RPGs are generally more focused on the group and group play elements. While games like Mass Effect and Baldur’s Gate 3 certainly have large parties full of interesting characters, they’re still mostly about the individual character you’re playing. But Sunderfolk is about a whole group — an adventuring party — and that’s why tactical RPG is probably the perfect format for it.

I don’t think it’s an accident that not only is Sunderfolk coming out with a hex grid and characters that look like miniatures, but it’s not even the only video game doing that currently in production.  However, while I love Pathfinder 2e, I have to admit that Sunderfolk has charmed me so far with its cute animal protagonists, full party of adventurers with familiar classes like Ranger, Berserker, Bard, Arcanist, Pyromancer, and Rogue just keep me smiling. And each class has a specific animal that embodies it — so we get the bespectacled Raven Arcanist or the giant Polar Bear Berserker, which means your silhouette won’t ever get confusing for you.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to get to play a Badger or Wolverine in this game so, so very badly. But I also understand the elegance of making the classes a specific animal from the jump, and it keeps the game from being overly complex. Overwhelming complexity is the biggest thing keeping tactical RPGs out of the general gaming sphere, and it’s why some of the biggest sellers are games like Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.

Can couch co-op be a force for good? Sunderfolk seems to hope so.

Indeed, Sunderfolk reminds me quite a bit of that game, not so much in its mechanics or gameplay or even appearance, but because it also takes the idea of a tactical RPG and loosens up with it, bringing in cute characters and bright, colorful vistas that allow for heroic fantasy without the grimdark. The gameplay is interesting as well — the idea of making a game like this feels like it’s trying to put people who currently play games like Mario Party or Overcooked and get them to play a cooperative game for once instead of the brutal, desolate hellscape of Mario Party.

Not the game itself. That’s pretty colorful and fun. But man, watch four people stab each other in the back for an entire game of Gang Beasts, Mario Party, Overcooked, or Among Us and you’ll see the hideous, squalid soul of humanity exposed in far greater starkness and horror than any Diablo game ever produced. So if Sunderfolk can get a group of couch gamers together and get them working together to beat monsters and save the magical, Redwall-meets-Watership Down world of Arden, then the more power to them.

The game currently has an open beta looking for folks to sign up, and I recommend you give it a shot and see if you can get an invite. I’m a complete sucker for violent, gory, grimdark games, but even I have to admit that sometimes I just want to go to Whimsyshire, or in this case, Arden. I want to play a Raven wearing glasses throwing spells around. I want to experience the fun, card-based tactical TTRPG mechanics of Sunderfolk for myself. And until it comes out, the beta will have to do.