Forgotten Circles - Is it for you?
Introduction
I'm going to keep this as brief as I possibly can. 'Forgotten Circles' has divided opinion. I've seen reviews where people have said it 'killed their enthusiasm for Gloomhaven' and i've seen reviews where people have said it 'takes Gloomhaven to the next level'.
I can't imagine it's straight-forward for someone reading these reviews to really know whether it is something that they will enjoy. I hope, in some way, that this 'review' will help, in some small way, with that.
I'm not going to describe the game itself in any detail at all. You can get that elsewhere. I'm going to try to delve a bit more into the questions of what the game 'is' and who it is for.
Side-note
Please also note that there is a new version of 'Forgotten Circles' coming out that should a) make the Diviner easier to play, and b) make the scenario book flipping more easily managed. In the main, however, I think the points in this review will stand true as much in the new version as the old.
Origins
First, a brief history lesson. 'Forgotten Circles' was developed around the time that only 1st ed. and 2nd ed. Gloomhaven owners would have had any real chance of completing the campaign. At the time that <PERSON> was putting together 'Forgotten Circles', he was very active on this forum, asking and responding to thoughts on how this new 'expansion' could build on Gloomhaven. At that time, the most vocal feedback he was receiving from people who had completed Gloomhaven were comments like:
'Gloomhaven gets too easy by the time you complete the campaign.'
'We play at Difficulty Level +3 and there's still no challenge.'
'Can the expansion provide the challenge at high levels that Gloomhaven does not?'
People also requested:
1) Hidden information. 885
People didn't want to be able to see the whole scenario on one page when setting up the scenario.
2) Accepting that there couldn't reasonably be different progressions depending on whether a scenario is passed or failed, people wanted different scenario endings depending on what they did.
3) Trying to be 'spoiler-free', people wanted puzzles to improve in certain aspects upon how they were delivered in Gloomhaven.
<PERSON> took all of this on board. Whether or not you think he should have listened to a very vocal minority here is one question, but he actively sought and responded to the wants of the community.
What Forgotten Circles is NOT
To my mind, the biggest problem 'Forgotten Circles' has had is that it is not 'what people expected' from an expansion. Indeed, to my mind there are some significant differences between Gloomhaven and Forgotten Circles that make it less of an 'expansion' than a 'spin-off'.
Importantly, Forgotten Circles is not a continuation of 'your Gloomhaven story'. Your party, that you completed the base-game with, is now joining in with <PERSON>'s story. 'Forgotten Circles' is all about the Diviner and if you object to her taking centre-stage ahead of your characters, then you need to be aware of this from the out-set.
Party-Flexibility
Totally in contrast to the flexible party-development of Gloomhaven, in Forgotten Circles, one of you will control the Diviner. There's no choice in this. The Diviner will participate in every campaign-scenario. She is the central figure and one of you will play her throughout. Many of the scenarios and much of the text will have this fundamentally recognised in the design and the narrative-develoment and, at times, you may feel that the story only really cares about her and the rest of your party are bit-players in the saga. There could be things in scenarios that only the Diviner can do and there could be things that she has to do in order to complete the scenario. Whether you see this as being ham-strung into one way of playing or whether you see it as fulfilling a niche that no-one else can do are really two sides of the same coin.
The <PERSON>
This 'mandatory' character you have to play is not an easy class to play. The skill ceiling is high and the variety of tools and their uses that she brings to a scenario are not obvious in their application. They take work to be effective and, if you've been stomping Gloomhaven with one of the many over-powered classes, it's going to bring you back to earth to find a class that, frankly, is more of a challenge to play. 884