Why I sold… Heroes of Tenefyr

I was – and still am – into deckbuilding. I love Friday; it’s the first true solo game I bought! When Heroes of Tenefyr came along, I was intrigued; it combined Friday‘s push-your-luck with a better sense of deckbuilding. Plus the game was made and published by a fellow countryman! What has happened that caused me to sell this game? Read along as I tell you about my reasoning to sell… Heroes of Tenefyr.

What I said about Heroes of Tenefyr

Here’s what I had to say about this game in the conclusion of my initial review:

For me, Heroes of Tenefyr sits in an unfortunate spot. It has more content and setup time than Friday, yet the gameplay is roughly the same (and possible even quicker). The setup-playtime ratio feels off. Heroes of Tenefyr wants to be both a dungeon crawl and deckbuilder but doesn’t truly feel like either one. If I want to play with the push-your-luck deckbuilding mechanic, Heroes of Tenefyr loses to Friday; if I want an adventuring dungeon crawl game, there are other games that give me a more satisfying experience.

My review did already mention some worries I had with the game after playing with it a bunch of times. Summarizing my feelings is really easy: Heroes of Tenefyr wants to be two things but feels like neither to me.

What I think about the game now

This is what I initially didn’t like about the game:

• when you get lucky in a dungeon early on, you could start a positive chain reaction that makes the rest of the game a breeze; likewise, getting unlucky can get you in a death spiral that results in a hopeless defeat
• you don’t really have control over the cards you want and don’t want; you can see the top card of each dungeon but not what comes after
• at the end of the day, while all the ingredients told me I should like this game, it just started feeling like a mechanical exercise of probabilities and counting
• dungeon rewards feel very same-y and generic; why not style them more like a blessing you receive from the dungeon you just cleared?
• the artwork could have been more inspired

Most of these still hold true, although the one about the artwork looks to have been altered for the better in Broken Mill’s upcoming Kickstarter for the first expansion, The Second Curse, which is looking at February 25th for its Kickstarter release date.

Let me be straight here. This ‘Why I sold‘-series is not about bashing a game. For me, Heroes of Tenefyr was neither here nor there and got stuck somewhere in the middle. That doesn’t mean this game doesn’t do things exactly right for someone else. I’m sharing this because I want to make sure people make informed buying decisions, and I feel a lot of review-type content is geared towards letting you know why you should buy it as opposed to why not. That’s what I am here for today.

Still, as I said, there’s bound to be someone (well, besides you, Pepijn) for whom Heroes of Tenefyr hits that sweet spot. Cue the next paragraph!

I’d be remiss if I did not share the upcoming Kickstarter campaign with you, so here you go! Click on the image and subscribe to notifications about the campaign.

You might like it if…

Heroes of Tenefyr might just be the perfect game for you. Maybe you can relate to the things I liked. Here are the positives from my review:

• nice take on the Friday push-your-luck deckbuilding mechanic
• a dungeon crawl without all sorts of life totals to track; just time
• lots of possibilities for expansions

So, when is this game for you? Let’s expand on the positives above.

1. You like Friday, but would like something bigger. In that case, Heroes of Tenefyr is right up your alley. It has the same push-your-luck deckbuilding elements, but more other stuff around it, and more room for customization.
2. You want a short dungeon crawl experience. Heroes of Tenefyr gives you a decent adventuring feel; you’re an adventurer (or party) traversing through a dungeon, pondering which door to open next, killing baddies, grabbing loot, and fighting the end boss to see if you can make it out alive.
3. You are intimidated by big box dungeon crawlers. You know the type; three digits, lots of miniatures, cardboard chits, tokens, game boards, and a setup time that you could’ve used to cook and eat dinner. Sometimes you just want to get in, grab loot, get out, and still have time for another game (or two). Heroes of Tenefyr caters to this exact need.

Conclusion

To reiterate what I said above: this series is not meant to bash games. It is meant to explain why a certain game just didn’t click for me despite all of its potential. Heroes of Tenefyr fell flat for me because my inner radar is just tuned a certain way; if it were a little off what it is, this game would probably still be on my shelf. I hope the new owner will have more fun with it than I ever could have, and with him a lot of other happy gamers and happy backers.

Like The 7th Continent, Heroes of Tenefyr was yet another lesson for me; just because I think I would like something doesn’t mean I will. Or, if you turn it around: you don’t have to like something just because you think you have to. I wish Broken Mill Games the best of luck with their games and this one in particular. I’m curious to see what The Second Curse has to offer.

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