Sunderfolk is a turn-based RPG that takes many cues from the world of tabletop gaming, but with digital improvements and innovative systems that make the title feel more accessible. Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime founded publisher Dreamhaven, and the development team at in-house studio Secret Door consists of veterans from companies like Riot and Blizzard. One of the game's main goals was to overcome the biggest issues many players face when trying to get into tabletop titles: steep learning curves, excessive setup, and the genre not being universally appealing. It undoubtedly achieves this.

Players assume the role of one of the guardians of Arden, the anthropomorphic animal heroes entrusted with protecting the village. When an attack leaves their life-giving tree and supply of brightstone in trouble, the guardians must investigate the cause. In doing so, they discover an even bigger threat: shadowstone, a material that’s corrupting all of the Sunderland’s creatures, and unlikely alliances must form in order to stop it. The story is told mostly through dialogue, although some short animated sequences help set the scene for battles and major events.

The Characters & World Of Sunderfolk

Charming Citizens & An Ever-Evolving Village

One of the most significant ways Sunderfolk leans into its board game night roots is through embracing the concept of a Game Master with actress Anjali Bhimani. Known for roles in games like Stray Gods, Apex Legends, and Overwatch, as well as her work on Critical Role, she plays every single character in the game just like a GM would, putting on different voices for each one. This is a choice that works incredibly well, with Bhimani giving an absolutely stellar performance and the overall concept making it feel more connected to the world of roleplaying board games.

After each mission, players will be able to mill about in Arden, visiting shops, equipping new items, and talking to townsfolk. In what I find a brilliant design choice, each player can choose separately what they’d like to do, allowing each person to pursue what they care about most. Everyone in the party feels established in Arden, with each having connections to it in various ways that make for different dialogue - the Arcanist is old friends with the cleric, for example, and the Pyromancer has a hilariously-deadbeat brother in town.

Who players choose to speak with, as each town visit caps the conversation amount, so that talking to every resident isn’t possible, will impact who they build a relationship with. Doing so can result in everything from special cutscenes and gifts to sparking a romance, leading to a wealth of unique dialogue. As relationships evolve, so will Arden itself as players upgrade it through item and gold donations, raising the tiers of buildings to gain things like new shops, cards, or characters to converse with.

Working As A Party On Sunderfolk's Missions

Everything Is Better Together - Especially Causing Chaos

Up to four players can the fight against shadowstone, and control can be easily switched around. I played two different saves during my time with Sunderfolk, one by myself and another with a group of other journalists that varied in number, letting me experience gameplay with every number of players. For solo play, there must be at least two characters controlled, and in its own way, piloting all strategies alone is enjoyable - but group play is the truest form of the title’s fun.

Phones are the controller, a method Sunderfolk pulls off shockingly well. Controls are intuitive and touch-based, and players have information relevant to their own character while the mission itself plays out on screen from a top-down view that allows everyone to see equally. There’s also a coordination mode, which lets players move around a cursor to propose plans; as someone who was playing only virtually over Discord, this feature really helped alleviate any possible miscommunications caused by not being in the same room. Turns can be taken in any order, which lets each one require its own strategy.

A great quality of life feature is that any hero who enters the game mid-way will be leveled to match the others.

Missions themselves can take several different forms, like puzzle, rescue, or exploration. Regardless of type, they all feature a variety of enemies that use a wide array of attacks and synergies, and many have fun gimmicks to exploit, like ones that explode upon death and damage nearby spaces. The environment features variation as well, with the game slowly adding new hazards, such as lava or webs.

I wrote in my initial Sunderfolk hands-on preview that the many jokes that had spawned in only a few hours of play boded well, and I can’t overstate how true this proved to be. One of my favorite recurring sources of mirth was the fact that the game lets you name things, from buildings to enemies to foods, and the game has no language filter, allowing for unbridled, unhinged choices. Whether it was naming a character something absurd, or things like the time a train-like beetle rolled a character’s ed-out body along the tracks, Sunderfolk is a barrel of laughs.

Combat In Sunderfolk Has Variety And Strategy

Intricate Classes With Delightful Synergies

There are six classes in Sunderfolk: Ranger, Bard, Arcanist, Berserker, Pyromancer, and Rogue. Thanks to the fact I was playing two saves and the game’s ability to transfer character control easily, I was able to experience all but the Rogue and Beserker, but still saw the other two in action. It’s hard to say which character I enjoyed piloting the most - the Pyromancer’s merciless ways to exploit fire were addictive, but so were the Arcanist’s complex decoy-based mechanics, stacking buffs with the Ranger, and the Bard’s ways of filling up the board with magic music notes.

I think it speaks to the character roster’s strength that I even found myself jealous of the players controlling the Beserker and Rogue - the former’s powerful hits and the latter’s deviously-good stealth elements looked appealing too. Sunderfolk’s classes are exceedingly well done, not just in the uniqueness of each archetype, but in how each one can have multiple strong paths when it comes to builds. With the Ranger, for example, I opted for a strength and shield stacking route, but I just as easily could’ve leaned into vine traps and environmental manipulation.

Players start with three Skill Cards that serve as moves, gaining six more increasingly powerful ones over time, though the game limits how many they can bring into battle. Trinkets, weapons, and foods all also impact each fight and can be altered between missions to better suit what’s next. Some beverages give protection from lava or fire, for example, which can be great before certain environments, and trinkets can be used once per battle and do everything from weakening enemies to teleporting players across the map. Weapons need specific triggers, like enemies doing zero damage, requiring even more strategic thinking.

Sunderfolk includes very light deckbuilding elements in its Fate Card system, which are an enjoyable alternative to dice. Players must have a certain number of positive, neutral, and negative cards in their deck, and instead of rolling each turn, one is drawn to see if the attack will get points added or subtracted. In a great twist, these can also offer secondary effects - some round them out, like a negative card that subtracts two damage but heals for three, while others play nicely into synergies, like cards that create decoys that help fuel many of the Arcanist’s moves.

Final Thoughts & Review Score: 9/10

A Versatile Game That's Fun Alone Or With Friends

I think playing two different games of Sunderfolk at the same time helped hammer home for me how versatile it can be - I had different types of fun in a party of four, a party of two piloting two characters each, and striking out on my own. The game is very adaptable and considerate of changing parties; a great quality of life feature is that any hero who enters the game mid-way will be leveled to match the others. Sunderfolk also scales nicely for party size, adjusting things like enemy health and puzzle complexity.

While it only offers one main story, there are still some elements that add a bit of replayability, like only being able to talk to a certain number of villagers and the fact that parties can’t do all 38 missions in one playthrough. This could expand over time, though - when I spoke with Sunderfolk’s team, they mentioned potential DLC. I only experienced a few glitches: there was one instance where my friend exploited a conversational glitch to get unlimited gold, and another where my end turn button wouldn’t , but this was solved with a few controller app restarts.

Perhaps the most ringing endorsement of the game is the fact that the group of writers I played with is on board to finish the rest of the campaign even after our reviews are done. Even with no obligation to continue playing, it’s still a game I’m compelled to return to. Between its intricate character classes, wonderful voice acting from Anjali Bhimani, and how the title balances teamwork and individual player freedom, Sunderfolk is a real gem.

ScreenRant was provided with a Sunderfolk Nintendo Switch code for the purpose of this review.