Disclaimer: A copy of Kinfire Delve: Vainglory’s Grotto was provided by Incredible Dream for review purposes.

Last time I talked about Kinfire Delve, I focused on the Scorn’s Stockade box, as I arbitrarily chose that box to be my introduction to the series. This time, I’m going back to the box that was released first, Vainglory’s Grotto, and taking this dive with the self-sacrificing Khor, and the Opportunist Asha.

Nothing about the core system has changed from box to box. This is still an endurance run down a deck of cards, tackling challenges one at a time until the well deck is exhausted, then completing the final gauntlet to overcome the boss, Vainglory. The gameplay still has players choosing cards from their hand matching the colour of the challenge, getting boosts from the other players, again, matching the colour of the challenge, and rolling dice in an effort to meet or exceed the difficulty of each challenge, and taking the rewards and punishments as you succeed and fail.

What is different is the theme of the game. Scorn’s Stockade was a body horror filled dungeon, with grotesque monstrosities in chains and bars. Obelisks, towers, and other prison themes permeated the art and flavour text of the cards, while Vainglory’s Grotto is more of a macabe symphony. The nightmare of someone who’s spent too much time at the opera. The art features unsettling beauty all around, like a slender lady in a red dress with a large blue rose obscuring most of her face, with only the top of a skull peeking out, and long daggers for fingers, or the marionette, which are a pair of ballerina legs disappearing into a cloud of ethereal roses. Beauty and horror mixed to create the feeling of high culture corrupted.

Vainglory’s Grotto two characters complimented each other quite well. Khor’s ability sucked up wounds, allowing him to take potshots at challenges and purposefully fail them, knowing he could absorb the punishment, then Asha’s ability added free progress to any challenge that already had progress on it. They worked well together, and the fact they synergized so well is likely part of the reason Vainglory’s Grotto feels much easier than Scorn’s Stockade. It helps that the Vainglory herself being nearly trivial if you manage to get to the bottom of the well with no cards attached to her. And even with cards attached, they’re more of a minor inconvenience, less of a show-stopping problem.

All that said, I can tell that Vainglory’s Grotto is the ‘first’ of the series. The card effects are a bit more muted and tame when compared directly to Scorn’s Stockade. Vainglory’s Grotto feels like a rock-solid, but safe first game, where Scorn’s Stockade saw designer Kevin Wilson having more fun with the system, seeing which ways the system could stretch and flex. It is less interesting, but only when directly comparing to its follow-up. That said, the entire time I was playing Vainglory’s Grotto, I couldn’t help but see the synergies that Asha and Khor would have with Naz and Feyn. I’m so excited to mix the character pairings to see how they play off each other and create a wholly different feeling game.

If you’re coming into Kinfire Delve as a new player, this is the box to start with. As an experienced player, It’s worth coming back to. The well cards themselves are less interesting than the successor, but the characters included here are unique and fun. I’m really looking forward to mixing them with the other heroes and seeing how they fare against the other challenges. Or use Vainglory as a testing ground while playing a new hero combination for the first time, so I have a safe space to see what makes them tick!