Blackguards is a turn-based strategy role-playing game that offers a lot of customization for the player. You take on the role of a character (player created) who is a convicted criminal, and must use the help of people with the same background to help save the world.
Character Creation
One of the first things you have to do when starting a new game is create your character. You get to choose between male and female options among three different classes, which are Hunter, Mage and Warrior. The player can either do an easy creation or a free character creation, allowing them to manually set their character's skills.
When choosing one of the classes, they all have their own preset strengths and weakness, but these aren't set in stone. For example, the Mage is proficient in magic (and the only one who can learn Spells), but you can develop the character beyond that it make him/her able to withstand the frontlines.
Battle System
There is not a lot of exploration in the game, as the player simply goes from point to point on a map, where they will do battle with enemies. Battles take place on a grid-like system, similar to popular tactical RPGs like Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics. Each character has a turn, where they will be able to move and/or take an action before the next character's turn takes place.
Whenever a character's turn comes up, there will be darker blue tiles highlighted, as well as lighter blue ones. The light blue ones indicate the range a character can move and still take an action, while the darker areas allow the character to move and will not be able to perform an action. That character's turn ends whenever they have moved and taken an action or chooses to end their turn from the wheel.
To attack an enemy, the player can right-click on that enemy to automatically perform a regular attack. However, right-clicking brings up a wheel that allows the character to perform special attacks, spells and even the option to end their turn. Note that there are interactive objects in battle that can sometimes be used to the player's advantage, which the player can click on or use the hand symbol in the wheel.
Equipment/Encumberance
Your characters are able to equip a variety of equipment, such as weapons, armor and even something like a belt that allows that character to bring items into battle. These pieces of equipment have their own stats and can be found after winning battles, as well as purchasing them from shops.
Your party's inventory is only able to carry so much equipment before they become overburdened. This is easily manageable, since the sum of your party's Strength is how much you can carry, and increasing Strength will raise the party's carrying capacity further. If you should happen to be carrying more than the allotted amount, then your party will suffer stat penalties.
In addition to the above, the player can set a maximum of three different Weapon Sets for each character. These sets can be switched in combat via the wheel, although it will require an entire turn for the character to switch equipment. The exception to this is by maxing out Warcraft, which will allow that character to switch and still act in the same turn.
