I picked this up in a Bundle of Holding and was shocked to see it isn't more popular. This really doesn't deserve to get lost in a sea of indie RPGs.

The game's combat mechanics are absolutely fantastic. It only took a couple of practice rounds to get my friends not only understanding it but enjoying it, even the ones in our group that can't find the saves on their Pathfinder sheet with a gun to their heads after 3 years of playing. It's all done with standard playing cards, and it doesn't take long to "click" how the card-playing parallels a sword fight. Your defense has to "match" the offense to some extent (with the same suit or a higher number, preferably both). Players also have a few unique powers and a pool of "resolve" to spend it on, adding an interesting layer to strategy.

On a more macro level, you have to manage your character's will and power. If you gain a lot of power (more cards in your hand), but don't fulfill your character's objectives to keep their will up (such as protecting a loved one or defeating a rival), your blade will take control. You no longer have many options in the story and have to follow specific rules, but you're still in control of fights and have basically become a boss character, with most games culminating in an epic boss-on-boss clash. The result is that even if you're "losing", it probably feels good!

The book does encourage figuring out relationships and concepts for characters ahead of time, and provides some random generators for them, but a lot of those random results are really unhelpful and don't work for dramatic, over-the-top fighting game story-telling, like "acquaintances" or "neighbors". This is all stuff you can easily and quickly homebrew something better (or if you have creative friends on board with the concept, not even consult), or you can just redraw until you get something interesting. Once backstories are figured out, that's when you can come up with goals ("knots") for your character. Everybody makes up one goal for their character, and then the other two have to tie in to other player's, guaranteeing drama, like a wonderful weeaboo Fiasco.

I gotta say, the mechanics do result in some weird story beats, though. Winning a duel allows you to completely rewrite a player's goal, and that probably merited some limitation (and the fact that I'm already thinking of homebrewing such a thing shows how much this game has won me over). Really care about protecting your child? Not after you lose this swordfight, apparently! (I usually say something about characters being susceptible to suggestion or something after losing...) Or maybe it's supposed to emulate that part in anime where the hero loses a fight and goes freaking catatonic about it. You know. The worst part.

All in all though, this is an absolute blast and my go-to suggestion for one-shots when the whole Pathfinder/D&D gang can't make it.