I'm heading back to Tainted Grail after its mammoth, bug-crushing new update

I'm a fanatic for fantasy. What can I say, I grew up on a diet of Tolkien and Lewis, and graduated into a Silmarillion tattoo-sporting, DnD-roleplaying, magic-loving adult. Any game with similar themes gets a second glance from me, and Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon is no different. Unfortunately, the game launched into 1.0 in a fairly uneven, unpolished state, which put me off. However, developer Questline has today revealed its first major patch, and it's sounding like now's the time to dive in.

I was ready and waiting to jump onboard a great new RPG, until bugs got in the way. Still, it was clear that Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon had potential, so I kept it installed, to return to when the devs had spent some more time cooking.

The game we described as "Arthurian Skyrim" has received a lot of love in this mammoth patch, which adds New Game Plus, a transmog system so your coolest gear can be your best, and improvements across the board. There are three new dungeons, six new quests, redesigns, rewards, and more, but I'm most excited by the fact the developer says it has implemented "TONS of bug fixes and rebalancing all over the place."

The quality of life fixes for Tainted Grail include basic stuff like adding unread markers to readable items that you haven't looked at, alphabetical sorting for items, and the option to bulk buy in shops. There have also been "significant" RAM optimizations that should improve late-game stability.

There are over 50 gameplay balance issues addressed in this patch, which I won't list in their entirety (you can read the full patch notes via the link below), as well as a similar number of fixes and improvements to quests. Most of these you might never have encountered, but the cumulative effect is a smoother experience.

I'm particularly excited by the fact that enemies and NPCs "now feel more alive" thanks to improved behaviors, and will jump in to see that alone. Add onto this over 50 improvements to technical, audio, graphics, and UI problems, and you've piqued my interest once more.

Tainted Grail already had 87% positive reviews on Steam, granting it a Very Positive rating. If it can nail the technical issues that plagued its launch, then this could be a must-play.

Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon's first patch is live now. You can read the full patch notes here.

If this has tickled your pickle, why not see how it fares against some of the best fantasy games? Maybe one day it'll join our list of the best games like Skyrim.

Let us know what you think, and if you'll be jumping into Tainted Grail again, over in our community Discord server.