Welcome to our regular look at the best new board games. This month, we’re diving into two story-driven new releases – and two very different worlds of romance and sword-swinging adventure.

Fog of Love

Fog of Love recreates a blossoming romance, challenging you to balance your character’s needs against the health of your relationship. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian

Designer: Jacob Jaskov

2 players, 60-120 minutes, ages 17+, £47.99

In recent weeks, I’ve embarked on a succession of whirlwind romances, turned my back on my criminal past to win the heart of a security guard and betrayed my liberal principles in an affair with a hot-but-conservative bodybuilder. I’ve even had an improbable lesbian relationship, responding to nasty jibes by passionately making out with my girlfriend at a supermarket checkout.

It has all been courtesy of Fog of Love – a game that casts players as characters in a romance story and offers the chance to find happiness with the partner of their dreams.

The theme may be unappealing to some – personally, I’d rather be punched in the face than sit through a Hugh Grant movie – but try to overcome your genre cynicism because Fog of Love is worth your attention. The action plays out over a series of scenes – short snippets of plot that prompt you to make decisions affecting you and your partner. Some are fairly anodyne: will you volunteer to do the cleaning? Should you change your relationship status on Facebook? Others are far more consequential: will you get married? Should you convert to your partner’s religion?

You’ll portray a different character every time you play, represented by a set of traits that govern your responses to situations. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian

As you play, you’ll pick up on subtle hints conveyed by your partner’s choices. Are they showing themselves to be generous? Extroverted? Romantic? Insecure? Are they strictly meaningless-fling material, or could the two of you have the potential for something deeper and longer-lasting? You’ll have to decide because by the end of the game you’ll both choose from a handful of cards to determine how your love story ends.

Options range from lifelong bonds to acrimonious breakups, giving the game a real dash of will-they-won’t-they tension. And it’s amplified by Fog of Love’s palpable sense of character. You’ll have to step out of your own head and into one of the protagonists’, responding to events from their perspective. It means there’s a big element of performance to the game and its two-player setup makes for a very personal, intimate form of storytelling.

There’s plenty more to like: an intuitive tutorial which teaches you the game as you play, a clever structure that delivers steadily more dramatic events over time, a complete avoidance of gender stereotypes, an inclusive approach to LGBT characters, a mature attitude to sex that’s neither smutty nor censorious. It’s original, imaginative and superbly executed, and my only gripe is that while it bills itself as “romantic comedy as a board game”, that’s only one aspect of what it does. Yes, you’ll laugh while you play, but you’ll also explore ideas, such as respect, identity, vulnerability, selfishness and betrayal. While you might get a fairytale ending, you’re just as likely to win by escaping an unhealthy relationship as by chasing your Prince or Princess Charming.

This is a thoughtful, considered, insightful take on romantic relationships. I think I might be in love with it.

Legacy of Dragonholt

Legacy of Dragonholt drops you into a fantasy realm of powerful magic and dangerous enemies. Photograph: Owen Duffy/The Guardian

Designer: Nikki Valens

1-6 players, 60-120 minutes, ages 14+, £59.99

Another game that’s heavy on storytelling, Legacy of Dragonholt sees players unravel a sinister conspiracy in a kingdom of elves, orcs and dragons. If that sounds like a generic swords-and-sorcery setting, it’s because it is. But while it might not immediately seem to be brimming with originality, this game has some surprises up its chain-mail sleeve.

Before you begin, you’ll create a cast of characters, each with their own background: deadly fighters, learned scholars, sneaky thieves. You’ll play through a series of scenarios, all of which are contained in a set of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style books, progressing through their plots with one player reading aloud to the group.

At various points, you’ll have to make decisions: stick to the main road, or take a detour along a dark forest trail? Sneak past a group of enemies, or face them head on? The result is a branching set of storylines where you’ll encounter allies, battle foes and investigate a murderous plot against a noble family.

It’s easy to spot some of the influences at work on Legacy of Dragonholt. Its personalised characters and co-operative quests draw on the spirit of the original fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Its sense of exploration and discovery are reminiscent of old point-and-click adventure video games such as Broken Sword and Monkey Island. And its web of subplots spread across connected mini-chapters are a clear homage to the Fighting Fantasy series of game books. But while it borrows liberally from games that have gone before, it’s more than just a derivative mashup.

For one thing, it’s nicely written: punchy, well-paced and full of strong, distinct characters. Then there’s its immersive setting. Dragonholt Village feels like a living, breathing settlement full of friendships, rivalries and simmering grudges. But what’s most impressive is the way the game handles the passage of time. Visiting different locations on different days introduces new elements to the unfolding plot and it gives the sense that the in-game world is in motion around your characters and that the people/dwarves/cat-folk you meet on your travels are busy getting on with their lives rather than waiting around for players to interact with them. The result is something that compelled me to binge my way through it like an addictive series on Netflix.

It makes no apologies for putting narrative elements to the forefront; if you’re not in the market for a bit of a yarn, you’re better off looking elsewhere. And while the game supports up to six players, I suspect that the decision-making opportunities could start to feel a bit thinly spread with larger groups. But this is an impressive attempt to bridge games and stories, and as the first in a planned series, I’m looking forward to seeing where the concept goes from here.

What have you been playing recently? Let us know in the comments below.