Banners of Ruin

This is one of the few deck-building games I ever played. I expected it to be a bit more meaningful, but had fun playing it nonetheless. Here's what's good about the game and what isn't: Pros: - fun and casual gameplay in a cute fantasy world - cool artwork - challenging combat: easy to learn, tough to master - a myriad of possible tactical approaches - loosing is part of the deal: there is no way you will beat this game easily and you will have to start over and over Cons: - lacks any kind of engaging story - has balancing issues, because some battles are bordering impossible - needs a tutorial badly, because quite a few game mechanics are not self-explanatory - best played quite: sounds and music are fitting, but get annoying or unnerving over time - like in any other cardgame, winning or losing depends on chance - leaves you with a feeling of emptiness, probably because of the lack of story To sum it up, I would say that it is a decent addition to any collection and worth playing. Prepare for some more or less mindless card-combat with a surprisingly big amount of tactical depths.

A week ago, I had no idea this game exists. I gave it a chance only because it was highly discounted, and I am SO GLAD I did. This game is very similiar to Slay the Spire (later: StS), which is well-known at this point, so I will be referencing it later in the review. Banners of Ruin is an engaging card game with much more RPG-like vibe than StS was. First, its team - based, so you control up to six characters. Second, each one can be of a different race, which multiplies card options. Third, your choices between fights not only are more interesting than in StS, but they also have a good theme. Fourth, mechanics are very good when you learn how to use them to your advantage. Fifth, your characters level up, growing in strength, and sometimes dying too, which isn't the end of the run. Six, the amount of options this game brings to the table when building your characters is awesome. It doesn't hurt it actually have good graphics either. On the other hand, animations are almost non - existent, and I still prefer music from StS. The game doesn't overstay its welcome, but fights are significantly longer than StS, which means you can't just speedrun this game. Card combos are very good, just not as good as those in StS. And the last character you unlock is pretty worthless, which is irritating when you consider how much time it costs you to unlock it. Overall, since I gave StS a 10/10, I think this one deserves a solid 9/10. It's very good and deserves recognition. If you like that kind of games at all - just get it.

200 hours in through the years. This game visually very appealing. It's challenging...though I don't know if developers actually tried to play some of the challenges they created. Unfortunately it's a card game, so lots of it is based on random luck but it also makes you come back and has high replayability value. highly recommend it.

You are the tide that washes higher and higher a little bit at a time. Each party wipe moves you along to um... another defeat but that's a feature not a bug. This is a clever and gritty take on the fantasy card game.

This is somewhat hard to rate. It is kind of a love it or hate it game. It largely follows the script of Slay the Spire but pivots wildly on many fronts. For example difficulty might follow something like - 2,5,15,3,12,2,30,100,15,300 Yes, the 2nd to last battle is one of the easiest. And often the later commons can be done blindfolded. Most battle cards are outright bad to include besides some support. Strong combos are vital to beat the last bosses and some later elites - and ONLY those. Either everything else becomes dull until then, or you just die once you get to the end. Mana also shifts wildly - at first you play half your hand. Then you play everything and still have half your mana. Finally you play half your hand. Passives can be incredibly potent and vital to many combos. Too bad the majority are very situational and don't scale. The base parts aren't bad - The art is great, there is strategic depth, there's a decent amount of progression and unlocks. There's just enough pitfalls that I'm not sure who's going to really like it and who is going to bounce off.