The game structure is similar to other deckbuiler roguelikes (attack with cards, paths with choices, card rewards after each fight, boss at the end of each layer). However, the gameplay is much more reminiscent of Into the Breach. Turn based tactical grid combat with Enemy attacks patterns telegraphed beforehand to allow you to move or manipulate the enemies to avoid damage or even get them to hit each other. And similarly it is VERY much expecting you to mostly prefect avoid or block them. Even halfway, enemies can hit 1/3 of your max hp per attack and healing is not common. Despite many other reviews complaining about the difficulty, I uh... beat it first try. Had one restart due to getting cornered in a boss fight but otherwise never felt really challenged. However, I can easily see a bad hand or position instantly ending a run due to the high damage and small boards. Additionally, many of the rewards are locked behind (beat in X turns) making it a strong get stronger kind of deal. Still overall, if you liked Into the Breach, I would highly recommend this. But I never felt I wanted to go for "just one more run" or grind to max to see all the cards. TBF I didn't do that for Into the Breach either. There's also a number of minor flaws and issues that prevent me from giving it a perfect score. The art is very stylish but I found it got kinda dull by the end of a run. Same with the music. There's good enemy variety and most of them have unique profiles that are easy to see what they are and what direction they are looking at. Most - as some of them, especially a couple mafia are basically the same besides their weapon which can be missed. You often need to constantly check on unit descriptions. esp bosses, to see what its range is. I've had multiple surprises when I realized a boss was 2 range despite being melee. Nodes could use better tooltips on what bonus objectives and their rewards are. Abilities could use better wording at times (ie. attacks that ignore counter still can trigger auto attack. But defensive cards often don't, blocks sometimes prevent special effects but not always) Lots of strategies are pretty RNG on getting you the right cards. Difficulty can randomly spike at times. I got layer 3 and 4 enemies on a layer 1 event. Turning it into one of the longer and harder fights.
It's not much more advanced than the original Rogue. Minimal story, sound, art, "level design", tutorial, file size. A very pick up and play type game. It's still scratches the roguelike itch fine, just don't scratch/think too deep as there's not much there. The loop is just Battle then Upgrade Enemy AI is always Wait -> Move (if needed) -> Charge (pre-attack) -> Attack (then repeat) While your hero is just move/skill/potion (no waits apparently?). The gameplay is fairly solid but ... Due to certain enemies (reflect, attack all) which can be dps checks, even though there's strategy, you're a lot more likely to succeed through just rng to strong upgrades and relics. Not that much to discover or unlock either- 25 skills (of which 6 are unlocks) per hero 3 heroes, 2 of which are unlocks Difficulty doesn't seem to change that much
You are a plant detective with most of the puzzles being either figuring out which plant it is based on a short description and sketch, or secondarily which part of the map to go to (usually to get more plants). It should be very quick to gauge whether you like going through the individual descriptions and plants checking if they match Some might find it peaceful and atmospheric esp as there is NO time pressure despite some indicators like the candles. Others will find it either annoying or understand how quick it will become tedious. Still even for those who like the main loop, there are many design and UI flaws. PLEASE check out the options - it includes two "fixes" for things that likely too many people complained about - making the text more legible (and generally bigger) and auto marking plants you've verified. Outside the two "fixes" there are still the following: No way to quickly search or sort the plants even once labeled Shelf becomes too crowded and hard to clear up space to sort the plants No way to mark the map or quickly search the locations Needing to wait to explore the map is pointless. Esp. as there's already risk of increasing madness that does the same and is more interesting. Often the table becomes too crowded with just the viewer, book and maybe one clue New plants and potions are just inserted in the middle You'd think the magnifier are for the plants, but nope - most likely using them on the various small text/map Additionally I felt that the story and puzzles could have been more developed. They are fine as it is, but become stale and did not care enough to get all the endings.
Note: This version seems to be a lot more stable and bug free than the console versions. A fairly short adventure puzzler with some mild stealth and horror/blood themes. Despite the 17+ rating - it really isn't. The horror and grotesque are pretty mild and due to the pixel nature kinda self censoring. Teen should be fine. Main draw would be its pixel art and sense of adventure. There's a number of missable events and endings but still fairly short and compact. Short enough that you prob want to wait for a sale. Some concerns- It uses RE-style "tape saves" that are limited. I didn't mind too much but did lose some progress multiple times because I didn't save enough. The player is somewhat slow/sluggish. Esp. in the prologue area that is probably a bit too big. Monsters tend to be more annoying than challenging. There's still some bugs - and because of the limited save, can be even more frustrating. I've been stuck on some furniture and NPCs a few times.
It is a "backpack" roguelike autobattler, where you buy units to place on a grid, that can influence each other and how they work depending on their position. Then you have them face an opponent automatically and rinse and repeat with a break every couple nodes for an event or boss. The presentation is good, gameplay is enjoyable and strategic, I haven't seen any bugs, but there are some major flaws to this game. Luckily most should be fixable with some patches and additions. The main one being that there's only a few viable units and strats for most heroes that can grow to the hundreds and thousands that is needed to win the game on harder difficulties. Though about half the roster is filled with units that grow, most are too slow, too late, or too rng. Your end rosters will look pretty similar after a few wins. Some other minor issues- Juggling the grid to get units where you want them can be annoying. Esp for shop refresh where you only need them when you reroll (should prob just allow them to activate in the bench). Most other games have some kind of unlimited temp area that is cleared per wave. You should be able to check the enemy units like your own and not just their stats (ie. ranged attack, special moves, enchantments). Arena also makes clear that the normal enemies look way too similar compared to the colorful cast you have. There is no archive or record or collection or anything - to look at past runs, unit/enemy stats, unlocks, whatever. There's not a lot of progression - just the 3 difficulties, and some hero unlocks that you can probably finish in ~5 wins. Most runs will prob take 1-2 hours.
The gameplay largely follows the first game - Your team explore around a hex-grid map encountering loot, monsters, and the native. Both combat and skill based checks are based on rolling special dice linked to your heroes and equipment and then using the symbols shown (ala elder sign). There's a number of changes esp with combat, but the main change isn't gameplay focused at all - you are no longer completing against CPUs on score, instead going for a story/objective based goals. Like the difference between PvP and PvE gamemodes. Even with mostly similar gameplay, it is much more relaxed and freeform. The other big changes reinforces this - it is MUCH easier (but not easy) than the first game even without the accessibility options or any progression unlocks. And even if most mechanics stayed, there are more ways to reduce any of the pain points of the first - easy trait curing, easy recruitment, ways to reduce starting cost, MUCH better starting item choices, etc. Overall I would say two is a better game - combat is much more enjoyable (though easily trivialized with shield and/or stuns), easier to get into, more choices, and much more content. However it is a very different game and for those who enjoyed the challenge of the first, might be disappointed.
I'd consider it similar to the first Pyschonaut or possibly Kids Next Door in terms of childlike themes and hankering back to a nostalgic "olden time". Sorry to hurt you like this but when this game was released, the 90s were already 30 years in the rear mirror. As such the main "bait" would be middle age+ gamers and those enamored with the turn of the century early morning Saturday cartoons. Which somewhat explains all the various old references and the higher than expected difficulty. The higher difficulty was partially my doing as I purposely choose to ignore stickers as I kinda felt it was cheating and I'm also one to save a rare health potion til the end of time. But also clearly the vision with its challenge battles and roguelike gauntlet mode. The gameplay itself is both simple and functional. The base game at least - the stickers and later goo mechanics greatly expand the possibilities and makes it much less balanced. It's also not exactly a TCG - more like a TG? You get cards mainly through quests or trade, and there's not exactly a way to grind or purchase packs of cards for the whole C part. Though a somewhat short game, side quests and optional dialogue make up ~80% of the content. And gauntlet offers quite a bit of grind if you really care for more. That said, unless you are both a fan of the theming and willing to dig into deckbuilding, I would probably withhold my recommendation. I didn't feel it was all that compelling and even if decent is quite niche.
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.
Rather than a roguelike, it feels mostly like a standard turn-based RPG game with TCG (Trading Card Game) playstyle. You control three heroes, each with their own deck that has their actions. You gain cards from leveling and equips, and can change your decks (using the cards you've collected and with a min. deck size) during any downtime. The card picks are rather scarce compared to other deckbuilders though (maybe once every 3-5 levels and couple equips). There's a lot of points of customization with your deck/equips/gems/leveling/talents/etc. There's a decent length campaign (stated 15-20 hours - though much quicker once you aren't staring back at your char to decide what equips/cards and level up options every few battles) And a realm/Slay the Spire like run mode, which really doesn't feel to be the focus and requires going through the campaign (or grinding) to unlock its relics anyway. Lots of characters with differing options, though not entirely balanced and generally fairly easy even on hard difficulty in the campaign. Much harder in the STS mode, where you both face harder enemies (esp. bosses) and have less chances to improve your char. The story, music, and art are all decent/standard but not that notable. The main draw is the gameplay and progression - though somewhat hampered by the points mentioned above - it being a bit easy on campaign and kinda hard to really customize in STS/realm mode. Overall quite decent and polished RPG but not compelling or unique enough for me to rate 5.
A rarely seen "golden age of circus" (ie. industrial age/late 19th cen) Americana theme that doesn't go steampunk or is particularly harsh/satirical on it. It's kind of replaceable but they really did try to embrace it and make it atmospheric. The setting dressing is probably the best part of the game by far. Gameplay is standardish deckbuilder roguelike like Slay the Spire. But despite it being pretty standard, even with the tutorial it can get really confusing due to its use of different terms that are not intuitive at all. And for some reason, its quick right click inspect only explains SOME of the terms. So if you are going to play this game - PLEASE copy down this quick guide and keep it at hand until you are very familiar with them: focus - player hp impress - player damage vitality - player mana (cost) stash - duration/stack ignore - shield boredom - enemy hp sneer - enemy damage pantomime - player reflect scrap - remove(d) card from deck max hand size is 10 Balance is pretty bad - there are reusable cards that give you mana AND draw cards. Most attacks deal ~4 damage per mana to ~10 with some setup. Ring of Fire deals 20 for 1 mana. Sure you need to flip it to use it again, but there's a card that can flip all cards for 1 mana. It kinda tries to balance that by having many unique heroes, a lot having a few broken cards each. Too bad you can have multiple copies of a card or even hero. Then you find that +dam doesn't increase the damage. It increases the damage NUMBER. What's the difference? Well, if the card says deal 1 damage per hand in hand, +3 makes it 4 per card. There's also various bugs such as game not loading correctly upon going back to main menu, needing a full restart. HP sometimes not displaying correctly after an attack. Glossary only for current members and not all seen. Just a general lack of polish in many places. Overall, only would recommend it for the setting. It's not a bad game, just not very good.
