Dandy Ace Review Summary

Beautiful art and excellent voice acting complement a varied card and skill system, but repetitive gameplay and environments, limited enemy and boss variety, and a weak, thin story hold it back.

Varied card and skill system: The card and skill system offers a huge variety of cards and synergies, allowing for diverse builds and playstyles. Players enjoy mixing and matching cards to create unique combinations.

Beautiful art style and visuals: The art style is widely praised as pretty, charming, and outstanding, with lovely aesthetics and beautiful visuals. Many players highlight the art direction as impressive.

Excellent voice acting and dubbing: Voice acting is consistently praised as good or great, with special mention of the Brazilian Portuguese dub, which is considered outstanding and fitting for each character.

Fun and engaging gameplay: Players consistently describe the game as very fun, goofy, and captivating, with fast-paced and pleasant gameplay. The fun factor is the most frequently praised aspect.

Solid roguelike experience: The game is frequently described as a solid, sensational roguelike or roguelite with enjoyable mechanics. It offers a great experience for fans of the genre.

Low enemy and boss variety: Players repeatedly note that there are too few enemy types and bosses, with heavy reuse and recolors. This lack of variety makes combat feel samey across runs.

Repetitive gameplay and environments: Feedback highlights that repetition sets in quickly, with monotonous gameplay and rooms that blend together. Many players find the experience becomes boring after a few hours.

Negligible story and weak ending: The story is considered negligible or below average, with no conclusive ending after finishing all modes. This leaves players unsatisfied with the narrative.

Overly difficult even on normal: Normal difficulty is described as frustrating and very hard. The difficulty curve spikes sharply after the second level, making progression feel unfair.

Uninspired Hades-like combat: Combat resembles Hades but lacks its charisma and flow. Players feel the game wants to be the next Hades but falls short in substance.

Card-based combat core: The central mechanic is a card system where each card functions as an active ability and can also be used as a modifier. Cards have colors, levels, and cooldowns, and can be flexibly swapped during runs.

Four active card slots: Players can equip up to four main cards, each corresponding to a face button on the controller. Any card can be placed in any slot, and each main slot can also hold a secondary sub-card for additional effects.

Roguelike with Hades-like structure: Reviewers consistently describe the game as a roguelike or action roguelite with comparisons to Hades and Dead Cells. The core loop involves repeating runs through isometric hack-and-slash combat.

Multiple difficulty modes: The game offers several difficulty settings, typically Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Nightmare, with Nightmare being notably challenging and featuring a final boss. Difficulty modes affect story progression and are required for unlocking content.

Permanent and run-based progression: Progression includes unlocking new cards, trinkets, and passive upgrades using shards, as well as meta-progression that persists across runs. The upgrade system is often compared to Dead Cells' mutations and enhancements.

Performance issues cause FPS drops: Players report sudden stuttering and frame drops during gameplay, and chaotic scenes can cause crazy FPS drops on PC. Scene transitions also produce noticeable frame drops for some users.

Ultrawide monitor visual bugs: Ultrawide users face resolution bugs that cut off part of the visible game area, and non-16:9 screens may also show black bars due to lack of proper ultrawide support.

Game runs well on low-end PCs: A portion of feedback highlights that the game is well optimized for lower-end hardware and runs smoothly without issues. This contrasts with the performance problems reported by other users.

Default settings cause stuttering: Some stuttering is attributed to default settings such as Vsync and borderless window mode. Adjusting these defaults could resolve the issue for affected players.

Wait for a sale: Many suggest buying the game only on sale or at a discount, as the full price may not be justified for everyone. A discount of at least 50% is often mentioned as a good threshold.

Recommended for roguelike fans: Many reviewers recommend the game to players who enjoy roguelikes and roguelites, citing it as a solid addition to the genre. It is especially appealing to those who are already familiar with similar titles.

Mixed or negative recommendations: A number of players cannot recommend the game, citing issues such as lack of variety, bugs, or poor design decisions. Some say it is not worth trying even for free.

Comparison to Hades: A common theme is that the game invites comparisons to Hades, but several reviewers stress it is not a Hades-like and should not be expected to match its quality. Some recommend playing Hades instead if you want a more polished experience.

Enjoyable despite flaws: Many players find the game fun and worth playing despite its imperfections. It is described as far from perfect but still enjoyable.

Community fair range: $9.99 - $14.99.

Game completion: 16.0h.

Story completion: 11.0h.

Session length: 0.4h.

Endgame: 32.4h.

Dandy Ace has a card-driven learning curve: early death loops and confusing combos can give way to addicting progression once unlocks and card application click, though some players report later repetition or no click at all.

Friction: Early death loops before unlocks; Confusing card complexity and combo planning; Underpowered if not progressing or unlocking; No i-frames or hitstun and dash limitations; Repetitive rooms and pace-breaking encounters; Narrator repetition after the first hour.

Roguelike Genre Veteran: Optimizes builds around meta-progression, compares systems directly to genre staples, and expects mechanical depth and variety across runs. Motivation: Seeking deep, varied, well-polished combat and progression that can stand alongside the genre's best roguelikes. Stance: no buy.

Casual Genre Newcomer: Plays at lower difficulties, focuses on casual moment-to-moment fun, and does not chase deep variety or hardcore optimization. Motivation: Accessible, low-pressure fun and an easy entry point into the roguelike genre. Stance: sale.

Build-Crafting Enthusiast: Experiments with primary and secondary card synergies, rebinds skills to preferred keys, and constantly reconfigures a personal loadout each run. Motivation: Discovery and mastery of the card-combination system to create custom, effective ability loadouts. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The available feedback is limited but indicates the game is controller-friendly and generally fluid, which suits the Steam Deck's built-in controls. However, at least one user reports sudden stutters or frame drops, suggesting performance stability is not fully seamless. No evidence of external launchers, anti-cheat failures, unreadable text, or launch blockers was found.

Similar to Hades but shallower: Multiple reviewers note that the game closely resembles Hades in structure and style but lacks its depth, variety, and excitement. It is often described as an inferior or less fluid version of Hades.

Brazilian game and production: Reviewers frequently mention that the game is Brazilian, made by Brazilians, and a product of the Brazilian national industry. Supporting the national industry is a common motivation.

Full Brazilian Portuguese localization: The game features complete Brazilian Portuguese localization, including voice acting, menus, and interface. This is highlighted as a notable feature.

Compared to Hades and Dead Cells: Reviewers often compare the game to both Hades and Dead Cells, sometimes calling it a mix of the two. It is also likened to a child of Dead Cells and Hades.

Harder than Hades: Several reviewers find the game more difficult than Hades. Comparisons to Hades are considered inevitable.