- Engaging story and immersive game world.
- High replayability due to varied character builds.
- Innovative roguelike deckbuilder with unique mechanics.
- Excellent overall art and audio design.
- Significant balance and difficulty issues.
- Numerous bugs, glitches, and game crashes.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 79% · Negative 21%. Score: 21 / 100
Positives:
- The game features a compelling narrative with interesting characters, plot twists, and well-written dialogue. The story unfolds gradually through multiple playthroughs, motivating players to uncover secrets and explore different paths. The world-building is immersive, with a unique atmosphere and lore that enhances the overall experience.
- The game offers high replayability due to diverse characters, classes, and builds. Each character has unique abilities, playstyles, and storylines, encouraging players to experiment and discover new strategies. The game rewards player knowledge and skill, allowing for strategic planning and optimization of runs.
- The game innovates on the roguelike deckbuilder genre, offering a fresh experience compared to similar titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. It combines familiar mechanics with unique elements, such as a time loop, equipment system, and character-specific interactions, setting it apart from its competitors.
- The game features high-quality art, animation, voice acting, and music, creating an immersive and visually appealing experience. The detailed graphics, atmospheric sound design, and well-executed animations enhance the overall presentation and contribute to the game's charm.
- The game features a well-designed equipment system that complements the deckbuilding mechanics. Items provide passive bonuses, add cards to the deck, and offer set bonuses for wearing multiple pieces of the same armor. The equipment system adds complexity and enables varied gameplay styles based on item drops.
Negatives:
- Many reviewers cite balance issues, with difficulty spikes, overpowered enemies, and underpowered player options. Some builds and characters are significantly stronger than others, leading to an uneven and sometimes frustrating experience. The final boss is often mentioned as a major point of imbalance, requiring specific builds and strategies to defeat, making other approaches feel pointless.
- Reviewers report numerous bugs, glitches, and crashes that negatively impact the gameplay experience. These issues range from minor inconveniences to game-breaking errors that prevent progression or cause loss of progress. The game also suffers from performance issues, such as long loading times and lag, further detracting from the overall experience.
- The game suffers from a lack of clarity and poor explanations of its mechanics, cards, and items. Inconsistent wording, vague descriptions, and translation issues make it difficult for players to understand how the game works. This lack of clarity leads to frustration and requires players to rely on trial and error or external resources to learn the game.
- The game suffers from repetitive gameplay due to linear routes, fixed maps, and predictable events. This diminishes replayability and the sense of player agency, as choices often feel insignificant. Many reviewers found themselves going through the same motions, waiting through the same cinematics, and facing the same challenges repeatedly, leading to boredom and frustration.
- The final boss fight is a common point of criticism, with many reviewers finding it to be poorly designed, overly difficult, and reliant on specific builds. The boss often has mechanics that shut down many builds, requiring players to heavily min-max and memorize specific tactics. The fight can feel unfair and frustrating, undermining the value of player skill and strategy.
Gameplay:
- The game features multiple playable characters, each with unique classes, cards, and mechanics, offering diverse playstyles and encouraging replayability. Each character also has unique interactions with events, adding another layer to the narrative.
- The game uses a static map with predetermined layouts, which allows for strategic planning and memorization of event locations. This contrasts with the randomly generated maps found in many other roguelikes, offering a different kind of replayability focused on optimizing routes and choices.
- The game features an inventory and equipment system with set bonuses, replacing or augmenting the relic systems found in other deckbuilders. This system adds another layer of complexity to character building, requiring players to manage equipment alongside their card decks.
- The core gameplay is primarily focused on turn-based combat using cards, with players strategically managing their energy and resources. The combat system is generally well-received and provides an engaging core mechanic.
- The game's deckbuilding and inventory management can feel luck-based, with random card and equipment acquisition. Some players feel that the game floods them with cards, hindering deck cycling.
Performance:
- The game's performance and compatibility on Steam Deck and MacOS are generally positive. Some users recommend using touch screen controls on Steam Deck. However, some users report that the text is extremely small on Steam Deck.
- Some players have noted long initial load times and delays in cutscene loading. Additionally, the default animation speed is slow, but can be adjusted in the settings.
- Some players have not encountered any bugs or performance problems. This suggests that the game is stable for some players.
- Combat UI icons and set icons are reported as being very small, making them difficult to use, especially on touch interfaces. This negatively impacts the user experience.
- Some players have experienced minor stuttering and hitching issues. These issues negatively impact the gameplay experience.
Recommendations:
- The game receives overwhelmingly positive recommendations, especially for fans of the roguelike deckbuilder genre. Many reviewers compare it favorably to Slay the Spire, while others suggest it as a good entry point for newcomers. The game is praised for its engaging story, unique atmosphere, and strategic gameplay.
- Many reviewers compare the game to Slay the Spire, with some finding it a worthy successor or even superior, while others feel it doesn't innovate enough or falls short in comparison. Some suggest playing Slay the Spire first or recommending it as a more polished alternative.
- Reviewers express anticipation for future updates, DLC, and sequels, hoping for continued development and expansion of the game world. Some reviewers also express a desire to support the developers financially to encourage their future endeavors.
- Some reviewers suggest purchasing the game on sale or at a discount, as the full price may not be worthwhile given its current state or perceived value. A free demo is available for those unsure about purchasing the game.
- These reviews express strong negative sentiment, with reviewers regretting their purchase and seeking refunds. This may indicate a review bombing trend, but without specific details, the importance is reduced.
Miscellaneous:
- The game features an interesting and enjoyable story involving warring gods, a resurrected hero, and a time loop that explains the roguelike elements. The story is revealed through events on the map, with heroes retaining memory of these events after death, allowing for replay with benefits and deeper story understanding.
- The game blends card battling, time looping, and story elements, drawing comparisons to Slay the Spire, Groundhog Day, and Hades. Some reviewers consider it a Slay the Spire clone, while others appreciate its unique take on the roguelite deckbuilder genre, emphasizing its mystery adventure aspects.
- The developers plan to add new modes and DLC in the future, with several "coming soon" options already visible in the game. Reviewers expressed excitement and anticipation for the upcoming content.
- The game features three playable characters, each representing a distinct class with unique playstyles and stories. The game blends deck-building roguelikes with RPG elements, offering a unique take on the genre.
- The developers are actively working to improve the game with frequent updates, dev diaries, and roadmaps, demonstrating a passionate commitment to the project and maintaining communication with the community.
