The Bazaar
Last updated: 2025-08-15
- Exceptional quality and polish, highly recommended
- Addictive, highly replayable, deep strategy
- Genre-defining hybrid gameplay experience
- Inconsistent and costly monetization
- Poor developer communication and conduct
- Persistent game balance problems
Emotions
Players are highly satisfied with the game's core gameplay, strategic depth, and high replayability, often citing the variety of builds, unique runs, and engaging mechanics. The game's quality, polish, and artistic elements (visuals, sound, art style) also contribute significantly to player enjoyment. Furthermore, positive changes to the monetization model and frequent, impactful updates are frequently mentioned as sources of satisfaction.
Excitement stems from the game's addictive and engaging gameplay, particularly the potential for unique and 'wacky' build combinations and strategic depth. Players are also excited by the game's overall quality, its status as a top-tier auto battler/roguelike, and the anticipation of new content and continuous improvements, especially following its Steam release.
Frustration primarily arises from past and ongoing monetization issues, including frequent changes, high prices for cosmetics or heroes, and perceived pay-to-win elements. Technical problems like server issues, bugs, and crashes, along with poor developer communication, lack of localization, and balance concerns, also contribute significantly to player frustration.
Disappointment is largely driven by broken promises regarding monetization (especially the shift from F2P to paid), poor developer communication, and perceived mismanagement. Players also express disappointment over missing features (like a marketplace or localization), balance issues, and the game not living up to its full potential or initial expectations.
Admiration is directed towards the game's exceptional quality, innovative design, and high production values, including its art, sound, and overall polish. Players admire the strategic depth, unique mechanics, and the developers' vision and responsiveness in crafting a top-tier game within its genre.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 91% · Negative 9%. Score: 9 / 100
Positives:
- Players consistently praise the game's exceptional quality across all aspects, including art, sound, gameplay, and overall polish. Many consider it a masterpiece and one of the best games they've ever played, highlighting its addictive and enjoyable nature.
- The game is highly addictive and offers immense replayability, with players sinking hundreds of hours into it without getting bored. Frequent and consistent content updates, including new items and characters, keep the experience fresh and engaging over time.
- The game is lauded as a top-tier title within the roguelike, autobattler, and deck-building genres. Its unique blend of mechanics and innovative design sets it apart from competitors, often being compared favorably to popular games like Hearthstone Battlegrounds and Slay the Spire.
- The game offers incredible strategic depth and variety through its diverse characters and extensive item/skill pools. Each hero provides a unique playstyle, and the vast number of possible combinations ensures that every run feels fresh and allows for creative, often 'broken,' builds.
- The asynchronous gameplay is a significant highlight, allowing players to pause and resume runs at any time without pressure. This flexibility makes the game highly accessible and suitable for casual play, respecting players' time and busy schedules.
Negatives:
- Players are highly critical of the game's monetization strategy, citing frequent, abrupt changes from a promised free-to-play model to a premium price with expensive character DLCs. This has led to a perception of the game being overpriced and having 'pay-to-win' elements, causing significant community frustration and broken trust.
- There is widespread dissatisfaction with the development team's communication, community management, and overall professionalism. Players report inconsistent messaging, a lack of transparency, and a tendency to censor or ban critical feedback, leading to a hostile community environment and a lack of confidence in the game's future.
- Players frequently mention significant balance issues, describing the game's balance as 'terrible,' 'nonexistent,' or 'all over the place.' This inconsistency, especially after patches, negatively impacts gameplay and competitive viability.
- The game is plagued by numerous technical issues, including bugs, glitches, poor optimization, and performance problems. Additionally, new players face a steep learning curve and a lack of proper tutorials, making the game difficult to get into.
- Some players find the gameplay repetitive, slow-paced, and lacking in variety, leading to boredom. Matchmaking is also criticized for pairing new players with experienced ones, creating an unfair and frustrating experience.
Gameplay:
- The game offers immense strategic depth and variety through its item and talent systems, allowing for endless build combinations and creative experimentation. While easy to pick up, mastering the game's complex synergies and adapting to RNG requires significant time and skill, presenting a steep learning curve for new players.
- The game features a vast and diverse item pool, with hundreds of items and skills available for each of the five unique characters. Players engage in inventory management, strategically placing and combining items on a limited board space to create powerful synergies.
- Gameplay revolves around a daily cycle where players acquire items from shops and events, engage in PvE battles for loot, and then face off against other players' 'ghosts' in asynchronous PvP matches. The ultimate goal is to achieve 10 PvP wins before losing all prestige.
- Each run offers a unique experience due to varied item drops, events, and strategic choices, ensuring high replayability. The core gameplay loop of building and testing item synergies is highly addictive and consistently engaging.
- The developers consistently release new content, including items, characters, and balance patches, keeping the game fresh and evolving. While new heroes are paid, character expansions and other content are generally free or unlockable through gameplay, with monetization adjustments made based on player feedback.
Performance:
- Players report significant improvements in overall game performance and stability, especially after the Steam launch. The game runs smoothly on various setups, including the Steam Deck, with fluid animations and a stable client.
- While some players note improved server stability, others still experience inconsistent server performance, leading to disconnections and lost progress. Network accelerators are sometimes necessary.
- Some players encounter bugs such as the game getting stuck mid-match or UI elements overlapping. However, many of these issues can be resolved by restarting the run from the menu.
- The game's minimum system requirements are relatively low (i3, 3GB RAM, GT 640), and it performs well even on mid-range laptops (i7, 32GB RAM, RTX 3060).
Recommendations:
- The game is overwhelmingly recommended by players, who frequently describe it as excellent, incredible, and a must-buy. Many emphasize its high quality and fun factor, despite some acknowledging potential future monetization concerns or developer issues. Some negative reviews exist, but the general sentiment is strongly positive.
- Many players believe the game offers excellent value, especially at its discounted launch price of $20, often calling it a 'steal' or 'worth every penny.' While the full $40 price is also considered fair by some, there's a strong consensus to purchase it during sales or the initial launch bundle period.
- The game is particularly recommended for fans of specific genres, including roguelikes, auto-battlers, deck-builders, and strategy games. Players who enjoy titles like Slay the Spire, Backpack Battles, or TFT are likely to find this game appealing due to its similar mechanics and strategic depth.
- Players frequently advise others to disregard negative reviews, particularly those related to monetization, 'review bombing,' or developer communication issues. They suggest focusing on the gameplay experience itself, which is largely praised, and making an informed decision by trying the game or watching gameplay videos.
- Several reviewers suggest watching YouTube videos or streams of the game before purchasing to understand its mechanics and determine if it aligns with personal preferences. This is especially recommended for players on the fence about the price or genre.
Miscellaneous:
- Despite the controversies, many players express strong enjoyment of the core gameplay and wish for the game's continued success. They often separate their positive game experience from issues related to developer communication or monetization.
- Players are actively requesting and looking forward to official localization, particularly for Chinese and Russian languages. There are currently unofficial patches available, but official support is highly desired.
- There is significant player interest and anticipation for a mobile version of the game, with many hoping it will boost the game's finances and allow for more convenient play.
- New players may find the game difficult to get into, but there are many online resources and a helpful community on Discord. Advice for beginners includes focusing on mastering one character and playing slowly.
- Opinions on the game's price vary, with some believing the quality justifies it, especially for new players who didn't experience previous monetization models. Others are unsure if the current price offers good value.
