Across the Obelisk: Shores of Sahti Review Summary

A new explorable area, excellent art and atmosphere, and fun unique items add appeal, but unfair boss card-cost hikes, limited counterplay, and overpowered, unfun captains drag it down.

Overall game enjoyment: Many reviewers express strong positive feelings about the base game, saying they like or love it. ATO is even called one of the best deck-builders.

New explorable area: The DLC adds a fun new area or map that players enjoy exploring. It provides a fresh act or zone to experience.

Positive DLC reception: Reviewers widely describe the DLC as cool, fun, and a welcome addition. It is seen as a satisfying and worthwhile purchase.

Excellent art and atmosphere: The expansion's art, visuals, music, and atmosphere are consistently praised. The new act is described as gorgeous and visually appealing.

Fun and unique items: New items introduced in the DLC are considered fun and unique. Players particularly love the new additions.

Boss increases card costs: Multiple players report that the boss increases the cost of cards in hand almost every turn, making it impossible to play effectively. This affects all heroes and forces players to skip turns or have poor turns.

Lack of counterplay against enemies: There is little-to-no counterplay against many monsters, and some enemies and fights are practically impossible depending on party.

Captains are unfun and overpowered: Captains are considered the most unfun mechanic, applying debuffs that massively increase card costs. At higher madness levels, fights with multiple captains are nearly unwinnable.

Pirate King worst boss fight: The Pirate King fight is described as the worst boss fight in the genre, broken and unfun, ruining enjoyment of the game.

Area overtuned and unfun: The new area is overtuned and not fun to play through, being the hardest area by far and challenging in an unfun way.

Card cost manipulation by enemies: Enemies, especially captains, can increase the cost of cards, and this effect may occur every turn or every other turn. This is a recurring frustration point mentioned across multiple clusters.

Madness levels difficulty scaling: The game features madness levels that affect difficulty, with captains appearing at madness 16+ and madness levels including 8+ being noted.

DLC adds new map and exploration: The DLC includes a new map with exploration content, new areas with unique events, and meaningful writing on map nodes.

New turtle hero and items: The DLC introduces a new turtle hero and new items, with the turtle character able to tank and front-line.

Rust King boss and Rust mechanic: The Rust King boss exists and the Rust mechanic causes self-stacking Vulnerable, which is a notable challenge.

Avoid DLC until patched: Multiple players advise against purchasing the DLC in its current state, citing the need for patches before it becomes worthwhile. They recommend steering clear and spending money elsewhere until fixes are applied.

DLC not worth price: Several reviewers feel the DLC is not worth the price, even on sale, and advise against buying it. They suggest skipping it unless balance patches are made.

Boss fight poorly balanced: The region boss fight, particularly the Rust King, is described as unfairly challenging and in need of balancing. Players avoid the area and cannot recommend the expansion until the boss is properly tuned.

Avoid area entirely: Some players recommend avoiding the area altogether because it is not worth the effort or cost. The challenge and rewards are perceived as insufficient.

Challenge beyond fair: The DLC is recommended only for those who accept a challenge that goes beyond fair or reasonable difficulty. This suggests the content is intentionally punishing.

Community fair range: $15.00 - $25.00.

Casual Exploration-First Newcomer: Casual runs with exploration prioritized over optimized boss attempts. Motivation: Exploring new maps and content at a casual pace. Stance: buy.

High-Difficulty Build Optimizer: Pushes higher Madness levels with meta-optimized builds and judges boss balance. Motivation: Testing optimized builds against fair high-difficulty challenges. Stance: no buy.

Co-op Run Regular: Group co-op runs with some solo play. Motivation: Enjoying repeatable co-op runs with friends. Stance: no buy.

Monetization: The reviews focus on the value, content amount, and access problems of a paid DLC. There is no direct evidence that the game sells real-money gacha pulls, loot boxes, paid power, convenience items, or an in-game cash shop. Under the audit rules, traditional DLC pricing complaints cannot by themselves exceed a fair score.

New characters sold separately: The new characters can be purchased separately from this chapter and are not included in the DLC. This separation is noted by reviewers as a pricing consideration.

Expansion is actually a DLC: Reviewers note that the product marketed as an expansion is technically just a DLC. This framing affects expectations about the scope and value of the content.

Map value compared to desert DLC: The map is considered not worth buying even on sale compared to the desert DLC. The desert DLC is seen as expensive but offers a good map and two fun characters.

Price deemed too high: The price is considered too high for the amount of content provided. This is a common concern about value for money.

New Act and game mode: The expansion adds a new Act and a new type of game mode. This represents significant gameplay content for players.