Recent reviews by Roguesmith

The game starts with an existential crisis. It's funny and serious at the same time without making light of the hard issues it puts on display. Even your mundane items are their own characters. sleeper hit of the century.

I'm going to begin by saying that this review was written after playing the first level beyond the tutorial, so I might not have a full handle of the games nuances.

First and foremost, this is a deck-building game. The cards are not just a creative way to stylize the game, they are the source of your equipment and your challenges. Before each level you assemble two sets of cards. Your equipment deck, and your encounter deck. Now, you don't start with any of these cards, these are the cards that are going to be on the board for you to gather or miss depending on chance. The Equipment is your assortment of weapons, armor, and special abilities. And the Encounter deck is your encounters in the level (duh), of scaling severity. From the farmer, to the goblins, to the hall of traps, to the ambush. While these can hurt you, they can just as easily reward you. At the end of the hall of traps, is treasure. At the end of the ambush, loot. This brings us to the core gameplay

After building your decks, you begin the game, where cards are shuffled and laid face down on the table in random assortment. This acts like a board to a tabletop game, where you can only move one space (or card) at a time, and each card is an encounter. And just because you built an encounter deck doesnt mean that's all you'll face, The Dealer (or Game Master) peppers his own cards in there as well. The encounters for me so far have either been text blocks with multiple choice answers, or action phases where you navigate hazards or fight enemies.

The combat reminds me of the Batman: Arkham series. While not reliant so heavily on combos, there is an assortment of enemy types and a dodge and counter system that is very similar, if not identical. Special abilites are earned through cards and do things like generate gold on hit or throw a fan of knives.

After winning encounters and navigating the board, you make your way to the boss, which, after the battle, you collect the tokens you've earned up to that point. These work as booster packs for your deck, giving you random equipment and encounter cards, which can be used for the levels ahead. New cards however, remain somewhat of a mystery, because while you have the name of the card like say, Scavanger's Helm, you don't know exactly what it does until you aquire during a level. (probably something involving loot)

Death is going to be common, but, much like the game Rogue Legacy, death isn't the end. It's a chance to do better next time, with the new cards you've earned from tokens during the round, and a new assortment of cards that might be more (or less) favorable to you.

During the game, The Dealer will taunt you and will make comments on the cards you draw. It can really draw you into the game and give the immersion that you're really in a card duel with a (slightly overdramatic) snarky wizard, trying to beat him at (literally) his own game.

Overall, This game has my complete approval. Being a very creative and well exicuted concept I would love to see more of it.

A fantastic turn-based RPG. It's incredibly clear that a lot of love went into the game. The writing, down to the discriptions of minor characters, is beautiful. The story is on the shorter side, but between the user made stuff, and an expansion campaign on the way, there's a lot to do.

Well, I don't usually starve, so, there's a win. However, neither do the giant spiders, or worse.

Much like reality, the longer you work at it, the more natural the work flow becomes, but then the cut off point comes where you think you know enough and miss one minor detail, so little as a spelling error, one letter off. That's when a terrorist bombs your border. This game, to my suprise, pulled me stright in and by the time I realized how engrossed I was, I didn't want to let go.