The Amazing American Circus
Target Audience: Those Willing to Take the Lows With The Highs in Card RPGs
Summary:
This is a recommendation in essence, but for a specific subset of people.
I’m going to be straight up from the get go here: The Amazing American Circus is one of those games that I want to love up and down, but ended up being the biggest thorn in my side due to what happened during the review period. To say that I faced some of the worst bugs: specifically saved game bugs, in my review career would have been an understatement: I had 8 separate runs break wildly in that period where I could not continue to make progress. While those bugs seem to be fixed now, I have a form of PTSD at this point. Every time I play, I’m waiting for the game to break again. Hell, even the video I made had a major bug in it. There’s a reason I have around 40+ hours of gameplay without actually beating the game, and to say it hung over the experience would be an understatement to say the least.
– Real player with 57.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Card Game Crafting Games.
This is not a Slay to Spire, this is not a Monster Train. The Amazing American Circus is not a roguelike-roguelite card game, it is more like a card game built around a campaign, with some management sim built around it, in which you need to cover the costs, upgrades etc from the incomes you get during the shows.
If you more curious about the game, and want to check a short, ~20mins long video in which I showing what content you could expect from the game with one circus show (card battle) included, then here is mine:
– Real player with 29.8 hrs in game
Spiral to Despair
Spiral to Despair is a blackjack style card game infused with RPG elements set in the depths of hell.
You will be facing demons across the hell to solve the mystery of your origin and unravel your story.
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Progress through story and clear dungeons by defeating monsters in the game of blackjack, loot items and valuables.
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Use potions and flasks in your encounters to enhance your abilities and stats.
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Enchant items, unleash legendaries and upgrade charms to get stronger.
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Unlock achievements by doing various tasks and progressing.
You can export your save to cloud server and access it from another devices and continue your adventure.
Read More: Best Card Game Loot Games.
Dice & Dungeons
Dice & Dungeons is a unique deck builder. You build a DICE deck (dicebuilding)! Explore dungeons, fight enemies with increasingly difficult and get new dice to your deck. A dungeon and it’s challenges are never the same as before.
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Based on dice building board games
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Several different dice to build your “deck”
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RPG elements
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Character classes
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Weapons and other items
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Unique experience of building dice decks
Read More: Best Card Game Deckbuilding Games.
Tales of Finariel : Card based RPG
Forge your destiny through this card based RPG! Will you become a grand mage specialized in elemental powers or will you prefer the finesse of a very sharp blade? This choice is up to you. Come and explore the lands of Finariel, which are still full or mystical and unexplored areas.
Game features
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A medieval-fantasy RPG fully hand drawn.
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A card based system to chose your actions and attacks.
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Customize your fighting experience through the deck building system. Chose your cards and replay your battles with differents strategies.
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Upgrade and enhance your weapons and other items in various way, allowing huge customization.
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Do not follow blinding a class archetype. You can decide what your character should be like. Chose what skills you should be learning, will it be in the same area or completely different. You always dreamed of playing a mage wielding a big sword? Now you can.
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Enhance your weapon mastery, not by gaigning levels but by using it.
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Make your own choices and affect your destiny in this world.
Cards of Patience
Great game of Klondike/Patience (sort of) combined with simple random-generated Dungeon-Diving. You get thrown into a Solitaire type game in-progress against an enemy and have to discard from the Line into the Discard Pile all while managing items, potions and spells. Work your way through the dungeon to the boss. Don’t forget to keep upgrading your character after games, with the diamonds, because the bosses are not easy.
Only thing lacking is an in-game-progress Save feature though it does save your character development from game to game.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Solid rogue-lite card game.
You need some braincells to advance in this game - but this is what makes it worthwhile and replayable.
4/5.
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
Words Can Kill
Words Can Kill is a fusion of roguelike deckbuilders and word games. But this game isn’t about your vocabulary. It’s about your decisions and resource management. You will travel through the fantasy world and fight monsters trying to find a more efficient way to use your letters and your gear.
Features
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Indirect synergies. It’s hard to consistently use a powerful weapon that requires 6+ letters for bonus activation with a deck full of rare letters and without additional draw sources.
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Plan your future turns. Are you ready for a strong enemy attack on the next turn? Don’t use words now, place your letter tiles on the board and wait. This way you can make multiple blocks on the next turn and defend yourself.
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RNG management. Replace tiles in your hand any time you wish. But pay with your health.
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Upgrade your deck. That tile with ‘Q’ poisons your life. Remove it from the deck on your next visit to the forge.
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Easy to learn, hard to master. The game has simple mechanics but deep strategy. Only a true hero can save the princess!
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Dozens of random enemies, random maps, 100 unique items. It’s still a roguelike, so yet another stupid death awaits.
Ring of Pain
3.5/5 : Card battler heavy on the modern “roguelike”: you die a lot, over and over, but your deck improves slowly (I’m going to start calling them neo-roguelike since rogue had no such advancement). Very pretty and novel UI. Weird story. I’ve played it all the way through and I don’t have any idea what I’m supposed to get.
The worst part of the game and the reason for the low score: YOU CANNOT STOP PLAYING without losing the run. It’s the worst no-save game I’ve seen in a decade.
Full playthroughs take hours, but if you need to stop, you have to leave the game running or you lose all your progress. Not only no save, but no saved position. I have had to leave the game running for days because I had a great run going but then had silly things come up like work, sleep, cleaning, or making dinner. Perhaps the RING OF PAIN name is supposed to reference how terrible this designed defect is?
– Real player with 511.8 hrs in game
Alright, I’ll do my best to keep this review neat and concise. I will preface by saying that I tried the closed beta of this game.
Ring of Pain is a Dungeon Crawler Card Game where the player chooses to go left or right and attack monsters. You have stats and manage item slots with items found across dungeons, progressing deeper and deeper into this “ring” until you reach the end. You have Attack and Defense, Speed to determine whether you or the monster attacks first, and Clarity, which manages how much healing you get from potions, Curse chances, and additional Souls (currency) is acquired per monster kill. Item slots are individualized, meaning if you find a weapon, it goes in the weapon slot and if you find a new weapon, you have to make a choice of either chucking your old one for the new one or keeping the old one.
– Real player with 78.6 hrs in game
Rogue Cards
Rogue Cards is a roguelite deckbuilder set in a medieval fantasy world of endless choices and dry humor. You’ll encounter challenge after challenge in a deviously difficult, randomized series of encounters where your choices matter. The more you play, the further your deck and character develop, and the closer you get to ascending to godhood!
Challenging Tactical Gameplay
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Monsters are stacked with multiple stages - each stage with different abilities you must defeat.
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Thousands of cards - each playthrough is guaranteed to have a unique deck.
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Multi-enemy encounters - choose wisely which stack and which monster to defeat first!
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Multiple playthrough character development - a honest roguelite.
Strategy Matters
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Unique graveyard mechanic - cards must be returned from graveyard between or during matches.
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Planning your itemization from the start - can you afford to save or do you need to invest now?
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Cards that give permanent boosts to your abilities - play and replay it and become a veritable god!
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Choosing your path - Your character develops differently from defeating different bosses.
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Build your hero - each playthrough awards you gems you can use to boost your abilities and win the next run!
A Real Roguelite Feel
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Build your deck between runs - gain new cards, keep the best and start your next run with an upper hand!
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An ever-changing storyline with multiple endings.
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Captivating story that your playthrough generates.
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Cool original art and style.
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Music to blow your socks off.
Have you ever felt like a farmer’s son/daughter from a medieval time period? Is there a tingling in your belly that says you are the chosen one? In your innermost mind, do you feel invincible because you can always start over as another farmhand destined for greatness? If you answered yes to those, or some other questions that you have heard in the past, then look no further in your search for games!
Freebooter of SPLORR!!
I flung turds at a werewolf, bribed some bats, dropped my trousers and defeated a dragon. All this while drinking beer, wine and coffee to keep me going! Was an interesting, random pickup ex’splorring' this game. Trying to win on hard mode now and not poop myself… again.
Definitely recommended for some lighthearted quirky fun!
– Real player with 23.2 hrs in game
Freebooter of SPLORR!! is a fun call back to dungeon crawlers of old. Mixed with some great humour and unique encounters, this is definitely worth it. The music and sound effects are on point, giving you an immersive experience.
The randomness of the dungeons ensures plenty of mixed gameplay, and plenty of achievements to work your way towards! Great game if you love the dungeon crawler style games! Highly recommend!
– Real player with 12.8 hrs in game
Primateria
Take a dive in a Card Game experience dipped in Roguelike and Deckbulding. Combine cards together to make them stronger, discover mysterious items imbued with magic, duel divine creatures, perform combos with infinite combinations and possibilities. Can you be the one to reach the surface?
Features
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Disruptive Fusion System: playing cards in Primateria is more than just putting them on the table. Match the elements to play stronger cards and create powerful combos.
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Deckbuilding: you are as strong as the synergy of your cards. Building a strong deck is the essence to defeat the most powerful opponents. Choose your cards wisely, build your combos and strategy, because your foes most definitely will.
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Powerful items imbued with magic: discover incredible equipment, consumables and artifacts to aid you in your journey to the top. Combine your items with your deck to become even stronger.