Iris and the Giant
This review is mostly based on 8 hours playing the demo, and one 2-hour run post-release. Will update sometime.
TL;DR: A good game but not quite ready for release, and the lack of explanations might frustrate you and make it seem harder than it is.
Does the fact that every card you play is destroyed from your deck worry you? It worried me, but it actually works because you get frequent chances to replenish your deck, and you’re not playing with several unique cards but rather a fairly tight set of base effects and improved versions of them. It doesn’t really matter that your sword is gone after you attack, because you probably have 4 more in your deck, you can get another 6 from the next chest you find, and you might have a magical power that gives you 2 swords for free at the start of every room.
– Real player with 15.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Card Game Deckbuilding Games.
Overall, I’d recommend Iris and the Giant for its surprisingly deep positional combat and charming art style. If you’re primarily looking for a great story or you don’t want to fail a few times while gaining upgrades, maybe Iris and the Giant isn’t for you.
I really enjoyed the combat system (I’ll elaborate below). I enjoyed the simple art style and good music. That said, the story didn’t work for me. It felt like it was relying heavily on common bullying/depression tropes. I personally didn’t find the story to be a motivating factor nor did it enhance the game play for me.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Pirates Outlaws
Pirates Outlaws is a roguelite deckbuilder where the player is the captain of a pirate ship in search of fame and fortune, and must fight against Human pirates, skeletons, ghosts and monsters. The game mechanics will be very familiar to anyone who played other games in the genre such as Slay The Spire or Neoverse, although of course Pirates Outlaws has its own unique twists.
Combat Mechanics
Combat is turn based, with the player’s actions being represented by the cards drawn into their hand, and you’ll see what action each enemy intends to take on their turn. Melee attacks can only target the enemy closest to the player (unless the card says it damages all enemies) but are usually free to play. Ranged attacks can target any enemy but they cost ammo to play. Other cards can give the player armour (which can be carried forward to the next turn), restore health, apply status effects to the player or enemies, change the position of an enemy, or have other special effects.
– Real player with 78.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Card Game Turn-Based Strategy Games.
This game looks and plays like a pirate skinned Slay the Spire, and well, that is pretty accurate and not a bad thing either. It does mold and craft its own unique image in both the style and gameplay. Some of the game design choices would actually make me think it is more of an Anti-Slay-the-Spire at times as it makes deliberate design decisions to stray from the path of its inspiration.
While you can craft some pretty OP builds still, it can be a lot harder to achieve some of the broken builds of stacking poison to 999 or such - largely because the status system in this pirate game is quite different. Only one status is allowed to be active at a time. So if your enemy is poisoned, they can wipe their poison stacks clean by buffing their self with an attack increase. Because buffs can erase debuffs and vice versa. However, this goes for the player too. There is even a boss battle that will absolutely wipe the floor with you if you don’t have some kind of way to buff yourself. He will keep raising your injury (this game’s version of poison) stacks on you and they will just get higher and higher unless you wipe it with a buff. Not much different than how Slay the Spire bosses can hard counter some of your decks. But at the same time it is just different and feels unique. I wasn’t so sure about the status system at first but it grown on me quite a bit. Which I think brings me to the next major difference.
– Real player with 69.4 hrs in game
THE SPIRIT LIFT
THE SPIRIT LIFT is a deck-building rogue-like horror adventure set in a haunted hotel.
_Dare to explore a haunted hotel?
Where countless ghosts and monsters dwell?
Danger lurks behind each door
As you ascend to the 13th floor
What secrets shall tonight unveil?
And who will live to tell the tale?_
It’s the 1990s. A magical elevator awakens in an abandoned hotel as several teenagers enter on a dare. They’re about to get the ride of their life, because this place is haunted on so many levels! Make it to the top and fight the boss to learn the hotel’s secrets. And if your team checks out early? Be kind, rewind, and better luck next time…
Gameplay Features:
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Your starting team determines your strategy, so choose wisely. Each character has a special ability and a custom set of starting cards. They’ll also react differently as the story unfolds.
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Find more equipment cards by exploring rooms. Use your deck to fight the creatures who prowl each floor.
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Each run is a unique hotel experience. Different bosses influence battles and events across a randomly generated layout.
(Note that THE SPIRIT LIFT is still in development. Check out our social media links to follow our progress!)
Read More: Best Card Game Roguelite Games.
Yamafuda! 2nd station
This is probably the most relaxing card game I’ve ever played. Just chill out and hike up some mountains with your friend while listening to some comfy music.
As a card game, the mechanics aren’t too deep or combo/synergy heavy but that’s part of the charm. You’re intended to take it easy and carefully hike your way up the mountain rather than cycle your deck twenty times and clear it in one turn. You don’t fight waves of enemies, instead each mountain is like one long endurance battle with some breaks here and there.
– Real player with 19.8 hrs in game
As many small games it’s a bit rough around the edges, but the rest makes up for it. First few mountains look simple, as if the cards/items don’t matter. A bit later you’ll need both luck and strategy to reach the summit.
Most importantly, although I’m not quite sure how punching a buff dog is a metaphor for climbing a mountain, in terms of theme and aesthetic this game is still feels incredibly refreshing and creative compared to the typical card games.
I’m also really grateful that the developer took time and effort to translate the game to English.
– Real player with 11.7 hrs in game
DungeonTop
Beware that initial playthroughs may frustrate you. It is recommended you start out with the Warrior and the Shield icon, it’s just easie to surviver. Also you need to remain picky about cards. If you die, you have to start over. You can save after each battle and you can kill program if you’re losing.
Really love this game. Graphics, music, mechanics, it all comes together very well and it’s highly addictive.
Much less random than other rogue games like Darkest Dungeon and more strategic, giving more choice each turn. It also has more interesting cards to offer than most deck builders and a game board adds brilliant chess like strategy element where position matters a great deal.
– Real player with 40.9 hrs in game
Story
At the beginning of the game, you select and play as a hero. Long ago, there were legends of a place known as the Grand Forge. This was a city whose citizens were so adept at creating that they could bend the fabric of reality itself, using their skills to create whatever they wanted. The story begins three years after something called the Steel Curse has blighted civilization, causing black iron gates to crop up and manifest countless waves of monsters within the walls of major cities. The hero you select will gather an army (and minions and strange cards that do other things) and traverse the levels of the dungeons in an attempt to quell the monster attacks forever.
– Real player with 31.6 hrs in game
For The Warp
As others have pointed out, this game has a lot of great features and has some compelling gameplay. However, there are three things that kill it for me because they lead too far down the path of heavy RNG.
- The shuffler makes no sense. The fact that you don’t discard cards and that every time you draw a hand that you are pulling from your entire deck is against the foundation of what a deck builder game is supposed to be. It has all of the other facets of how to build and manipulate your deck but the player should be drawing from a shuffled stack and continue to do such until the discard pile needs to be shuffled back in. I might have been less opposed to this if you could freely discard cards from your deck without needing to pay for it or have NPC’s want to buy them during events. But as it stands, it is far to easy to get a 18-20 card deck and that is far too much RNG when doing pool draws.
– Real player with 12.2 hrs in game
As others have stated, FTL meets slay the spire.
HUGE potential here. I think a few things need reworked.
1. Balance: jmzero’s review goes in depth.
2. No discard pile: this i feel is an odd design choice, since there’s no discard pile, all cards used immediately go back to the deck, so attaining any new card is a constant lower percentile of getting any card in your deck on every turn. So you may never see your new card in play…ever. Since the deck is shuffled every turn. This is poor design, you cant structure synergy here, as you are constantly threatened to draw the same cards over and over. This just feeds into the balance problem, of “just grab the most OP cards and scrap the rest”
– Real player with 9.3 hrs in game
Geometric Sniper - Card Game
Have you ever seen a roguelike sniper card game? Not! We didn’t know any of them either, so we turned our favorite sniper game into one! Get ready to find cards and hunt your targets armed with the deck you’ve built! Overcome the challenges and make the right choices to save the day!
A unique and challenging roguelike sniper card game!
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Prepare:
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Challenging missions in adventure mode;
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Random maps where it’s up to you to choose the path and benefit from it or bear the consequences of a wrong choice;
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Build your Deck wisely to meet mission challenges;
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Be careful with civilians, they will be present in some moments of the game. You must protect them while killing your enemies;
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Negotiate the release of hostages or be precise in your shot! You can risk and eliminate your target before it kills the hostage;
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With each mission new enemies and situations for you to face, new cards and equipment to help you on your journey you can find, hunt your targets, complete your mission and return to base, the next mission awaits you.
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Other game modes and more…
Good hunting!
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Jupiter Moons: Mecha - Prologue🤖
Prequel to the events of the full game
Prologue contains only gauntlet mode where you fight battles, equip your Mech, level up your pilot - repeat until you defeat the final prologue boss or die trying.
Customize your mech
Choose your Mech frame. Every pilot approaches combat differently, choosing from the melee-oriented assault frame, the stealth sniper frame, or just opt-in for raw laser firepower. Mech frames can be upgraded during the game: by installing new equipment and upgrading the frame to a newer variant.
Build your perfect deck
Collect weapons, shields, and equipment by destroying your opponents in battle. Victory serves you with new ‘toys’ for your mech, swapping out these ‘toys’ will adjust your combat deck.
Test your Mech on battlefield
There are countless weapons and items to discover and try out: lasers, machine guns, plasma rifles, sniper cannons, swords, hammers, drones, mines, force fields, jet engines, as well as more unique ones like: rocket fists, whips, scythes, cloaks, pile bunkers or mini-nukes!
Enjoy the tactical combat
Predict your opponent’s actions and adjust your tactics to the situation on the battlefield. Flank, assault, ambush, hide behind cover, or precisely target most valuable components on enemies.
Find powerful card combinations
Discover unique card combinations that will give you an edge on the battlefield. Or try to find the one that will break the game: one turn boss battle victory or no damage. Test your combos on the highest difficulty levels.
Protect your mech body parts from destruction
Each body part of the Mech has its own armor and health. Balance your equipment to keep your deck efficient and provide enough protection. When a body part is destroyed, you can’t play cards attached to it!
Choose your path
Choose your path on the campaign wisely, avoid fights not suitable for your current loadout. Take greater risks for better rewards, or just complete your objectives. Discover the origins of the alien AI that is corrupting the machines.
Mage Tower: Call of Zadeus
Mage Tower is an open-world roguelike deckbuilder with no set paths.
You play as a hero on a quest to stop a warlock from summoning an interdimensional monster known as Zadeus. Travel across a randomly-generated world, visit towns, and delve into dungeons. Battle the monsters roaming the land, collect cards, and upgrade your deck.
Find the boss wizards' castles and destroy them.
NO NODES, PLEASE
Travel in any direction and explore a randomized map full of towns, dungeons, monsters, events, and other secrets. Swap cards in and out of your deck anytime. Collect overworld powerups and spells. A free-roaming deckbuilder you can play however you want.
UNIQUE DECKBUILDER COMBAT
Mage Tower is a digital sequel to the 2013 internationally published card game Mage Tower, A Tower Defense Card Game, with hundreds of new cards. It expands the original’s first-of-its-kind deckbuilder combat system, which was inspired by tower defense games.
PUSH YOUR LUCK
Activate up to 6 dangerous idols before battle to make the fight more difficult, but give better rewards. This makes every battle meaningful and challenging, as you place the biggest “bet” you can based on your deck’s strategy vs. the enemy’s deck.
PICK YOUR CLASS
Over 80 character classes. Each class comes with a unique class card that cannot lose durability or break, meaning it will be your most reliable card and often the card you build your strategy around.
NINE YEARS OF DESIGN
Mage Tower’s cards are a rich well of variation, featuring mechanics that have not been done in even the most popular card games. Escape the lurch of endless “4 Damage + Random Combat Mechanic” cards!
FEATURES:
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Single-player roguelike deckbuilder.
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350+ cards (most are UPGRADABLE.)
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80 classes.
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Late 90’s aesthetic.
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Cards lose durability after battle; fortify and repair the ones you like.
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4+ biomes, each with different enemy types.
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Push your luck before battle with the Idol system.
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Discover boons, random events, and overworld powerups throughout the world.
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Crazy boss fights! Battle dozens of plant monsters, wizards with otherworldy spells, or multiple cards representing the various parts of a single foe.
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Dungeons with unique rewards, but one life pool to last you through.
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More advanced, strategic, and complex cards than other deckbuilders. BIGGER TEXT BOXES!
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Easy to learn - the original game has a 2.83/5 complexity rating on BGG.
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Sequel to the 2013 card game which raised over $24k on Kickstarter and has been sold in game stores internationally.
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No “open-world slog” - always on the edge of your seat pushing your luck with battles and managing your deck and card durability.
Monster Slayers
This game has more than what meets the eye. From the other reviews I am sure you have a good idea of what game this is, but I am here to talk about the depth of the gameplay. I know for a lot of card game fans and rogue-like gamers out there this is important.
The game can seem to get boring after you find yourself discovering everything. After you seen the cards, beat the boss, played the rogue class, farmed some items, maxed out talents, etc. But, you haven’t tried legendary mode. This is where the real game begins.
– Real player with 112.3 hrs in game
This is a fantastic rogue-lite deck-building RPG.
The various classes are almost all very interesting, and often lead to varying play styles. The rogue-lite progress allows you to upgrade both individual classes in interesting ways (e.g. replace some crappy cards in the starting deck with one or another set of replacements), and generally upgrade all characters (e.g. make it more likely to get better loot at the end of combat).
The moment-to-moment gameplay is very solid. It’s got a good set of mechanics that allow for some strategy and making interesting choices during combat, and the enemies you face are playing by exaclty the same rules (albeit with very different decks).
– Real player with 46.3 hrs in game