Dark Stone: The Lightseeker
Even though the early game may be boring, the game allow for in-depth strategy and planning, with gradual unlocks over time which allows for you to plan ahead with better starting teams and permits for you to build larger teams during the runs, while also increasing the maximum difficulty with each complete run.
– Real player with 40.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Deckbuilding Turn-Based Tactics Games.
I got the opportunity to play this throughout the beta recently. I was new to the deck building genre, but not roguelikes, and have thoroughly enjoyed the game. It is certainly plenty difficult for me and Jinny has been incredibly receptive to feedback on balance and UI/UX changes. The English localization is still a work in progress, but its not bad by any means.
Definitely recommend if you enjoy the genre.
– Real player with 17.2 hrs in game
Dream Quest
This game has a nice quality of being enjoyable whether you play it fully engaged or in a casual click-and-see-what-happens way. It’s easy to understand what all the cards do and form strategies.
The depth is there if you want it. These are random, procedurally-generated challenges that have no guarantee of “solvability”. Strategy is found in things like:
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fighting easier monsters first to grind up to better results on harder monsters.
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Planning when to use the different methods of gaining health so they aren’t wasted
– Real player with 439.9 hrs in game
Dream Quest is the game that inspired Monster Slayers, Slay the Spire, and took several key concepts from Desktop Dungeons, among a bunch of other indie games. It’s the ugliest piece of sh*t you’ll ever see, but in spite of, or perhaps because of its nonexistent effort and budget spent on art, the gameplay is phenomenal.
Starting with Monster Slayers (Not the game I am reviewing), you pick from one of four classes, later unlocking four more, plus 4 others through DLC. Those classes are unique and all, but they are grossly outclassed by the choices you have in Dream Quest. As an example, in Dream Quest, the final class you can unlock, called The Professor, allows you to steal cards from monster decks permanently. Monster cards are overpowered in several ways, and no other deckbuilder I’ve played has a mechanic like that. This game invites you to create an overpowered character, then get demolished anyway by the ‘true’ final boss.
– Real player with 57.2 hrs in game
Dungeon 100
· Going down 100 floors if you’re a true man
Dungeon 100 is a Diablolike + Auto Chess + Roguelike type of game. The core gameplay is to complete 100 levels of dungeon with a combat style of your own through the combination of skills.
· Diablolike game without the grinding
No gears, no perks, only the completely free combination of 100+ skills that gives you the pure excitement of building.
· He who fights with dragons become the dragon
Every 15 levels will be hold by a dragon. After you defeats the dragon, the character will be taken over and become the boss of this level, with the skill set he/she currently has. You have to beat your former character to move on deeper into the dungeon.
Read More: Best Deckbuilding Dark Fantasy Games.
Golfie
Golfie is a roguelite mini-golf deck builder (yes, you read that correctly!)
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Play through infinite procedurally generated levels! From floating islands to dank dungeons, there is much to explore!
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Build your deck of crazy abilities you’ve never seen before in a golf game!
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Collect crystals to obtain new cards and perks!
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Gather coins to spend in the shops
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Try to survive and beat all 18 levels! Don’t worry, if you fail you can just start a new run!
Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition
GoD is a fun little rogue-like with a lot of character, but not a lot of content.
The card based gameplay is very straight forward compared to a traditional TCG, so the mechanics shouldn’t be a stumbling block for most players for very long. Each of the different character classes (13 in total, I believe) has their own starting decks. These decks are expanded in battle by collecting equipment dropped after each battle. As with most RPGs, the common drops are low quality, only granting you a single card or buff, while the rare and epic loot drops can grant you 5 powerful cards and multiple buffs. You can also equip your Dungeoneer with a special item or blessing before exploring a dungeon, and these can offer advantages like extra hit points, larger starting hand sizes, or increased damage.
– Real player with 137.0 hrs in game
Just finished the game at 15hrs. Interesting game with innovative system. Still, I had to consider really long whether to say I’d recommend this game or not. In the end, the positives won out.
Something very important you should know before buying the game: despite the misleading name and description, gameplay-wise this game is not a dungeon crawler, neither is it a RPG. It is more like a twist on deck-building card game. If you understand that before playing the game would be a lot easier to play.
– Real player with 21.3 hrs in game
Hand of Fate
What drew me towards this game was the aesthethics and atmosphere shown in the trailers, and I was not disappointed.
The game is presented as you, the protagonist, sitting across from the dealer, a mysterious hooded figure, to play game of cards.
Everything in the game has a representation as a playing card.
The playing field is a bunch of cards, laid out in small mazes.
Your equipment is made up of cards like weapons, helms, shields and a plethora of rings.
Your enemies are cards in 4 suites (dust, skulls, scales and plague), each of which is a theme (e.g. the card “2 of dust” is a pair of bandits).
– Real player with 64.2 hrs in game
I’m going to try and be as thorough as I can with this review. I’ve been playing the game since before it was released on steam. I think that now they’ve made it clear the game is almost finished I’m going to explain why this game is FAR from finished.
Let me start out by saying that I’m an old gamer, yeah an old guy still playing games. So, the definition of what was and what is now considered a ROGUE-like are two completely different animals. The old rogue-likes were fun games were you crawled a dungeon in search of treasure and weapons much like the new ones. After that the definition has changed. Old rogue-likes required you to use your wits to advance your character in such a way that you could accomplish your goals as long as you played your cards right “no pun intended”. The new rogue likes are a smorgasbord of take it up the proverbial gluteus without any way to counter/block/prepare or even chance your way out of a situation. This growing trend of masochistic (why people think it is) enjoyment has literally turned rogue like games that could have been great from games that lasted weeks, months, & years into ones that only last a few hours, days, or weeks. That’s if you’re willing to deal with them for that long.
– Real player with 42.0 hrs in game
HELLMALL
About This Game:
Beat your foes and save your souls! Lead Callaghan and his friends to victory in a reel-spinning, deck building roguelike in an infinite virtual mall. Craft your reels, make some friends, and talk to dogs. Pave paradise and check out the swag loot drops… all to escape the HELLMALL!
features:
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Dynamic character switching combat:
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Choose the right party character for the job. Whether it’s a vicious first strike, a powerful party buff or a quick HP injection, your friends have got you covered!
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Tactical deck building with a twist:
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Find items and equipment to modify each character’s reel with new attacks. Build your reels carefully and hit those triples!
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People to meet and things to do:
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Every run through the mall is unique, but the characters you encounter will remember you. Develop your relationships with the other doomed souls lurking in PleromOS for new party characters. Complete unique side quests to know your friends better!
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Secrets to find and new mysteries to uncover:
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Gain currency after every run to acquire new resources, questlines and character traits that can appear in your next run!
Cartridge Defense
I’ve played a lot of tower defense games and this one is really compelling. There are difficulty spikes that had me ragequitting, but here’s some advice - don’t be afraid to spread your towers out, and sponsorship mode is endgame.
I love and I hate this game. The number of stages that you spend 30 minutes in, doing really well, and then the boss monster comes out and FUCKING STEAMROLLS YOU is waaaaaay too high. Also there are only a handful of “winning” round 1 plays, I am restarting a lot and I wish there was a better system in place to make sure you have an actual play round 1.
– Real player with 98.3 hrs in game
This game right here is a gem. I have played hundreds of tower defense games, this ones special. Starts simple, and keeps adding layers with tower cards as you progress/farm. the effects on cards add so many ways to play. What a delight to not have a games in game purchase cost money!! it costs regents from playing lvl/farming to purchase packs for more cards, which packs seem to get better as you progress? easy to get to! It still has some bugs i have come into. but for me. nothing game breaking. Just notice it at keep playing/grinding. I am the type of person that likes to jump around from mmo to shooter, to thinker games. like tower defense or whatever. I like to have a game of each type to play at will. and this one has filled a void missing for tower defense for a minute. im a deep fan of such games likes orcs must die 2. where u can really set stuff up. and yes i gave up trying to type proper…can you tell? :)
– Real player with 44.5 hrs in game
Coin Crypt
First off, this is my wife’s favorite game, even though she has never played it, entirely because of the opening theme music.
I would recommend this game as a fun, though sometimes challenging rogue-like romp, bringing together the constant threat of permanent death with a light-hearted playfulness.
The game attempts to present itself without tutorial or much explanation, evoking the enigmatic feeling of many games in the NES era, and does so mostly successfully. (I did do some wiki-ing about the gods after a few days, as this was somewhat opaque to me). The basic strategy of the game unfolds into a fairly rich and varied system as you unlock new classes and learn how to synergize class talents with the other elements of the game. While some classes can be made into powerhouses quite easily, others seem destined for failure. Though at first I felt the obvious imbalances of the classes was a flaw in the design, I now feel like this helps lend the game its particular charm.
– Real player with 133.5 hrs in game
EDIT:
I got super tired of reading so many complaints of people saying that the game is too hard and confusing, so I wrote a guide for beginners. This should clear up any questions you might have about the game, and if you still don’t like it afterwards, then I guess it isn’t for you. This review is also specifically focused on the base game and does not include any info on the DLC expansion.
Also, this was Slay the Spire before Slay the Spire.
– Real player with 111.2 hrs in game
Tetrogue Dragons
Tetrogue Dragons is a deckbuilding rogue-lite with a fun puzzle twist. Choose from three initial classes and unlock four more. Each class has a unique set of abilities that correlates to falling blocks on the battle board. The classes also have different stats altering the penalties they take for filling their battle board or the speed that blocks fall onto the board. As you move through procedurally generated maps, you add shapes into your deck, gain potions, and add items that alter gameplay and can also stack for impressive bonuses. Items can increase the size of your battle board, your loot drops, your maximum health or much more. Beware though! As you add shapes to your deck, the enemy’s decks get bigger as well and their abilities grow with each new map. At the end of each map battle a dragon boss with unique abilities like reversing your controls or obscuring part of your battle board. Play to become a master, or just have some casual fun, it is up to you!