Book of Demons
This game is a gem. I’d like to highly recommend it to any player who enjoys a mix of action, planning, and collecting.
What could make you love this game?
First of all, the art style. It catches the whole idea of it being a “book”. Well designed pop-up book graphics, both in the world, the character sheet and inventory (your card deck), as well as in the menus. And if you are a fan of Diablo I & II, you will notice that Thing Trunk got one important part – that made those titles stand out – just right: the lighting. Be it torches illuminating that tiny space just outside your radius of view, be it the ominous glow of a not-so-distant boss… it does a great deal to help you “feel” the dungeon. And of course: it pretty.
– Real player with 159.5 hrs in game
Overview
Book of Demons is a hack & slash which pays homage to Diablo with a few twists - it is set in a paper-cut universe like in a pop-up book, and everything you can equip, use, do comes in the form of cards that you assemble into your loadout to conquer the said Paperverse. You start out with 3 card slots out of the maximum of 10 available. Card slots are unlocked using gold and cost incrementally more. As of the build I played (0.75.11062+), only the Warrior class is available. The other 2 classes - Mage and Rogue will be released at a later date according to the roadmap but apart from this the game is pretty complete for an Early Access game. The total of 32 cards in the Warrior’s arsenal are divided into Artifacts (equipment - e.g. weapons, armor, trinkets), Items (e.g. potions, bombs, town portal scroll) and Spells (e.g. Mighty Blow, Charge, Blade Storm). All Artifacts have a mana cost which effectively reduces your mana pool available for using Spells (Items have no mana cost). Leveling up allows you to increase your health or mana, which translates to taking more hits / casting more spells. You do not actually grow stronger by levelling up. Instead you increase in strength by discovering new cards or upgrading your existing cards using gold and runes you find.
– Real player with 144.7 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
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Fantasy Games.
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
School of Magic Prologue
Very interesting i like how magic/cards works
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Hey Everyone, yeah i really liked the Artstyle of the Game. The Soundtrack is well executed. The Combination with the Skill / Spell Cards is pretty stunning. I played the Demo and want definitly see more, when the whole game is finished. People who are invested in Kill the Spire, will be entertained and others have a more easy way to get into that system with the Action RPG part.
Keep on the good Work developers,
sincerely
Rince
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Hand of Fate 2
Having not played the original, I didn’t know what to expect, but I have been pleasantly surprised. This game is equal parts choose your own adventure, collectible card game, tarot card game, The Price is Right prize game, and action RPG. And it all works together really well.
Each of the 20 or so scenarios will have an overarching story that is told through narration, text, and events occurring through randomly placed cards that the player traverses as a figurine. The player can select from their previously won cards before each scenario to choose the encounters, weapons/equipment, and fortunes they will face, in addition to cards unique to each scenario. Other cards and player companions will have their own stories that will be told over the course of many scenarios. The story itself is a meta game, as told by the narrator, known as the dealer. Your character plays the game of life and death against the dealer as the story unfolds.
– Real player with 121.0 hrs in game
_During your travels, you stumble upon somewhat unnecessary wall of text blocking your path. The scribble describes a sequel to a flawed game of age long forgotten. As you gaze through the text, you notice small ink marks both above and below it: “hrs on record”, “helpful” and “funny”. From the corner of your eyes you see a hooded figure to the left.
“You’re welcome to read it. But mind you, that’s just an opinion of mine,” a low humble voice echoes in your ears. The figure’s been watching you all this time._
– Real player with 98.7 hrs in game