Phantom Rose
Scarlet Rose Redemption
Phantom Rose is a rogue-lite deck building game with great artstyle and a troubled history. This is an updated review, written after finishing max difficulty level adventure.
Pros:
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Absolutely breathtaking anime-like dark artstyle.
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Great (sadly short) piano soundtrack, that compliments the atmosphere very well.
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Good selection of different cards and combinations.
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Requires some thinking and strategy without being tiresome.
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Easy to start, easy to put away (i.e. play a bit to kill time then come back later easily).
– Real player with 20.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Female Protagonist Games.
Time to slice up some teddy bears.
Truth be told, I have been following the sole developer of Phantom Rose for quite some time. One day someone I was following on Tumblr reblogged Makaroll’s art and I followed them soon after. Though, it wasn’t until I finally made a Twitter account that I came across some surprising news. This artist that I happened to come across one day was developing a game. Looking back, I have no idea how I missed this (maybe it was one of those weeks where I was too busy to visit Tumblr), but I was excited to find out more. It didn’t take long before the teaser trailer was released to reveal that it was going to be a card game and the level of hype I had skyrocketed. Despite being really terrible at card games, I was definitely going to pick up Phantom Rose.
– Real player with 19.6 hrs in game
Chrono Ark
Definitely a game with balancing issues, some runs feel easy you can make it to the end without any issue. The abilities you draw end up being very useful and actually carry you through… then some runs every random mob will just one shot half your party. The game literally has random mobs that do more damage than any character can possibly have the max health of.
For instance a level 3 healer character in the second zone has roughly 27 hp. There is a chance you will fight a 3 mob battle that can do roughly 40 damage per turn. They may not do the damage abilities but if they do you’re just S.O.L. Its insanely frustrating that every single aspect of the game is random chance but you need all of them to work perfectly in your favor to stand any chance.
– Real player with 111.8 hrs in game
Chrono Ark is a roguelike deck builder with solid gameplay and pleasing visuals and audio.
You start out with a party of two that expands to four as you touch the campfires at the end of stages,
with each stage having interactables and non random encounters that you can fight for loot.
The game has plenty of replay value with the large roster of 14 playable characters (about half of them have to be unlocked), each having about 14 skills + too many equipment to count.
As a further boost, playing the game drops a resource that carries over into the hub that you can spend to unlock upgrades as well as equipment and skills.
– Real player with 107.6 hrs in game
DIMENSION REIGN - ROGUELIKE DECKBUILDER
The game feels a bit especially on the boss as :
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The boss has a large amount of hp - it is hard to combo break stun the boss.
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The boss can one-hit kill your heroes.
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With 1 & 2, it is hard to defeat the boss without taking any damage.
Hence you need higher weapons to defeat the boss
Minor user interface improvement would be great:
- When level up the hero the numbers should be in this order x/y where
x is the total number of orbs collected
y is the required orbs to level up
Suggestion:
– Real player with 64.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder 2D Games.
DIMENSION REIGN is a story about Karen and her brother Edge The Shadowhog who, so dissatisfied with the customer service at their local Stop N Shop, decide to go on a rampage arguing their way up through the chain of command: From disgruntled employees just trying to calm them down, to dozens and dozens of managers, to security officers trying to politely get them to leave, all the way up to the CEO of the company so that their many dozens of nonsensical, self-centered, and outright bizarre complaints can be heard.
– Real player with 45.4 hrs in game
h8machine
h8machine is a cardgame set in a dystopian future in which Artificial Intelligence 🤖🤖🤖 has completely overtaken the online world 🌐🌐🌐 but the worst part is - it learned to behave just like us…
but the AI is not just in the story! an in-game neural network allows you to customize and randomize 2D art in real time! with this TECHNOLOGY, you can fully immerse yourself in the world of anime profile pics posting complete garbage. it’s just like real life social media!
no one uses realtime-with-pause in cardgames, probably for some good reason. but screw it, I like RTWP so I just put it in!
you will strategize around the use of timers as the flow of time is your main resource! there is no turns and all cards time out, resulting in a gameplay like you haven’t seen before. will you get lost in the hectic chaos of ticking timers, or will you optimize every fraction of a second at your disposal? remember: the active pause system allows you to play any card you want while the time stops. use it to make your decisions and execute powerful combos!
are you tired of collecting cards one by one and having to remove the crap ones from your deck as a deckbuilder game goes on? in h8machine, instead of trying to collect a deck card by card, you grab packets of cards with their own “personalities” - internet stereotypes and whatnot. each of these personalities contributes 1/3 of your deck, and you can mix&match them to easily form decks with a pre-constructed feel
Vivid Knight
This is a cute roguelite and auto-chess crossover. It’s very strategy-focused, and the difficulty makes it quite addictive, but some balance issues begin to detract from enjoyment once you’re deep in the game.
The Good
The core game play is roguelike, with your character exploring a maze and fighting monsters in turn-based auto-chess-esque combat. Each step consumes mana, a limited resource that refreshes on each floor, and your team begins taking damage when you run out of mana, forcing you to be efficient in your exploration.
– Real player with 62.5 hrs in game
Welcome to Auto Chess Darkest Dungeon, But Cute.
Jokes aside, this little game so far is one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. I do quite like the auto chess formula, but this game takes a quite unique spin on it which makes it really enjoyable for me.
I’ve seen a lot of reviews making comparisons to TFT and they’re not entirely wrong by drawing the said comparison.
That said, if you’re familiar with games like Auto Chess and TFT, there’s a few things this game does a little different.
– Real player with 32.4 hrs in game
Wander Stars
Wander Stars is a turn-based RPG with roguelite elements where you make your own attacks by combining words to make your own fighting techniques. Learn new words to collect, combine, and experiment to discover enemy weaknesses, synergies, and strategies that will help you win your battles!
The story of Wander Stars follows Ringo, a young martial artist looking for her brother, and Wolfe, a mysterious scoundrel running from his past, as they join forces in an unlikely partnership to collect the pieces of the Wanderstar Map.
Key Features
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Make your own attacks - Collect and combine different types of words to make your own fighting techniques like a SUPER AWESOME FIRE KICK!
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An anime you can play - Each run plays like an anime episode where you experience the adventure through exciting cutscenes and intense battles.
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Wander into adventure - Explore every place you visit through a randomized map and find treasures, rivals, special events and more!
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Binge and reruns - Replay episodes to learn hidden aspects of the story, find any events you missed, and train to earn permanent upgrades.
