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
Cards of Cthulhu
Cards of Cthulhu is a casual little game, simple in design but with suprising depth. You pick cards for your deck from a choice of random two. Two cards at the beginning and more are added as you progress through the battles. Then you jump onto your motorcycle, grab your shotgun and ride across the wasteland to face off against Cthulhu himself - who stole your girlfriend, as villains in games have traditionally been fond to do.
Each opponent you meet on your way you fight by playing your cards (and autoattacking with your shotgun). Simple enough? The depth of the game is knowing when during a combat round to play each card, in battles with consequitive fights of more than one enemy which card to save for the next enemy, which card in a given situation perhaps not to use at all, which cards to deny your enemy from playing, and when to not play cards.
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Real-Time Games.
This game packs a lot of style and fun in a simple package, It is relentlessly focussed on play dropping you right in the game and back to the start when the game ends, which is minor but a refreshing change from the typical game with lots of menus and cut scenes wasting your time. This one has confidence in what it is delivering and delivers it proudly.
Each game you collect a small deck of cards each of which can be used once against a monster or set of monsters. In this way each run feels fresh because you are building a new deck which will be played differently than other decks.
– Real player with 8.2 hrs in game
Death: The Ascension
Certainly not for everyone, confusing at first, but has plenty of unique mechanics after you get past the learning curve
– Real player with 285.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Tabletop Games.
Update:
After a few ascensions, I have a better idea now how the mechanics and concepts fit into this creative new game developed by a very friendly and responsive indie-developer who has updated the game in quick response to suggestions on the discussion forum.
What is it?
I would describe Death: The Ascension as a card/puzzle life-choice simulator in which you aim to optimize your chances of a successful ascension by manipulating event probabilities. It has a deck-building type of mechanic in which you add cards to your deck, but the deck is not a draw-deck. Cards in your “deck” influence the chances of drawing cards into the player’s five card hand from an infinite pool. In other words, if you have only one card in your “deck”, you have a 100% chance of drawing five cards of that type. You are playing cards against Death as your opponent. Death has their own deck that has similar draw mechanics, but only draws one card per turn. Each turn one card from each deck is played with four possible events dictated by the player’s card with varying probabilities for each event known ahead of time.
– Real player with 83.4 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
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
Alina of the Arena
ABOUT
‘Alina of the Arena’ is a roguelite deckbuilding tactics game that combines elements from ‘Slay the Spire’ and ‘Into the Breach’.
Play as a gladiator that must fight for a bloodthirsty crowd to survive. With roguelite deckbuilding and hex-based tactics, players are no longer bound by simple attack and defense. Make use of dodges and knockbacks to stay alive!
#### FEATURES
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Dynamic Deckbuilding
Pick up dozens of cards, keep the ones you need, and craft a unique deck as you fight your way through randomized levels that present a different challenge each run!
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Hex-based Tactics
Unlike traditional deckbuilders that focus on attack and defense, the tactics element adds a dimension of positioning. Dupe your enemies into attacking each other, or use the terrain to gain an upper hand.
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Dual Equipment System
Carry equipment in both hands to enhance your cards! You can dual wield daggers for extra damage, go with a sword & shield combo for rounded performance, or wreak havoc with a two-handed weapon. Figure out the best combination for each fight!
Nadir - Prologue: Slay the Six
Nadir - the point on the celestial sphere directly below an observer. It’s the direct opposite of the zenith… and your destination.
GAME DESCRIPTION: 🔥
Nadir - Prologue: Slay the Six is a free prologue to the dark deckbuilding roguelike adventure, with its artwork burning of infernal fire, and many extraordinary inspirations, the deepest of them coming straight from Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Control powerful, yet extremely blemished teams of characters, each representing one of the deadly sins. Fight using a plethora of unholy cards and try to escape the seemingly endless, multi-layered city.
TWIST ON A TURN SYSTEM 🔥
The Threat Counter shows how powerful the enemy’s attacks will become. There is no limit of played cards, but each of them adds points to the Threat Counter, so you’ll have to manage your risk-taking.
CHARACTER-BASED DECK BUILDING 🔥
Each character on your team contributes to your main deck; find synergies between each Sinner’s cards and build a dream (or nightmare) team.
CONTROL YOUR SINS 🔥
Every Sin has its own group of Sinners, shells that will bring its will to Nadir. As the sinners’ journey progresses, their power will grow, unlocking new abilities to fight even stronger threats. And if they shall fall, the abyss will produce more fools to try.
CHOOSE YOUR OWN APPROACH 🔥
Do you prefer raw damage or a more cunning way of poison? There is a multitude of different card effects to choose from. But remember that the enemy will attack you back, so you better look for cards that will decrease the Threat Counter.
CHALLENGING BOSSES 🔥
Each level of Nadir has its own Floor Guardian that you will have to defeat in order to go deeper into the city. But be careful, each of them has a unique ability!
REACH THE BOTTOM OF NADIR 🔥
This goal seems simple, but considering the characteristics of Sins, will they be able to divide the power between them?
A JOURNEY UNLIKE ANY OTHER 🔥
Watch your back on your way to the bottom of Nadir, taking time to admire its horrific look. It might feel familiar – from the wonders of the Divine Comedy, to desaturated aesthetics of Sin City, to the unforgettable design of Hellboy – yet not comfortable at all.
MODDING SUPPORT 🛠️
Devil’s in the detail and that’s why Nadir offers a built-in, extensive modding support for those who want to expand the world of Nadir and imprint their twisted fantasies onto every inch of the game.
Crawlyard
The performance starts – unending, ever changing, cruel to its actors and viewers alike. Yet you are far from being powerless: you can affect the Mansion’s backstage, send puppets to explore its mysterious rooms and rewrite the play however you see fit.
Every new pattern will bring new opportunities, your bonds with other members of the audience will grow stronger, until one day you finally discover the perfect scenario that the previous owner of the Mansion was obsessed with.
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Card combos: rooms affect each other in many surprising ways. Find out how you can utilize it to develop your own winning strategy or make your runs more challenging. But beware: some patterns may prove to be too difficult for specific puppets.
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Indirect battle system: strategy and preparation are the key to success. Plan your way carefully, exploit the rooms' mechanics, use spells and make event-related decisions at crucial points to end up victorious.
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Adaptability and growth: your puppets already offer different play styles for you to choose from, but with the items found in the rooms you can customize and buff your heroes even further – or uncover new doll parts to build unique fighters.
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Intertwining stories: meet other characters bewitched by the call of the Mansion. Get them to open up to you, learn about their traumas and manias, and affect their future – perhaps in a romantic way. The more you give, the more you obtain in return.
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Choices matter: the others are stuck, but you can still move forward, unraveling the threads of their unfortunate fates. Will you advise your new comrades to do what they want? Or will you suggest they search for what you think they need?
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Reach the Endgame: grow stronger, collect enough hints and find the perfect pattern – the ultimate room layout that will reveal the Wishmaster. Have your desires fulfilled at last… unless you found something, or someone, along the way that made your change your mind.
Going strong! We’re a small indie team, and every wishlist brings us closer to completing our passion project. Thank you for your patronage!
Want to become a part of the growing community and share your impressions about the game? Join our Discord server to stay in contact, learn more about the development process, and get exclusive sneak peeks into the project as it unfolds!
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
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
Deep Sky Derelicts
I will caveat my recommendation by saying that it only just makes it over the threshold. It has a couple of nice ideas that make it playable but many small annoyances that make it far less so. It’s quite cliched but if I could give it a “meh” I probably would.
There are several reviews that compare it to Darkest Dungeon (one of my all time favourites) so I gave it a go. After an hour playing, I realised that this was not particularly accurate. Other than having turn based combat and a map where you wander round and encounter random things, it is not that similar, please disregard anyone saying that!
– Real player with 72.2 hrs in game
OVERVIEW
As a TCCG/RPG game Deep Sky Derelicts scratches an itch I didn’t know I had. It has a few rough edges, but I can certainly recommend it. It is mechanically sound and thematically interesting, albeit somewhat clumsy and childish at times; more on that later. The presentation is well executed and the pacing is just right thanks to careful balancing.
GAMEPLAY, MECHANICS
There is a lot of variety here - the number of classes/specializations makes for great replayability. I’m pretty far along in my current playthrough and I already know what my next party composition will be. The game can be swingy at times, but I never ran into long periods of it being too easy or unfair party wipes. At least… not yet. That said, there are a couple of things I dislike, mechanically speaking:
– Real player with 53.0 hrs in game
Banners of Ruin
I do not play deckbuilders if I can help. I’m not really down for the whole card system usually and I think Slay the Spire was the only exception. I’ve tried others in the past and none of them really stuck. This one was baller, I dig the art style and the card system isn’t overBEARing. I’m sure some folks that play this games primarily may find it easy but for a noob, it’s awesome. Even the music gets you pumped and it is very much like a choose your own adventure.
That being said, there’s not really a lot of content to the game and I kinda wish there was more to it. I didn’t even know I beat the game, I thought it was just the first part or something and then abruptly ended. Still, that didn’t keep me from coming back and playing it again and again.
– Real player with 40.0 hrs in game
TLDR: If you don’t have enough patience to read this review then you don’t have enough patience to play this game I assure you. That being said, it has a LOT of redeeming qualities and is worth a look for anyone who likes deck builders or games similar to Slay the Spire.
Let me start off by saying that I REALLY want to love this game and it is pretty good in spite of its faults. I was raised on CCGs and the advent of deck builders has given the genre a fresh and new take that I thoroughly enjoy and Slay the Spire, a game which I have played into the ground. (Ascension 20 on most characters) Ever since I have been looking for the next StS and there have been some decent offerings, but none have managed to capture my attention in quite the same way. Because of this when I saw this game come up on my store page and watched some gameplay I was immediately sold.
– Real player with 27.2 hrs in game