Shadowplay: Metropolis Foe
Shadow play: Metropolis Foe is Turn based Cyberpunk rouge like deck builder game set in virtual metropolis with a band of virtual rebels at a time with alternating play styles to learn and master. Character specified card development are veiled as reflected in the games numerous unlisted None Achievements with quite a deep learning curve.
Level are choice based as your progress depends on the chances you take with random encounters and numerous ways to progress and build your deck and optimise your items and support skills for the end game boss.
– Real player with 41.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Cyberpunk Games.
Cost the price of a movie ticket and lasted 10 times as long. If you enjoyed Slay the Spire, you will enjoy this game, two arcs completed, rewards give replay value, but unfortunately it has been abandoned. So it is incomplete. Still I enjoyed it enjoyable and a game experience worth having/ recommending. Hope the devs will complete it one day or make a similar game again.
– Real player with 29.1 hrs in 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!
Baby Goat Billy
Surprisingly good!
currently in second dungeon but im enjoying the fights. Nice, neat, polished little game with fun card battles.
If you are into this kinds of games definitely give it a try.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
I really love BABY GOAT BILLY!!!!
+Fun and straightforward deckbuilding RPG!
+Roguelite mechanics that work surprisingly well!
+Baby Goat Billy is a mascot to boot with and root for!
[url]CURATOR PAGE with INDIE REVIEWS that are ALWAYS POSITIVE[/url]
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Indies' Lies
An easier, and more enjoyable DBG
Different from the traditional deck building games, we have made many adjustments and optimizations in many aspects, the deck building process will be smoother and more flexible, allowing more players can experience the fun of DBG.
Solitary different role experience
There are 3 professions in early stage. Among them, each profession has three characters. Around each different profession, each character has its own unique and surprising gameplay, different talent trees and varied lieutenants, which will make your deck building more diverse. There will always be something you would like!
Cleverly designed lieutenants System
Players can invite up to two lieutenants to join the team in the game. Different lieutenants have their own positioning and building routes, some of them are strong DPS hero, some of them have strong tank capabilities, and some of them can make the attack of the main character more powerful. You have to make choices depend on the need of your team. A good choice can make your experience more refreshing.
Rich and Variable Talents
We designed unique talents for different professions and deck building. Even the same profession will have different talent selection routes for each game. 200+ unique talents can satisfy all your growing demands in the process of deck building.
Unique Plot Mode
The game has an original fictitious worldview and unique stories.
When you use different characters to complete the games, their own stories will be unlocked, and you will uncover different clues. These clues will take you further to the world under the influence of both old and new gods.
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
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
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!)
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.
Decks & Daggers
(Review updated after completing the game.)
I felt neutral about the game until about half way through, but having finished it, it gets my unequivocal thumbs up.
I loved it.
It’s not a Slay the Spire clone, or anything like that - and yet I do feel it could offer the depth of strategy and builds of those games (and its spin-offs) while still remaining true to itself.
This game has had a lot of love and character thrown into it, which exceeds the StS brigade. It has a story and interesting characters. The art work is also beautiful and full of atmosphere and charm.
– Real player with 28.3 hrs in game
It looks like a fun game but sadly the cards you are dealt for each hand are completely random, so you can end up with no chance at winning a round and this happens time and time again.
I played for 6 hours and most of that time was starting again as the cards I was dealt meant I died pretty much on the first hand of each round.
What should have been a great game is ruined by the RNG.
Edit - Following latest update
I revisited the game after the update and although the RNG is still an issue (for me), it’s much less than before and I completed the game.
– Real player with 21.3 hrs in game
Trials of Fire
Look guys, I’ve been playing this game for a few weeks now and while I can say I do love this game. It’s got adventure, a unique world to explore, characters that have a surprising depth to them (on the few occasions you have the right character for the right scene), and a plethora of fun combo cards and builds. …But…
I fucking hate this game. You have GOT to do something about the enemy combo formation tactic that goes on. It’s the same tactic every time- but it’s UNAVOIDABLE. No matter how you attempt to position, it’s a HEX BASED GRID- you cannot avoid getting surrounded by dudes. Every unit just moves in to surround one target, then all cards are wasted for 1 dude to hit the target 1-3 times, proc’ing the other enemies 2-6 times, for a total of 3-12 damage. If you were confused about the result, your character is dead. Which cannot be mitigated properly because healing herbs only show up when I complete what amounts to a laughably unbalanced boss fight where the 1st boss sends more dudes after you than you can possibly field, while sitting back in the corner buffing himself into oblivion and tagging your guys (who are stuck in combat with his overpowered handmaids) with dot damage and cackling maniacally. Not sure if someone on your team is one of those sadistic Dungeons and Dragons DM’s who think that its totally fair to TPK the party in the first 5 minutes but it feels that way at times.
– Real player with 291.2 hrs in game
As much as I love the genre, card-battler deckbuilders have become a deeply overcrowded field in the last few years. I’m always on the lookout for titles that stand out in some way, doing new or unusual things, and especially ones where those things actually work. Trials of Fire hits that mark, in a few different ways.
First off, it’s a party based RPG, with your three-man team being composed from nine total classes. Each character has their own distinctive deck, consisting of five generic cards and four class-specific starters. The core deck for each character is kept essentially fixed at this size, allowing the player to replace any of those nine slots with more advanced cards drawn from a class-specific pool. Alternatively, they can instead elect to replace one of their existing cards, either basic or advanced, with an upgraded version. This replacement-focused attempt at deck-building strikes an interesting balance, and it’s been pretty rare for me that the decision of what to do is a totally obvious non-choice. The fixed size also serves to keep the deck for each character relatively manageable, as with a more traditional approach applied across multiple characters the size could get unwieldy. There are rare circumstances in which a character will pick up an additional ‘Trait’ card in their core deck, which can’t be overwritten or replaced, instead requiring action to remove. It’s likely not surprising that the most common of these are various Injury cards (gained from risk taking during story events, or having all health depleted in combat) as well as Fatigue (added to the whole party if they’ve gone too long without rest).
– Real player with 82.6 hrs in game
Watch Me Stream My Mental Breakdown
A deckbuilder game with a novel theme and a twist in mechanics because it has a visual novel built around it, with its own set of problems and goals. It’s designed to be replayed, with the goal of earning permanent starting cards after winning the overall game, so it gets a little different every time. The plot is simple, but that’s fine because the point of this game is the cards.
I thought the little details in the story were charming. “Panda” really captures the essence of a streamer, and it makes dealing with disappointed parents feel more lighthearted when they’re pandas. It’s a game that’s not trying to be serious so you can focus on the cards and I appreciate that.
– Real player with 43.6 hrs in game
I want to enjoy this game, I really do, and I understand a lot of the references and tropes in it are geared towards jaded streamers who agree with the fact that there really isn’t a guide to go about streaming successfully. That being said however, I want something of a guide, a meter, something more than viewers to tell me I’m successfully streaming. I’ve tinkered with the length of streams, I’ve tried to be conservative, tried to be nice and run the nontoxic suite, I’ve tried to be combative and run the ego trip end the stream as quick as possible, I’ve tried to go full immunity and keep my chat from hitting me, I’ve let chat beat up on me to rest up next week, doesn’t seem to matter, I don’t see any difference in my stream results. Maybe it picks up when you get your viewership set, either way I don’t know if I have time to keep playing to try to find it, I don’t even know if this is something I will revisit down the line. If you play the demo for this know that you’re just going to get more of the same, it never seems to pick up, never gets fully explained mechanically. Dunno if there’s more to do with this, if the devs are going to keep making changes, but I’m not happy with it at this point.
– Real player with 23.8 hrs in game