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!
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Hex Grid Games.
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.
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder 2D Games.
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
Jupiter Moons: Mecha🦾
Choose your mech, customize your loadout, and build your perfect deck. Experiment with cards to find powerful combinations as you enjoy the tactical combat and deckbuilding in this roguelike adventure!
Customize your mech
Choose your Mech frame. Every pilot approaches combat differently, choosing from the melee-oriented assault frame, the stealth sniper frame, or just opt-in for raw laser firepower. Mech frames can be upgraded during the game: by installing new equipment and upgrading the frame to a newer variant.
Build your perfect deck
Collect weapons, shields, and equipment by destroying your opponents in battle. Victory serves you with new ‘toys’ for your mech, swapping out these ‘toys’ will adjust your combat deck.
Test your Mech on battlefield
There are countless weapons and items to discover and try out: lasers, machine guns, plasma rifles, sniper cannons, swords, hammers, drones, mines, force fields, jet engines, as well as more unique ones like: rocket fists, whips, scythes, cloaks, pile bunkers or mini-nukes!
Enjoy the tactical combat
Predict your opponent’s actions and adjust your tactics to the situation on the battlefield. Flank, assault, ambush, hide behind cover, or precisely target most valuable components on enemies.
Find powerful card combinations
Discover unique card combinations that will give you an edge on the battlefield. Or try to find the one that will break the game: one-turn boss battle victory or no damage. Test your combos on the highest difficulty levels.
Protect your mech body parts from destruction
Each body part of the Mech has its own armor and health. Balance your equipment to keep your deck efficient and provide enough protection. When a body part is destroyed, you can’t play cards attached to it!
Choose your path
Choose your path on the campaign wisely, avoid fights not suitable for your current loadout. Take greater risks for better rewards, or just complete your objectives. Discover the origins of the alien AI that is corrupting the machines.
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
Nowhere Prophet
Edit - I finally beat the game. Everything I said holds doubly true. This game is perfect in every way. There’s like six different endings. I accidentally taught Skynet about slavery. Feelsbadman. Gonna have to get it right next time.
Usually, I wait until I’ve seen half or three-quarters of the content a game has to offer before I write a review. That won’t be necessary here - I’ve done 4 runs, made it to the last level once, and only unlocked about 10% of the game’s other content, and I already find this game to be stellar in every possible way. Specifically, this game, even more so than Slay the Spire, is a love letter to anyone who enjoys drafting Magic: The Gathering; but by no means is that necessary to love this game. Everything about it, from the tooltips to the alignment system to the gameplay to the music and art directions, is executed flawlessly. While some of the other reviews - particularly the complaints about the VERY generous permadeath system; more on that later - made me wary of purchasing the game, I’m glad that I did.
– Real player with 109.8 hrs in game
Need more time with this title, but deeply impressed with the experience so far. It’s story remains a little shallow (like most games of this ilk) but does better than a lot of it’s genre in being interesting in terms of it’s various road events… my initial hesitations were largely focused on the involvement of strategy game style positioning, which in my experience adds little to games like these while slowing play down considerably… I’m not sure that’s any less true in this game, but the feature is fairly minor and thus easy to only involve as much as you want to (certain decks have mechanics that benefit from using it liberally, while others can all but ignore it). There also seems to be some minor UI issues, such as the fact that I can’t seem to end my turn without exhausting all my units, forcing me to attack or move with units even if I don’t want to… unsure if that’s a bug or by design, but seems like a bizarre choice if the latter. The music is servicable but far from impressive and seems to recycle quite rapidly.
– Real player with 90.3 hrs in game
Rise of the Slime
Rise of the Slime
You suddenly wake up as a small Slime and are told to go on a journey across the land to reclaim the throne…
Slay the Spire but with a slimy gooey twist
After playing the game for quite a while now I can say that I really enjoy it and every little aspect of it.
Art
The artstyle is a cute comic cutout style with almost everything being moved around on sticks like on a kids play which adds a unique charm to it. Small details like two extra arms holding up shields to signify block are just cute.
– Real player with 27.4 hrs in game
I was pleasantly surprised by this game. This is NOT just another carbon-copy deck builder.
Rise of the Slime feels a bit more casual than similar titles. I died less often, and combat encounters felt less swingy in general. You can expect to get much further in your runs, and to have more control over the cards in your deck.
The adorable graphics and setting are a huge bonus. Most deck builders take place in a highly gritty fantasy setting, and the adorable art style is a nice change of pace. It is also nice to walk through the world rather than click on rooms in a menu. There are even a few secrets with the interactable terrain.
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
Rise of the Slime: Prologue
The demo is awesome! You should try it out.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
You know how some games make the beginning easier so you get that feeling of accomplishment before you’re stomped on?
That doesn’t happen here. :)
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
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
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
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