Recent reviews by JollilyJime

Majority of the games challenge is the fact you have to micromanage everything. Trog stops working because it is hungry, cauldron is four blocks away, you have to pick the trog up and place it next to cauldron. The trog may then start working or decide it is too far a walk back to a mining site and simply sit there until you pick it up and drop it next to where the work is.

Enemies in the dungeon just portal in from wherever so design really doesn't matter. Enemies walk past my brutes and straight to the orb before the brute decides maybe it will follow the enemy and fight them.

There are different rooms that can be obtained from scrolls and this is neat, but just like everything else requires you to locate a minion, drag and drop them on the room to use it. If a minion is using a room they will not fight enemies and enemies will walk by them as if they are not there. So room design is basically, have everything next to the orb so you don't have to scroll to find your units.

My biggest issue is the workers who can't just go to the cauldrons that are a few blocks from them to eat and also won't often return to work after you drag them to feed them. I spent more time locating workers to drag to food because the only time they use a cauldron is the first time I place it. Maybe I'm missing something, but finding my trogs to make them eat at the nearby cauldron took the majority of my time and was not fun.

The game is on version .5.x and has not been updated since 2021. This appears to be a dead game. It is free, so you aren't losing money, but as the game is incomplete and thus not possible to complete, you are putting time into something that will not be finished.

The game is abandoned and should not be for sale, nor advertised as early access, per the update notes the game will not be updated, nor finished. Their update notes say they leave the game for sale because it is good enough to play for a few hours and shows the mechanics they are developing further for the other game they are developing after abandoning this unfinished game. If this game is just meant to show the potential of the game they ceased working on this game for then it should not be $20 or any dollars and should -not- be labelled early access. You can't early access an abandoned game.
I am pasting the update notes from the developer so the notes are more visible instead of having to find, notice, and click the read more that hides the note saying they have abandoned the game.

Developer's update note:
"Dear players:

We developed this version of Spire of Sorcery in 2020-2022 as a turn-based strategy about a party of mages traveling across the world of Rund. The version available on Steam features 4 story chapters. We do not plan any further updates. Please try the demo before you decide to buy this game, and please buy it only if you're looking for a party-based TBS about spellcasting with no expectations of further content. This version will not be updated.

In the middle of 2022, we experienced a burnout and considered closing the studio for good. After taking a break, we decided to give this idea one more try, making our best effort and giving it everything (time, money, passion):

We partnered with a veteran game designer (with millions of copies of his previous games sold here on Steam) to develop a dark fantasy story-driven game about mages in the world of Rund – with a much more complex, and scalable, system for spellcasting, crafting and exploration; and with a proper storyline (we have a full-time writer working on the project). It will be our "everything or nothing" moment: either we forget about Rund, or we succeed and you love the new game.

We aim to introduce this new game with a playable demo some time in 2024.

Meanwhile, we leave Spire of Sorcery available for purchase, as it features enough content to play for a few hours – and represents the original mechanics that we now develop further. It is not a bad game, and it shows the potential for what we currently build."

I originally had this game marked as "Ignore" because the store page did not at all sell it to me as something I would normally play or enjoy, watched a playthrough by Splattercat and became annoyed as usual at his not paying attention to what he was doing, saw $3.00 price tag, bought in.

It is good. It is definitely not a game I would normally play, but far more enjoyable than I would have thought based on the store page. Game starts out real slow, gets tough around 12 to 15 minutes on first stage, most elements are very straightforward with a few things not making sense until you actual select them (axe did not do what I had expected). I have a feeling some of these will seem obvious if you're a fan of the games it is an homage to (Castlevania), but I have not played those games.

Plenty to unlock, simple, but plenty of fun. I have played much worse games for $30 to $60.

Update Feb. 16, 2022:
It is an early access game so reviewing certain elements is not ideal as those elements can change. I've removed comments on elements that can and will change as the elements I previously commented on have changed.
Dev updates have been good so far, some notable changes to levels have been made, I have found I can win the first two stages (hyper) with most builds I have tried. Third stage hyper is a bit luck dependent, but I can win it with a smaller, but still varied, number of builds.. Game is a ton of fun for the price tag.

This is a solid implementation of the tabletop game in digital form. I believe the art and music are great and immersive and allow the digital format of the game to accomplish things the tabletop simply can not. One of the best elements is not having to do all the accounting the tabletop version normally requires so you aren't having to be concerned you are forgetting something or misunderstanding timing or a rule.
The only downside is that if you own expansions/dlc for the digital game and are hosting a match, you will only be able to invite players who have access to the same dlc unless you disable it first, or just have them create the match. The tabletop game definitely benefits from only one copy of any game element needing to be owned.
If it ever has game elements on sale, I would highly recommend just going all in if you know you enjoy the tabletop version as this is just a better implementation of the game.

I wanted to like the game, the reviews made it sound pretty good.
I wouldn't call the game gorgeous, the graphics are fine, but nothing spectacular. I don't really care about those though.
When I started the game, it was very loud, I went into the settings to reduce the volume and was greeted by a very barebones settings situation. I reduced music volume, nothing changed. I reduced effects volume, nothing changed. I reduced both to zero, the music was still blaring. I had finally decided to just start the game and see how it worked from there. Same thing. Maybe it is just me, but I felt like I was dealing with some bad mobile / Facebook game port when it came to the sound.
The game mechanics aren't awful, but they weren't as good as reviews had led me to believe. The combat is bland and uninteresting. The management is okay. There is a lot of combat, which the bland and uninteresting aspect makes all the worse.

The English in the game is horrible. The tutorial does its best, but the wording and grammar are a constant reminder of this not being translated well. I assume it is translated from another language. If this was written by English speaking people then it is not obvious. For me the language weirdness is a turn off, makes things feel cheap.

Overall the game seems like it could be good, but it definitely is not for me.

I worried this would be just as bad on launch as its predecessor, Civ V, was, but I am relieved to say it is not.
* Promotions are perhaps a tad bit less interesting than in V, but I can deal with that.
* The combat is still similar to the previous game, but I find it more interesting somehow, still not quite sure what it is.
* The UI is less intutive to me, especially when it comes to interacting with cities. I can kind of get what they were going for, but I still feel lost on what is actually happening in some aspects that were very clear at a glance in V. I still am not sure where to find when a city's borders are going to expand.
* The graphics are more cartoony, but I like them. Things on the map are typically more clear and obvious and I think the more animated leaders show a lot more character than in previous installments.
* Diplomacy is still a wash. Leader agendas help make them more sensible, but I have still found myself immediately at war with, say, Pedro, when I first meet him, despite my larger military. Generally though, the AI works and, upon reloading the game to see if he'd still do it, he did not, so not sure what is going on with that.
* The tech tree and civics tree are more interesting. Well, not more interesting, more or less the same, just split up.
* City districts are definitely an interesting and appreciate change.
* Civilizations can have multiple choices for a leader again, which I am happy about, though only a few have multiple choices at the time of this review (not a great review, sorry)

There is likely much more to say, but I am not really good at reviews. The game is fun and I have found myself losing out on sleep due to the "just one more turn" syndrome. I am very happy with the game despite expecting to be incredibly disappointed.

I am not great at reviews.
Card Hunter is basically a tactical-board game where you have three characters who each have their own deck composed of items that you equip to them and the character's race (of Human, Elf, Dwarf, I would be happy to see more, but I have played this game since before it was on Steam and it has only ever had the three).

I am unaware of any pay to win aspects in the game. There are microtransactions, but they are cosmetic, or for expansion packs, which I am okay with. Most of the stuff you can buy seems reasonably priced to me, your mileage may vary.

The game itself can be frustrating at times, as there is a lot of rng-madness going on. Some games you'll draw non-combat card after non-combat card despite having a deck on the character that consists of a great many combat cards. Other games you'll get a plethora of combat cards, but not enough ways to actually move to opponents, which leads to having to discard all of your lovely cards.
Most matches run fairly well though, I have had many good runs where I felt everything went well, but when playing with rng, you are going to come up to points that are frustrating.

The art style of the game is clear and enjoyable. The campaign story isn't terrible, though the meat of the game is the tactical combat, so the story isn't a major focus.

I recommend the game, it is a good pick-up-and-play game, lightly casual, but with enough depth to sink into.

It's a very simple game that may be funny to someone, but not to me. The concept is simple: Each day in the game you have a witness (seems to be the same witness for the same day every time) the witness will give you incredibly vague and largely useless clues, such as "He looks like a freak" in a game where almost every character looks like what someone would call a freak, or "He looks like a hippy", which could be useful if I knew what they consider a hippy. Thought it would be folks flashing peace signs, but I was not correct about that. The clues are just not very useful. I get the idea, maybe I am supposed to sit and learn what each witness actually thinks those things look like, but since the gameplay is just reading clues, then choosing someone, I have no interest or motivation to actually put time into thinking about the motivations of the witnesses, if that is what is expected of the player.

The game is boring, mildly frustrating, and has some very cheap attempts at humor. One of the few games I've ever lost interest in in such a short span of time. I like McMillen, but I don't want to pay to encourage what is essentially something you might expect to find on a flash game site.

If you like Match-3 style games then this may be fun. I enjoyed the early stages, but getting further along the game goes from casual fun to plain tedious. Some of that is just the usual match-3 luck of the draw where the player's actions are not necessarily related to the outcome. I may also just be terrible at this kind of game.

The "city-building" and "politics" are largely tacked on. I enjoy the politics aspect, basically after winning a board a random (?) event occurs and you are given several thematic options on how to handle the event. Some choices might just give you some flavour dialogue, other choices will add decorations to the town, some choices will give you a one-time resource boost, while other choices may give you a permanent, though minor, buff to some aspect of the game itself. If you choose enough of a particular thematic choice your town will "become" that thematic element (nature lovers, republic, militaristic, etc.) I enjoy the politics and choices though they are just a sidenote in the game.

You may often find you are unable to make matches in certain areas, which allows the enemies that are coming at you to destroy your tower unimpeded. You can hire and bring up to two different unit types into combat with you, but I often find they rarely are useful in defending the tower in the areas where the player may not have much ability to. You can also bring in spells and items, which can help at times, though the items tend to be resource intensive, which is problematic when resources in the game are gained in real time. Resources also can, and will, hit a maximum storage capacity in the resource gathering facility, making it so you have to check in often early on if you want to be able to get enough resources to upgrade buildings and research spells and items, which also happen in real time. The resource aspect of the game is off-putting to me as it feels a great deal like a pay-to-win, mobile game, despite the fact there is no premium currency in the game, which is great, I hate games doing that, but in a full game it just feels out of place and tedious.

The game isn't bad, it just isn't good. I find myself going back to play every now and then, it'll take me a long time before I 100% it, should I ever, but I just can't recommend it. It is a test in patience more than anything a lot of the time.