barely recommend this game. the core gameplay of the cardgame is really solid (though it does not hold up in the roguelike update/dlc being developed right now) but i think you need a very specific amount of cardgame experience for it to really shine. the swingy nature of the low health totals means minor misplays can result in instant match losses, so if you arent already familiar with deckbuilders or ccgs, i'd be wary of the difficulty (see: the many people in the reviews discussing the "rng"). on the other end, if you've played a lot of card games, especially ones with a deckbuilding component, you'll probably cruise through the main story with very few match losses and likely no true losses other than the forced ones. i think the card gameplay is designed to be broken in a fun way, but if you break it too fast you probably won't have a great time. if you think you'd have fun with a lane based deckbuilder, then the game is probably worth picking up.

i'm going to get into mild spoilers following this line.

the meta story (the "irl" one) is extremely predictable and drags you out of the experience with a very awkward delivery. if the game wants to pull something like that off, it needs to be really, really good, but the way it's presented soured me a lot on the entire experience. when that meta story intrudes in minor ways on the game, it mostly serves to take me out of enjoying the actual game (by which i mean both the deckbuilder gameplay and the interesting story being developed between the main antagonists).

of the phases of the game, the last major one was my favorite but lasted the shortest time, but i admit this might have just been a consequence of getting some system mastery. i also was pretty disappointed by the teasing of other 2 phases, promising deeper mechanics for the other types of cards that we didn't actually get to play. the end of the game just feels half baked, and i was disappointed by the promises that the game leaves unfulfilled, especially because i feel like both the strategy components and the rivalries between the antagonists have so much more to offer! it seems like with the roguelike mod, daniel is continuing to work on the game. i can only hope that this means one day it will be the fully fleshed-out strategy game it deserves to be.

tl;dr packed with interesting concepts (both strategy and story) that are often explored too briefly, while also containing some amateurish concepts that are delivered badly. a mixed bag, but probably worth a look if you have a fondness for the genre.

barely recommend this game. the core gameplay of the cardgame is really solid (though it does not hold up in the roguelike update/dlc being developed right now) but i think you need a very specific amount of cardgame experience for it to really shine. the swingy nature of the low health totals means minor misplays can result in instant match losses, so if you arent already familiar with deckbuilders or ccgs, i'd be wary of the difficulty (see: the many people in the reviews discussing the "rng"). on the other end, if you've played a lot of card games, especially ones with a deckbuilding component, you'll probably cruise through the main story with very few match losses and likely no true losses other than the forced ones. i think the card gameplay is designed to be broken in a fun way, but if you break it too fast you probably won't have a great time. if you think you'd have fun with a lane based deckbuilder, then the game is probably worth picking up. i'm going to get into mild spoilers following this line. the meta story (the "irl" one) is extremely predictable and drags you out of the experience with a very awkward delivery. if the game wants to pull something like that off, it needs to be really, really good, but the way it's presented soured me a lot on the entire experience. when that meta story intrudes in minor ways on the game, it mostly serves to take me out of enjoying the actual game (by which i mean both the deckbuilder gameplay and the interesting story being developed between the main antagonists). of the phases of the game, the last major one was my favorite but lasted the shortest time, but i admit this might have just been a consequence of getting some system mastery. i also was pretty disappointed by the teasing of other 2 phases, promising deeper mechanics for the other types of cards that we didn't actually get to play. the end of the game just feels half baked, and i was disappointed by the promises that the game leaves unfulfilled, especially because i feel like both the strategy components and the rivalries between the antagonists have so much more to offer! it seems like with the roguelike mod, daniel is continuing to work on the game. i can only hope that this means one day it will be the fully fleshed-out strategy game it deserves to be. tl;dr packed with interesting concepts (both strategy and story) that are often explored too briefly, while also containing some amateurish concepts that are delivered badly. a mixed bag, but probably worth a look if you have a fondness for the genre.