Recent reviews by Sylvermyst

They packed an unbelievable amount of gameplay, story, and presentation into this short adventure. I've been making games for almost 30 years and this was incredible. To the team, please PLEASE make a full length (paid) sequel to this. 🙏

Preface: I have played this game for months on the native client before the Steam version came out. This is why I only have minimal time shown on the Steam version. :)

I have been a Collectible Card Game enthusiast (and ex-pro) for years. I also appreciate a game with a high amount of polish and attention put into the experience and presentation. This is the reason I originally gravitated to Hearthstone. It was "easy to learn and difficult to master".

Duelyst was clearly inspired by Hearthstone, but they have something that few other collectible card games offer - a game board. In Hearthstone, positioning your minions occasionally has implications, but most of the time it serves no purpose. Contrast this to Duelyst where positioning your minions is completely core to the experience and it adds a richness of tactical depth that games like Hearthstone will never achieve -- and it does so without complicating the mechanics.

Duelyst is not like chess where every piece has its own movement rules. Every minion moves exactly the same - 2 squares (with a couple of exceptions based on very clear card text).

The quest system is also amazing - there are quests like "Play 4 games with X faction" - doesn't even matter if you lose, you still get credit, and I find this has a huge emotional and psychological impact.

At first I was put off by the gorgeous UI and background art combined with the odd 8-bit pixel style of the characters on the board. But it's definitley grown on me, and I've come to really enjoy it.

As other reviewers have mentioned, Duelyst is extremely generous with gold and resources for a free-to-play game, better than Hearthstone as a comparison.

TLDR: Duelyst is a collectible card game with a unique additional element of a game board, which adds a nice extra layer of tactical depth without being too complex. If you've ever played a CCG, you can instantly pick this game up and "get it". The art is beautiful, the rewards are more than fair, and I would highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys CCG's, board games, or tactics games like Fire Emblem.