This one passed me by when it was first released... I'd seen the trailers, but it looked fairly static. The game is a great example of where a video trailer doesn't really do it justice. It came to my attention when it won a number of year-of-year awards from various publications, so I picked it up on Switch (good timing, as I'd just completed Rogue:Legacy NG+ and Wild Hearts:Sayonara).
The game concept is pretty simple...you have one of three characters, each with an associated deck of cards, and you have to battle through 3 levels of a multi-tiered dungeon, with multiple routes. You start with a small hand of cards (mainly blocks and attacks), and after each battle you get the option to add a random card (normally selecting one from three). There are then a number of other non-battle events;
A Merchant, where you can pay to buy extra cords, or pay to remove a single card
Random events, with positive and negative consequences to decisions
Camps, where you can regain health or upgrade a card in your deck
Treasure Chests, where you can gain Relics (effectively a permanant buff to your character)
There are also Elite battles (which reward a Relic), and each level ends with a boss battle (which rewards with a more powerful Relic).
The deck building part of the game (where you slowly build a deck from the cards offered) feels very much like Dominion, in that you slowly move from a basic deck of blocks and strikes to (hopefully) a synergistic death engine. The quirk comes from the fact you really do have to work with what you have...there is no "ideal" build as such, as the cards are fully random in nature. The Relics you pick up can have a big impact on your strategy run-to-run as well...some of their powers can be really influential on your future card selection. In this way it also reminds me of Race for the Galaxy (one of my favourite card games)...very much making the best of what you are dealt.
Finally, each character and their associated deck feels very different to play. I started with an Ironclad (special power of light healing after each battle, and a deck focus on physical attacks), and (despite there being very little in the way of tutorial) I was able to fairly quickly understand how to get cards working together...sometimes it would be a build where I stacked buffs and handed out massive attacks, other times I'd end up going down the route of "death by a thousand cuts", with lots of small attacks in quick succession. I then moved onto the second characte type (a Silent, with a focus on de-buffing the opponents and defense) and quickly died. It required a completely different style of play...eventually I started to get a feel for it, and had some great runs involving overloading enemies with poison and building huge defenses. Finally, the third character is a Defect, which is the games take on a minion master...the deck revolves around generating and utilising "orbs", while protecting the character...while shuffling actions across turns.
Each plays very differently, and once you add in the impact Relics can have (across a run you can pick up potentially 10-20 Relics) can change your playstyle several times in the course of a half hour game. Finally, you have a variety of enemies, each which can provide a different challenge. I've had games where I have slain large bosses with ease, only to be brought down by a group of small, weak enemies. I've had games where I have struggled along with a mish-mash of cards, and then suddenly a single Relic choice comes along and synergy appears that gives the entire run a focus to work on, and suddenly I'm moving through the levels easily. Quite a few times I've been taken down by a boss, where if I'd had one.more.turn I could have won. In this way it feels like the balance is on point.
So, all in all it's really fun, and definitely not what I expected from the trailers.
Comments
Would you say that the cards limit the replayability? Have they got around the common problem of there being "the most efficient way" to play a given character?
There is a lot of replayability as there are a lot of cards in each deck (I've just eyeballed about 75-80 cards per deck type), and you get a completely random selection each time you play...there is no persistance between games at all. You start with 10-12 basic cards, and there is a random event that starts each run where you may pick up a new card (or choose to remove one), and I've typically found you end with a deck of 25-30 cards...every time you have the option to gain a card (win a battle, at a merchant, or from a random event) you have to consider what you've got so far, and what direction your deck is going.
On top of this are (I looked this up) 168 different Relics, and they can drastically affect how your character and cards play....the gaining of these are again random, and less common than card aquisition. There tends to be less reason to not take a Relic (you can have unlimited amounts...with cards you want to maintain a sensible deck size unless you have a good card draw engine, especially if your current run is dependent on one or two strong cards that synergise well).
So, as you're working with what the RNGesus has given you, there is no "perfect" build...I've had some games where I had a really strong combination appear (for example, playing as the Defect/Minion Master I had a card that made all my "minions" (they are electic orbs that shoot lightning...obvz) hit all enemies, another that made that 50% more powerful, and a third that meant they fired a lot...it was awesome and many things died. Next game I got the AOE card and was hanging out for the other cards to make the same combo again...they didn't materialise, and I effectively hamstring myself and died early...I should instead have been working with what I'd been dealt, and looking for other synergies.
There is a very clever thing they have done (I've not seen it in other rogue-likes, but takes me back to Populus) where you can retireve the random seed that drove RNGesus for a given run, and replay it...so while you may never be able to have an optimal run, you can re-play a good run with the same RNG seed.
It actually reminds me a lot of Keyforge, which is a real-world card game where every deck is completely unique...another way of bypassing the optimal-build problem with deck-building games, and forcing players to adapt strategy to the hand they are dealt.
That is definitely a good idea. It gives you the chance to learn from your mistakes and try different things out. It would also be really hand when creating the game in the first place.
The amount of content/work in creating that many cards and making sure it's balanced is really, really hard - so fair play that they've got it right.
In terms of balance, as it's PvE only it doesn't have to always be "fair"...it does to be fun, Sometimes RNGod will just fuck you, but part of playing a rogue-like is accepting that it's OK. In terms of game design you just need to ensure that the game is not too long and grindy (a typical run is 30-60 minutes, with a battle taking 2-4 minutes, a bit longer for bosses unless you're well optimsed for them), starting again is painless... and (probably quite important) there is a way for the player to self-select difficulty to some point.
I'd definitely say that the 3 characters are roughly analagous to difficulty level. The first character (Ironclad) I had a successful run reasonably quickly, and it's innate abilities (self-healing, strong attacks) are the simplest, most forgiving mechanics. With the second character (Silent) it took longer, and I have not yet had a fully completed run with the Defect (Minion Master), however I really like the various mechanisms the character has, it's the most complex, and I fail as I tend to get fixated on trying to improve one area to the detriment of others.