fair comparison?

How does this game compare to similar (?) games, such as Slay the Spire, Steamworld Quest, or proper board games such as Sumer?

In terms of how the specific mechanics of the card combat work, I think the nearest neighbor is Hearthstone.

You have less agency than most other card games. You're not drafting like in STS and you're not deckbuilding like in Steamworld Quest. Instead you have the same "deck" of about 15ish cards for the entire game, afaik (I'm maybe 10 hours in) and you make minor improvements to them with a skill tree.

Fights are infrequent and long. My best guess is that there have only been about 20ish encounters so far. Boss fights are always more than a half hour long, while regular fights are maybe closer to 10 minutes. There are no quick encounters here. I like this for the bosses and am lukewarm about it on the regular fights.

Do yourself a favor and watch the opening chapter of the game, it will both tutorialize the unusual combat and show you the tone and the pacing of the jrpg-esque stuff around it.

Actually, I just went in and bought it after reading a Japanese review. It's not bad.

The main point is that, the idea cards actually work like summoned creatures, rather than just actions as in Steamworld Quest.

You don't edit the deck, but each boss has unique ideas you obtain from the map that are really useful against that particular boss.

The cards don't change from battle to battle, but the gimics that can be triggered from the map change around from encounter to encounter which does make each fight seem unique.

Seems like the kind of game that really should have a demo from the sound of it.

glitchXII posted...

Seems like the kind of game that really should have a demo from the sound of it.

A chapter 1 demo would be perfect for this game. That would be exactly enough to teach the fundamentals of the combat, try it out against a boss, and set up the characters and the story. Most people would know if they were into the gameplay by the end of it.

It's a shame they didn't do this. The combat is so convoluted that you really can't get your head around it just by having someone describe it to you. I find it extremely satisfying, but I'm the exact kind of person who a turn-based cars game/board game with light jrpg elements would appeal to.