Decktamer

Excellent deckbuilder game that scratches the itch until Slay the Spire II comes out!

Don't typically leave negative reviews, but unfortunately the 3rd boss was what made me leave this. It's a 3 phase fight that basically you either have the perfect team composition for or you lose. No "smart" playing, no perfect route. I lost 1 starter creature and had a relatively perfect run. Had a mean group of poison/protection creatures, and literally rocked through all stages. Got to this fight and it was so infuriating and unfair from a developer standpoint, I thought to myself WHAT happened to the fun game I was playing and strategizing through. Lets throw in a boss that takes all positive stuff from you (protection) and gives it to itself, then has max speed and does 6 damage to your entire party. GG. Lol. The other bosses seemed fair and logical. I have a TON of strategy games in my list, beat damn near all of them (extremely hard ones too), this game just seems to want to be unfair and way over the top difficult for no reason whatsoever, and gives you absolutely positively zero tools to overcome it....UNLESS you find the absolute perfect set of monsters (which you will not because of the RNG of the game) and pull of the absolutely perfect combination of synergie…

Complex, difficult, but througouhly enjoyable.

I just completed my first run and I'm seriously considering refunding. The gameplay loop doesn't bother me, by all rights I should like it I guess. The thing I struggle to get behind is that every creature you have in your deck becomes obsolete. Even with the syringe mechanic, you're gonna scrap everything eventually. Nothing builds on itself like slay the spire or other deckbuilding roguelikes. you just have cards, they get old and you either sacrifice them or evolve them and get new cards. There's no attachment to it, no real "build" to go for just have some cards... then get better cards... then get rid of those and get better-er cards. Doesn't give me the satisfaction I'm looking for.

Monster art is cool and unique. Runs are short so it doesn't feel like a time-suck. Wild creatures get semi-random traits so no two are the same. But it needs a sense of progression. Right now, you finish a run and then start all over at the next run. Your monsters should get stronger during the run and the ones you play with most often should be boosted somehow.

It was fun. I beat the main game in just over 6 hours. I wasn't expecting it to be that short. The artwork is fun, but I beat every boss on normal on the first go and now I only have the challenge modes to do. TBH I'm not sure Ill play the challenge modes, nor will I try to complete the beastiary. I wish there was more of a meta progession element so I could try different builds. The game really wants you to experiment which is great and novel, but just isn't my cup of tea for sustained long term play. Overall, I'm happy with purchasing it on sale 40% off for about $10 and feel like I got my moneys worth.