Koan

This is a hidden gem that is unique unto itself in both mechanics and heart. Mechanically, the core deck builder is clean and well balanced. The squad based approach to deck assembly allows the player to craft each team member's mini deck separately befitting their class, and then pull the teammates best suited for a mission to compose the players main deck. While this mechanic is pretty unique on its own, it is the variety of missions, especially further into the game, that set this deck builder apart. THIS GAME MAN! Never have I seen a deck builder so creatively use its combat engine to facilitate a wild variety of missions - everything from [spoiler] space battles, to ruins exploration, treasure heists, and even a volleyball game! [/spoiler] The ingenuity and creativity is just lovely, and lends to the world and character building outside of just "combat." The true beauty of this game to me though was the writing and interaction of the teammates. This game has so much heart, speaks with a freedom and curiosity on how the different species and walks of life would find each other. While not all the characters are human, the conversations between them had me taking a deeper look …

I enjoyed myself here.

Koan is a very flawed game, but despite all of its flaws, I had a really great time with it; in fact, I think that it might be a bit of an indie sleeper hit. No joke, I played through this game in a single sitting because I liked it so much; it is surprisingly good despite the massive amount of jank. To start, I found that the game’s onboarding/tutorial was inadequate. I could just be a bit daft, which is a possibility, but things could have been much clearer. Gearing specifically could have been explained better, which would have made the first act of the game far less frustrating. I was struggling enough in the start that I was concerned that I was just going to have to stop playing and drop a negative review, but I slammed my head on the proverbial wall over and over again until I figured it out, and when it clicked, I really started to have fun with the game. It is a card battler that is focused on purchasing cards to use specifically in that round, and cycling through those cards is a central mechanic for completing many missions. It sounds odd, but once I got into it, I liked it a lot. Don’t go thinking that this is even close to games like Slay the Spire or other top-tier d…