Mikane's Hand

A short story-focused deckbuilder with a tiny bit of simple, linear first-person dungeon crawling. The story, characters and dialogues are alright, visuals pretty and it has a nice, somewhat melancholic atmosphere. The combat system was a little too complicated for me. Maybe because I don't play deckbuilders, maybe because you're expected to prepare a specific deck for every 2-3 fights, so reading all the effects while taking into account special conditions of some enemies and bosses takes time. I'm sure this won't be a problem for deckbuilding veterans, though. There are two endings but none of them is considered "better" and there is only one achievement for finishing the game with any ending, so you don't need to play through the game twice to feel like you "really finished the game". [spoiler]Objectively:[/spoiler] 7.5/10

Seeing the previews, you may think you're getting a game that might play like Slay the Spire, but this actually is Library of Ruina: Enemies have a clear gimmick, you receive a choice to take an item that changes how you interact with that gimmick and you build your deck around countering that gimmick. The effects are simple (attack, defense, discard, draw, buff) but the enemy gimmicks really make the most of all those simple effects, and are in fact quite difficult. Understanding the battle is only half of it, as you still need to play your cards right (and draw the ones you want, but that is quite achievable since there is a reset battle button). I liked the difficulty very much, it wasn't unfair even if difficult at times and the ease of a retry didn't make it demotivating to insist on trying. (But do use the save and load before boss battles instead of relying on the checkpoint.) The story is much like the card game: direct and simple, but with a small twist that is interesting. I think it's easy to find a place to relate for all kinds of people, from many angles, but it is a youthful story very much. There is one boss battle BGM that I really liked. The other tracks, which…

A little fun game that brings me some nostalgia.

Good deckbuilder game!