Passant: A Chess Roguelike

It's Balatro plus Chess. It does lean a lot more on chess than you might expect at times, but it is a good palette cleanser if you're a chess fan looking to spice up the game before returning to Chess.com or similar.

There's some wonky UI things that could use polishing, but this is an incredible idea-Balatro for chess players and all the chaos and infinite puzzling that comes from that is so versatile, even before seeing all the extras that can change the game more significantly. I find I like the idea of chess, but it takes so much study to play-this game would allow that study to pay off in some ways, but also challenges you to consider new options on the fly and doesn't require it to feel competent at understanding. I'm enjoying the balance in a huge way overall.

The devs either know chess, but don't know how to make a fun roguelike OR know roguelike, but don't know chess. My guess is the former. Some ideas are great, but in practice are just a slog. From a chess pov, sure it's fine. From a roguelike pov, it's awful.

Generally interesting premise, but the execution needs a lot of work. I really do think it is a good idea, but in its current state it's probably of interest only to real chess aficionados because you often wind up in a situation where the game is just [i][b]What If Chess, But You Were Always at a Disadvantage?[/b][/i] That's fine for a chess-head who likes fighting back with a bloody nose, but its a turn-off for any player of casual chess knowledge just looking for chess with a twist. Basically, you very commonly wind up in situations where the computer [i]always[/i] has a piece advantage over you from the start. The shop selection between rounds are extremely meager and therefore [i]very vulnerable[/i] to RNG, and the game is likewise very stingy with the money it gives you as well, often leaving you hard pressed to make up ground. On the other side of the coin, sometimes the shop decides to bless you with a string of treasures that either give you the advantage, or equip you in a way to really exploit the computer's AI, or even just makes your setup outright broken. The [i]big[/i] flaw is that the rougelike elements aren't particular well-thought out. The shop selection is so…

There are horses but no goats. Horses aren't even that good goats are much better they have cute bleats. I'd even take a sheep but no, only stupid horsies ] :( (1/10 because I'd feel bad for giving it a 0/10)

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