That Time I Found A Box

While I don't think it's my cup of tea, I can still respect what it does. There's a lot going on in this game, and yet, it's all very manageable. It may seem overwhelming, but once you play a few rounds you understand it; you also only need to go halfway through the tutorial before you know everything as well (just need to get to Tier Up rewards) - the rest is just "how to play better" (which I'm sure is useful but I stumbled my way through my first run without it). ----- The goal of the game is to get enough Fight and/or Influence to make 2 out of 3 of the kings your friends, and then beat the third king. The way you do this is through combining, upgrading, crafting cards, curating your pool of cards, and ultimately playing them [you satisfy a king's request and his favor goes up (the other two kings take a small hit), and then he gives you a reward but comes back later with a harder request to fulfill]. In the beginning you have a basic deck of a few cards, along with a basic Pool of a few basic cards. Each turn, 1 random card in your pool will be copied to your deck. During your turn, you can do a few things: (0) | Vault: The vault can hold up to 4 cards, and cards can be re…

The dev gave me a key for this game like 7 months ago, and I only found it recently. While initially looking overwhelmingly complex, none of the mechanics seem that obtuse once you find the groove of the whole thing. What follows it my attempt to break it down. If this sounds cool to you, it's worth checking it out. The goal of the game is to appease 3 kings who ask for your assistance. Initially, you can either use Fight or Influence, but there are situations that require only Influence or only Fighting. Your cards start at level 0 and are garbage stat-wise. Each time you use a card, the top ability on it becomes locked. To unlock it, you either need an effect that unlocks, which is rare, or place the card in the Vault or Combine it. Cards placed in the vault will be upgraded in a number of turns (1 + their level), and will return to your deck completely unlocked, sometimes with better effects, sometimes with new effects, and its level is increased by 1. You can return cards stored in the Vault to your hand at any time, so if you need to store cards between turns, you can do so. When two cards are placed in the Combiner, their effects are combined together, with a limit of 4 …

I enjoyed it. It's a card game that focuses on pure numbers, I never really used the card abilities other then draw +x cards, It was just easier to stack tons of attack or influence. There's some interesting things you can do with it though and there's a lot of modifiers you can unlock. Very satisfying 7/10

[quote] Please consider following my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41005226/]Curation page[/url]. I cover a wide range of genres both paid and unpaid, providing unbiased opinions as well as regular giveaway events. [/quote] [b]Video Review TBD[/b] https://youtu.be/YVBKeyTwFkI [h2]Very Confusing, But Worth Learning[/h2] The demo had me completely lost. The tutorial is not intuitive and does not feel like it fully understands how to explain itself. The full release still struggles with this, but despite those issues, this ends up being one of the most rewarding games once it finally clicks. There is a steep learning curve, and the game does very little to guide you through it. However, when the systems start to make sense, it becomes genuinely engaging and satisfying to play, because there is no definitive ending, just infinite scaling. The closest comparison is Balatro, but this feels like a self aware parody of that style. The constant hushed, almost sarcastic whispers of "this is the best game I have played since Balatro" add to its strange charm. It is confusing, messy, and oddly compelling once you push past the initial frustration, then it becomes a highly eng…

This is exactly my type of roguelite. If you're also sick of slay the spire clones and just want a very unique deckbuilding experience, and enjoy the complexity of things such as Noita and self-crafting your playstyle, this game should be right up your alley. While the tutorial is very long, and the matches are longer, it has a lot to explain and you need to interact with nearly all of the mechanics in order to do well. I'm on Purgatory 5, and still feeling very strong at the end of each build. Usually around mid-phase 2 I start to gain control of my build and really rein it into what I want to do that round. After winning the first time, I thought, 'Well why don't I just use that build every time? It seemed overpowered'. Now, I don't even remember what that build was. You need to take what you get and MAKE it overpowered, every single run. That uniqueness and feeling of cleverness where you generate your own infinite combo because you got -just- the right unique passives feels absolutely amazing, and each hour-and-a-half run flies by.

I randomly found the demo for this game during NextFest in 2025, and immediately got hooked. I played for days, and when not playing I would think about it and strategize for my next attempt. This is a very unique and creative deckbuilder (cardbuilder?) that is unlike anything else I've seen in the genre. Initially there's a lot of mystery to it and a lot of strange functions that don't make much sense and take time to figure out. But that's what I love about it - it intrigued me and got me hooked as I tried to figure out how to use the various tools and options. The full version has added a lot. There's great variety between runs; the ascension system keeps adding challenges; unlockable perks let you try different strategies; and elements in the game like the box's temperaments help mix things up between runs. You can definitely learn from your mistakes, and do some theorycrafting and try different things to solve the problems your running into (or figure out how to deal with them next time). I'd say it's probably not for everyone - it's a bit intense, takes some time to figure out and some focus to play - but I think it will really click for some people like it did for me. I …