I’m assuming you’re talking about Across the Obelisk? If so, I agree it’s a great time saver.
If so, you can also save and load Perks too with plenty of save slots. Plus you can import and export perk settings so you can share with friends/streamers.
The best thing is the combat reload button! Greatest thing ever for these super run times.
Cannonball Run + Death Race + deckbuilder = Death Roads. Hell yeah. Gotta try this demo.
Some neat ideas here, with cards having variable effects based on gear, positioning being important, handling replacing energy/mana, each car having its own skid deck (you draw from this deck when handling reaches zero, and the number of cards drawn = current gear).
Based off a physical game, with the digital edition made by the folks that did Scythe, Card Hunter, etc
absolutely in love with Death Roads, really bummed I missed the kickstarter for the physical version.
Some updates.
Gordian Quest got a major update. This might sway some people over:
Across the Obelisk also got a nice QOL and balance patch
Arcanium: Rise of Akhan left EA is now a real boy. I never played it but there are quotes from Hearthstone streamers regarding this game on the Steam page. However, forum favorite Wanderbot also seem to like this game if the quote on the webpage is to be believed.
Not to be left out, Vault of the Void is getting out of EA on October the 4th.
Finally, a sale on Erannorth Chronicles for 65% off. That’s what the kids are calling an ATL (all time low).
FYI Arcanium is free with Netflix (that’s for the correction Lantz). It is a very pretty game. From what I’ve played, it also seems pretty good, though I’m not personally big on games where you have multiple heroes with their own decks. If that speaks to you, it is definitely worth checking out.
Arcanium game launched in a weird way. Priced at $28.99 CAD which is quite high for game of this type. No discount, no pre-launch hype, no fanfare or news.
Nuanced / mixed recommendation for Foretales.
It is in fact, novel and marvellous. It has a very distinctive theme and character with a good dose of mature humour.
The gameplay might be most like the tabletop / board game versions of Lord of the Rings adventure game and Arkham Horror. Each mission, of which there are many tied into a meta-narrative, involves your navigation through and interaction with various locations, making use of your character abilities, a pool of resources, and special cards.
Everything comes in a “deck”. The location cards you can interact with are a deck. Your character abilities are in decks. The enemies you may face are in a deck. You can inspect all the decks at any time.
Combat itself is Hearthstone like, but also either always or usually optional, and possibly better avoided. Encounters can instead be resolved by using special cards and resources to bribe / scare / glamour away opponents, avoiding or reducing the actual combat.
One big caveat . . . is that this is not at all like Slay the Spire / Roguebook / Monster Train et al. The emphasis is very much on the narrative and adventure, and far less so on the mechanics or deck-building.
On Android free if you have Netflix. They haven’t updated it to the new version yet though.
Yeah, I goofed there, thanks.
I’ve played Paperback before, but didn’t know they were making a deckbuilder. I don’t know what’s kind of legs this will have, but there are some neat mechanics here. Each turn, one card at the end of a word (you can flip between first or last) has its special ability applied that turn. That card is also
fatigued instead of being discarded, which adds an element of turn pressure (though you also have a health bar, unlike Gloomhaven).
There are different characters to play, each of which has their own sets of items they can acquire (ok, well I’m assuming that the human characters can’t get laser eyes).
The letters have symbols that give you attack, defense, energy (to power abilities/items), currency for the shop, etc. they can also give the enemy curse, which powers abilities you use on them (the aforementioned laser eyes does variable damage depending on the amount of course the enemy has).
Looks pretty cool.
Thanks for flagging this one, it sounds right up my alley.
This is coming out next week. ACG covered it in his indie round up this week and it looks neat. It’s a card game, but when you play a card it animates it like a fighting game. It’s also a rogue-like, I guess.
Been a minute since I’ve seen much on that one. Hopefully there are some playthru videos around release.
Oh wow, I just picked up Arcanium, and based on the first few hours play, this one strikes me as borderline top-tier of the deckbuilding card-battling roguelikes. Probably shy of the greatness of Slay and Monster, but reaching out toward it.
Arcanium is on Apple Arcade, fyi.
It seems quite good, but just doesn’t hold my attention long (very common for me) compared to MT.
On a different note, Nadir entered early access yesterday:
This one is really quite different mechanically from other games, and seems pretty clever, though I haven’t played. Definitely worth a look if you want something different.
Posting to share a lot of love, which is the correct amount of love, for Arcanium. Getting to the highest challenge level - Apex - of this game and completing several runs has finally displaced my commitment to reaching Ascension 20 with every Slay the Spire Downfall mod hero.
So, as a 800+ hours Slay the Spire veteran and card battling deck building rogue-likes gamer . . .
If Slay and Monster Train are “top tier” exemplars of deck-building rogue-likes, Arcanium is at the very least close to them in many ways. I rate it as at least as good as other excellent similar games, including Across the Obelisk, Tainted Grail and Blood Card 2.
Highly commendable features include:
Arena mode, meanwhile, removes the adventure component and progresses you through increasingly challenging fights, terminating at a boss fight, punctuated by opportunities to shop and train and heal. This offers a shorter, concentrated experience.
Fantastic variety and diversity. There are 12+ heroes each of which have unique cards, ‘ultimate’ abilities and equipment. Added to this is significant variety of permanent boons, other equipment, one-use items and deployable ‘minions’. The variety is incredible. For examples, just one hero could be adjusted to focus on damage over time, support damage, healing or blocking, and you play with three heroes.
Highly tactical combat. You can always see what an enemy will do and there is no randomness. Your three heroes can move around between their lanes, and there are many, many synergies to find between cards, the order of cards played, equipment and movement.
Lots of meta-progression. Love it or love it, I love it, there is a lot to unlock through simple play. This includes new heroes to use, new cards for those heroes, new ultimate abilities, and there are many achievements to pursue.
There are a few caveats worth being aware of too -
Some heroes have far greater utility than others at time of writing, including ‘Angorn’, which is a highly versatile support hero with strong block, healing and damage over time abilities. In my view, this is fine, as once you master the highest difficulty level with the ‘better’ heroes, you can enjoy more challenge by trying the same with other heroes.
At time of writing, nodes that have been identified on the adventure map lose their identification / tooltip after saving, exiting and reloading. This is only an issue until you begin remembering what each node icon stands for e.g., card upgrade, permanent boon etc, and is a minor ♥♥♥♥♥♥.
Awesome! I’d forgotten this hit 1.0 back in September. When I’ve played Arcanium, I liked it. The production values are also quite high. It just didn’t grab me for the long haul (most games don’t). Having said that, I don’t think I’ve seen the arena mode, and last I played, it was still EA and lots of stuff was still on the way.
I should definitely give it a try again sometime. And it is free for Netflix subscribers on iOS.
Stolen Crown is one of those amazing sole-dev marvels. I nearly passed on it due to the low price, but instead have discovered a delightful new combination of deck builder / turn-based combat / roguelike.
Key features are . . .
Deck building to equip heroes with potential actions, similar to Trials of Fire and Alina of the Arena
Roguelike runs, where you choose between different types of event (combat, boss combat, merchant, dungeon, workshop etc) similar to many card-battling roguelikes / Slay the Spire-likes
Turn-based, hex based tactical combat, with direct control over your main character and potentially, one or more allies. The combat is similar to Crowntakers, Stolen Realm, Faeria and Alina of the Arena.
Each of the three main ingredients is solid and enjoyable and they form up together very well for a compelling ‘one more stage’ ‘one more run’ experience.
The combat is the star. You start out with just a single hero and potentially one ally. Heroes have both abilities, which run on cooldowns, and also cards. Allies only have abilities. As you complete stages, you can:
~ Add more abilities to your Hero and allies, via levelling up with experience
~ Add more cards to your hero deck
~ Find relics, which give passive boons to your team
~ Add more allies
~ Forge more powerful cards by combining existing cards (and gold currency)
At some point, you may feel you have developed an amazing team. Then a big bad boss stomps all over you. Then you laugh and start a new game!
Bought!
This game is bloody hard, Lykurgos. I’ve been going for a relic to start, but even with a pretty nice deck/relic setup, there are just way too many enemies in that first boss fight. Bizarre, really, that they would throw so many at you.
The lack of Card draw is also frustrating. The only answer, at least at this point, seems to be to take a companion instead (or make damn sure I buy one).
Any tips?