They are rogue like because you have only one life, but also because your upgrades/inventory are subject to the whims of an evil RNG. Therefore you will need to learn to adapt to whatever you find, or your one life will end prematurely.
Anyway, I’ve been playing this game a lot on my phone and it’s nice to see the developer here! This is currently my favorite of all the DreamQuest-likes. The main reason is that you choose a class, race, and magic specialty before your start, all of which affect your starting hand and the subsequent cards you draw. And the decks really do start to feel like various fantasy archetypes, sort of like a deck building version of Sentinels of the Multiverse.
For instance, I played an elven ranger with cards that added charges to a “quiver”. At the beginning of every turn, every quiver charge turns into an “arrow” card, which is a weak attack. But there are also cards that would give you a bonus to every attack that turn. So you could devastate enemies by preparing your quiver, waiting for the right card, and then letting loose a huge volley of arrows.
Conversely, my dwarven thief had penalties to magic, so I avoided filling my deck with useless spells. His dagger attacks were weak, but every attack let him draw another card. So he would kill stuff by chaining together stabby cards and buffs like poison.
Finally, the priest built up “favor” that granted a nearly endless supply of blocks. Coupled with one or two decent strong attacks and a steady source of healing, he ended up outlasting his enemies and walking away healthier than when he started.
And that’s less than half the classes. Warriors smash stuff, mages specialize in casting spells, monks can throw a flurry of basic attacks, druids and necros clog the opposing deck with minions, and I haven’t even tried the bard yet.
You aren’t really confined to one strategy either, on one replay I did well because I found some spells that would constantly force opponents to discard and/or negate their cards. There are also spells that damage someone who plays cards, takes away actions, etc. The race can be significant too. When I chose the dragon born once, I ended up mostly using their dragon breath to damage rather than the class mechanics.
Overall, this is definitely worth checking out.
