Habe das spiel in 30min auf normal durchgespielt und ein tolles Erlebnis gehabt. Dies ist meine erste Rezension auf Steam.
Wer Deckbau und rundenbasierte Kämpfe mag, dem kann ich dieses Spiel empfehlen.
Vorweg:
Ich habe Banner Saga auf höchstem Schwierigkeitsgrad durchgespielt, spiele Magic the Gathering und Aeons End.
Dadurch bin ich mit Deckbau und rundenbasierten Spielen sehr vertraut.

Bewertung:
Umfang: 10/10 (ca. 30 Stunden für 20€ = 0,66€/Stunde --> sehr gut)
Gameplay 9/10 (Deckbau sehr gut, Szenarien sehr abwechslungsreich, Karten sind leider immer nur einer Fraktion zugeordnet)
Story: 9/10 (sehr gut, Ende könnte ausführlicher sein)
Story-Entscheidungen: 5/10 (zu wenig Dialogoptionen, zu wenig Entscheidungen)
Grafik: 9/10 (Bluteffekte im Tutorial)
Gesamt: 42/50

Gameplay:
Das Spiel besteht aus Deckbau und dem spielen der Decks in unterschiedlichen Szenarien.
Ein Deck besteht dabei aus 10 Charackteren und 10 Support-Karten (Spells, Equipment). Die Decks lassen sich dadurch innerhalb von wenigen Minuten anpassen (leichter als ein neues MagicDeck zu bauen).
Die Szenarien unterscheiden sich teilweise durch die Decks der Gegner (insgesamt 4 Fraktionen) und die Regeln bzw. wie das Schlachtfeld aufgebaut ist. Dadurch muss das Deck für fast jedes Szenario angepasst werden.
Wobei man sagen kann, dass die Berkanier am flexibelsten einsetzbar sind (wurden von mir in 90% der Fälle verwendet.
Leider gibt es keine gemischten Einheiten z.B. einen Berkanischen Banditen, gleiches gilt für die Support-Karten (Banditen können nur Banditen-Support-Karten nutzen. Dadurch hätte der Deckbau nochmal interessanter sein können.

Story
Die Story ist in sich stimmig. Die Charaktere, die den Protagonisten begleiten, haben ebenfalls Beziehungen untereinander und wirken dadurch lebendig. Allerdings hat die Handlung keine Komplexität wie Game of Thrones.
Schön wäre es gewesen, wenn am Ende nochmal alle Charaktere zu Wort kommen statt nur 2 von 6.

Story-Entscheidungen
Es gibt ein paar Entscheidungen an wichtigen Punkten in der Story.
Diese sind leider etwas zu selten. Auch gibt es nicht oft Dialogoptionen, welche spätere Optionen beeinflussen.

Grafik
Alle Effekte etc. sind stimmig. Die Grafik ist hübsch anzusehen und sicherlich zeitlos, so dass man es auch in 10 Jahen noch anschauen kann.
Es ist etwas schade, dass im Tutorial, in dem explizit keine echten Truppen kämpfen, dennoch Bluteffekte zu sehen sind.

würde es eher als Rätsel spiel beschreiben als ein Kartenspiel. Man hat eher weniger mit den Karten und deck building zu tun. Es wird ein Kampf vorgestellt in dem man nur ein Krieger haben darf, danach nur ein zauber, Dann mit 1 Leben. Also ein Deck zusammenzustellen und aufeinander aufzubauen gibt es hier nicht. Es ist nur ein anpassen an die Challenge. Find ich langweilig und hat keinen Reiz

Endlich bin ich durch mit diesem Spiel es war eine Wunderbare Erfahrung und ganz und garnicht was ich nach dem ersten Teil erwartet habe, den ich hatte überlesen das es hier keine Fortsetzung ist aber ich habe es trotzdem in diesem neuen Stil getestet und muss sagen ich bin sehr Zufrieden mit dem Spiel ich kann es jeden nur ans Herz legen der nach einer besonder Art von Herausforderung sucht.

The Way ist leider nicht das Sequel zu Ash of Gods Redemption (ebenfalls sehr zu empfehlen), sondern etwas eigenständiges. Nach anfänglichen Zögern habe ich mich auf das Spiel eingelassen und war nach kürzester Zeit begeistert vom Gameplay. Vergleichbar mit Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales ist The Way ein startegisches Kartenspiel, bei dem jeder Kampf anders ist. AurumDust ist es gelungen jede einzelne Runde durch veränderte Mechaniken einzigartig zu gestalten. Die spielbaren Fraktionen sind allesamt sehr unterschiedlich und es fühlt sich einfach gut an regelmäßig die Decks zu wechseln und vorher scheinbar unüberwindbare Hindernisse mit einer neuen Strategie zu meistern.

Great Game. Its different to the first one. But still a great game. The combat is quite interesting and fun. At first I was a little anxious if I would like it, but after a while its much fun. I also like the lore of Ash of Gods.

The Art style is very nice! I am already hoping for a new game in this Universe

[DEU]
Meine mini Steam Review: (kurz angespielt)

Ash of Gods: The Way erinnert optisch zwar an The Bana Saga was ich sehr positiv finde, außerdem ist es gut erklärt und wenn man einige Runden gespielt war ich motiviert es nochmal zu versuchen.

Ansonsten hat das Spiel für mich ein großes Potenzial das es für 100 Stunden und mehr reichen würde, ich hoffe auf die Interesse der Spieler und ihr Feedback um die Entwickler positiv zu motivieren an Ash of Gods: The Way weiterzuarbeiten.

[ENG]
My mini Steam Review: (briefly played)

Ash of Gods: The Way is visually reminiscent of The Bana Saga which I find very positive, also it is well explained and if you played a few rounds I was motivated to try it again.

Otherwise, the game has a great potential for me that it would be enough for 100 hours and more, I hope for the interest of players and their feedback to positively motivate the developers to continue working on Ash of Gods: The Way.

Geiles Spiel !

I have been following this game for a couple of years now, played every demo and the recent Prologue — and I have a huge respect for the devs who were very attentive to the community all this time and never left my questions or feedback unanswered. They have also added to the release build a lot of nice features players asked for like restarting a battle and slowing down enemy's turn, and I was even able to continue my save from the Prologue. I am really thankful for that.

As for the game, I am in the third tournament now, and I am really happy to say I am having a good time. I am not a big fan of card games, to be honest, but this one is quite addictive and doesn't really feel like a card game to me. The combat system is very simple but gives you a lot of options with two decks, different factions and card upgrades. All the fights in the game are unique, and it is really fun to rework your decks to find the strategy to beat a puzzle. The game encourages you to experiment, there's no penalty for changing upgrades and factions, I even tried to mix bandits and berkanans, and it worked great in some particular fights. The tournaments are also quite different. I haven't had a chance to play with Gell deck yet but I really like new mechanics of the third tournament like capturing points.

As for the story, it feels pretty simple in the beginning but really evolves on the second tournament. I believe its real beauty is not about the plot twists but characters and your choices as a player. There is a non-linearity and a lot of different endings but I think it is important to mention that the game focuses on the big decisions only. Basically, it gives you some options in the end of the tournament, and your choice hugely affects both the ending of that tournament and, I think, the ending of the game. The only issue is, I don't think I clearly understand what to do to reach the desired outcome. It is okay on the second tournament, looks like I have to win as much fights as possible and also complete side quests to impress Quinna. But the third one is different, it has a lot of dialogues which affect the outcome. And since the game gives you single word options based on emotion you speak with, it is pretty hard to understand what Finn is actually going to say.

I really like the dialogues, by the way. There were okay on the first tournament but mostly about the rules of the game and exposition. Nothing particularly interesting but a few ones with Kleta and Raylo. But as I said before, the game raises the bar in the second tournament, and the characters feel more alive, they debate and argue, support and tease each other. I personally love the bromance kind of thing that happens between Kleta and Raylo, some of their lines are simply hilarious. I also liked Quinna and her story, and the actress who gave voice to her actually stole my heart with the accent.

To sum it up, it is amazing how the game has changed since the very first build. It was pretty fun even back then but there were really f-ugly cinematics, mediocre drawn characters, lifeless and half-empty battlefields, uncomfortable UI and no plans for story and any non-linearity whatsoever. And look at the game now! That what happens when developers are in touch with the community. Thank you very much, guys, I really hope your game will get enough attention.

P.S. I still think you have to work on the log :Р It works better now but still can cover a face of a unit.

P.P.S. I think the ambush card works wrong when upgraded to the maximum.

TL:DR The gameplay is more about figuring out what you need than to build a strong deck and run with it. Gameplay is engaging and rewarding. The plot is pretty good if you can get around the main character's, Finn's, voice.

First, the plot.
You, Finn, and your crew of three others travel into enemy territory to participate in the war games tournies, hoping to find a way to remove army leaders. The whole time throughout the game, you get to listen to voice acted visual novel sections. The worst part of these visual novel sections is how Finn sounds. No matter what he's talking about, he always sounds exactly the same. There was a part early on where Finn was talking about how much he hates the Frisians for killing his parents and it sounded like a regular Tuesday to him. If you were to suggest that, maybe, Finn is meant to sound casual about everything, the text for each line includes a tone indicator just to inform you of the intention.

Once I was accepting of Finn, I was actually hooked. While the plot (and game for that matter) is linear, you do have the option of how you want to go about stopping the war, with the choices being unlocked by the gameplay. I thoroughly loved how the leaders interacted with Finn and his party. I loved the interparty dynamics. It was just fantastic.

Next, the gameplay
Quick gameplay summary for those who don't know how the game works. You bring two decks into combat. One consists of 10 minions and the other is 10 support cards (such as equipment and spells). Starting hand is three each, you draw one more of each turn, and you can play one of each per turn. Minions will move towards the enemy side until they can hit something.

The rules above are simple but the complexities are great.

As you progress through the game, you will unlock assess to 4 different deck types. The first two is Berkanan and Bandit.
The Berkanan are all around units. Many of them have built in survival effects. How about a minion who gains armor (damage reduction) every time he gets an equipment? Or a swordswoman who gains attack every turn? Or a minion that heals all of your minions? If you want good attack and defense, the Berkanans are your friends. Overall, this group were my favorite, as the versatility of their kit and overall tankyness for the end game were perfect for me.

The second deck is the bandits. While they might seem like they are more aggressive than the Berkanans (which they are initially), the bandits are more about breaking the rules. Minions with poisonous and equipment that grant it, minions that summon an extra copy of itself when you play it, or spells that deal damage to a minion based on the amount of bandits you control. If you needed something tricky, the bandits are your people.

The next deck you unlock is the Frisian deck. Have you ever wanted to hit end turn an insane amount of times without actually doing anything to win? Are you a blue control player in MTG? The Frisians are the most defensive people. They have high health, high armor, and low attack. However, they win the game through draining the enemy hero's health. Most of their minions increase this drain amount. Unless this deck was intended as the solution, I usually avoided this deck due to how slowly it plays. It would take a good 5 or 10 turns of passing once I actually know that I'm in a winning position.

Lastly, we have the Gellians who were the hyper aggressive deck. Their minions move fast, deal a lot of damage, have low health, and hurt you each round they're alive. Honestly, it seemed really good in fights with few enemy minions. I had a hard mission beaten in two or three turns because I had a double attacker buffed to with a +13 attack equipment. It's a strong deck, but I feel like it falls off rather quickly, due to how the game gets harder.

With the decks out of the way, what do I mean by "more of a puzzle game"

Well, the actual gameplay is going through sets of challenges, where the rules change each time. One fight will have both sides starting with all of their minions on the battlefield. Another fight will place barricades in the way. Each time you'll need to consider the fight and find out what you need to use. To use that example of starting with all the minions on the battlefield, there's an obvious answer. The Frisian deck (the control one) whole weakness is the slow start up. By having all of your minions on the field instantly, the whole fight is trivial once you figure it out. Even the hard version of the stage is easily dealt with. Most of the game (past the first tournament) is trying to find out what is going to happen and planning a way around it.

One of the biggest issues I have with the game is how much effort goes into remaking a deck. When you want to make a new deck the steps are as follows:
1) Refund all of your upgrade points and your gold
2) Assemble the deck you want
3) Click on each of the 20 cards separately and click upgrade anywhere between 0-4 times
If you don't know what you're doing, you may have to remake the deck more than once per fight, and it takes a while.

So, let's talk about the difficulty real fast.
You start each tournament by fighting the basic version of each fight, You can try it as many times as you need, as you just need to beat it somehow. After that, you'll unlock a hard mode, which asks you to beat each fight again, but with additional rules. You only have a limited number of tries for each of the hard mode fights (including the boss fights). I was initially upset with this, as a card game's heavy RNG could make sure you never get a good run. However, due to the puzzle nature, once you have the appropriate deck, I never needed more than 2 tries. Therefore, I really think that this is a great way to have a difficulty option for those who want it.

Lastly, the mechanic I felt like was wasted.
You can also change what hero you are using. The only difference between them is what ability they have on a three turn cool down. Do you want a +3 attack until end of turn for 1 character? Heal a unit to full heal but you lose that much health? Use a second support card this turn? Or bring back 1 minion that died this game (once per fight)? And that's it. That's all of them. They play very similarly, as there's no difference in health or tribe. There's almost no long term impact in the fight. The option for different heroes could have been great, but we were left with a very safe option. I really didn't end up using them much, but it was nice to have a +3 attack when I really needed it (not often). I feel like this could have been very expanded but oh well.

Overall, I enjoyed this game. It wasn't that hard but did require thought throughout.
I hope to see more single player card games on the market that have great story, great looks, and great plot like this one.

Warning: this is not a deckbuilder or card battler, it's a glorified puzzle game with a story.
The game is too easy on normal and tidious on hard.
In the begining you can't upgrade your cards or do anything except fight to get some extra cards Deckbuilding is mostly based on who you fight so you would optimise your deck every fight.
The anoying part is that the AI opponent always cheats by starting with some advantages, sometimes their cards even have extra stats. They usually have cards you dont have.

There are many stupid mechanics like the AI using a lot of times op cards. For example there is a card that ignores the first hit if it has a trinket.
There are also many fights where you have unkillable units and have to focus on overcoming a puzzle in order to win.

This was missmarketed very badly, where is the card battler? where is the tactical aspect?

How can you win? Well, simple, restart the battle until you have the perfect hand, hide your units and overbuffs them. There are many cards that add stats over the rounds so the entire combat is reduced to cheese and using op combinations of cards.
Most times you only use about 25% of your deck anyway, this is nothing like a card battler, not even like the banner saga. Most fights are won by having a "meta" deck for that specific fight. You don't adapt, you dont make a strategy, you dont make great plays to win. You simply grab a pen and paper and make your deck before the fight and then restart the battle until you have the perfect hand.
There is also a merchant to upgrade cards but that comes later.
Its one of those games where if you read a guide, you can win EVERY FIGHT because it's a brain dead game.
I am sorry for the devs but they made everything great but forgot to make the gameplay fun wich happens too many times in modern games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiM1uF4xMkY&t=29s