In short:
The base game is quite good and fun to play, although the lack of any "controllable" save feature is not to everyone's liking (it's 2023 Devs)?!
Having multiple ways to play as 1 of 4 types of Heroes (3 of which are unlockable) is really nicely implemented, and adds some replayability to this game (apart from the story there is currently no other mode available). So that's like +20-30 hours at best i guess?
Playing this game requires some nifty tactics, crafting, management, and a bit of basic luck (card draws and such).
There's also a timer in order to reach certain goals. Of course, the more you play and upgrade your heroes, the easier harder missions and side quests become (a bit of a grind here).
Personally speaking i don't mind this timer, however don't loose track of it, or else this could easily turn a likely win into a certain loss before you even realise.
It's said that a DLC is coming shortly, and I for one am already looking forward to it very much, because in all fairness, this game is quite good, and more so if this is something you really enjoy playing.
Needless to say, most of you guys can opt to wait for a sale or (like myself) get it cheaper somewhere else as long as there are such keys around. Having chosen the latter, it's clear that i'm getting my money's worth out of Mahokenshi and i simply can't seem to get enough of it either (which in most cases is a good thing, right?)!
All things considered, i will gladly recommend Mohakenshi to the majority of my friends and all those who like such games. Personal score 7.7/10

100% playthrough w/ time stamps: https://youtu.be/BFbfk7JSvfA

Overall this game is pretty awesome it made me a bit wary at first with the overworld map being how you combat everyone, but with how missions are timed and movement is a key feature it's a lot of fun. I do wish there were other game modes to add replay value and the game is a bit easy some of the challenges can be really hard. I honestly used the tengu for every single mission though there was no real reason to explore any of the other great houses as she fit my play style and can do every mission relatively easy. I'm glad I saw this on facebook, but it is a bit short to 100% it only took me 10 hours with some challenge fails/mission replays.

Is this game a masterpiece? Hm, no, but is a rather interesting spin on the card-battler genre mixed with a turn-based strategy game set in Japanese mythology. It is not perfect, though.

You play a Mahokenshi, kind of a divine policeman sent to some far away islands of the Celestial Realm to investigate strange happenings. There are four (unlockable) Mahokenshis to choose from, each with different stats, and each getting stronger the longer you play. You gain experience, so it makes sense to play with one character and not a different one for every mission. Successfuly completing challenges gives you crystals which can be used between the missions to unlock permenent upgrades. Still - you start every mission with a rather small deck of cards, only adding a few cards each time you gain a level. Most cards, gold and other things have to be found during the missions and are lost when the mission ends. You basically rebuild your deck from scratch every mission.

The game is mission based, you can select which mission to play, finishing story missions unlocks new missions. Missions are often time based, you have to decide if there is enough time to complete optional challenges. Sometimes it is hard enough just to finish the main mission at all, especially when you have no good movement cards in the deck. Missions can be replayed as often as you want to complete challenges or just improve your character. The story is told when you move to event tiles, you have to read a few texts to understand what is going on, but of course this is not a visual novel. The turn-based game takes place on a tile-based map, on which you move and fight until your energy is used up. The energy you use to traverse the map is also the energy that you use for battles. You can zoom and watch the map from all directions, quite nice. Some tiles (forest, rocks, plains...) can be crossed easier than others, some improve your defense and some contain events, where you often have to make choices. Battles are fought on the map, too. You draw new cards every turn. Most cards are attack cards or cards that help you move around faster. You start every mission with only a very limited cardset, but new cards can be bought on markets, found lying around on the map or gained otherwise. Shrines allow you to destroy unecessary cards in your deck, dojos to upgrade your cards. Your character has basic stats (attack, defense), which can be improved during the game by items or talismans (found in castles). Killing enemies lets you take their gold, required for buying new cards or card upgrades.

The turn-limit was not my favorite game mechanism, you will lose quite a few missions by being too slow. Upgrading your hero does take some time, but of course this makes the missions which seemed impossible at first playable later. You still need to draw the right cards, though. The four different Mahokenshis have different cards, so you might try a different strategy if you don't succeed at first. The game does not support controllers but works perfectly fine with a mouse. 3440x1440 is not supported, but 2560x1440 allows you to play without problems on an ultrawidescreen monitor... with black borders on the sides. A bit weak for a new game. Even worse is that there is no save feature during a mission. Was this so difficult to implement?

Conclusion:
Finish missions with a tight turn-limit by killing foes in card-based battles, building your deck from scratch during every mission.

While the game looks nice and the gameplay feels fun for a few hours, once you realize which characters and cards are broken and which ones are unplayable on top of cumulative upgrades that carry over runs, the game becomes very trivial and loses the challenge it initially had.

Additional gameplay modes and/or difficulty settings would remedy this on top of some serious balancing that is needed. However the developers have stated they aren't interested in adding more content. Along with the fact that I completely 100% the game in ~15 hours and would guess a casual playthrough would be no more than 4-6 hours I cannot recommend the game for the price in the state that is in.

Plays kind of like Etherlords (and its sequel) in a mythical Japanese feudal setting. Great production values, entertaining card mechanics. Don't play this for the story, it's very simple.

There are some issues, with the mixture of random card selections as well as random card draws, which can screw you over completely from time to time. There are four different characters/decks, and the randomness especially affects two of them, often causing you to restart a map over and over until you get good initial card choices.

The campaign is scripted and certain decks will excel on certain maps. Figuring this out as well as learning exactly when and where what enemies spawn, through trial and error, is mandatory to get through some of the maps.

Not a particularly long campaign, but optional missions, as well as challenges unlocking extra rewards, do provide some longevity. I finished all challenges in less than 20 hours, mostly using the ninja character/deck. I could go back and try to complete every map with the sorceress, but I imagine that would make me lose my mind. She doesn't seem suited to the harsh time limits of almost every map.

A good time was had, but I don't see much reason to replay once completed.

This is a tough one, and I really want to give it a thumbs up. The design is fantastic. All the systems come together in a very enjoyable way, it looks and sounds great, etc. The problem is that as half the other negative reviews mention, there just isn't enough content and what does exist is much too easy.

If we had a good random map generator, a campaign 50%-100% longer than what's here, some sort of endless mode, or it were 1993 and I believed the game would catch on enough to see a million great community made maps...any of these things and it'd be an easy endorsement. I do intend to check back in a few months and see if I'm wrong about how much uptake there will be on the volunteer labor front, but I'm not optimistic. Very interested in seeing some more substantial DLC or future projects from the team.

I guess also stay away if you can't stand time pressure - that's the other half of the negative reviews, and it is true that nearly every mission is built around a timer of some form or another. A third of them you can completely negate via deckbuilding and probably a full half can be solved by walking up to the primary monster with your starter deck and murdering it, but it is there and if that stresses you out you're not in for a good time.

So what can I say about this game?

Does it deserve a thumbs up?
Sure.
Is it worth it's asking price?
Sure.

If that's enough for you then I guess that's that.

However, while the game is pretty good and fun and doing a LOT of things right. It does miss the mark on a few things. These may be personal nit pickings but still I wanted to mention them.

It's a deck building card collecting strategy game where you move across a grid like board filled with beneficial collectables (like health potions, gold, new cards). It has four unique heroes you can unlock and play as, each with their own style of fighting and different cards and bonuses.

I mean overall, as a simple card deck building strategy game it's not bad. It's actually pretty good and the gameplay was a lot of fun.

The biggest problem for me was it's lack of focus and story. I mean the whole purpose is kinda vague. "Evil showed up! The clans aren't working together for some reason. Make em work together and go fight evil"

The End.

So I have no real motivation to want to push forward or care. Is it a fun little game? Yeah. Is the asking price appropriate? Well I think so. Depending on the time-frame and length of gameplay I think it's appropriate considering everything here and everything they did so well.

But if you were looking for something deep or grand or some amazing story then you're going to be disappointed.
If you'd like a more in-depth look with more information then please check out the video on my YouTube Channel. (Link Below) Otherwise thanks for reading and I hope I was able to help some of you out there to spend your money wisely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAc8CN5E7bM

I've unlocked all four of the Mahokenshi, and maxed the level of one of them, so I feel that I'm in a good spot to rate the game.

For starters, it's brutal, don't think in terms of StS, it's grid based. You walk along the map, and battles start on the map, there is no separate screen for it. This, from a tactical standpoint, has the potential to be very fulfilling because the energy you use to cross the map is also the energy that you use for battle, and the cards that are in your hand also don't change. The reason I say "may have potential", though, is that there is a bit too much RNG at the start of a run. You start with a basic set that each mahokenshi has, a few basic attack cards and two movement cards. That said, you don't start with any kit whatsoever. Sure, deckbuilding does come into play, and there is meta-progression that allows you to unlock perks, but, the issue is that, one of those perks which, some may argue can make or break a run, doesn't have a reroll feature. The perk I'm talking about is one that allows you to select 1 of 4 random cards in the mahokenshi specific deck (mahokenshi are the different player classes).

In a game like StS where the runs are long and multi-level, that wouldn't be a problem if you get trash cards as you can skip. Also, sure, you can skip card selections in this game. Issue is, at the start of the run, the only thing that you have is that same starter card kit that all of them posses, which feels samey. Later you can add gear that gives you cooldown based abilities, but, that also feels samey from character to character. The only difference aside from the avatar and voice of the character is the class specific cards you draw. That's part of the issue, so, okay, if you want to play as Kaito, you get a bunch of Kaito specific cards that no one else can use, the same for the others, BUT, there are several different ways to build each character. That depth would be cool, except that, because that OG card selection is totally random, you can't determine which build to go for until later in the mission, which, also, at that point, it can get sloppy because all cards in the game are in the same 2 draw pools meaning, that, a card selection can come up and you'll get nothing but generic cards for the generic starter deck, or, you'll get two or three cards that are dependent on a specific other type of card to function at full capacity, only to never get the initial card to set up the kit. meaning that now you have to seek out a location to delete some cards which takes cash that you'd use to browse shops to buy cards.

Look, I'm not new to deckbuilding games, I get it, you're supposed to go with the flow and build your kit based off the cards that show up, the issue is, that a common challenge you run into is issues of mobility. Each class has ways around that issue, two have dash cards that cover multiple tiles in one go, another has teleportation and the other uses charge. Most of the missions have time limits, if not limits based on turns, limits based on killing an elite that's rushing to destroy a city or something similar, so, not getting a mobility card from one of the first two or three, or even just first card selection not only is detrimental to your run, but, tanks it before its starts because no character has inbuilt abilities to modify how they move.

If the grid didn't have verticality for different terrain types, that wouldn't be that big a deal, however, moving on anything buit plains and roads requires extra energy to move into them. You get two movement cards that drop that energy price to 1... that's it, otherwise, you either run on a road or a plain and hope for the best, or hope that you get a movement card for your character early on.

Examples: Ayaka doesn't have too many dash to x tile cards, but, they are there. What she DOES have, is the ability to grow wings for a few turns which allow her to fly over any terrain and even fly over enemies for a flat rate of 1 energy, so, not necessarily move economical on a map that's nothing but plains, but, very very useful for moving across a bunch of different mountains/hills, and water tiles. The issue is that, even though there are a few cards that allow you to get that ability up and running, the chance to get them is drowned out worse than rainbow characters in a mobile gacha game like Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.

You are penalized for leveling up your character as opposed to them getting stronger. Now, no, that's not the same as a corruption mechanic for beating a level on one difficulty and it getting more difficult, it's due to an oversight with the StS styled character level up.

In games like StS, when a character levels at the end of a run, they unlock cards for their pool and occasionally relics/artifacts, etc. This game does that too, per character. Not an issue with the talismans (essentially relics), or even the equipment (gear you can equip for cooldown abilities) because, in the former, you only get like one or MAYBE two talisman's in a run and though they help, you can usually avoid them completely and still run,. In the latter case you select your gear before the run, so, total control over what you equip. The issue is, with each new level, there's the possibility to add cards to your characters card pool. These cards suggest different builds, these cards also are intermixed. The flaw here is that a design oversight prompted dev to gimp the core mechanic to the game that you need to utilize to do anything other than basic movement.

i mentioned it earlier, all card draws on the board, including the 6 cards that each shop offers, draws from one of two pools, common and rare. Yet, there is no further distinction aside from adding the characters cards to those two pools.

This takes away the tactical element out of the game the further you progress.

More character levels = the weaker characters become because the more diluted draw chances are, and there's no re-roll for card pools or for shops, what RNG dictates is what RNG gives and not even RNJeebus can help you. Here's a great example of what I mean from another character: Thekitsune character that I play constantly but can't remember her name of.

Her starting kit is REALLY strong, not game breaking strong, but, it's balanced and deals with pyromania and a tad of spirit collection. She can drop down various towers to heal her or damage the enemy, she can teleport around the map, or, with the pyromania option, she can nuke things with AOE damage. Teleport is integral to each one of these build types. Each build type, the pyromancy, the spirit build with melee, or the AOE nuke glass cannon pyromancy has cards that require teleport to function, or in some cases, to not permanently disappear. You can actually go a few runs without ever getting one teleport card, or, get one teleport card that's exorbitantly expensive as to be infeasible in comparison to just walking there. This is an issue because she has far less HP than any other survivor, her kit deals mostly with range even with the melee build. Mobility is key, and mobility is not something you can get at all. Two of her best cards are unlocked in the very first few XP levels. After that, all subsequent unlocks pollute the pool.

So, that's my very huge gripe with the game, and, it can be fixed by dev in a few very easy ways. Either ensure that there are different type of card draws aside from just "common and rare" like, for example, mobility cards, skill, cards, etc, or, incorporate a reroll feature and allow players to customize their starter deck directly instead of wasting meta-currency to upgrade one basic card and remove another. That said, still great game, I have played it for about the amount of money in hours that I spent on it, so, I feel it's worth the price, but, I honestly hope that this core issue I've mentioned is fixed since card's are THE core game mechanic to battle, and battling is 90% of the game.

Decent game but the lack of a proper save feature turned me off from playing it at all. I'd highly recommend as many others have pointed out to not buy this game until the devs add a proper save function. You'll even find in the discussions that this glaring problem was poorly answered by the creators as a very complex thing to add, in which other devs called them out on.

Good game. Goofy developers.

Mahokenshi is a Japanese themed deckbuilder where the player must protect villages from goblins and cultists who are trying to summon powerful demons.

Combat is turn based, and each mission takes place in a rural landscape that is divided into a hex grid. Each turn you’ll draw cards into your hand which allows you to attack, defend, move, or perform special abilities, and you can spend energy to either play cards or move around the map.

Certain tiles such as hills, forests or mountains give you a bonus to attack or defence, but they cost more energy to move into. However, movement cards will let you move further for less energy.

Each mission has several enemies positioned around the map which you’ll need to either defeat or avoid while you complete the mission objectives, which might involve defending a village, collecting items, or killing a boss. Some missions also include friendly samurai who will fight by your side.

Each map will also contain several useful locations which can assist you in various ways. Chests contain gold which you can use to buy new cards at villages. You can upgrade cards at a dojo, or remove cards at a shrine. Altars will let you increase strength, defence and maximum health, draw extra cards per turn, and gain extra energy per turn.

There are four playable characters to choose from, who gain special abilities from their preferred spirit god. The Tengu can fly which lets you move around the map quicker and gain attack bonuses. The Kappa has improved defence and can gain spikes to deal damage back to enemies when they attack you. The Ogumo can poison enemies and enter stealth to evade enemies. I haven’t tried The Kitsune yet.

You can also equip various items which can be activated on your turn to provide a tactical advantage, and recharge after a few turns. My favourite item lets you discard your hand and redraw the same number of cards, which is perfect for salvaging those turns where you didn’t draw anything useful.

There are 18 missions and it took me 10 hours to complete the game, as I beat most missions on my first try. Some missions have interesting twists relating to the mission objectives, for example one mission puts lots of curse cards in your deck which hurt you when you draw them, but nothing that would cause a significant problem for an experienced deckbuilder player.

The main difficulty comes from trying to complete each mission’s bonus challenges, which often ask you to kill optional enemies or complete objectives in a limited number of turns.

Overall Mahokenshi is a good game, and I didn’t have any problems with bugs or crashes. While it doesn’t have the longevity of my favourite deckbuilders such as Slay the Spire, Monster Train or Pirates Outlaws, its still a fun game which is worth playing if you pick it up on sale.