An Almost Great game.

[Ramza]

I played fights in tight spaces, I was pretty stoked about this game coming out, but overall I am pretty disappointed. It doesn't feel like all that much was added.

I have played a bit, and there are just a ton of little issues that need to be fixed.

Drafting a deck should not have a ton of cards your character can't even use. I just did one for a monk where half of the pulls were all movement cards, and then some melee weapon cards, and I was only able to get like 2 attacks. Worthless draft, may as well just restart again.

Magic is not very rewarding, especially when you first unlock it. It feels like another newbie trap. Many of the Magic cards just aren't good. 4 damage to everyone is lame, and the upgraded 4 dmg to all enemies isn't much better. Fireball is a ranged attack that is good, but no AOE, no DOT, nothing but damage makes it just a strong arrow. I like the push 3 guys in front of you being locked behind magic, and that feels like the kind of thing Magic should be, powerful options limited to attuned characters (who tend to be glass cannons).

The animation is disappointing. Most of the attacks look identical. And I bet nobody watches more than a few replays because it is slow, disconnected, and feels boring.

Side quests feel like more of the same, and its too bad there aren't some unique and interesting enemies, or quests that are more than one fight.

A lot of the equipment feels pretty terrible, nothing should be a downgrade from the starting weapons. Many of the consumables are so niche, that I never pick it as a reward because there is a good chance it won't work in your party or build.

Block scales pretty terribly, and feels like a newbie trap. This could maybe be alleviated by allowing you to choose from more cards because then you could focus block. Or maybe, instances where you can pick the kind of card you will get.

It isn't uncommon to get tasks that are literally impossible to fulfill. "delay 2 reinforcements, they both are six blocks away from each of your characters, and there will only be 2 this match" means dang, guess I don't get anything from this fight then.

When given the choice to hire a new person from an event, you don't get to see anything about them. You have to know their class by looking at them, and decide whether you want them before you see their cards.

I had a lock-out issue in a run because of this (in one of the events that you can hire someone, not the tavern). I said "yes I'll hire you" so I could see the persons skills, only to see that the cards were all terrible. There was no way for me to change my mind, so I pushed a bunch of buttons to see if anything would let me out, and it let me out of that menu, but when I came back it was a blank text box that didn't let me make any choices or move forward. This could be fixed with an "on second thought" button that lets you change your decision after seeing their skills.

No speed up the game feature is a surprising choice.

We could use a bit more variety in levels, even if the layouts are the same, re-skinning a few more would add variety to the play experience. Its also weird that so much of the game just takes place in like a barn.

I haven't done a run focusing on bleed, but it seems like 2 extra damage isn't very meaningful. Maybe its six if you have triple attack, but it still seems weak.

There is a bit of a readability issue at times. It can be hard to understand where an opponent will be looking after an attack, and it seems like something that should be indicated clearly on the screen. I had a great run going yesterday, only to end because I moved someone and pushed my own guy off the board at max health because I didn't realize the other dude was doing a ranged push. It may just be me, but this isn't totally isolated. It feels like I understand the game well, and often only take damage because I misunderstood something. That's a frustrating feeling in a game that is genuinely difficult.

I like the way the team works together and you get free hits. I think the difficulty is on point. I like the idea of building a party. I like pushing dudes to their doom. I like that different weapons give different auto attacks. I think the upgraded equipment is usually pretty good/worth it as compared to the base.

It seems odd to me that we can't upgrade cards in more interesting ways. By which I mean, other card games allow you to modify the card itself. For example, Certain cards in the game like Ground Slam have retain. There are cards where I would be super happy to retain them. Maybe a combo card, maybe a heal, but I'd pay a lot for that. Giving a card Innate, changing its combo, or causing it to give more damage modifier. Maybe making it push. Add bleed, stun, poison, etc. Make the card disappear if not used, but more powerful. Maybe it is the way it is for a certain strict balance, but it feels like we don't have a ton of options for upgrading cards.

Also, the game wants to be and RPG I think, it pretends that there are multiple paths, but there seems to be no difference or effect on game play. It certainly isn't identified so you can make a choice ahead of time. Will I go to the white shield on the left, or the white shield on the right? It often feels like you could just take out the overmap, and just have me fall right into the next match without missing much.

[Bearsuit]

There's a lot here, but I'll just say that I disagree with you on "blocking." There are a lot of cards that make block and counter a very powerful style. It's not hard to find yourself with 50+ block and multiple counter tokens, allowing to wreck 3 or 4 enemies at once. It's especially good when you're able to retain your block across multiple turns so that it builds up. There are also items that increase combo/counter which then makes you scale even more. Don't forget to stack conditioning either.

With the right build and deck pull, you could probably tank and one-shot 4 demons at once, I'd imagine. I just killed off one with over 100 damage on a single attack from my counters and didn't take any health damage. I can't see why 3 or 4 at once would be impossible with more block build up.

It's also beneficial when you can stack 2 or 3 characters against one AOE boss and they can take the boss down in a single counter.

[Ramza]

I will admit that after seeing some other cards, I think you are right, Block is definitely viable, and maybe the best way to fight the end boss.

[Bearsuit]

I'm having fun with a brawler and swordsman team. Lots of counter mitigation with counter stacking on my own characters.

I also wanted to add, to your point about sorcery, that it is useful. It seems weak, something like Magic Storm, that can only deal 4-5 damage to each enemy. But having an indirect attack that affects every enemy is very useful. Triggering support attacks is nice, but the best use for it is when you need to damage an enemy to cancel it's own AOE attack. Archers and mages with indirect AOEs are a pain in the ass when they are behind their team and you can't reach them.

The more that I've played (50ish hours now), the more I've found use for classes and cards I otherwise thought were dumb. It can definitely be an issue for the "new player experience", however. Having to put in a lot of hours to really unlock the potential isn't necessarily great for an indie game.

The worst, to your point about being pushed off, is learning the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th order of actions in response to your own moves. I've lost deep runs because I caused a chain reaction that sent my leader off the board. And you can't use your "UNDO" when that happens.