Overall, I would say that Calice is good; however, I am sad to say that that comes with a pretty heavy asterisk. That being said, if you are a fan of games like Slay the Spire, it might be worth grabbing on sale. [i]Also, as an important note, I did not feel like this was communicated clearly enough, but if you want to get the full experience of the game, you will have to play on the highest difficulty, or else you will not get the last zone.[/i]
Mechanically, I found Calice to be interesting and fun while at the same time being flawed, clearly lacking in depth, and at times confusing. It plays like many games in this genre, but you have two sets of cards: number cards and the cards you combine those numbers with to actually do things like attacking, giving yourself defense to resist attacks, or doing one of many utility actions. It may sound tedious to have to use cards to then use cards that actually do something, but it came very naturally and was a unique twist that I haven’t seen before, which I found to be a lot of fun when it came to building your deck. The tools you have are far more limited given that you effectively are splitting a deck in two compared to other games, but that was really nice for specializing decks to play in certain ways. I will say, I found that the game was quite easy if you are familiar with games like these and thought that the variety of cards and viable builds was pretty minimal. That does perhaps make this an easier game to introduce people to the roguelike deckbuilding genre, but for players like me, it does seem a bit too simple. Perhaps the biggest flaw this game has, though, is that the translations and clarity are poor. To my untrained eye, it looks like the default language is Korean (by the way, they should have started with a language select option before the menu; that would have been nice), because of this, some of the translations are pretty rough. A lot of words that should or should not be plural are flipped, certain sentences feel awkward or are misworded (though never to a degree where I was unable to understand what was trying to be conveyed), and (though I am not the king of grammar or anything) it is clear that some of the grammar is a bit off. This lack of clarity led me to have to try things out without fully understanding what I was doing, which was fun in its own way, but overall, it clearly harmed my experience. Despite all these flaws, Calice is sensible and competent, but it really needs more polish, build options, and unique random events. Other things I will praise are that I felt the enemy variety was well done, the boss fights generally were great (excluding the fact that the rabbit can just one-shot you if you take too long; I will hold that one-shot mechanics are never fun), and the items all felt great. Don’t come into this game thinking that it will play as well as a game like Slay the Spire; that is for sure, but I still liked it. If this game were more than $10, then I think I would be bothered by these flaws, but it's not, and I felt like I had a great time given what this game is. The 5 hours I got out of the game were good, but I won’t likely be putting in more unless a child of mine or a niece or nephew decides to play this.
As for the story, given the source of the game’s plot, Alice in Wonderland, it follows a lot of the same beats, and, as a fan of the tale, I quite like what is on offer here. There are some liberties taken throughout, but I think that overall, they always add and never subtract from the vibe Lewis Carroll gave off in their original work. Everything that is added feels cohesive to the original narrative and feels appropriate to the setting and the take they have on it. I will say, though, that I am sad to say that the story feels incomplete, which is my greatest criticism of the game. I got all the way to the end and didn’t feel like the game had a full conclusion, and lo and behold, when I tried to play the same profile it said, “To be Continued”. So, wait, is this game actually not finished even though it is not in early access and hasn’t been updated in nearly a year? Idk, maybe. To be fair, you do have to play on the higher difficulty to get to the Queen of Hearts (something that is not communicated very well), so keep that in mind, but it shows the same message for both completions. So, idk if that is just a placeholder for when somebody clicks back onto the profile or what, but nonetheless the ending feels abrupt. The fight ends, and the credits roll, and it feels like it needs a better conclusion. The game covered all the necessary characters and the entire vibe of the world, so it has that at least. Whatever the case is, the story is decent; it is mostly shown through images rather than text (which I appreciate), and what was happening was communicated through those images well. I just found myself wanting more.
The sound design is minimal, which is fine for a game like this, but it does put it behind some others. All the music fits thematically, but it feels like stock music. The attacks and interactions have appropriate sounds, but they do not feel unique or impactful. And the variety of both action sounds and music is quite limited. So, yeah, it is fine, but it really doesn’t stand out.
Where this game does stand out is its art design. It is colorful, appealing, expressive, charming, and, best of all, I think it fits the source material well. I actually have Alice in Wonderland in an illustrated form, and this reminded me of it somewhat, so I felt right at home with this game. The characters that are added and changed heavily still feel like they fit the world well. I think that the way the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts look are clear standouts. But yeah, beyond feeling that some UI elements were a bit weaker, I loved the art. The animations felt a little stuttery or scuffed at times, but that was minimal. Just look at the trailer and screenshots; the whole game looks like that, and it is wonderful. I just loved seeing new varieties of enemies, and the cutscenes with Alice were just adorable. This was clearly the standout for the game, and I think the art alone justifies the price they are asking for the game.
In the end, I do recommend Calice, but it is not without its flaws. I was able to overlook them and have a good time, but unlike something like Slay the Spire, which I have put around 100 hours in and will likely go back and put in even more, Calice was a game where I finished it twice on both difficulties, had a couple of failed runs, tried the endless mode, and felt like I was done. It doesn’t have the polish and depth that this game needs if it wants to attract and keep the attention of the crowd it is going for. Nonetheless, though, it was a good 5 hours of gameplay, and if you are cool with that, like games like Slay the Spire, and/or are a fan of Alice in Wonderland, I think you will find this game is worth spending the time on.
