Card Quest

So far, so good, and better. This game might not make the most spectacular first impression, but it's made with skill, care and subtle charm, and despite being a card-based sorta-roguelite, it is most decidedly NOT a Slay clone. But given that it came out two years before Slay, perhaps this shouldn't be surprising :)

GREAT GREAT GREAAAAT GAME THAT DOES ITS OWN THING. In the current era where anything with cards (that isn't a TCG) must be a variation of Slay the Spire, Card Quest is different and it's a lot of fun. I'd remove the "rogue-like" tag for sure. Strangely, I'd say this plays more like a unique strategy or even puzzle game, with the replay value coming from the learning and retry you need to succeed. ------------------------ THE BASIC CONCEPT Your character may be fixed from the start of an adventure by choosing your 6 items, and it can perform quite consistently after that. The deck is built from your style/school, main hand, and off hand; each part giving around 5 cards. Plus picking armor and two trinkets; these give passives and/or quasi-consumable actives. Just a couple of trinkets end up being redundant/too weak in comparison. The way this creates variety is amazing. It's like each of the four characters has 3 or 4 subclasses that you can merge in different degrees. All, I do mean ALL, strategies are distinct and fun. The puzzle comes in because each zone presents unique enemies that might ask you to do very different things to win (especially the later ones). So, you'll sometimes get into fights that counter you terribly. Next time, you'll plan your build to beat that harsh zone. This game had me making a Word document to record details of the zones, so I could plan out the best complete paths for the different characters I wanted to win with. It was all very fun and rewarding. ------------------------ THE PROGRESSION When you beat a zone, it gives you 1 item for the character you're playing with. It was also very rewarding to discover piece by piece the vast possibilities of what each character could become. In this sense, there is meta-prgression, but I never felt like it was grinding, each item was the well deserved prize for solving an interesting fight. Also, the game does not become boring due to unlocking super powerful things. ------------------------ THE VIBE The art seemed a bit off at first, but it really ended up growing on me. It all brings a lot of flavor into what you're doing. For a game with no animations and no depiction of your character in-game, the art really pulled it off!!! It got me vividly imagining and acting how the fights might play out in real time. Weird, but even the plain black background ended up working well. It was just a nice canvas to imagine the dark forests, caves, stormy mountains, corrupted streets, roofs at night, castles, and all the atmospheric scenes suggested. Everything flows in a nice simple story that branches with your decision of which zone to explore. It all just works! ------------------------ THE BAD Card Quest does have bits of jank. Mostly issues with unclear or incomplete explanations of what items do (and plenty details that are important if you really want to plan your adventure), specially the info around buff/debuffs. I did encounter 1 or 2 mechanics with such quirky inconsistencies that I must assume they're bugged. Again, the game had me writing details about this in my Word document... but it's all worth it. ------------------------ Thank you for all the fun!

This is to me one of the best "deckbuilder" games ever made. There's almost zero randomness, you build your entire deck at the start of the game (which is how actual physical deck building card games work) and try to survive until the end picking the right challenges suited for your cards. There are a couple of extra abilities and stat increases to gain along the way and further tailor your build, but most of the toolkit you have from the start. There is 4 classes, each with their own unique card pool, subclasses to unlock with their own unique spin on the main mechanic, dozens of equipment configurations. If you want to unlock everything this game has to offer, there is a lot.

This is truly an underrated gem classic. I'm really sad that this hasn't received more attention but I think that's only because of the slight difficulty curve in learning how to micro-manage your deck and cycle through efficiently. Here's hoping to the remaster 🍻.

I didn't click with this game at first. The tutorials were long and hard and I wasn't really enjoying playing these same stages over and over again. I would recommend doing only one of the tutorials at first and hoping right in the main game. I went back a while later and got hooked. It's not your typical deck builder, since you get to respond during your opponents turn with dodges, blocks, and counters. There are no random cards to add to your deck, all of your equipment has a certain set of cards associated with it. I wasn't sure if I liked this at first, but it grew on me. It takes some practice, but once you understand the mechanics, playing out perfect turns and clearing an entire screen of enemies on turn 1 feels great. It's insane how many pieces of gear there are to unlock and combinations of builds that all feel uniquely different. Each class has a piece of gear you can unlock, noted by a ? on each zone whether or not you have unlocked it or not. There must be at something like 200+ pieces of gear to unlock that each come with their unique set of cards. Even after 50 hours, I have only unlocked about a 3rd of the gear.

Having fun with it.

[h1]Карти, магія та піксель-арт[/h1] [b]Card Quest[/b] — це унікальна карткова рольова гра, яка поєднує в собі шедевральний піксель-арт, глибокий геймплей та різноманітні вигадливі білди, а також пропонує надзвичайну реіграбельність роуглайк. Кор-геймплей - тактична покрокова рольова гра, схожа на [b]Slay the Spire[/b] або [b]Darkest Dungeon[/b]. Вибираючи клас, здібності та спорядження для свого персонажа, ви формуєте колоду карт, доступних для використання в бою. Гру виділяє на фоні конкурентів неймовірний піксель-арт. Просто подивіться на скріншоти, і ви зрозумієте, про що йдеться. Я фанат цього стилю ще з [b]Hotline Miami[/b]. Мінімалізм піксель-арту, поєднаний з мінімалізмом карткових рольових ігор, дає безліч простору для інтерпретації. Це створює атмосферу, де політ фантазії під час гри можна порівняти з читанням книги. У грі є три кампанії на різні теми: чума зомбі під керівництвом архіліча, визволення царства гномів від диктатури дракона та полювання на магічного звіра в зачарованому лісі. Кожна кампанія складається з випадкових рівнів, кожен з яких завершується босфайтом, а фінал принесе вам ще одного фінального босса. Наприкінці кожного рівня ви можете вибрати один із двох шляхів, що дозволяє змінювати хід кожного проходження. Однак найцікавіше в грі — це не стільки противники та рівні, як шалена фантазія авторів на тему класичних фентезійних архетипів (воїн, злодій, маг і рейнджер). На основі усього чотирьох класів автори змогли створити десятки таких персонажів, яких ви врядчи бачили десь раніше. Кожного разу, коли я сідаю будувати новий білд, я не знаю, хто я: некроліч чи піромант, акробат, нанюханий порошком фей чи рижа мавпа. Але я точно знаю, що це буде офігезно. Гра досить хардкорна: на перше проходження вам знадобиться близько 10 годин. Пройти всіх босів і відкрити всі предмети за один клас можна за 30 годин. А потім, вибравши інший клас, ви відкриваєте абсолютно альтернативну ігрову логіку. Після перемоги над фінальними боссами стають доступні ультимативні геймчейнджери, такі як приручений дракон або демонічна шкатулка з секретом. Комбінації предметів, при успішному проходженні, відкривають нові субкласи, що додає глибини грі. Сам геймплей ідеально вивірений та збалансований. Примушує мозок працювати на 110%. Всі здібності побудовані таким чином, щоб максимум залежав саме від ваших рішень, а рандом створював лише більш різноманітні ігрові ситуації для перевірки ваших здібностей. [b]Card Quest[/b] подарувала мені десятки годин неповторного ігрового досвіду. Без сумніву, це одна з найкращих карткових рольових ігор на ринку, яка заслуговує на найвищу оцінку.

I LOVE CARD GAMES. Also this one is extremely good