Wildfrost

Wow, what a great game! The cards are neat and feel new in a genre that is frankly over-filled. I like that each of the clans feel distinct. The runs feel quite varied and it's surprisingly challenging in a fun way. The best part is that the art is just so damn cute. I very highly recommend this game.

Really exceptional art & art direction (very reminiscent of Grindstone in this regard, which had to be a point of reference). Innovative deckbuilder design; never played anything quite like this! Really fun; forced me to think about playing a deckbuilder in a new way! Very valuable if you've played a million of em and want something new! Unfortunately the card variety is a bit low and you can only really have 3 non-hero characters by default. The default difficulty is also a bit too easy for the 2nd and 3rd clans. That said, this is definitely worth the cost of admission.

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I like Wildfrost and I’m definitely sticking with it, but I do think it’s tough in a way that might turn a lot of people off. The game really punishes new players. You’ll probably have a ton of runs where you’re just stuck, barely getting anywhere. Then when you make bit of progress, one random mistake, like not knowing how to handle a new enemy mechanic, will send you straight back to the start. It’s a trial-and-error process, which can be super frustrating because there’s no way to save and reload. A lot of the challenge comes from slowly getting better through incremental exposure, and the fact you pretty much have to play perfectly to get anywhere. For me, that’s where the fun fades a bit. I’d rather be able to restart a combat and figure out a strategy by correcting my mistakes in real time rather than trying to get everything right on the first try. You’ll make a lot of mistakes, and every time you do, you’re back at square one. I often see where I went wrong and know I could learn faster if I could just keep tinkering and retrying, but that’s not how the game is designed. This isn’t like Slay the Spire, where you can blitz through your hand and enjoy really snappy gameplay. Wildfrost makes you think about each move, you have to reassess the field, move units, and play cards in the optimal order, every single turn. A lot of the negative reviews mention the RNG, but that's an innate feature of deckbuilders. It’s pretty clear that the game rewards patience, knowledge, skill, and strategy. It’s just that the learning curve is steep. If you’re looking for something you can pick up, chill out with, and immediately enjoy, this isn’t it. You’re going to need time and commitment to get good enough to actually have fun. That said, if you’re into challenges, enjoy slow and methodical gameplay, and don’t mind being thrown into the deep end, this is your jam. The people who love this game REALLY love it. The mechanics are deep and rewarding, and once you figure things out, there’s a ton of room for creative, fun builds. Wildfrost maintains its own identity in the sea of roguelike deckbuilders, and while it’s not for everyone, it’s still a great game. It’s just got a specific audience, and that’s totally fine.

The game definitely knows what a roguelike deckbuilder is all about. Mechanics are fun, core game loop is fun, game balance is good*, the art is really cute, and the concept has flavor. you won't regret purchasing this if you're into the deckbuilding genre. [b]Balance:[/b] The game's balance in a vacuum I could actually say is quite weak, some cards are definitely stronger than other cards in a non-funny way, and there are plenty of simple combos that you can stumble upon that just makes the whole run trivial. But what makes this not a problem is that combat has a high skill expression, in which having a strong deck alone isn't usually enough (most of the time). Because of this though, the game could be quite punishing, but it's also something the player could accept as their shortcoming rather than the game being too unbalanced. [b]Gameplay:[/b] Though it's unconventional for a deckbuilder to not be so concerned of all-around deck synergy and sometimes even health, I also see it as one of its strengths. The game can basically boil down to finding 1-3 interactions or a few synergistic cards, and then maximizing them through upgrades and then trying to execute your strategy in combat. [b]Replayability:[/b] Your mileage may vary, but I think you'll hit it once you have a certain level of skill expression, at that point (it was around 25 hours for me) the game does feel less fun to play and more repetitive, especially with the limited card pool. There are achievements and the ending that you can grind too though, and attempting those challenges definitely squeezed a good chunk of time out of the game, but unlike Slay the Spire, this game would probably be somewhat of an itch scratcher from time to time, it's still good though of course! It's just something you can get tired of quickly after a certain point, I'll probably boot it up once or twice a week maybe.

peak

my first character was called peenut 10/10 game