Wonder of Blue

I enter the first room the enemies already bring me to half HP I continue to explore the first flor I find food and I go back to a good HP I enter a door with some light (it's the new flor) a few minutes pass and I die from another enemy 11/10

If you're into rougelikes with a hint of cuteness, you might like this. Just a heads up, this game is pretty challenging, which is why I chose the easy difficulty setting. I'm still in the middle of the game, but so far this game has been a lot more fun than I gave credit for.

It's like Binding of Isaac, but not as good. I think the main problem is your attack. If you are too close to the enemy it doesn't do any damage, as the attack overshoots. This feels very awkward & unintuitive.

It's a good, fun, simple game. It leaves me with one burning question, though: WHY is this game 1.5GB in size on disk??? First of all the game looks like a Gameboy game and should only be like 100MB at most, but let's just ignore that. Let's look at some facts, not vibes (though, I agree with the vibes). The game when it's downloaded takes up the full 1.54GB of space (in what appears to be entirely Unity asset folders), but when it's downloading it only takes 271MB of network to download. This is roughly a 6x compression, meaning a lot of this space is probably wasted/zeroed out? I looked at the files installed on my system and the majority of the space seems to be taken by the assets for the game, which, given that everything is 16x16 or 32x32 PNGs, this seems ridiculous. Some similar games: The Binding of Isaac, a game this is clearly inspired from which is NOT pixel art, with I would assume more content, multiple expansions and expansions to the expansions, etc., only takes 600MB on disk after installation. Deltarune, another pixel-arty game that I picked because it purposefully is multi-medium and does way more than just pixel art, is only 900MB, and that game is pretty massive. Deltarune even uses Gamemaker Studio, so it's comparable in that it's also using a giant toolkit for development like how this game uses Unity. I've never felt like the following phrase was appropriate until now: code smell. This giant size is pointing that something in the software stack has gone wrong. Either the assets are being blown up way too big for what amounts to 16x16 pixels, or Unity is adding a bunch of crap to the assets without the developer's knowledge, or Unity just kinda blows. Maybe my perspective is skewed, because as a software developer I start getting seriously concerned about my binaries when they break even 50-100MB, but... this really doesn't seem right. I'm just hoping this game doesn't include a crypto miner or something because that's where my head goes when there's such a size discrepancy. I'm hoping this doesn't become the second game in my "Trojan?" category in my Steam library.

Wonder of Blue is a compact but surprisingly demanding dungeon crawler that transforms the familiar imagery of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland into an action roguelike centered on exploration, precise movement, and learning through repeated failure. Developed and published by Velveteen, it follows Liddell after her journey down the rabbit hole leads her into a strange Wonderland inhabited by unusual characters and dangerous creatures. A mysterious pink cat named C.C. accompanies her toward the White Willow and the shifting Labyrinths beyond, with the Queen of Hearts looming over the adventure. The recognizable fairy-tale inspiration gives the game an immediately charming personality, but its colorful appearance hides a considerably tougher experience. Exploring the Labyrinth forms the heart of the game. Terrain and treasures can change between ventures, preventing every attempt from becoming a straightforward exercise in memorization. Treasure Chests provide three randomized choices, allowing players to gradually shape their equipment and abilities around what they discover. Mementos can provide passive benefits, while Suit Cards offer ranged special attacks. These cards consume Magic Points, which can be restored by fighting enemies with melee attacks. This creates a satisfying relationship between close-range aggression and special abilities rather than allowing players to depend endlessly on ranged attacks. Combat becomes more interesting because of Liddell's movement options. Her signature Twirl acts as an evasive pirouette and can even be performed while attacking, encouraging an aggressive style where offense and defense flow together. Holding the command after a Twirl causes her to sprint, which is useful both for navigating rooms and escaping unfavorable positions. The Power Cut provides another tactical option by charging a stronger melee attack with additional reach and damage. Against protected opponents, Power Cuts and items can break their guard and leave them exposed to normal attacks. These mechanics make encounters more deliberate than the cute pixel-art presentation initially suggests. Careless button pressing can quickly become costly, particularly against stronger enemies and bosses. The game openly embraces Soulslike difficulty in these major confrontations, making pattern recognition and timing important. Understanding when to attack, evade, use an item, break a guard, or preserve resources gradually becomes more valuable than raw statistical power. Resource management further strengthens this structure. Desserts and Royalty Cards can provide healing, while maps and compasses make exploration easier by revealing more of the Labyrinth and helping players locate additional Treasure Chests. Because the contents of chests vary, individual runs can develop differently depending on which passive effects, special attacks, healing resources, and exploration tools appear. The randomized elements do not completely dictate success, however, because player knowledge remains one of the most important forms of progression. Permanent advancement is intentionally limited. The Dream Journal retains certain discoveries and allows some previously found Mementos to be purchased again, while item rerolling provides another modest progression option. Beyond these systems, players are expected to become stronger mainly by becoming better at the game. Learning enemy behavior, understanding room layouts, recognizing useful combinations, and mastering boss attacks are effectively the primary upgrades. This philosophy makes successful runs rewarding, although players who prefer roguelites that constantly provide permanent statistical bonuses may find the progression unusually strict. Different modes help make this demanding structure accessible to a broader audience. Casual Mode allows players to retry Labyrinths after defeat, although failure can still result in lost inventory and half of the Gold being carried. Lost Gold can be recovered by returning to the floor previously reached, introducing an additional risk-and-reward objective on subsequent attempts. Wanderlust Mode is considerably harsher because a mistake can return Liddell to the beginning of her journey. Wanderlust+ provides fixed layouts and shifts the experience closer to a traditional dungeon crawler. Having these alternatives is valuable because players can choose how strongly they want failure to affect their progress. The visual presentation complements the gameplay exceptionally well. Cute character designs and colorful pixel graphics capture the surreal storybook atmosphere without attempting to reproduce Wonderland in a conventional way. An especially distinctive feature is the ability to apply four-color palettes across the entire game. There are 19 palette choices, including several inspired by classic handheld aesthetics. Since repeated runs naturally revisit similar environments, changing palettes can make familiar areas feel visually different. An alternative 8-bit soundtrack can accompany the retro palettes, creating another way to modify the atmosphere. These options are small additions from a mechanical perspective, but they show thoughtful consideration for a game designed around repeated playthroughs. The combination of adorable imagery, restrained colors, retro presentation, and unexpectedly punishing encounters gives the experience an appealing contrast between appearance and difficulty. Control flexibility is another advantage. Keyboard and controller bindings can be remapped, which is particularly useful because successful combat relies heavily on quickly accessing attacks, items, swapping commands, and the Twirl. The overall control scheme is relatively economical, but individual actions have enough versatility to create meaningful tactical decisions. Rather than overwhelming the player with a huge move list, the game asks them to become proficient with a smaller collection of dependable mechanics. Steam Deck compatibility requires some qualification. The Steam store page does not currently provide an official Steam Deck Verified or Playable rating for Wonder of Blue. Therefore, it should be considered officially unverified rather than confirmed compatible. Its controller support, remappable controls, lightweight 2D presentation, and relatively modest technical demands suggest that it has characteristics well suited to handheld play, but those qualities should not be confused with an official Valve compatibility certification. Players specifically purchasing it for Steam Deck should keep that distinction in mind. Ultimately, Wonder of Blue is most successful when its charming presentation and unforgiving mechanics work together. It offers procedural exploration, meaningful item choices, responsive evasive combat, challenging bosses, several approaches to failure, and an unusually strong emphasis on player improvement instead of permanent upgrades. Its limited metaprogression may not satisfy everyone, but that decision also gives successful runs a genuine feeling of mastery. For players who enjoy challenging action roguelikes, traditional dungeon-crawling ideas, retro aesthetics, and Wonderland-inspired fantasy, this is an imaginative and focused adventure with considerably more bite than its adorable exterior suggests. Rating: 7/10

This game is pretty charming but I felt that it fell a bit short of what it wanted to set out. Every room feels the same, hitboxes feel inconsistent, and the items feel too far and in between. It has a card item system but there didn't seem to be many, and I don't think they really work well with the limited inventory mixed with mana system. I feel like it'd make much more sense if it replaced C.C. until you get another one. Since your attack is so stubby it you often get hit by enemies trying to get close, so then you rely on the charge attack which takes quite a while to charge while also not doing [i]that[/i] much more damage. The idea of the gameplay loop seems to be use items, then use the charge to refill the mana, but the items aren't actually that helpful. It also wants to do zelda 1 style secret walls but only one item seemed to interact with it and I only got just another normal room doing so. Bosses are really the only interesting thing so you tend to just race to them after a while (it's barely worth exploring the levels), but the bosses attack so frequently and have so much health they're not fun. Also the collision is bad, you can get caught on walls easily, sometimes I just would get stuck in a door without it moving me to the next room, very frustrating. I think this game could be really interesting if it tightened up that gameplay loop, added more variety to the rooms, and focused on making the combat a bit snappier. Unfortunately as it is, I don't recommend it.