A roguelike deck builder with plenty of customization, cute character designs, and excellent pixel art? Sounds like my kind of game, but after more hours than I like to admit, Dungeon Drafters is one thing first and foremost: a hardcore experience for masochist.

Pros:
+ excellent pixel art and character designs
+ deck building offers plenty of customization
+ changing between playstyles is quick and easy
+ checkered world design is intuitive and quick to understand
+ five different biomes with diverse challenges are available from the start
+ town quests invite and reward experimentation
+ curio system offers even more approaches to situations
+ final dungon can be tackled at any moment
+ bosses are diverse and smartly designed
+ side-quests and minigames are fun

Cons:
- difficulty curve is extremely steep
- initial pick of starter deck is extremely important
- town portal is not available from the beginning
- enemies and hostile gizmos are too plentiful and powerful
- most curios are useless or even increase the difficulty
- bonus room unlocks are important but impossible for most builds
- final area and boss are frustratingly difficulty
- jazzy soundtrack is unique but repeats too quickly
- plenty of glitches, UI, and game logic issues
- rough technical performance on Switch

Playtime: Over 40 hours, with most curios, cards, and quests unlocked. Regular ending acquired.

Magic Moment: Unlocking a late-stage card that allows to kill many enemies in one turn, only to realize it works not as intended. Finally beating the final boss of countless of hours, only to realize there is a hidden ending that I can just look up.

Verdict:
Dungeon Drafters offers a unique mix of 16-bit visuals, deck building and roguelike elements, but its extremely high difficulty curve and lack of hand holding makes it a real challenge that delights and frustrates in equal measure. Facing a dozen enemies in small rooms and and having to check the attack patterns and sequence of action on each enemy becomes cumbersome and time consuming quickly, and elements intended to allow for greater customization like curios or health increase items don't scale quickly enough with the ever-increasing challenges. A round of fishing or playing a logic minigame helps take the steam off, sure, but the next death is always around the corner.

In short, this is a hardcore experience intended for players willing to deeply engage with its systems. Everyone else will be killed by the now-obligatory tutorial boss, only to realize that they are in for a world of cruel randomization, icy floors, and pain.

Check it out if you like the look, but don't say I didn't warn you.