This game absolutely whips ass. It's got a powerful aesthetic, a beautiful low-poly style, a moody soundtrack, and overall immaculate vibes. The card game combat is fun and the progression of unlocking more cards made it fun to occasionally re-tune my deck.

I can't say enough good things about this game's style. It looks and sounds amazing and has an aesthetic that you don't see a lot - there just aren't enough games set in mid-to-late 1800s rural Russia centered around the local folklore and mythology. Both the 3d and 2d art of the game is striking and evocative but I feel like the game really shines in its environments. Each place feels so specially crafted and the camera so carefully placed. The developers clearly have a strong sense of cinematography and that comes through the most during the cutscenes which are, across the board, gorgeous.

The difficulty spikes from time-to-time in a way that sometimes feels like I would need to go back and customize my deck to prepare for a specific fight but other times just felt like an encounter's numbers were just too high to deal with. The options menu does allow changing the difficulty at any time so I was able to drop it down to Easy when necessary, and it even has a Skip Battle button for when something got to be too frustrating (and it doesn't punish you for using that - a mistake that I feel a lot of games would've made).

Don't sleep on this game, I think it's a genuinely incredible thing that deserves way more attention than what it's gotten so far. And, hey, at the time of review it's getting to be Halloween season and I think this would be the perfect game for that time of year.

Also there's a card game in this card game so you can card game while you card game.