Bounced off this a reasonable amount; probably played about 10-15 hours over the course of the past week or so, and I anticipate playing it more once I'm able to travel again (it seems good for passing time during train/plane journeys) but I can't say I'm compelled enough to spend time on this whilst stuck at home.
There are a few things holding this back for me. I felt like a lot of the time I was having to choose between either engaging in a bunch of busywork or risking future feelbads (trying to balance out of the upsides/downsides of the myriad possible map routes, setting up turn/action-counting relics for the next fight, triple-checking the math on a really complicated turn before committing to either offense or defense). Removing cards (and to an extent upgrading cards) feels so much better than the other options presented that it's hard not to bias towards them in ways that make some choices straightforward/boring (I'd love to have seen one of the four core characters treat this part of the game mechanically differently somehow). Defect and Watcher, based on my initial experiences, felt dramatically more interesting than the other two characters. The game's aesthetic was kind of bland and unmemorable for me (though completely fine).
The biggest problem for me personally is that the game was just very easy, though. Across my first six runs I came close to dying once? I really wish there was a way to skip through ascensions, such that I could challenge ascension 5 even though I've only cleared ascension 1; make ascension 5 even harder for people who want to do things this way to discourage this behaviour if you want, but at least give me the option rather than making me grind for however many hours to get to the point where I feel like I am at risk of losing. I can get around this by just exclusively playing Custom Game mode, but not being able to engage with the main mode sounds unsatisfying enough to me that I'd rather just take a break from the game.
Anyways, the game is a perfectly solid attempt at mixing roguelite and deckbuilder. My rating is perhaps a tad harsh as I recognise the game will appeal to me more once I've unlocked higher ascensions, and that the gameplay with both Defect and Watcher is generally fun and has some great high-points. I do intend to play the game more at some point down the road with all this in mind, but my early experience has been soured a bit and I'd rather just do something else for now.
There are a few things holding this back for me. I felt like a lot of the time I was having to choose between either engaging in a bunch of busywork or risking future feelbads (trying to balance out of the upsides/downsides of the myriad possible map routes, setting up turn/action-counting relics for the next fight, triple-checking the math on a really complicated turn before committing to either offense or defense). Removing cards (and to an extent upgrading cards) feels so much better than the other options presented that it's hard not to bias towards them in ways that make some choices straightforward/boring (I'd love to have seen one of the four core characters treat this part of the game mechanically differently somehow). Defect and Watcher, based on my initial experiences, felt dramatically more interesting than the other two characters. The game's aesthetic was kind of bland and unmemorable for me (though completely fine).
The biggest problem for me personally is that the game was just very easy, though. Across my first six runs I came close to dying once? I really wish there was a way to skip through ascensions, such that I could challenge ascension 5 even though I've only cleared ascension 1; make ascension 5 even harder for people who want to do things this way to discourage this behaviour if you want, but at least give me the option rather than making me grind for however many hours to get to the point where I feel like I am at risk of losing. I can get around this by just exclusively playing Custom Game mode, but not being able to engage with the main mode sounds unsatisfying enough to me that I'd rather just take a break from the game.
Anyways, the game is a perfectly solid attempt at mixing roguelite and deckbuilder. My rating is perhaps a tad harsh as I recognise the game will appeal to me more once I've unlocked higher ascensions, and that the gameplay with both Defect and Watcher is generally fun and has some great high-points. I do intend to play the game more at some point down the road with all this in mind, but my early experience has been soured a bit and I'd rather just do something else for now.