The title screen alone pulled me in. It's simple but very nice to look at. Same with the UI in general through the game, nothing flashy for the sake of it, just clear and readable. The map layout with fights and shops were nice too. The gameplay loop is really fun.
Dragging cards onto enemies feels responsive, and the status effects are communicated really well. I like that I could clearly see what effects were being applied, and also know how much damage I can expect them to do next turn. The little animations for effects added a lot.
The card art and pixel characters look great too. Everything feels cohesive. And picking new cards between battles actually made me think about my build instead of just grabbing whatever. I made it midway through the 2nd area and yeah, the difficulty definitely ramps up quick like you warned lol.
You guys squeezed a lot of variety into this. Really polished game, fun loop, and kind of addictive.