★★★★★ 5/5
There’s something about this game that immediately feels like it’s already been around for a long time, even though it clearly hasn’t, which is interesting in itself because not many games manage to feel both new and oddly familiar without actually doing anything you can quite put your finger on. From the moment you look at it, there’s this sense of… presence, like the kind of game that exists in the same space as thoughts you were almost having but didn’t fully commit to, which is probably intentional or maybe not, but either way it works in a way that feels very complete without being obviously complete.
The cards, or the idea of the cards, or what the cards represent in the broader sense of the experience, seem to suggest a structure that is both there and not there at the same time, like rules that understand they are rules but also understand they don’t need to explain themselves to you directly. You end up following things without really noticing you’re following them, which gives the whole thing a sort of drifting momentum, like being carried by something that might be strategy or might just be atmosphere pretending to be strategy.
Graphically it gives off that carefully arranged pixel feeling where everything looks like it has been considered, but not in a way that draws attention to the consideration itself, more like it just naturally ended up that way because that’s where things belong. The dark fantasy tone doesn’t so much announce itself as it does linger nearby, like it’s always just off to the side of the screen waiting for you to glance at it accidentally.
The gameplay loop, or whatever you want to call the thing that happens when you’re interacting with it repeatedly over time, has this short-session structure that makes it feel like you’re constantly either starting something or finishing something without ever being in the middle of anything for too long, which somehow makes the middle feel present even when it isn’t there. It’s the kind of design that doesn’t insist on itself, which is probably why it ends up sticking around in your head longer than expected.
Overall, it’s one of those experiences that doesn’t really need to explain what it is because it’s already kind of doing it while you’re not paying attention, and by the time you try to summarise it properly you realise you’ve already moved on to thinking about it differently anyway. That alone feels worth five stars, even if the reason for that rating keeps changing every time you try to say it out loud.