Fun game with a lot of potential. I played until the warning sign with each class. Core game loop is pretty satisfying and I'll probably spend a bit more time on it later.
I like the decision to make the player hand retain instead of discard/redrawing every turn. That plus the overall smaller deck size made the game feel less random. This also made niche effects like curing a specific status seem more useful then they usually are in game of the same genre which is nice.
Striking a balance between gaining gold/exp/cards/companions feels like a pretty interesting challenge for players, although I haven't gone too far into it. It is a bit of a bummer to invest in gaining exp only to hit the level cap prematurely though.
I think this game really needs some sort of "rulebook" somewhere that explains all the keywords. It would be nice to be able to mouse over words like "retribution" and "ethereal" to see what they do before choosing rewards. Additionally, things like the range of a card or the radius of its effect should be visible somewhere on the card (unless this information was there and I was just too dumb to find it)
The minigames were a nice addition and the overall event variety was good, especially for an early demo. The cup game felt a little too easy.
Card art and models are all pretty good for an early build. Monster designs were nice, both mechanically and visually. Definitely looking forwards to seeing where this one goes.
Some minor things
- I found myself often trying to play cards with click, drag and release which doesn't work instead of just clicking the card. (this is probably just slay the spire muscle memory)
- There are some minor typos (in the intro: "Gather allies , acquire* power, and overthrow the usurper*)
- Maybe add the option to move the map by clicking and dragging?