This is 99% of an awesome game, and ALMOST could've had an "Overwhelmingly Positive" status on Steam.
The art style and graphics are super cool! There's excellent animations for all of the unique abilities!
The decks are very interesting and fun to play, the roguelike mechanics make playthroughs interesting, the difficulty scales just enough to keep things fun, and it plays quite differently than other similar games thanks to some unique mechanics!

However, NONE of these mechanics are clear going in.
There is NO legitimate tutorial, guidance, or any help figuring out the game.
There is some incomplete documentation in a 'help' page, but nothing more.

A majority of the negative reviews are all pointing to this same issue, and a significant amount of players just had to give up.

I personally fully read a guide on the steam community page before going in, and I DEFINITELY would have given up if not for that:
This game is heavily built around the need to defend, much more than attacking, and this is something that isn't obvious when first entering the game.
Not only this, but the starting character is a 'virus' type, meaning you need to gain power by building up viruses without letting them overwhelm your hand and destroying you. Wow! What a cool mechanic!
So, why don't they explain this? Literally the tooltip text I just typed would have helped a lot.

Also, why is the starting character leveraging such a unique mechanic? With no Tutorial?

I still recommend the game, if you are willing to look up a guide.
It's just a real shame that the Devs can't just add a basic tutorial and turn this into the Overwhelmingly Positive game it deserves to be.

A rather well-executed rogue-lite (like?).

22 bucks for a game that actually makes you want to play another run right after you've done one.

I've seen a lot of posts online about how ridiculously difficult it is supposed to be. These must be from a different era. The game as it is now is easily beatable on your first run, even if, like me, you have little idea what you're actually doing. Come run 2 you should definitely be able to win, unless the RNG really ♥♥♥♥♥ you over.

Gameplay is similar to Slay the Spire. You walk down a path (here you cannot choose the path, you can only choose what you want from each node), then you fight. After each combat you will either have to take a card or gain a relic, called antiquorum. Getting rid of unwanted cards is a finite possibility, only available at certain nodes, which are also healing nodes. Upgrading a card is semi-random, meaning you get a selection of 6 or so out of which you can choose one to upgrade in 2 different ways. One card can be upgraded several times. You can amass a pretty wild amount of relics and cards in each run, molding your strategy as you progress.

In combat you have your typical interactions. Enemies either attack or use abilities, and they are either NEAR you or FAR away from you, i.e. those are the two combat layers. Switching targets is easy, the UI is decent and MOST stuff on screen is explained via mouse-over (not everything, though. Still no idea what "surge" is, for example). Some explinations take a bit getting used to, but when it clicks it clicks. Animations and SFX are satisfying, but combat encounters will get a bit stale after a few runs. There is a decent amount of variety and none of the 3 floors overstay their welcome, but I imagine you'll have seen all the game has to offer in terms of enemy variety after a few hours at most.

Before you embark you can choose some mission parameters to make it easier or harder, and after a win you unlock the curse progression, which is just an added difficulty layer. Beat level 1 to unlock level 2 and so on. However, all this gives you is the satisfaction of winning on a higher difficulty and some more XP. After 4 runs (2 wins, 1 failure at the final boss and 1 cheeky save scum ... yes, I like not having my time wasted), I've unlocked 7 out of the 9 available heroes. These come in 3 different sub-categories, so 3 each share a common theme, but still have unique starting cards only for them. After selecting your hero you can select a "side-kick" that can offer you unique advantages during your run if you invest in them. These can take the form of unique cards or relics or passive bonuses like armor, attack, etc. etc.

A run takes a bit over an hour usually, unless you idle around, maybe 1.5 on average. Doesn't feel like it, though, which is a good thing. Graphics style is, of course, an acquired taste, but the gameplay is solid. Story is non-existant, but it doesn't need a story, it needs good gameplay, and it's got that. I reckon you'll get at least 15 hours out of it if you only play once with each hero, but there's no real upper limit. However, as with all rogue-lites, they will get stale eventually. This one has no meta progression outside unlocking new heroes, companions and cards. Which, again, is fine, since the game is beatable from the get-go. Unless, there's some secret fourth area you can somehow unlock.

A little too hardcore for my taste not enough control over cards (being forced to take every time) added on to some of the worst relic bloat I've every seen. I won my first run off getting all the busted tenet relics and thought oh that was kinda easy shouldn't be to hard to climb the ascension ladder. only for my next run to give me no defensive options what so ever and I die on the second floor.

the tutorial is non-existent (help button with some text explanations), horrible tooltips (whats that symbol mean oops gotta guess), and a pretty boring unlock system.

the devs are at least buffing some of the tragically bad stuff.
just big nerfing some of the bosses and even the basic enemies on lower "curse" levels would let alot of players learn the game easier. then you can crank it back up on the max level (screw it, raise the max level).

If I didn't have any experience with other rogue-like card games I'd probably have refunded it after the first run.
I hope the game keeps getting polished but for now can't recommend for the average player.