I think this was the first game I played completely on steamdeck and I had a good time with it. Other games in the Steamworld franchise have been enjoyable, and this was no different. The card battles were fun and I liked the dynamics for most of my play through. The characters all played fairly uniquely and I liked grabbing new cards for them to switch up their play styles. I inherently wanted to create one perfect deck for each character, but realized in the last half of the game that’s unrealistic and there are certain enemies that you just have to build your deck around. I’m not sure it was my favorite mechanic was but it was manageable. It would have been nice to be able to save deck loadouts per character but my phone camera worked too. The game offers a colosseum for some round based fun, equipment to augment characters strengths, and also has new game plus and harder difficulties if you’re into that sort of thing.

As for things I didn’t like so much, since characters you’re not using don’t level up as fast as who you are using, after a bit of playtime 2 of my 5 characters became quite a bit behind in level, even in just one play through. I feel like this discourages you from switching your party around to try different strategies bc you’d be swapping in someone multiple levels lower than your regulars. Enemy variety could have been better. A lot of enemies are re-skinned or given different abilities, but they’re the same models. Lastly, I am very thankful that I finished the last boss in one attempt. I would have ♥♥♥♥♥♥ frustrated if I had to restart that super long fight over and over. Stock up on enough health potions and revives and you can kinda cheese it.

All in all though, it was a fun 22 hrs that was the perfect game to pickup and put down at any time on Steamdeck. Characters were fun, story was passable, card dynamics, chain attacks and combos were exciting and added strategic depth that I enjoyed. Would recommend it if it looks like fun to you.

A solid Turn-Based Card Battle RPG game.

This story was pretty standard with some twist that was predictable. Characters were generally likeable with decent humor. 7/10

The combat involves drawing and playing cards from pre-constructed decks. There are a range of combos based on the sequence of cards played as well as the characters involve in the cards played. You can play up to 3 cards in the same turn without some special equipment's bonus effect to trigger a chance to play additional cards. You can also redraw 2 cards per turn without any specific equipment to increase it. The battle was pleasant enough, but can become repetitive unless you try out different fancy combos instead of the "tried and true" more conservative formula. 8/10.

Each character's deck consists of 8 cards. You can have up to 3 characters on the field. There are a total of 5 possible playable characters you can put on a team to fight on the field. You have the standard fighter, mage, and healer team composition, along with some two more hybrid units you can obtain later. There are weapon bonus effects if you play 3 cards from the same character in the same turn. There are additional combo effects on some card if you play it after another character's card. The game isn't very challenging unless you set to higher difficulty, which may force you to play more optimal team and card combos. Some combo effects are too restrictive, which may not be as effective in combat in consideration of the RNG required to set them up. 8/10.

There is an arena mode that the player can challenge. Each arena level may have some special condition like enemy HP refills at the end of the turn or ally players always have poison, etc. Winning these arena battles will reward you with resources or equipment. There are not other mini-games as far as I am aware. There are some hidden chests in each story chapters that you can find to achieve 100% chest achievement. 6/10.

The art styles look great and the animations are well drawn. The color themes fit the story chapters well as well. 8/10.

The sound tracks were solid, but nothing spectacular. I don't think anything resonated in my head that I can recall when not playing the game. 7/10.

If you are a Turn-Based Card Battle RPG game fan, this could be that one more game to try out. I wanted to try GAME+ mode after completing the game first, but I couldn't find myself the urge to do it. 7.5/10.

Very good art, music, gameplay etc, like all Steamworld games.