Finally, a backlog breaker. This is probably going to destroy my desire to play any other games for a while. I have long had obsessions with rougelike games. Binding of isaac and slay the spire both managed to capture inordinate amounts of my gaming time. Maybe on the same level as street fighter and other fighting games in general.

I was extremely skeptical about this game upon initally seeing it. It's just poker and cards I thought to myself. But I took a chance because slay the spire and inscryption showed me that deck builders and rougelikes can an incredibly engrossing combination(also I had a friend recommend it).

I have absolutely no regrets, the way a lot of people talk about vampire survivors is how I feel about this game. It is visual, auditory, sensory joy. When I take a run my mind is awash with potential systems I can tweak to solve the ever daunting goal of the game(which in this case is to finish 8 antes of cards a series of 3 games with different challenges).

There is something about the clustering of strategies, the immense difficulty and constant encourage to keep trying and the myriad of systems and how they work together that is so so wonderful. I have always had a mind for statistics(I worked as a data analyst for a couple years) this game rewards understanding of statistics and critical thinking. All you are really doing is organizing poker hands with powerups but the amount of ways the games powerups allow you to do that is just atonishing. The game has a shop that you can access in the middle of the game and in that you find the main way you go about acquiring power in a run which can take you anywhere from 2-3 hours(possibly shorter if I can get more efficient at playing this game). The game has both temporary and permanent powerups. The temporary powerups coming in 2 flavors: the arcana cards and the joker cards. Arcana cards are single use, they affect the money you spend or the cards you are playing, joker cards can be held in a hand of 5 and as long as you hold them you can use their power(the powers can range from being able to make straights with gaps like 1 to 3 can be considered a straight or adding multipliers to hands with certain conditions met like a hand with diamonds). The games permanent powers come in 2 forms as planatary cards and vouchers. The vouchers are the most expensive items in the game and provide a permenant bonus and the planetary cards gives bonuses to which hands you play.

I took the time to explain a system because this game doesn't just have that it has other systems as well and they all work together to create a meta that even the creator of the game says he does not have completely figured out.

I think this game is a wonderful testament to what can be possible even with the most seemingly simple ingrediants.

There's probably a 10-12 hour really cool game buried in here, but damn is this a mess. It got its hooks in me for sure and I'm still interested, but I'm not sure I can justify playing Rebirth full price.

The story has compelling beats even if I have no clue what's going on, but there are so many lulls in between that it makes it difficult to stay attentive. Ton of shots that linger on silence too long, needlessly long animation sequences, and tons of Gears of War 1 style slow walking sections.

Then there's the combat. It's shines every now and then when things hit just right, but for the most part it's just frustrating trial and error until you Google what gear and materia you need to fight whatever boss you've never been taught how to fight.

Maybe I need to play the og to understand what the fuck that cat was after the plate fell.