oguebook is a card-based roguelike developed by Abrakam Entertainment in collaboration with Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic, and in this review we will talk about it in detail
Roguebook is a card-based roguelike developed by Abrakam Entertainment and published by Nacon . By now it is possible to find really many video games belonging to this category, but this title manages to stand out thanks to a particularity. Roguebook was in fact developed with the help of Richard Garfield , the man who created the world’s most famous trading card game: Magic .
Given the presence of an important character like Garfield, certainly many of you will have many expectations towards Roguebook and thanks to our review you can find out if the title actually manages to keep them.
Positioning is the key
Basically the gameplay of Roguebook is very similar to that of many other games of this genre. The fight takes place in turns and every time it is your turn you can play cards until you have run out of energy (mana) available. During your turn you will be able to decide what to calm down and you will also have the opportunity to observe the enemies’ moves in advance.
Overall you can have a lot of cards in your hand at the same time, but at the end of each turn you will be forced to discard them all (with some exceptions) and draw 6 again . This will lead you to quickly consume your deck, but luckily in that case you just need to shuffle the discarded cards inside it.
So far the game seems to be a card roguelike like any other, but that’s because you don’t know its position mechanics yet . Every time you start a game of Roguebook you can in fact create a party consisting of 2 heroes (which we will talk about later) and their positioning on the battlefield will greatly influence your battles. In fact, in combat only the first character of your party will suffer damage , thus protecting the second. In addition, there are many cards and artifacts (objects that enhance your heroes throughout the game) that have additional effects based on the position in which the hero who uses them is located .
During the clashes you will not be able to move your characters freely and to do so you will have to rely on the effects of the cards . Many cards in fact have a yellow symbol in the shape of an arrow that indicates their ability to move the heroes. The mechanics are very interesting but unfortunately the symbol is only visible if the character is actually able to move . For example, if a hero is already on the front line and you have a card in your hand that can advance him, the movement effect will not be reported. This lack of clarity is a serious problem during the first few games since, unless you have memorized the card effects right away, sOften you will end up making easily avoidable positioning errors .
Paper Warriors – Roguebook Review
The Roguebook is a particular cursed book that contains within it a large number of different worlds and stories. This mysterious artifact hides all kinds of dangers inside and, as if that weren’t enough, it is also able to trap people from the real world. In the course of the game, in fact, players will be able to control a party consisting of two of the four characters who were trapped in the book: Sharra, Sorocco, Seifer and Aurora.
These heroes are very different from each other and are based on unique card types and mechanics . Frog, for example, specializes in defending allies from attacks and using powerful cards that are very expensive and powerful, while Seifer prefers to fight by summoning powerful demons and upgrading his cards thanks to the rage mechanic .
Since you will have to control 2 different heroes in each game, your deck will consist of cards belonging to both . This will allow you to build a deck based on very interesting combos that bring out the best in each character.
A World to Color – Roguebook Review
To complete a Roguebook game you will have to beat the bosses that hide at the bottom of each of the three randomly generated levels that you will have to face. These powerful enemies will be tackled right away, but to be able to beat them you will have to explore the area properly in search of upgrades . In fact, in each level it is possible to find new cards, artifacts, gems, extra energy, gold and even scrolls capable of triggering very different events . In addition there are also a large number of optional battles that if completed will reward you with very useful items.
All these treasures, however, will not be accessible right away, since in Roguebook you can only explore the colored boxes of the book . At the beginning of each level the explorable area will be extremely small, but luckily you will have a set of brushes with you that you can use to paint the area around your character . These objects, however, are limited and consequently in each level you will have to think to find the best point where to use them.
This exploration system is really a lot of fun, as it forces players to weigh their actions well at all times. Sometimes it is convenient to eliminate all enemies to get as many resources as possible, while in other cases it may be wiser to face the boss immediately to avoid taking unnecessary damage. In this way the exploration is always very engaging and does not risk boring the players after a large number of games.
Page after page – Roguebook review
Like any self-respecting roguelike, Roguebook also features several unlockable content at the end of each game. As you progress through the levels, you can gain experience to unlock new items and new cards for the heroes. In addition, you can also later use the pages of the book found during exploration to unlock various benefits . For example, it is possible to increase the number of treasures and artifacts present in a level, or simply improve the statistics of some characters.
By completing a game you will certainly be able to collect a good number of pages, but to get a lot of them you will have to resort to epilogues . The epilogues are nothing more than unlockable modifiers after your first victory that will allow you to make subsequent runs more difficult and profitable . Initially you can only choose one at a time, but once you have completed enough you can activate several at the same time .
The idea of the epilogues is very nice, but sadly these additional challenges are not varied enough to entice players to take them on . In most cases, it is simply a matter of removing or adding elements from the layers . Furthermore, even the unlockable bonuses with pages are not very interesting and some players may not be tempted to get the more advanced and expensive ones.
Style and Colors – Roguebook Review
From a technical standpoint there isn’t much to say about Roguebook. The game is very light and consequently manages to maintain good performance even on less performing PCs . In the course of our test we also ran into only a few occasional bugs that did not affect our experience.
As for the artistic side, however, the title left us very satisfied. The backgrounds, settings and characters are really well cared for, and are based on a splendid artistic style that is very reminiscent of the one used for the illustrations of storybooks . What struck us most, however, were the splendid artwork present on all the cards that you will find in the game.
Unfortunately, Roguebook suffers from a problem that specifically affects us Italians: translation. The Italian translation of the game is in fact nothing short of poor and even in some cases it will not allow you to fully understand the effects of some cards.
Conclusion
Now the point of our review has finally arrived where we take stock of Roguebook. Richard Garfield’s new roguelike has many very interesting elements, such as the mechanics of positioning and tactical exploration, but unfortunately it fails to stand out in the midst of other similar games.
Card combos are quite varied , but once you figure out which ones are the best you will end up using only those. Also, since the new unlockables at the end of each game aren’t very interesting, you could quickly end up losing interest in the game . Certainly if you are a card game lover you will have a lot of fun completing the levels of the Roguebook, but you will certainly not find yourself a new masterpiece of the genre.
Roguebook is available now for PC and will later also arrive on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S . If you are interested in staying up to date with all the news on the world of video games and much more, then continue to follow us here on tuttoteK . Furthermore, in case you want to buy some games at an advantageous price, we suggest you take a look at the many offers on Instant Gaming .
