

Other than a few late-game exceptions, Abrakam and Garfield hit all the right notes with their individual card designs, giving each a compelling mixture of flavor and function.

Exploration of the map can lead to other discoveries as well, such as various treasures, card draft opportunities and alchemist houses where weaker cards can be transmuted (for a price) into stronger combinations of cards and gems, which can be slotted into another card to add a bonus effect. Each turn-based combat victory provides a consumable ink or brush, both of which can be used to clear their path on the map to the boss of each chapter. The biggest change is that two more characters join strongman Sorocco and his glass cannon comrade Sharra, but players will have to complete certain events in Roguebook to unlock them.īeyond that, the core loop of Roguebook remains tight - the player must navigate the obscured pages of the titular tome by defeating enemies with a chosen pair of heroes. This intense gravitational pull remains in the final release version, where little has changed from my preview writeup when it comes to the fundamental mechanics.
Roguebook publishers Pc#
Just like the old PC Gamer demo CDs that wore down the double-speed drive in my childhood computer, this Roguebook beta kept finding its way onto my screen, goading me into thinking that this would be the run that would put it all together. Even as an extension of Abrakam’s underrated Faeria franchise, it still had too many question marks - its Kickstarter campaign barely made it across the finish line and there are already a hundred run-based deckbuilders out there that have already covered similar territory.Īs I played through the closed demo for my preview earlier this year, however, I found myself coming back to the beta, even after I had filed my piece. When Hideo Kojima lent his name and oversight to MercurySteam for the development of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, however, the results were uneven at best.Īs such, it was easy to be skeptical when I heard that Richard Garfield, one of the most famous designers in the history of collectible card games, was partnering with Abrakam Entertainment to create a roguelike deckbuilder called Roguebook. Sure, when the creators of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest came together to form Squaresoft’s “dream team” in the early ’90s, they ended up producing one of the most beloved games of that era with Chrono Trigger.

In gaming, collaborations don’t always have a happy ending. WTF Who do we need to bribe to get a daily challenge mode? The quality of unlockable cards per character is uneven. Surprisingly evocative art and character design.
