itch.io

I like the framework a lot, I've messed around with the decks more than I like to admit, mostly Marigold's. Here's a few things I am sure you are already aware of:

• Cinder's Deck
  • Feels like she has way too many cards that can instantly neutralize your followers, directly before a tussle phase. 
    • Torrent whips a follower and any buffs you might have given it back into your hand. Sometimes annoying, sometimes fatal if that follower was your only line of defense.
    • Flame pillar does so much damage that it instantly kills any followers Marigold can put out without buffs. It is a super aggravating card to play against since she always seems to be holding onto one at the worst time.
    • The obsidian card that deals 4 damage to all followers (nukes most of your smaller followers).
    • The flame trail card that deals 5 damage to all followers (ditto).
    • The card that deals 8 random damage to a random follower or character.
  • She also has a lot of cards that enable free chip damage, repeatedly, making her frustrating to hold out against.
    • Vent lizard dealing damage both during tussle and when exhausted (even if you exhaust it during a reaction phase).
    • Cinder's ability (this is kind of more about a poor match-up, because Marigold is all about hoarding essence and Cinder is about spending it, so it is kind of a double whammy).
    • Some cards mentioned above
  • Cinder's deck feels like it has many more cards that allow her to draw additional cards, although practically speaking I will admit most matches I checked our deck size they were approximately equal, maybe off by 4-5 cards.
  • She's beatable, but I feel like there have been some no-win hands, especially if you get stuck without any summons and mostly essence/actions that only work on summons. In those times where you barely scrape by with a lucky draw on a summon, it isn't uncommon for it to get nuked and another round of free attacks to get piled on you.

• Size mechanics
  • I personally love the size mechanics, and I know I already read somewhere that you want to expand on them a bit. Currently size itself doesn't actually do anything beyond being a measuring stick (lol) for certain other cards effects. I am not sure how this would affect game balance so take these ideas with your own vision in mind:
    • Changing size could work as a scalar for damage or lilumi (bigger/smaller than normal: buff/debuff by a certain percentage). This could incentivize shrinking high threat enemies a bit more since they otherwise retain their damage. As opposed to a straight lilumi buff, it could also work as damage reduction in some capacity. It could also just be based upon inherent size difference, but the problem I have with that idea is it makes it much more difficult to balance things based upon not only their inherent size but also potential differences when things start changing.
    • Significant size difference could work to the smaller's advantage, maybe as a dodge percentage chance (ex: something 3m tall has difficulty hitting something 0.3m tall).
    • I like the scaling of the viewport when zooming in/out and the changing sprites a lot, it is pretty well done. I hope to see it expanded on as the game develops.
    • I think Marigold's ability could stand to deal additional damage based upon size difference compared to the enemy, since it already costs 4 vigor to use. It would make her a bit stronger against small fodder enemies that otherwise have a decent amount of health. I also think the situation where she has a lot of larger followers out long enough to utilize this ability for it to matter too rare, but this could also just be a poor matchup for this ability. 

• UI/UX Polish
  • The UI is pretty well put together, and the tutorial did a decent job of explaining everything the first time through. Enough that I could get my feet wet and play a few hands without feeling totally lost. There are a few minor QOL improvements I think it could use, but nothing that I think would urgently need to be changed:
    • After playing an essence, grey out or otherwise indicate that other essences cannot be played that turn. This could also potentially extend to cards that are unplayable with your current situation (essence, vigor, or other circumstances, though that might be programmatically tedious to do).
    • Tooltips for parts of cards that are explained in the tutorial may be helpful. I found myself hovering over a lot of UI elements expecting a tooltip, but I found my way around well enough without them. Maybe a toggleable overlay when you inspect a card that shows leading lines to each portion of it shortly explaining what it is (vigor/essence cost, lilumi, power, etc).
    • You can click on and inspect your exhaust pile, but not the cards remaining in your deck. That would be nice to know if I have any other cards of a specific type still in my draw.
    • The reaction phase, if paused waiting for your input, should highlight valid reaction cards you can play to draw attention to your options.

• General Match Flow
  • I feel like drawing only one card per turn is extremely limiting, and current matchups are less about strategic play and more about if you drew a steamrolling combination of cards in the top half of your deck. I don't think I have been able to play any hand down below to 20 cards in a deck. I read elsewhere that your idea for the mechanics are not exhausting the entire deck and reshuffling it into your hand, so I won't retread old ground. But maybe a mechanic like drawing one card, then drawing additional cards until you have a minimum in your hand (maybe 2-3). I think this would help prevent it from feeling like matches stall out later on as both sides are passing most of their turns while waiting for a decent draw. 
  • I also understand this is a problem that will likely be a lot less of a problem as the game develops, since you'll be able to focus your deck on cards that give you better draw.

I've had a good amount of fun, and some funny if only sometimes effective strategies as Marigold. Hugify on a Garter Lamia to the point where she deals double damage to most average-sized enemies has been a fun one, and so was getting a Flowering Alraune up to about 140m. Looking forward to upcoming updates from you.

I had a similar issue that some others mentioned about display resolution. The first or second time I ran the game, everything worked great (ultrawide monitor). Something's changed since then and now parts of the UI are not anchored in the correct location. Cards, Lilumi, and characters on the battle screen become shifted up and right. Some things like the card preview's background when inspecting a card are aligned correctly, but everything else is off-centered. One other minor issue I noticed was when using "Hugify" the target selector still says "Bigify". I like what you've built so far, hope to see more.