Anode Heart: Layer Null

An outstanding game that I fully recommend to anyone who likes either card games or RPGs. The card game is really well-designed; it feels like the best elements of Magic and Pokemon, with a ton of room for decision making and creative deckbuilding. This game absolutely deserves a bigger audience, as the PvP mode really has a ton of potential.

If you enjoy rapidly prototyping and testing decks, this is the game for you.

[b]Pros:[/b] * Strong and addictive core gameplay mechanics. * Hundreds of cards with a wide variety of synergies and combo possibilities. * A huge bonus for players of Anode Heart — the crossover characters and Tama references are a really nice touch. * The story maintains a consistent theme throughout, with a decent overall plot. * Adjustable NPC AI difficulty is a great feature. It seems to affect their draw quality, and Level 3 felt like the perfect balance for me. * Plenty of worthwhile post-game content. * Like Anode Heart, the game experiments with some creative mechanics, such as tag-team battles, best-of-3 / best-of-5 matches, and card fusion systems that reminded me of Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories on the PS1. * You can copy decks from defeated NPCs, which is a great quality-of-life feature for experimenting with new strategies and builds. [b]Cons:[/b] * I was able to beat the final boss and collect stars using mostly the same deck from start to finish. * The game rarely pushes players to experiment with different deck archetypes. * The card crafting and collection interface could be improved. As a collector, I wish there were a complete card catalog showing which cards I’m missing and how to obtain them. * The pixel art style is charming overall, but some card artwork is difficult to understand and feels overly abstract. * Grinding is barely necessary. Personally, I would have liked a bit more progression grinding. [b]Additional Notes:[/b] * A lot of players say the NPCs ‘cheat,’ but I honestly disagree. This isn’t a PvP game — I just see it as part of the boss mechanics and challenge.

I absolutely fell in love with the card game in Anode Heart and I was so happy that this semi-sequel takes the card game and makes it the main focus. The cards are so much better balanced now and you can make way cooler and varied deck too, it is also just a lot more fun to collect all the cards and fill out the album. This is probably the most fun card game I have played to be honest. The music is a lot better overall, the game feels much better to play and I really can not think of any real negatives from my time playing it. The characters are even more charming compared to the original and I love this world so much and can not wait for future sequels! Well worth your time to give the Anode Heart games a try, I can't recommend either of them enough!

Very fun game mechanics. Just needs a touch of polish on the gamepad controls.

Remember all those yugioh rpg tcg games on old Nintendo handhelds? It’s very much like that in game structure. I am loving it and hope to see more games like this released.

픽셀 유희왕 카드 놀이 -_-

_Incredible_ card game, one of the best on steam IMO. There's tons of space to experiment and theorycraft, and every zone introduces a new set of cards with new archetypes to play around with. Later enemies typically have some kind of gimmick, and figuring out how to counter their strategies is super satisfying. I just rolled credits and haven't started on postgame content yet, but Layer Null is absolutely worth the price. Visuals are good, and (most importantly) the cards are all easy to recognize at a glance. Story is nothing to write home about, and presumably makes more sense if you've played the original game(s)? IDK, it's not really the main attraction.

Absolutely excellent game! I loved every minute of it. The cards are fun and the progression is really satisfying. Great take on the original card game and very cool execution of an entire story out of it. Ultra enjoyable! :D

Fantastic game - 100% deserves a bigger audience. Remember pokemon TCG for the gameboy color? It's like a modern take on that updated for the times. If you're the type of person who played the Witcher 3 and ended up trying to play more Gwent than the game itself, you 100% should get this game.