[i] My Experience [/i]
Although I confess to having no development experience myself, [b]Card Fencer[/b] seems like an absolute monster for a solo developer (Mike Milewski) to put together. There are combat mechanics like first strike (I'm not sure of the technical name for this in the game), blocks, and parries. There are also the cards themselves, their effects, and combinations between them. Some cards temporarily reduce defense, while others temporarily increase attack. Some cards inflict damage over time effects like poison or burning, while others outright paralyze. But, lastly, there are the stickers - and wow, the [b]stickers[/b]. Stickers are essentially passive abilities that you can equip (up to five by the end of the game), and there are like...[i]80[/i] in the game. In my experience, they all work perfectly and in combination, which just seems like a beast to implement. They're also quite creative!
When I first started, I was putting every card I found into my deck. I wanted to see what sort of combinations I could make and which were most effective. While I absolutely would've welcomed some sort of in-game database to show me the various card combination effects after I'd created them, I ended up writing down some of the ones I wanted to keep track of the most. I initially lost a battle here and there, going back to the drawing board from time to time to ensure that I had the maximum number of moonstone upgrades (you can turn in collected "moonstones" in the game for additional rewards at in-town fountains), the most effective cards (upgraded ones, if I could afford it), and the most useful stickers.
But shortly afterward, I hopped on the damage-over-time train. I found these effects most powerful, so I made my deck as small as possible and only included cards that would combine to provide these effects. In the first and second areas, this ended up being "Piercing Light," coupled with either "Fire Bolt" to create a burn effect on all enemies or a toxin card to create a slightly weaker poison effect on all enemies. Things got quite a bit easier here, especially once I upgraded the three cards mentioned and found two stickers that reduced the casting cost of card combinations and healed me for 10% of my health upon each enemy death, respectively.
Things only got easier as I proceeded, as I found a more powerful water card that could be used in place of "Piercing Light" to create the burn effect on all enemies, and a sticker that automatically inflicted poison upon each enemy at the beginning of each battle. As I continued, I added stickers that doubled the damage of my first-strike attack, increased my strength, and interrupted the first attack of each enemy in a given battle and dealt damage to that enemy instead. I received a massively powerful card called "Meteor Storm" upon reaching a certain level, and began using mystic cards that allowed me to cast it for free and cast it twice in a row on the same turn.
While it's hard to pinpoint the exact moment this occurred, at some point I just [b]stopped[/b] losing battles. I would play every battle in the exact same way, usually winning in two turns, although I could sometimes do it in one and other times it would take me three. Although it might take a couple more rounds, even the bosses posed no real challenge. For most of the game, I had 9999 gold (the maximum) and the incremental level upgrades to my health, card points (mana, essentially), and sticker points (certain stickers require more points to equip) made no difference whatsoever. Although there are certain levels that disable your items, magic, or mythic cards (although I solely used the aforementioned card types, "support" and "power" are the other card types in the game), I still felt no need to actually change my deck to be successful (and I couldn't, for a reason I'll mention soon).
It would be bad enough if it were just the combat that became repetitive, but the level design is dull as well. I never want to push a heavy object onto a pressure plate again! You'll do this at least once each level, and often multiple times in the same one. And it isn't [i]tricky[/i] or anything - there's only one plate and one object for each of these "puzzles." Those aren't the only heavy objects you'll push either, as you'll also have to do this routinely to get to sectioned-off areas in a given level.
There are a few other gripes I had as well:
[list]
[*]The graveyard is a little bit of a mess in terms of design. Not only is it difficult to tell where the "path" is (you're constantly bumping into invisible walls here), but there are bridges that sometimes wouldn't let me cross to the other side. I was able to eventually cross each time this happened, but not without moving backward and forwards tapping the "sprint" button.
[*]The castle is also a bit of a mess - once an area gets this complicated, with so many branching paths, it might be beneficial to add in a map for the player. Although I was trying to be comprehensive during my playthrough (I wanted to see all the sticker effects!), the castle cured me of this impulse.
[*]The inclusion of a shortcut to sell every single card in your storage is [b]wild[/b]. I accidentally hit the wrong bumper at one point, and just eradicated the entirety of my stash. Therefore, I didn't have any cards to switch to when I encountered some of the levels that disabled certain card types. However, I think the ability to select multiple cards to sell or move at once would be a useful addition to the game.
[*]It's also kind of a pain just moving cards either from your deck to your stash or vice versa. Although I can't remember which direction was the issue, I recall that the game either moves me into my deck from my stash when I select a card to be added to my deck, or moves to my stash when I select a card in my deck to be removed. It would improve the experience to leave the player in their deck or their stash until they make the decision to begin manipulating the other.
[*]Lastly, why is there even a card limit for the stash? All this meant for me was that I had to periodically dip into my stash to delete a few random cards.
[/list]
In conclusion, I have to say that I love that games like [b]Card Fencer[/b] are even being made. As someone who's long since exited the "mainstream" of what gamers seem to enjoy these days (souls-likes, rogue-likes, etc.), it's nice to see games that are more "up my alley." At the same time, [b]Card Fencer[/b] was just a bit too easy and repetitive for me to honestly say that I enjoyed my time with it. Even so, it's clear that developer Mike Milewski has talent, and I'm curious what he'll do next.
