Cardaire

Given that most single player card games on Steam are roguelites, an RPG style card game like the old Pokemon and Yugioh games was enough to pique my interest. Thankfully, the game is actually good. I'll say upfront that the overworld is probably the game's weakest aspect. I don't love the sprites and the game world simultaneously feels small because of its lack of variety (There's a forest area, a snow area, and a desert. That's about it) and too big because of how long it can take to travel between points of interest. The performance is also somewhat lacking at times with random framerate drops but I never encountered any bugs, crashes, or other dramatic technical problems. While I don't think it's a problem, I'll also bring up the game's length. I beat the main story in like 6 hours and I was playing very slowly to take in everything I could find. There is postgame content, but a lot of your time is going to be spent grinding currency in the fishing "minigame" which is actually just sitting next to a pool of water doing literally nothing. I will add, however, that I liked the game so much that even the grinding was enjoyable just to get at more main content, like the true final boss. While this may seem like a lot of complaints, the game succeeds where it really matters. The dialogue is fun, frequently reminding me of the fun parts of Yugioh where the entire world somehow revolves around cards. The soundtrack is pretty good. No songs that I remember now that the game is over, and nothing that got stuck in my head, but definitely enjoyable while the game is running. And there's a good variety of tracks over the course of the game too. The card art is way better than the overworld sprites, which is great because the cards are the main draw anyway, and much of your time will be spent dueling with them. Finally, the actual card battle system is a great take on a Hearthstone-like system. The card pool isn't huge but, surprisingly, there's a good amount of variety in the number of strategies you can build towards (swarming with low cost cards, buffs, burn damage just to name a few) and the card pool is well balanced. Most cards have a home in some deck, if you're willing to build the right way. There are quite a few reviews bringing up the ai. I only played after the release of 2.0, but I didn't think it was terrible. The game was pretty easy, and the ai does make some bafflingly poor plays every now and then, but it was mostly acceptable. If you can ignore the few flaws and focus on what the game does well, it's very enjoyable. Highly recommended to anybody that liked the single player Yugioh RPGs in particular. Cardaire scratches a similar itch but is way better than any of those games ever were. Finally, a brief summary of the card battle system for those that are interested. •You can gain 1 max energy per turn by discarding a card at the start of your turn. •You regain all expended energy at the start of each turns. •There are 2 kinds of cards. Souls, which have attack and health values and stick around on the field to fight for you, and spells, which have a 1 time immediate effect when you play them. •You choose attack targets for your souls between either the enemy's health pool or any soul they control. But, if you place a soul in the centre card slot, you can't be attacked directly until that soul is killed. •Souls can't attack the turn they are played. •Players start with 1500 life (soul attack and health values are all multiples of 100, typically between 100 and 500) •Decks have a minimum of 30 cards and no more than 3 copies of any 1 card.

Seeing this game reminded me so much of the Yu-Gi-Oh games on GBA where you could walk around the city side-scroller style, duel other people, buy card packs, etc. That's why I picked this up in the summer sale. After playing for a little while, though, I just didn't find it very fun. I don't find the card game itself very fun. The tutorial duels didn't feel very informative to me. Then the first two people I came across to duel completely destroyed me. I don't know if there's ever a time where the player goes first, but I went second in both duels, and even went second in the tutorial duels. This sets you up with a strong disadvantage right away. You have to discard a card to gain a single energy point and, if you're lucky, you'll have a one-energy soul in your hand that you can place and then do nothing with since you can't attack the first turn it's played. So it's more likely that the opponent will play another soul on their next turn, then immediately destroy the soul you played, leaving you defenseless and your opponent still at an advantage with one soul in play to defend themselves with or to destroy whatever you play next. I just didn't enjoy my half hour with the game, which is very disappointing, because it was giving me such strong GBA Yu-Gi-Oh vibes.

TLDR: Definitely worth the price during this 60% sale if you're looking for some fun dialogue and a not that complex card game. The map exploration and dialogue is fairly good, however honestly, the meat of the game, the card game itself, is fairly basic and slow. There honestly doesn't feel like that much complexity or challenge to it, especially when the AI is just, straight up bad and not challenging in the slightest. Not defending, Prioritizing their higher cost cards to discard for mana... even when they're at 6 mana they discard their 5 cost that could've done something instead to summon their 2 cost. Not using board wipes when they've got an empty field facing a board full of monsters. No way to save deck lists if you want to try out different decks and not really that much variety to flesh out alternate win strategies like milling, it's really just beat sticks, buffs and removal. Has potential if more card mechanics were expanded upon, I do enjoy the discard for your mana since it can lead to some touch choices.

Short, but not a bad time. The basic mechanics of the card game are decent, even though I think there's some problems with the way the cards are designed fundamentally. As of the 2.0 update, the AI has had a noticeable improvement, so that's great. However, I still think the game is crying out for a mouse only control scheme. It's so annoying having to switch from using the arrow keys to move (while holding shift to sprint) and then using the mouse to play the actual card game. Still, even without that quality of life feature, it's a decent way to spend an afternoon if you enjoy card games, like I do. Recommended for that.

Extremely cute and wholesome single player card game. Story is quite short (5-6 hours) but worth every penny. Very refreshing to play a card game that's not a roguelite or P2W.

The card design is just not interesting. A bunch of stat buff/debuff and simple damage dealer The game is also too easy. The AI almost never tries to defend so you can just go face. Other single player card games make up for bad AI by giving them better cards that you don't yet have access too. Not so much in this game since the card basically do a couple of similar things anyway. The main campaign can just be breezed through. There is a post game but it's gated by grinding: win matches, buy packs to get higher "collection level" (number of unique cards I guess) before you get to enter another area. I just could not be bothered since it's about the same cards and the same dumb AI anyway. That, coupled with the sloooooooooooooow animation makes for some extremely draggy matches. It's a pity because the game was clearly made with heart: A lot of subtle jokes and references, the world is whimsical and charming. But the meat of it, the card game, is too basic.

pretty mid

Amazing little TCG-RPG in the style of the old yugioh 'world tournament' rpg series [2009-2011]. Quite a few secrets to find as well, great game to sink a day into if you're among the few TCG players willing to actually *read the card* so you know what it does.