Cards & Crystals

[b]Score is at the bottom of the review, while you are down there, leave a like if you liked this review![/b] [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37072886/]Great reviews can be found at our curator page:[b] Devils in the Detail[/b] Make a deal with the devil and join our curator for more great reviews like this one![/url][/quote] [h1]Overview[/h1] An enjoyable mixture of match-3 and deckbuilding that creates a unique experience that does rely a bit on RNG. There is a complex strategy game here which is an interesting dichotomy to the typical, relaxing gameplay of a match-3 game. [h1]Game Breakdown[/h1] [h3] Gameplay 🎮[/h3] [u]Heroes[/u] The first thing to be done upon starting a new game is to choose a hero. There is one for each of the six elements in the game. They all work the same way with the only major difference being that they will create bonuses for their type of element. Each character can be leveled-up after they gain enough experience from fighting battles. Heroes aren’t really the star of the game though; it is mainly the cards and the battles. [u]Cards[/u] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2130937923 Cards & Crystals has plenty of cards in each of the six elemental types and some no-element as well. Each faction has some surface level similar cards so that they can’t immediately be strong than one another, but different elements focus on specific abilities. Forest element for example focuses on buffing up the individual element damage as well as destroying elements on the bottom of the screen and of the opposite element. There are a ton of cards to collect and they are all gained in game by winning battles and buying them with gold. [u]Deckbuilding[/u] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2130937587 The deckbuilding screen is quite straight forward and is easy to use. The cards on the top can be sorted in different ways which helps to check if a deck is balanced out in a certain way. The game doesn’t automatically sort cards just added to a deck and the button must be pressed again. This is a minor pet peeve but it is serviceable. The list of cards at the bottom of the screen can be organized into groups by element and are generally sorted by rarity. They can also be given a range of in-game costs. What I would have liked to see is the ability to sort the cards in an elemental group by costs. It makes deckbuilding require more page turns to see all of the cards that are able to be added into a deck which wastes time and is overall a negative experience. [u]Battles[/u] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2130948655 Battles are the part of the game where the most time is spent. It is also where one’s deck will see some action. The main gameplay loop is that the player’s screen is full of circles of a specific element. The player is able to match three of them to deal damage to the enemy hero. If enough elements are matched together, then they can make a super crystal which counts as three damage or five summoning points. Damage is ultimately the way to win the game, but units can make that goal much easier. In the player’s deck are creature cards that can be placed into one of three unit slots. These slots cover two horizontal lines of elements each and they have their own health. They act as blockers that will tank enemy hits up to their death. They often have unique effects that they create. One powerful effect is the ability to increase the rate at which certain elements spawn when the board is refilled after a combo. This makes for really powerful combos to be made, it makes it easier to create super crystals, and they make summoning elemental creatures easier. There are two types of card payment types in a battle. One of them requires a certain number of elements to be comboed of a particular element. These are the most powerful type, but they are also the hardest to field due to how it is so unlikely naturally to get a good combo line of element. That is why super crystals are handy, because they count as five elements in a summoning combo chain. The second kind of card payment is by using charge. Charge is generated by using attack combos and one is generated per crystal used. Even super crystals count as one charge generated. Charge can be used to play quick cards that don’t end the player’s turn, but more importantly it allows the player to draw new cards. It is important to have both types of cards in one’s repertoire and the difficult decision that a player has to make between drawing more cards or playing a quick card adds a great amount of depth to the strategy. [h3]📚 Story 📚[/h3] Roguelikes usually don’t have story which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find that this one did. Then I became even more surprised to find that this game has an in-depth story and great world building. Each element in the game has a culture associated with it. As the player battles new enemies, these cultures are slowly revealed by the all-knowing AI who is the player’s companion. She is quite entertaining and an enjoyable way to add in snippets of lore or backstory. [h3]🎧 Sound 🎧[/h3] The sound is fine and the music is comprised of pretty enjoyable chiptunes that are soothing to listen to during battle. The sound effects are good, though they aren’t all normalized and there will occasionally be a startling and loud sound effect that requires the sound to be turned down. [h3]📺 Graphics 📺 [/h3] The graphics are comprised of pixel art that looks cute as everything is styled in a way that makes characters look cute and chibi. Everything works quite well and nothing is a glaring issue. The color pallete is nice and everything fits with its own in-game theme. There is a bit of a learning curve to learning all of the elements special symbols as they all have their own icons depending upon how they are used. [h3]⌨ Controls ⌨[/h3] The controls are occasionally frustrating. The click-and-drag mechanic for the crystals doesn’t always grab all of the ones that I dragged over. This made me miss some crystal combos and occasionally made it more difficult to summon units which was a bit frustrating. [h3]⚙ Performance & Bugs ⚙[/h3] [table] [tr] [td][u]Specs[/u][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Cpu:[/td] [td]AMD FX-8350[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]GPU:[/td] [td]GTX 1080[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]RAM:[/td] [td]16 GB [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]HDD:[/td] [td]7200RPM 2 TB[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]SSD:[/td] [td]Corsair 240 GB[/td] [/tr] [/table] [u]Easy to Alt-Tab[/u]: [b]Yes[/b] The game runs really well and I never had any issues with it. [h3]💰 Price to Content Ratio 💰[/h3] I played the game for 15 hours and according to the game I’m 20% in. That means that this game has over 75 hours in in it. Since it is only $12 on the steam page the price to content ration is pretty good. [u]PrCR: 6.25x – Better than Superb[/u] [h3] 🌟 Overall 🌟[/h3] 👍 [u]Pros[/u] 👍 Great combo of genres Deep story Entertaining in-game assitant 👎 [u]Cons[/u] 👎 Annoying controls [table] [tr] [td]Gameplay[/td] [td]9/10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Story[/td] [td]9/10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Controls[/td] [td]6/10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Sound[/td] [td]7/10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Graphics[/td] [td]8/10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Game Length[/td] [td]9/10[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1] 👑 Final Rating: 8 👑 [/h1]

[h1]Follow our curator for similar games[/h1] https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35180752-3-point-play/ Match 3 and cards + campaign + humor = Well made match 3 with deckbuilding. Select from 21 heroes, level up and collect 400+ cards. Tutorial is great. I like their motto - "0% Pay-To-Win! 100% Fun!"

Fun, charming little indie project combining CCG and Match-3 mechanics. There's a lot to absorb, but it's got a lot of personality to ease you in. It's grindy at times, but with all cylinders firing and RNG going your way, it's incredibly satisfying. But boy oh boy are you going to experience some rough patches. It's worth it. If you like this, also check out: Ironcast, PuzzleQuest: Challenge of the Warlords, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, and Card Quest.

夏促扫荡的一堆冷门游戏里，最喜欢的就是这个。 === 一开始以为是类似万智牌那个三消手游PUZZLE QUEST的模式，实际玩过后才发现虽然看起来都是卡牌+三消，实际玩法区别还挺大。 三消部分就是普通的划线式三消，但是和PQ不同的是，这游戏敌我玩家在独立的盘上进行三消，通常并不会相互干扰。 一次三消完成为一个回合，在三消之前可以使用任意张手上的卡牌。 卡牌是标准的有COST的，COST来源为三消，无色COST可以无上限的攒。 三消时，会对对手或对手的召唤物产生对应消去值的伤害，并同时获得对应消去值的COST 虽然按照功能划分，可以分为召唤牌和行动牌，但是我觉得更好的划分是按照COST的颜色来： 使用无色COST的卡牌，可以在一个回合内使用任意张，只要自己攒的无色COST够支付就行； 使用有色COST的卡牌，必须在回合末使用，一回合只能使用1张，使用后必须在该回合在三消板上完成对应颜色的消除来支付COST，否则无法成功使用。 游戏的手牌除开初始的以外，需要消耗30点无色COST才能抽，可以任意时候主动抽取。 此外还有些细节规则在这就不提了。 基于上述规则，我现在所在的游戏前期，对战玩下来有几个很直观的感受： 1，卡牌比较缺，抽牌代价很高，所以主要还是靠三消输出，卡牌只是辅助。 2，直接加角色属性的卡牌比较厉害，召唤物很难站住场，只有站场才有效的效果一般都很难发挥。 3，有色COST的牌不能带太多，否则很难用出来。如果想玩单色牌组，加单色球出现几率的效果最为重要。 总的来说前期机制上更偏三消核心，但是卡牌确实对局势还是能产生较大影响。 === 游戏的单机体验部分感觉特别好。 首先最直观的是，游戏台词挺幽默的，虽然基本上都是封面上个骚贱骚贱的AI在说独口相声，但是确实还挺有趣。 英文部分不难，低水平也可以简单看懂。 前期单机战斗主要分2类： 一类是城堡中的剧情主线战斗，打过城堡的固定角色，就可以解锁新地点，推进剧情； 另一类是野外的随机战斗，不同地区会遇到不同属性的敌人，但是具体敌人的种类牌组和等级都是随机的。 随机战斗奖励非常丰富，有金币，固定的角色牌，甚至还每场都给卡包。 开包开得手软，感觉非常棒！ 由于前期卡牌来源很丰富，所以即使是前期也能对卡组做各种各样的调整和尝试，摸索起来很有趣。 此外还有角色升级系统，升级获得技能点可以拿来加角色属性，或者获得各种各样的被动主动技能。 而且技能点随时都能洗点，尝试各种搭配毫无沉没成本。 === 总的来说是一款单机体验非常棒，玩起来也很休闲的，主打三消的收集类卡牌游戏。 如果你喜欢这种类型，或者只是单纯的腻味了现在的各路RL打牌，那么这款游戏就非常值得一试。

Interesting combination of match3 and card games. While you match gems you collect some resource which can be used to activate cards but certain cards require spending a turn matching required gems to use them. Most of the time you will be matching gems just to damage the enemy but occasionally instead of damaging you may want to summon an ally which can protect you against enemy damage or use some abilities or boost some stats allowing you to get more gems of certain color or to deal more damage. Each level you gain a skillpoint and a new skill which can be activated using those skillpoints and at global map at any time (after you complete tutorials) you can activate and deactivate them to customize your character or prepare your deck for certain encounters. Initially you unlock new areas on the map (which generate random location themed battles) by fighting some of their characters, then you fight characters to unlock more characters that you can switch to in the same save file. So there is some freedom - you can farm those extra unlocked encounters, you can spend you cash on training in the tavern or you can continue unlocking things in the main location - Castle. You can use the character you have started with or you can switch to any other that you unlocked and create a new deck for them. Overall the game is interesting.

This is a little gem of a game (a gaem?)... the match-3 slash card game mechanics are seamlessly executed and the pixel art is really charming and cute. The humor is on point and it seems to be a lot of lore sprinkled through the cards description. All in all it's noticeable this is a game made of love and really really fun.

[code] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36948155-Card-Game-KING/] FOR MORE REVIEWS ABOUT CARD GAMES, CHECK OUT OUR CURATOR PAGE: [b]CARD GAME KING [/b] [/url] [/code] [h1] [b]TL:DR[/b] [/h1] Scroll down for full Gameplay A charming game with a good sense of humor that combines match 3 mechanics with deckbuilding and creates a fairly unique combination that offers certain depth while keeping the gameplay simple and straightforward. Matching crystals will do damage to the opponent while also being a resource to fuel your cards that can summon minions, provide passive bonuses, do damage or manipulate the board in some way. Despite the relative simplicity of match 3 mechanics and the potential complexity of deckbuilding this game manages to combine the two quite well, without alienating fans of either genre. [h1][b]The positive[/b] [/h1] [b]+ Simple but engaging gameplay.[/b] I'm not a fan of match 3 games, but this one managed to hold my focus. [b]+ Good sense of humor (at least for the most part) that has a certain charm to it[/b] [b]+ Lot of card variety [/b](although some do have minor and almost needless variations) [b]+ Great deckbuilding opportunities and tools.[/b]You have your filters, searches, sorting. Even some multiplayer deckbuilders lack these. Some good UI design overall. [h1][b]The neutral[/b][/h1] [b]* Small text on cards.[/b] It's not too much of an issue but I wished the text was more readable without having to zoom on the card. [b]* Some animations could be a bit faster.[/b] [b]* Some enemies introduce new rules that you need to adjust your deck to. [/b]I liked this mechanic, but I wished it was used more. [h1][b]The negative[/b] [/h1] [b]- Not enough of card play. [/b]While the deckbuilding aspect is fairly strong, the rate at which you draw cards in hand is rather slow. You don't draw cards automatically, but have to use a resource that is also used to play some cards. Because of this, your starting hand can determine the difficulty of the battle, more than it should. This also impacts the next few negative points. [b]- Slow turns (sometimes).[/b] On some occasions you will not have resources to play cards or connect more than 3 crystals (which give resources) and you might have these multiple of these slow turns in succession which was not very satisfactory. [b]- RNG.[/b]Because the way you draw cards and the randomized nature of the board, you might be at the mercy of lady luck more often than ideal. Your choices and deckbuilding still have the highest impact on whether you will win, but RNG influences this outcome more than it should. [h1][b]Gameplay summary[/b] [/h1] During the game you will fight opponent after opponent, all coming from different parts of the world, each with their own mini backstory. The game is played around boards of crystals (you and the enemy have a separate one). When you match at least 3 crystals of the same color and in any direction you will do damage to the opponent with longer chains or stronger crystals doing more of it. However, this is where the cards come into play (literally). Instead of doing damage you can match/use crystals to play cards. There are several types of cards: minions, that block damage and provide passive bonuses (e.g increased damage with a certain color crystals, or increase the probability of certain crystals showing up), cards that provide passive bonuses or deal direct damage, or cards that mess with the board in some way (e.g. destroying, replacing crystals) Cards are paid by using crystals of the same color which leaves an interesting choice between chaining crystals for damage or investing them into playing cards. There is also a generic resource that is gained each time you make a connection, and some cards use this instead. Unfortunately this is also used for drawing cards and the cost is quite high for it, so often you will only see a very minor part of your deck and bad starting hand (e.g. no minions) could make the game much more difficult to win. After each battle you will get experience and once you level up you can gain additional bonuses for your hero. As far as I saw, other heroes do not gain exp passively, which might be grindy if you feel like swapping heroes and playing the game with a different color focus from time to time. Overall, it feels that the experimental combination of match 3 and deck building did exactly what it set out to do, leaving an enjoyable experience that might appeal to fans of either genre. Recommended.

Just what i was looking for. If you like card deck building, and matching puzzle games or either of those two then this maybe just for you to. To top it all off, it has some basic RPG elements to, with skill pts that help you customize your character. I just started and had already lost track of time. The graphics aren't great, but I'm more interested in the gameplay, and the rules are very basic and easy to learn. You also have a choose of starting characters which might offer some replay value. For about ten bucks on sell this is well worth it. Gives you something to do during Covid-19 lock down that is for sure.

Cheerful card game with a rather brutal streak ( Heck, the AI admits it's cheating in one conversation... >.> ) a few bugs, but some of them are pretty fun. For example, re-drawing the same card from your deck. Which is absolutely hilarious when it's a damage buff. Plenty of cards to unlock, heroes with different skills, and plenty of interesting challenges. ( What happens when your opponent is using your deck? Why, fill it with garbage or cards to help you, and laugh. ) However, it's not for the easily frustrated, as the AI will shamelessly bust out a row of huge chains on a whim and squash you like a bug.

It's a good, fun game. A pleasant combination of a card game with match 3. If you play match 3 for exciting visuals where the screen shakes and gems begin glowing hard when you link a huge chain, you might not get that here. But if you enjoy strategy and deck-building, this would totally be for you. If you enjoy MTG, Yugioh, Chess, anything like that. You might find this very fun. Later you'll unlock passive abilities which let you spend resources, which are gained from linking gems, to affect the board. (Clear lines, etc.) But a lot of the cards can also perform this function. The dev also seems like a really nice person and is still working on the game and has made good changes over the period I've played the game. Some may be thinking "10 bucks? That's a bit much for a match 3 game." but the card game and RPG stuff in it make it worth 10 bucks easily, I think.