Castles on Clouds

I don't post game reviews generally, but I really like the direction this game is going and I really hope it deserves some words of encouragement and some realistic feedback. Disclaimer: At the time of the review I played for two hours, so if I missed something it is because of that. Firstly, let's start with the [b]pros[/b]. [b]Pros[/b]: - 1. The game has a fun artstyle that I really enjoy. - 2. The replayability is there, because you unlock new things and you can upgrade all kinds of different stuff after every playthrough, not to mention the randomly generated map. - 3. There is a variety of monsters and minions that come to attack your castle and you will have to get used a little to their weaknesses so you know how to position your towers and even what towers to build. - 4. There is a progression system implemented. Each time you finish a run, you will get some mastery points, which upgrade your level. For each level, you get one progression point which you can use to buy new upgrades and unlock new towers and buildings. - 5. The card drawing aspect. After every completed wave, you will be able to choose one card from a selection of cards, which contains either upgrades for the towers or spells or other random upgrades, like upgrading the rate at which you get rare cards in these card drawings. These upgrades last only throughout your run, not forever, so keep that in mind. - 6. The Merchant. At random times during each season, a merchant will appear. From him you can buy with gold items and relics with and cards that further enhance your towers and buildings and some even add debuffs to the enemies, like slowing them down etc. Secondly, I will mention some of the [b]cons[/b]. Given this game is still early access at the time of this review, I really hope this will help the developer with identifying and maybe fixing some of them, if not all. [b]Cons[/b]: Disclaimer: some of these might just be personal preferences -1. Bugs. There are a few bugs that I found during my time playing this time: 1. a) The achievements are unobtainable because the counters for them don't work. I definitely killed a goblin and didn't get the achievement. I definitely set more than 250 minions on fire and I didn't get the achievement. - Fixed 1. b) The towers' targeting system is bugged, as it doesn't work properly. This is kind of important for a game that is in the Tower Defense genre. I have set my towers to attack most progress(set to that by default) and yet they were attacking random minions that were just entering their range. This proved decisive because I set them in a way that they would defend the gate of the castle, but no tower was actually shooting there. - Fixed 2. This one I don't know if to specify as a con/bug, but I had a map set to epic and long roads. The first and second seasons were ok, but in the third season the road from the monsters' spawn point to the castle itself was sooooo short I had no chance to defend it. At the same time, there are a lot more roads on that island that had no use, they existed so the "long roads" condition was active, but the road itself to the castle was very short and I couldn't place more than 6 towers to defend it, which you learn fast that it is not enough. I know it is randomly generated though, that's why I said I don't know if to specify this as a con/bug, but it is something you should be aware of. Now, my favourite part of the review: general impression and [b]suggestions[/b]. This game has a lot of potential, I'll be honest. I played a lot of TD games in my life, one of my favourite genres. I really love this game because of the fact that it has that kind of 3D aspect to it, it is not 2D. It's a game that it seems you can replay endlessly. First, let's start with the towers. At the moment, there are 5 base towers(Archer Tower, Melee Tower, Artilery Tower, Magic Tower, Watchtower), each one you can upgrade twice until they reach level 3 and from level 3 to level 4 you can upgrade them to 2 different variants of that tower. You have to unlock those variants though through upgrades in the progression system. The developer intends to add to those, so here are some possible tower suggestions: 1. Flamethrower tower. Although if you intend to keep this medieval aspect of the game in it, make it with a dragon or something like that, so it makes sense from a lore point of view. 2. "Towers" that can be placed on the roads. As I mentioned earlier, I had that bad luck where the road from the spawn point to the castle was so short. You know what would have helped? Some spike traps, some mud or something like that that you can put on the road and slow the enemies down. Now, the castle. I would like to be able to upgrade it. You can increase its health through the progression system upgrades, but I would like to be able to make it shoot arrows or something to defend itself. The price is more than reasonable. For 3$ you can really have a lot of fun for hours and even more, depending on how much fun you have with this kind of games. Of course, once this game leaves early access and more stuff is added, the price will increase, but fairly so. For now, that is all that comes to mind. This is a really well done game, especially given it is still early access and I really wish the best for this game.

This game has a lot of potential. Pros - Visually appealing, even with Synty assets. - Classic tower abilities. - The roguelike mechanics. - You can min-max the upgrades—if only I could last long enough to make use of them. - Super low price. Cons - Normal mode makes it extremely hard to gain any momentum. - Map generation is annoying. You always have to repeatedly generate maps to get a decent one with a single entrance and lots of switchbacks. I wish the maps were more curated, each designed around a unique challenge. - I'm not a fan of the added money-generating buildings. It can easily lead to a meta where you must quickly jump on exponential money generation or slowly lose. Thronefall has the same problem: if you get enough economy, it's a cakewalk; otherwise, it's too difficult. - The merchant comes and goes too quickly; I need time to save money to spend in the shop. There's a lot of tweaking needed, but I'm looking forward to coming back to this game later.

I mean, for the price, it's a fun few hours of gameplay, I've yet to actually complete wave 3, a detailed guide and perhaps a reduction of the difficulty a bit would be a appreciated. Still, you can at least get a couple hours of fun gameplay for each dollar you're putting into this.

Great game idea, but it has some issues. Hope they will be fixed in the future. The game is hard, I was not able to finish few first waves. I feel like important information hasn't been provided correctly and I'm doing something wrong.

Fun tower defense game that reminds me a lot of Kingdom Rush, very polished for early access as well. I also like the card drawing mechanic. The one thing I would like to see improved is the tutorial, as it kind of throws a lot at the player right away and can be overwhelming. I think a more step by step tutorial the player can follow would be a big improvement. Other than that though I really liked it, nice job!

If you need a tower defense game like Kingdom Rush but wish it had roguelike elements, then I can't recommend anything more than this. The card mechanic makes my brain tingle, and the satisfaction of buying overpowered upgrades (I hope they don't get nerfed :3) from the merchant enhances the fun even more. The towers are neat, just like in Kingdom Rush, and I love that you can have an economy system with the farms and buildings in the game. The spells and metaprogression are also pretty neat and simple to understand, though I wish it were clearer on how to unlock the rest of the spells. One con I have about this game is the lack of heroes, but the game is still in Early Access, so hopefully, there will be more in the future. To sum up, the game is fantastic, the price is fantastic, the developer is fantastic—need I say more?

If you like tower defense and rogue-like games you will definitely enjoy this one. Great game to relax after long hours at work or after a bad test at school. The game is tough at first as it throws you straight into defending the castle, but if you give it a while and figure out the great combos of cards offered and tower upgrades, you'll even be pleasantly surprised that the difficult island maps are manageable.

I discovered this game through Tabletop Tavern, a demo by the developer, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them both so far. I’m excited to see how both the demo and this game continue to develop. While I’ve encountered a few minor bugs and glitches, they don’t significantly affect gameplay. I really like the randomly generated maps and the ability to customize preferences, like a larger/smaller island, more rivers, more resources, and longer roads. The visual design of the towers, heroes, and monsters is also appealing. The rogue-like mechanics, such as selecting different upgrades as you level up, add a fun layer of strategy, and I enjoy the merchant system that lets you purchase cards and relics. Although I haven’t unlocked everything yet, I did unlock the Paladin and Ranger towers for the Knight and Archer towers, respectively. One small critique is that the Paladins look too similar to the hero. I was hoping for a distinct, cool knight design, so I found that a bit disappointing—but it’s a minor issue. After finishing all the seasons, I was left wanting more content, but since the game is in early access, I’m optimistic that more features and updates are on the way. Here are a few suggestions I think could improve the game: -Upgrades for spells (e.g., stronger Meteor , stronger Samurai, stronger farmers) -Additional island themes (e.g., turning the island into a jungle island in Year 2) -Upgrades for the castle (e.g., the ability to defend itself, gain armor, or add more hearts) -Consumables at the merchant (e.g., a one-time-use Fireball dealing 200 damage and applying burning, a Scroll of Frost that freezes monsters for 5 seconds). TL;DR: It's a great game, but I’m eager for more content. Also, I hope you continue developing Tabletop Tavern!

Good game, bought it for all my family members! My dog enjoys it too, no joking.

Ok this game is really fun and I actually love the randomly generated maps and variance in enemies. Literally the only complaints I have is there's only 5 towers and you can't see the price of a tower/building when buying it, it'll just tell you if you have enough or not. More tower options would make it feel much more up to the player and I think that would help flesh out the game a ton. Other than that though, I fully plan on spending many more hours playing this and unlocking new upgrades.