Dream Quest

You probably know this if you're on this game's store page but this game is the grandfather of all modern deckbuilder roguelikes. Richard Garfield himself thought this game was revolutionary when it came out, lol. Is it imbalanced as hell? yes. Is it a pain to grind? yes. Does that really matter? No. It's a really important but overlooked part of gaming history that is still really fun to mess around with.

平衡性简直灾难性的差，很多敌人设计对玩家的针对性过强，碰到就把玩家在机制上原地摁死，一点操作空间都没有，很多开局更是连理论过关的可能都没有，要是连通关可能性都没有我为什么要花时间去玩这局呢？只能说让肉鸽卡片这个游戏类型流行起来的是杀戮尖塔而不是dq真的一点也不奇怪

Dream Quest is one of those rare games whose modest exterior hides a surprisingly intricate and influential design. At first glance, the game looks almost shockingly simple — stick-figure characters, bare-bones environments, and a user interface that appears lifted straight from an early mobile prototype. Yet beneath that unassuming surface lies a roguelike deckbuilder that helped shape an entire subgenre, offering a level of mechanical depth and replayability that belies its presentation. It is a game that asks you to ignore its crude visuals and instead sink your attention into its systems, its unpredictability, and the strategic creativity it demands from the player. At the center of Dream Quest is a robust merging of dungeon crawling and card-based combat. Each run begins with a class selection, and each class dramatically alters your starting deck, your long-term strategy, and the types of synergies you will pursue. Once you enter the procedurally generated dungeon, every floor becomes a series of decisions — which enemies to engage, which shops to visit, whether to risk taking on a tough enemy for rare rewards, or when to retreat and regroup. This decision-making forms the backbone of the experience. Nothing is guaranteed, and the randomness of card offerings, enemy placement, and special events ensures that no two runs unfold the same way. Success requires adapting quickly, building a deck that fits the opportunities you’re given, and learning to anticipate which battles your current build can handle. Combat itself is a tightly constructed puzzle. You draw hands of cards representing attacks, defenses, spells, dodges, and utility abilities, all governed by stamina or mana costs. Many cards interact with one another in surprising ways, rewarding players who experiment with combinations rather than sticking rigidly to basic tactics. As you progress, you constantly tweak your deck — replacing weaker cards, adding specialized abilities, and removing harmful or redundant options. Over several runs, you begin to understand each class’s personality: the Warrior’s brute force and armor stacking, the Wizard’s powerful but fragile spell chains, the Thief’s emphasis on tempo and advantage, and the Priest’s delicate balance of defense and sustain. This character-driven deckbuilding gives every run a distinct flavor. One of Dream Quest’s most impressive qualities is how much design foresight it exhibits. Long before games like Slay the Spire and Monster Train popularized the roguelike deckbuilder formula, Dream Quest had already laid out many of the core principles: multiple classes with unique mechanics, hundreds of cards, evolving builds, unpredictable events, and a clear emphasis on risk-reward tension. Each layer ties into the others — the dungeon design influences deck decisions, the deck influences which fights you attempt, and progression across runs unlocks new cards and classes that expand your strategic options. In retrospect, it becomes obvious how foundational Dream Quest was in demonstrating what this hybrid genre could become. But for all its brilliance, Dream Quest is not without its caveats. The visuals are so stripped down that they can be off-putting to players expecting a polished experience. The crude art becomes part of its charm over time, but there is no denying that it forms a barrier to entry. Likewise, the same unpredictability that makes each run exciting can also lead to frustration — unlucky card draws or lopsided enemy encounters can end a promising run abruptly. Because death sends you back to the start, those unlucky moments can sting, especially during longer sessions. The PC version, ported from mobile, also retains some interface quirks that feel dated compared to modern UI standards. Yet even with these limitations, Dream Quest endures because its core is so strong. The game rewards experimentation, persistence, and strategic creativity in a way few titles manage. When you finally assemble a deck that clicks — when every card supports every other card and the build feels like an elegant machine — the sense of satisfaction is enormous. When you finally defeat a particularly brutal boss or clear a high-level floor after several failed attempts, the victory feels earned in a way only roguelikes can deliver. In many ways, Dream Quest feels like a blueprint: unvarnished, raw, but deeply insightful. It shows how much depth a developer can achieve when they strip away everything but the essentials of good design. For players willing to look past the surface and embrace a game that prioritizes mechanical excellence over aesthetics, Dream Quest offers a challenging, rewarding, and historically important experience. It may not be pretty, but it remains one of the most engaging and creatively ambitious deckbuilding roguelikes ever made. Rating: 8/10

Dream Quest is a deck-building roguelite dungeon crawler. It's mostly interesting as a historical artifact. This is one of the granddaddies of the genre. And once you get past intentionally primitive looks you can see why it is. The gameplay is fun and your goal is turn your deck of cards into a well-oiled machine out of random elements you find; the monsters are there to test the performance of the machine and to throw wrenches into the cogs. Compared to something like Slay the Spire this game is more complex at its core mechanics, which allow for more approaches to character building. However, while the design is great it's hard to recommend this game. First issue is that while I can ignore (intentionally?) poor graphics I can't stomach the bad UI and overall user experience. There are no hotkeys, there's no speed control so it's hard to see what enemies are doing on their turn. You can't even turn off the music without turning off all sound. You have to drag cards with a mouse, only one mouse button does anything. It's not a good experience. Second, more importantly, this game is genre-creating but it didn't have a good understanding of its genre yet. It's structured similarly to an RPG with meta-progression making sure you die often early and prevail later. There are games that are all about meta-progression like Rogue Legacy, but think of games like Slay the Spire or Streets of Rogue or FTL where meta-progression only gives you new options, not permanent powerful buffs. This design feels self-contradictary. The developer later did some great things, and I feel like even his work on Hearthstone single-player content (which you can play for free, kinda) is a much more interesting proposition. So it might be interesting to see how it was in the beginning, but with how much the genre has to offer nowadays I don't see much point in playing this game.

Very good deckbuilder. The now grandfather of deckbuilders still has its own niche. Very slow to start but picks up fast tons of fun.

incredibly hideous to look at, incredibly fun to play!

見た目は壊滅的だけど中身はガチで面白いです スレスパが参考にしたゲームということでプレイしましたが カードゲームとしての要素はこちらの方がより色濃く再現している印象でした ・全ての敵が手札を持っている ・手札を攻める戦略や読み合いがある（ピーピングハンデスや打消など） 一人用カードゲームでありながら対戦TCGのような文法を持っていて懐かしいプレイ感があります 大満足 逆にスレスパにおけるレリックのような要素が無く プレイのランダム性や幅というものは欠ける印象があります この辺は好みが分かれるかもしれません

平衡性太差了，或者说延续了上古时代高难度游戏的特色，通关很看运气，不清楚有没有补正。但不得不说Peter Whalen确实是卡牌设计的天才，哪怕是目前现在能设计出这样一套完整的游戏的人太少了，恰好这位2025还在GDC有演讲。PS:这游戏是Peter研究生的时候做出来的...

Generative AI art could never come close to the raw power on display in this game. Does it look messy? Sure, but it being made by a human hand gives it such immaculate charm. It's legible, it conveys what's necessary, and though simple, it never comes across as lazy. You can tell a person made this game. Also, and thankfully, the gameplay slaps. The opposition you face is unrepentant, especially if you want to actually pursue a successful run on anything above the easiest difficulty setting, which is well worth it because it's the only way to unlock anything meaningful in the progression system. The characters are all interestingly different, but their cards all follow very basic and understandable rules, plus their cards are mostly all part of a shared pool so your knowledge carries over between each character nicely. It's good!

If you love Slay the Spire you owe it to yourself to play this game