Encounter: The Lost Cards

I was honestly really excited for this game, but after giving it an albeit short try, I am convinced that AI was used extensively. The level of detail in the animations and pixel art is insane, especially for a solo project, and yet the creator used AI for the capsule arts? The overworld sprites are often wildly different from the talking sprites, even though they are clearly meant to be connected. One sprite, for Lilith, features a character with a black face and a white body. Other sprites and animations have strange errors that I wouldn't expect from handcrafted work, like the cart in the tutorial having a nonsensical pattern on the cart. The writing seems to not know what a comma is and uses em dashes for everything, both in the game and on the steam page, not to mention the totally random and jerky pacing. The mere fact that a game with this level of detail was created in a single year, as stated on the developer's twitter, is an absolute impossibility for a solo dev. As for the gameplay itself, it's fine. The animations are far too quick and make it difficult to know what's actually happening to you, and you are not given the time to think after encounters and process what you've actually received for beating it. It's also *very* horny, which isn't necessarily a problem, but just. Man. Basically every female character has massive honkers that bounce with every breath, haha. I would genuinely love to be wrong--but as it is, I can't recommend the game in good faith.

The game mechanics are fun. The main issue is that it is incredibly unsatisfying and has no soul. I was expecting a grand finale of some sort. Instead It's just a game over, good job you win. The tutorial is a story type of intro but the rest of the game is flat with no story at all. It's a well designed game, but the AI use has left the game feeling empty.

I am enjoying this game but can’t recommend it. Link to mobile feels rushed, it isn’t using a refresh token and requires login every startup if it’s been any real amount of time. The progression currencies are tied to an online server, meaning if you are offline those don’t work. Random bugs, often it will catch it and reload but it feels unpolished. An example is on steam deck the mouse click acts like it’s rapid firing (no catch for that one). Sometimes this results in trying to use more stamina or actions then you have, forcing a reload when it catches that. But the big thing is I got pulled into this game, worked down to the secret / hidden path and got hit with a dev note saying oh didn’t think anyone would get this far. That’s not acceptable in a game that’s not in early access.

A BORING game, after 100 deaths, its starts to give you some chance to advance, giving some useful items. It's not about strategy, it's about luck and not getting bored after seeing the same encounter 10x in the same run... Not worth the price... If theres a promotion of 90%, then you think if worth the risk.

Interesting, but no idea what is happening

This game has potential. As yet...barely realized potential, but potential. It's a cool concept, once you start to grasp how it works. Which unfortunately is quite a lot after the end of the tutorial. Some of the ways items and effects try to tell you what they do and under what conditions seem...needlessly complicated. Meta-progression is...meh...at best. More bugs than a beehive...some of which are fairly serious ones. Disappearing items. Things not working when/how they're supposed to. Or maybe it just seems that way because the various symbols on items and their explanatiions and their conditions and their costs all feel like they were intentionally made to be unintuitive to grasp. 17 hours in and I still don't really understand how armor works. Sometimes it seems like each point of armor on a monster blocks like 5 damage worth of attack...others..like when it's YOUR armor...I feel like each two point stack of armor is able to block like .25 damage each. Why not make it work like how block works in everything else? Why reinvent blocking mechanics for the hell of it...without even the development horsepower to pull it off cleanly and effectively and communicate how it works clearly? Music is good, but...varied. Tonal whiplash is a thing, and I'm dying of it because of the soundtrack. I like the graphics, but...because of course there's a but... If the dev focused as much attention to detail, time, effort, resources in general, on literally anything/everything else in this game as they've put into bouncy boob pixel physics, this game would be pretty damn good! As is...it's unintuitive, opaque, imbalanced, prone to crashes and nasty bugs, seems to rely on my internet connection during play far FAR more than a single player game has any right to...but at least half the screens will absolutely have some 16 bit boobs bouncing around. The developer seems pretty active and determined to make this game into the version of itself it deserves to be. And I can see the potential here. There's a ton of it! Per square kilometer, this game actually has more potential than it has bouncing boobs, and once you play it for like 13 seconds or so, you'll know what an astronomical amount of potential that is! Edit: The constant use of the word "tap" where " click" is the thing being done makes me feel like I'm playing some janky mobile game that got jankily ported to PC. I dunno, maybe it is? Maybe the dev used "tap" because they're planning to port it to mobile and didn't wanna hafta change it? If so... Bruh. Get it working good, smooth, clean, and comprehensible on one platform before you worry with others. All you'd be doing is putting a less-than-perfect product in front of an even larger audience that way. Make it the best it can be on one platform, then worry about what comes next. Or, for some giggles, for the mobile port, say "click" in all cases! If it makes it to consoles, both click and tap are acceptable sources of comedy.

I think you will like this game if you like battler style turn-based combat in a fantasy setting. There was a decent amount of replay value for me to try to collect all of the easter eggs, characters, and all their special items. The game does have some bugs. One of the things that really appealed to me was having my butt handed to me for the first many runs, but eventually once you figure out the mechanics it gets more interesting. But, overall, this game kept my attention and was fun to figure out. One adjustment to the game I'd make is to be able to use abilities like crafting materials or using items that are upgrading a stat while at the inns.... it's tedious to load up your rather tight inventory with items that you just want to be able to immediately use in a combat only to then get waylaid by non-combat scenes and their rewards before you get to the after-the-inn combat.

After playing it for a while, i would recommend it if you like inventory management kind of game. A bit steep of a learning curve but once you understand the items, you can try different kind of combo. Haven't manage to obtain mythic item yet or use the steam token. Would continue to do so. Played it mostly on steam deck and shoutout for the dev in prompt response about issue earlier on the deck.

An absolute blast of a game. Feels like a combo of slay the spire 1 and balatro. Unlockables, a linkable mobile edition en route, and the ability to survive most runs with either luck, skill or a combination of both. Lots of gear to unlock, starting equips for each character and beginners gear rarity bonuses. A fantastic time sink that I am happy to write a review for.

Bought the game on a whim because it looked like a decent find. Booted it up and immediately knew something was off with the pixel sprites. Went to see the AI disclosure and they only reported using it for the song in the ad video, which I originally hadn't caught. They reported that the game was handcrafted, but the sprites are obviously generated or at least altered. I looked around a bit and found the negative review by FeywildFurs_TTV that also saw the same issues I did. The developer responded and admitted to using AI for proof-reading. That is questionable, but not egregious. However, they also noted that they used commissioned assets and linked the Twitter handles of whom they commissioned. At least two of them are confirmed to use AI in the generation and alteration of their pixel sprites. This leaves a sour taste in my mouth, especially because it isn't reported through Steam's AI Generated Content Disclosure. If you have objections against AI art being used in games, then I would recommend against this game. ------------------------------------------------------------------ EDIT: Re the developer response. I'm issuing a correction. I did note that at least two of the asset makers were known to use AI. I was wrong. @Raindrinker_dev is staunchly against generative AI. They aren't who I was concerned with. @GandalfHardcore is the one I mistakenly signaled as using AI when they do not. After receiving the developer response I reexamined the previous accusations I had found against @GH and found less evidence than was originally presented. I reached out to @GH about their process and they kindly corrected my misgivings. @GandalfHarcore does not use generative AI in any of their art. However, @captainskeleto has been found to use AI for modification of their assets, not just as a local tool for conceptualization. Pinterest's AI flagger (although imperfect) has flagged several of their pieces for Metadata Analysis showing AI modification. Additionally, there were a few disputes from customers who claimed CaptainSkeleto has used AI plugins through Aseprite. Some of these disputes also noted that the assets they had purchased were withdrawn, and @captainskeleto has since closed all ways to contact them through email, Twitter, and Discord. I am unable to verify with them, so I can only go off of the other reports that they use AI in their work and this is not reflected in the AI disclosure. As an aside, the developer response was also unprofessional and dismissive. Rather than explain themselves or the situation, they responded quite pointedly and in a self-pitying manner. They responded having predetermined that nothing is wrong and with no intention to fix the potential problem. AI usage in game design is an important matter for many people, and neither fully nor accurately reporting how it was used in this game is a problem. Choosing to downplay and hide the ways it was used in an attempt to avoid losing sales from the disclosure is unethical. My primary concern for this entire review has been the inaccuracy of the AI disclosure, which the developer doesn't seem concerned with. ------------------------------------------------------------------ EDIT2: Thank you to the developer for being open to understanding my position on accurate AI disclosure. Just like when disclosing if meals are vegetarian or not, I believe everyone should have all the information available to make personal choices. As such, I won't be changing my review to positive, but out of respect for them correcting the disclosure I will either private or delete this review. I'll let them decide and I'll abide by their choice. If they don't respond then I'll just do one or the other at the end of the week. And to the dev: I appreciate your correction. I hope you move away from AI tools, but I do wish you the best. ------------------------------------------------------------------ EDIT3: I am honestly shocked by your offer to try and remove the assets. Not as a slight to you, but because that is definitely more strain on you as a developer rather than simply keeping them as is. The easy choice would obviously be for me to copy these exchanges and send you that copy so it can be preserved, then delete it all to limit the impact on your games rating. After all, I personally disagree with AI usage, but I don't particularly blame the people who use it because of skill and resource strain. I have nothing against the game, and was only miffed about the disclosure. If you did remove any AI generated assets and made that effort, I would be willing to buy your game again and try it. I would give it whatever review I believe it deserves after that, which I won't promise will be good but I tend to highlight positives over negatives. As a compromise so as to not harm your potential sales more, I'll switch my review to recommended but make it friends only (I also don't like wiping things). That should be agreeable, I think. In exchange, if you do work towards removing those assets then it doesn't need to be THIS weekend so long as you keep the disclosure up until they're removed. I'll leave my review set to positive for a few weeks so you can take your time without rushing, and I won't alter it without talking to you first. If you do remove it, I'll also reach out to FeywildFurs_TTV and see if I can possibly convince them to remove their review as well. No promises, but if I show them this and the info I found then maybe they'll reconsider. I honestly am very impressed by how you've been responding to this, and I am actually interested in playing the game. I have my own personal ethical concerns for AI, but besides those I purchased your game quickly originally because the concept grabbed my attention. I think it has a lot of promise. Thank you, and take your time with any changes. If you do remove them, I'll definitely try it again. And if you decide it's too difficult to manage or will be too negatively impacted by the changes, then you can just let me know and I'll still delete my review, no strings attached. Extra EDIT: I am preferential to continuing this on Discord, but there were too many Azrael display names for me to feel comfortable randomly messaging one and I didn't see any @azrael. If you can instead reach out to me on Discord, my display name is ******************** (@*******************). My profile has a ******************. Once we link up there, I'll switch this review to friends only. (CENSORED FOR PRIVACY)