Runeborn

Ehh its fun for a few hours, but I didnt really find any real strategy other than "go for 1 color so lines go brrr" It's whatever.

Balatro slot game. Okay concept IMO, but unless you manage to snowball with a viable combination of trinkets in the early game, it's really hard to get your gold up to buy scrolls with which to remove symbols and mitigate the RNG factor, which is why I believe some reviewers are complaining that it's too random. Still recommend it though. Update 21/04: I have refunded the game as it's not very fun. It has lifted a lot of its systems from Balatro and tried to apply them to slots which just doesn't work very well. The randomness and bad RNG is fine and expected from a roguelike, but the developer should look closer at how CloverPit stole from Balatro and consider taking a page from their book. Also, maybe consider adding active item and/or ability mechanics, as the gameplay overall feels very sterile to me.

On pourrait croire qu'une machine à sous n'est que hasard et chance, et pourtant… ce jeu tord la main du dieu du hasard avec brio. Au cours de parties d'une durée d'environ une heure, vous vous retrouvez à modifier les cases de votre machine à sous pour parvenir à déclencher des combos toujours plus puissants et toujours plus souvent. Il faudra trouver l'équilibre entre augmenter la valeur de chacune de vos runes et améliorer votre multiplicateur. Pour ça, vous aurez pas mal de ressources à votre disposition : à vous de choisir votre stratégie, les outils sont variés. Les mécaniques de jeu sont amenées progressivement au fur et à mesure que l'on débloque artefacts, deck et parchemins. De la chance, certes, mais aussi beaucoup de stratégie, et surtout du fun !

Really fun game. The only downside is that it gets a bit grindy to unlock the last levels, because you need to win the game with almost every book (=character) several times.

It's.... fine. I wouldn't recommend buying it unless on pretty heavy sale, but it just hasn't chosen particularly good mechanics to try to incorporate into a slot machine type of game. On a more subjective note, it just doesn't have any "sauce." The menus are fairly simple, animations are light, and the end screens for battles as well as the combo VFX are incredibly underwhelming. It may not *seem* like a huge deal but in a game this random it basically has to feel rewarding when things do hit or else it doesn't feel like the payoff was good enough.

A fantastically addictive game. The early runs are ROUGH, because you only have a few (weak) unlocked trinkets and shops, so I'd say the first few hours are more luck than skill based (luck of getting the very few possible trinkets that can carry your run to the final act 1 boss...) but once you start unlocking more trinkets, more shops, more books... then the game really shines and shows its potential and becomes a genuine strategic roguelite, among the best I've played these past few years.

В принципе игра неплохая. Скучновата на старте, т.к. почти все механики заблокированы, доступна лишь малая часть артефактов. Только за счет прохождения этапов появляется разнообразие и реальный потенциал синергий, что очень важно для игры, которая выстроена вокруг поиска эмерджентного эффекта и нахождения комбинации для дамага или убер-дамага на триллионы. Разработчиков можно понять, они хотели чтобы был смысл проходить этапы и так занятуть, чтобы была метапрогрессия. Однако, не давая слишком много на старте они лишают увлекательности самого геймплея и прогрессии внутри забегов, из-за чего они нудноваты. Проходить все у меня желания не сохранилось. Но своих денег игра стоит

At the beginning the trinkets were a bit luckluster, but after a few rounds I can say there are a few fun build variations. It does trigger the 'One more round' syndrom. Really good price for what you get. Works well on Steam Deck. 9/10

Incremental and exponential game dependent on unlocks and luck. Skill is irrelevant. Would refund if I could. On my 7th or 8th run and still in the first 3 chapters. My build is the best it could be (all dark synergy, 4 extra holds and a good bit of wilds). I can score the entire board nearly every life (set of pulls). I'm on the final boss. My second life (of 6). I score 2.5M per row. That's 12.5M per life. I do some quick math and realize I am not killing the boss (I'll be 5-10M short). The only thing that would have made it possible is the Phoenix Rod (two extra life) and that was not an option. It's at this point I realize I just need to keep slogging along. No reward for having an awesome run. NOT fun.

"Balatro" but with magic elemental slot machine. Surprisingly fresh. I respect it when games that wear their inspiration on their sleeves, and boy does this game ever. If you've played and enjoyed Balatro you are already most of the way to enjoying this game. You have a 5 column slot machine that has a balanced inventory of 7 elemental color runes. There are 5 different lines to match runes on with a single pull of the slot machine. With that established... Balatro Migration guide: - each triggered line has a base damage (blue) number and a base multiplier (red) number. they get multiplied to do damage. - instead of 4 suits and 13 numbers, you have elements (which are both the base damage and matching component. - instead of jokers you have trinkets - instead of card packs you have scrolls - instead of seals you have amulets - instead of editions you have auras As with Balatro you pick your poison along the way, choosing challenges and rewards. Your task is to continually invest in making a more consistent and broken scoring engine. It inherits a lot of pros/cons of Balatro Actual pros of this game as its own thing: - surprisingly good aesthetics; the same concept could have been done much uglier. - having the runes in an elemental loop makes it more fun to convert them up and down as you go for homogenous rune pools. - meta progression is well tuned and encourages you to play a variety of starting loadouts and strategies. Cons: - the joy in a slot machine is generally the randomness as you do several pulls hoping for a jackpot. In this game your best strategy is to remove almost all that joy by engineering a slot machine that reliably gives a jackpot. There's more nuance to it than this for sure, but like Balatro it's got a base game that you optimize the fun out of. And from there you need to try and optimize it even further. - more line variety could be fun idk. So far it's a handful of books with the same line patterns and 4 books with unique line patterns. Overall it has much more in common with Balatro than it does with other roguelite slot games, and there's room for everybody. It does things differently than Luck be a Landlord or Slots and Daggers.