Worlds Upon The Wind

If you like deck building games and Japanese art (or one of the two), this is a good game. There's plenty of playtime possible as you gradually explore all of the situations, events, and cards that are available. You can even use the game as a language learning aid, as they have an optional mini-game for Japanese learners. Also, the reason I have so many hours played is because I tend to leave games open on my desktop for the background music and play them during breaks during the day. The music is a nice Japanese themed lofi.

An educational game. Love the art-direction of the game.

beautiful and relaxing

Yes

Absolutely wonderful game, the art is gorgeous and the writing is very well done. Highly recommended this game since launch and doubly so now with the developed making it available via Open Source.

I found this game from a video that Voyix did about it and man am I glad that I did, this game to me is just a masterpiece. The dedication to making the atmosphere for this game such an amazing cultural experience just pulls me in. It is so creative how Max incorporated real Japanese artwork into the game and I think he captured something special with that. The deck building is a lot of fun and is such a creative way to really feel like you are exploring each shard while seeing the struggles that your people have throughout each expedition. I would recommend this game to anyone that loves deckbuilding and calm experiences to sit down and enjoy. I have been playing this mostly on Steam Deck and the game itself works really well there with the combination of touch controls on the screen and using the touch pad. The only hard thing on the steam deck is drawing the Kanji to inscribe your glyphs when you unlock that.

I bought this on a whim after getting a random recommendation and reading some of the reviews. I am very glad that I did. It is very similar to deck- or terrain-building roguelites, but the dev has seemingly eliminated most of the frustration that comes with working toward a goal and then failing. I think this is because the game is incredibly fair and the game does not needlessly deprive you of a sense of progress or accomplishment when you fail to meet a goal. At the same time, there is a good amount of complexity to the mechanics, which unfold over time, and there are plenty of difficult tasks that the game throws at you. Beyond the gameplay, this title provides chill music and opportunities to learn about Japan, its language, and its artwork. Easy 10/10 for the genre. Far better than some of the heaviest hitters in this niche of games.