What really stops this from being enjoyable, though, are some serious balance problems, and how outright buggy it gets not that late into it. Sometimes the right cards come down, and other times the deck is just bloated and useless. It is interesting seeing how the decks come together, but the biggest criticism might be how random it ends up being. The cards come from a basic starting deck, some randomly found cards, and cards that are bought throughout the scope of the map. The enemies partly telegraph what they are going to do, making it an element of planning, such as making sure there is enough block to nullify the damage, and preparing some attacks back at the enemy. On your turn you generally do two things: throw down attacks, or build up 'block' which is defence. There is never enough to go around, and it's a fun part trying to best maximize where to go.Įventually, players are drawn into a fight that is a turn-based card battle. These open up pathways to treasure, gold, fights, cards, and so on. Most of the level starts hidden, and players get a very limited number of paintbrushes and inks that are used to reveal a few tiles.

Part of it takes place on an overworld where someone's inner artist is unleashed through an addicting 'paint' system to the map. Taking place in the same world as the previous game by the developer, Faeria, it tells the story of a few characters trapped in a book who are trying to escape. Reviewing something like RogueBook this is always a tough one, because it is clear time, effort and heart went into it, yet it fundamentally lacks simple basics, like not crashing from normal gameplay.

Roguebook switch release date