Dawncaster: Deckbuilding RPG

Edit: I have played and loved this game on my A02s for years but suddenly it began crashing repeatedly upon loading, or if it does manage to load the main menu, it will crash if I press any buttons at all. I was hoping to pick up the expansion today but I may have to uninstall the game instead. It's a shame because I really enjoy this game. OP: Phenomenal game in nearly every regard, so much so that I was compelled to purchase the expansions shortly after my first run. It truly is fantastic.

I've played a ton of roguelike deck-builders (StS, Night of the Full Moon, Rogue Adventure, Krumit's Tale, etc etc). I have maybe 10 hours in on this one, my pros and cons so far: PROs: 1. Is hard! I generally like the difficulty. Most of the other deckbuilders are way too easy once you figure out the right card combinations. 2. Visuals are nice and polished. 3. Good card balance. 4. Nice mix of randomness and agency in terms of deckbuilding choices. CONs: 1. The storyline is tedious. If a game is meant to be replayed over and over, it needs to evolve the story somehow, otherwise it's just clicking through dialogue over and over. I even have to click through the tutorial every run, sheesh. So, I'd suggest either significantly simplifying the story or create some interesting divergence, otherwise it's just getting in the way. 2. Some strategies seem viable (bleeding and poison builds with rogue, for example), until you face monsters that are 100% immune to those abilities (e.g., the undead). Good to have a mix of challenges to overcome in enemy types, but having some deck types be entirely impossible to win with is poor game design. Would suggest toning down the punishment, there (like, bleeding and poison is 50% effective on those creatures, for example). 3. Interface is a mixed bag. Overall it's good, but there are a few glitches with cards that hang in the background. Also, it's not always easy to check on what status effects are (enemies have been using cards with "interrupt" effects, but I still have no idea what that means and no way of checking within the game, unless it's a card that I own). 4. More monster variety would be helpful. It seems like there are a lot of classes to explore, but if I'm facing the same 3 monsters in each world and the same bosses, it's going to lose replayability fast. I'm sticking with 5 stars since it's basically a solid game, and I suspect it'll be even better with a little polish, content addition, and tweaking.

It's extremely rare I buy games on the app store these days. This game deserves every star! It's an amazing roguelite card game that has its own unique mechanics from others, but doesn't force micro transactions. In fact, the only purchase available is an expansion pack with a sizable amount of content. To dev- keep it up. We need games like this. As for feedback: progression feels slow compared to time commitment. Runs can be 90m and many quests are too hard. Love the game though, cheers.