Banners of Ruin (2021)

I've been addicted to all kinds of games that follow this formula, and I have to say this is probably the best of them. I hecking loved the art style, especially the furry characters (even though they were generic goons or had randomly generated names). The music was superb, the setting was dark, the story was straightforward but compelling... But the gameplay is what did it for me. The perfect difficulty for me, blending strategy with chance, allowing me to feel brilliantly clever when I pull off an unexpected synergy with the cards in my hands. I realised pretty quickly that, while all decks are technically viable, I developed a favourite playstyle pretty quickly (cycling through a small deck and drawing the overpowered Oathkeeper multiple times!).

And what memorable boss battles! The first time I faced off against The Prince with a party of six and found that I was not going to steamroll them, I started sweating. What sweet satisfaction to pull off a win against such terrible odds!

The one drawback of this game is that it had limited replayability for me. Sure I could replay the story again and again, but after I'd completed it for the fourth time and unlocked all of the endings, and levelled my favourite Wolfboys to maximum, I didn't really feel the need to play on just to unlock a handful of abilities for the other races I could play. It would have been great if new paths and new stories had unlocked. Maybe in a future update?

Still, this game got me staying up into the early hours of the morning, going "Just one more run" as I made mistakes and learned from them, like any good rogue-like. Satisfying, compelling, and gorgeous. I had a great time with it!