Day 21 - Solitairica
Deckbuilder, Rougelite, Youtube Game ·
Skeeter’s Take:
Uhh.. H-hey… (don’t mention Balatro)(don’t mention Balatro)(don’t mention Balatro)
How’s it… How’s it going? (don’t mention Balatro)(don’t mention Balatro)(don’t mention Balatro)(don’t mention Balatro)
(don’t mention Balatro)(don’t mention Balatro)Today we’ll be reviewing Solitairica (don’t mention Balatro) a Solitaire based (DON’T mention Balatro)(DON’T mention Balatro) R-Roguelike Deck-(DON’T MENTION Balatro)(DON’T MENTION Balatro) Deckbuilder… (DON’T MENTION BALATRO DON’T MENTION BALATRO DON’T MENTION BALATRO) You start with a deck of cards(DMB) and your goal is to remove all of the enemies cards. It’s much like that game you always see your grandmother run off to play after she asks you to play cribbage with her but you say, “No, I have to go play (DON’T MENTION BALATRO) a video game a day and write about them with my friend, Grandma, gorsh you are making me look so uncool!” Anyway, here’s what the board looks like:
I’ll give you a quick example of play - You can see in the screenshot above me that I have a Jack in front of me. I could use that Jack to remove one of the two Queens, the Queen would be removed from the board and placed into my hand where the Jack was. If I got lucky, there would be a King or another Jack behind the removed Queen, and I would be able to play the Queen I just received on one of those cards, and then use that card to remove the remaining Queen - Hopefully I didn’t lose you here. Let’s just say I’m not the go-to guy for when someone needs a set of board game rules read. If I was unlucky I wouldn’t be able to match the Queen with anything, and would need to draw a card. Each time I draw a card, the enemy gets to take a turn. They can attack, add cards, and mess with the board in various other ways. If they attack too many times and I lose all my health, then the run ends. Some keen-eyed readers may have noticed the symbols underneath each card, I picked a bad example above because nearly every card in the screenshot is gold, but look at the Jack with the Blue Shield. This Shield corresponds to the blue shield in the “mana pool” in the bottom right. Each time I remove a card from the enemy, or play a card from my deck (more on this in a second), that card’s icon will add corresponding mana to my mana pool (Ax symbol gives Orange Ax Mana, Green Boots give Green Boots Mana, etc. etc.) This mana pool allows you to cast your spells (left hand side of the screen) each spell will have a specific color mana cost and usually has its own tactic associated with it. For example, the ax spells tend to remove cards from the enemy board, and the green boot spells tend to give information by revealing hidden cards in your hand or on the enemy board. Your goal is to defeat the enemies in your path - you don’t get a choice of path like (don’t mention Slay the Spire) other games, it’s just a static, single path. In between each enemy you can enter the shop and buy items and new powerful spells.
I actually had a pretty good time with this (don’t mention Balatro). It took me three runs for it to really click, but once it did, I started having some fun. I mean it’s… (don’t mention Balatro)(don’t mention Balatro) not going to be my go to card based Roguelike Deckbuilder (DON’T MENTION BALATRO)(DON’T MENTION BALATRO) but it’s different enough that I could definitely see me playing this on a slow day of work (JUST KIDDING EMPLOYERS). I did feel like the game was so SLOW - and maybe that’s because I’ve been playing a lot of (DON’T MENTION BALATRO)(DON’T MENTION BALATRO)(DON’T MENTION BALATRO) a different card based Roguelike-Deck Builder that is much quicker. The card animation and enemy turn just felt so sluggish, and the feeling is made worse when you have to flip a single card every turn. There were a few fights where I would sit there and just turn cards for a few minutes hoping to get enough mana to destroy the one card left on the board all because I couldn’t draw the correct card. I even went into the settings to enable quick animations and it still felt slow. I think a more adjustable and faster speed option for this game would help the sad, small prefrontal cortex individuals out there like me. I also felt like I was relying on randomness a lot of the time. I was reminded of all those Magic: The Gathering hands I played thinking I’d top deck a land, only to spend the whole game drawing one card from my deck each turn. I haven’t gotten that far into this game, and I did notice some deck upgrade options, so maybe there are some upgrades or even different decks (don’t mention Balatro) that address this issue later in the game. I’m not sure.
Overall, I enjoyed it - solid way to kill an hour. I’ll definitely find time to come back and play this when I get bored of Balatro.
FUCK!
Recommend: Yes
Replay Percentage Chance: 75%
Time Played: 60 Minutes (AKA 1 Hours)
Sam’s Take:
On day 10, we reviewed Night of Full Moon, and I felt a little bad about leaving a negative review. I don’t think I lied or exaggerated, but when it seems like a real game with effort and care put into it, I generally want to enjoy myself. Especially when reviewing something like a deckbuilder, there’s just no way to experience a game’s full depth in one sitting, so I’m always wondering “does this get better later, did I maybe miss something?”. Making games is extremely hard, and unless you’re making the absolute bottom of the barrel shovelware garbage (LOOKIN AT YOU PLUMBER), there is going to be more thought and care put into any game then we could possibly see/experience via our one-game-a-day review style.
What we lose in depth by reviewing one game a day however, we do gain back in breadth, and playing even just a bit Solitairica really brought the flaws of Night of Full Moon into clearer focus, because to my pleasant surprise, Solitairica gives a great first impression with its gameplay. I did two full runs of Solitaricia. The first was just trying stuff out, my deck didn’t really have a gimmick, but on run number two I saw this spell:
I thought this looked interesting, so I removed all spells that used willpower, took every item that gave me more willpower and armor, and based my strategy around getting an early cast of this to get a big armor boost early on, letting me be more greedy with future plays.
It wasn’t the strongest build of all time but it totally worked! One spell had given me a direction, and suddenly I would see items in the shop and think “oh this fits with my build” or “oh this would be good late game, where my deck gets a little weaker”. Once you get my brain thinking about “the build”, then you got me. I now want to see what else is possible, I want to see how the other characters function, what enemies block certain builds etc.
There’s an interesting mechanic where you can look at what monster you will be fighting, and swap out your spells and items before the fight. I didn’t need to engage with this on my first baby playthroughs, but I can already see this as a mechanism for higher level play, picking up a spell that is good against certain enemies and being ready to swap it in when the fight comes.
Honestly the biggest point of failure in Solitairica is the presentation. First of all the name sucks. It’s awkward to read and I spell it wrong every time. The music feels very cheap and generic, and the art isn’t terrible, but doesn’t give the game a super clear direction. It seems cute and funny, but the music attempts a more serious grandiosity. It’s a bit confused.
But strangest of all, while the music plays in shops and menus, the moment the actual card battling starts: no music. None, I’ve never seen (or rather heard (or rather NOT heard)) anything like this. The quiet flipping of cards and spell sound effects sound so empty. It was unsettling enough that I was starting to feel like I have to put on Youtube in the background or something to stay sane. Honestly this is the kind of game where I would eventually mute all music and Youtube to it anyway, so it’s not a deal breaker, but it adds to the cheap feeling of the game’s aesthetics.
One more petty presentation complaint. On my second more fun run where I purposefully cut willpower spells from my toolkit, I got this popup after every menu:
While I appreciate that this is probably a good failsafe warning for most decks, you have a spell designed around an alternate use for willpower, so why is there no setting or “don’t remind me again” checkbox? Lots of strange little quirks that make the game seem like a cheaper product than it really is.
I mention all this not to damn the game, but because this is the exact type of game where normally I’d see the trailer and think “looks and sounds kinda bland”. Even if I just played for a little bit, I might not see what the game had to offer because I didn’t give it a real chance. I said this game gives a good first impression in terms of gameplay, but I’m afraid a lot of people won’t see that because there’s nothing to give a good presentational impression, which makes the game hard to market.
So I’d like this review to do what a trailer, or 10 minutes of gameplay just can’t do for this game.
Hello, I’m Sam! I played this game for an hour because I do this weird review project. I normally wouldn’t have given this game a shot, but this was a pleasant surprise. Don’t be turned off by its bland aesthetic, this is a real game with actual depth and if you’re into the roguelike deckbuilding genre at all, you should for sure check this out. I will most certainly be playing this again, probably for this review project, but also in my free time. I’ll be muting the music and putting on a Youtube video, but that’s fine. Hell it’s kind of a staple of the genre (I couldn’t even tell you what the Slay the Spire soundtrack sounds like anymore).
Solitairica made me realize that I was more than fair to Night of Full Moon, and that a non-Slay-the-Spire game can absolutely win me over in the short amount of time we take to play these games. Excited that we found a deckbuilder where exploring and reviewing it on a deeper level later actually sounds fun and fulfilling.
Recommend: Indeed
Replay Percentage Chance: 90%
Time Played: 54 Minutes
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