izigame.me

I don' typically write reviews for games, which is on me. I should write more. However, when I heard on NL's Twitch that this game had a near 50% review, I was baffled. The negative reviews I've read about this game so far are ridiculous. I don't mean that as a stab against those who wrote the reviews nor do I mean to say that I'm better at the game than them. I'm probably not. What I mean to say is that those reviews are very divorced from my experience with the game, so much so that I felt compelled to speak up.
I've played a lot of roguelite/like deckbuilders. It's my favorite genre. I used to play digital card games competitively. I have and currently do play TCGs competitively. My home collection of board games largely consists of deckbuilders and LCGs. If it's a card game, I want to play it. This is the best deckbuilder I've played since Slay the Spire and Roguebook. It's freakin' phenomenal. Now, I'm not going to talk about the art, theme, ambiance, soundtrack, etc. Those things speak for themselves and they're great. The negative reviews seem aimed at the difficulty, so I'm going to address the elephant in the room.
Yes, this game is tough. Yes, you will die. Yes, you will lose runs. If I wanted a guaranteed win, I have enough games in my library that offer a "story" mode. I choose to play roguelite deckbuilders because they're challenging and feel rewarding to beat. I think that's a big draw for most of us that follow this genre. I realize that I may take that to more of an extreme than most players. My next favorite genre are souls-like games, and I always play games on their hardest difficulty. I don't think you need to be like that to enjoy this game. However, if you are like me, then I think you'll really appreciate the challenge this game has to offer.
Is this game "too" tough? No, absolutely not. First off, I've aggressively played the first run a dozen times by deleting my save file and restarting. I do that with nearly every game that I play. I died many times. Every single time I died, I could articulate the exact reason why. It always felt like the loss was a direct consequence of my choice. I never once felt oppressed. Did I get frustrated? Sure. Learning can be frustrating sometimes. That's okay. But I did learn, and I did figure it out. Those mistakes taught me how to be better at the game. But did I eventually win? Yes, several times. Since winning that first run, I've only lost one run. The first run has several scripted elements that you can take advantage of to improve your win chances dramatically. I found them, and I feel VERY good about my win chances now. For those writing reviews about the difficulty of the game, if you cannot articulate the scripted elements of the first run, then I encourage to start over. I think you'll really appreciate them when you find them.
What about after the first run? I've won those too. I have consecutive wins on the same playthrough, and I still feel very good about my changes moving forward. Those consecutive runs have only gotten more fun and more interesting. There's lot of content to unlock, and I can't wait to enjoy it all. I think you'll find that there are worthwhile elements to unlock between runs.
What are some things I learned:
- Wildfrost rewards methodical play with versatile deckbuilding rather than decks that abuse a particular interaction.
- This is not a deckbuilder where you can start completing runs in 15 minutes. Your first win will probably take you over an hour. Some encounters will last a minutes or two. Some will last 15 to 20. You may need to take your time and that's okay.
- Wildfrost is not like many other deckbuilders. The cooldown counters will play with your brain for awhile until you acclimate to them. Slay the Spire trains you to thing in terms of "them then me". In Wildfrost, every character has a different rate at which they attack. You may have to track the separate cooldowns of up to 12 characters simultaneously in the harder encounters. I think that's been the hardest part of the game.
- You need to make use of all of the mechanics the game has to offer, not just the few that come easy.
- Wildfrost really rewards you for leaning into your deck. Don't think in terms of "how do I win?". You need to think in terms of "how does my deck win?"
- In most cases, there are several threats on board. You need to figure out which threats you can mitigate and which you can't. The ones you can't need to be prioritized. In most cases, that's not the boss.
- Cooldown reduction is often a trap.
- Poison is extremely powerful.
- Crowns and charms are busted, and I love them.
- Lastly and most importantly, many of the things I started choosing to improve my chances were not and would not have been my first choice. They are also not the things that I've seen many streamers fall into yet. I learned from playing the game what works better, and it's made me better.
What about some of the things that other reviewers are saying:
- Will I die in my first encounter? Maybe. But that's a ridiculous notion to me.
- What if my leader has a 7 turn cooldown with no ability? Pick a different one. You get three to choose from.
- Are the encounters (like the fire one) oppressive? No. In my runs, my deck has been the oppressive one.
- Does the game punish you for dragging out encounters? No. I consistently win by dragging out the encounter. More of my encounters wins (especially those against bosses) have been about outlasting the enemies.
- Aren't you just setting yourself for a harder next run? Sure. But I've beaten those too.
- Is the charms mod for enemies ridiculous? I found it to be a fun take on the threat imposed by enemies, and I enjoy it. I always play with it on.
- Is there a ton of balancing that needs to be down before this game is playable? I don't think so.
- Is this game worth it's price tag? Absolutely.
Is there room for improvement? Absolutely.
- In game glossaries of keywords and interactions
- Better visual queues to highlight attack patterns
- Balancing bells to leave room for growth in daily runs
- Making summoned allies/enemies less abusive (players summon these btw)
- Rebalancing support characters like Pyra to make them more playable
I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of, but I can play around all of them. They do not detract from my opportunity to have a great time playing this game. And the devs are already posted that they're going through a balancing and polishing phase first before moving to new content.
There's a great experience to be had here if you like the genre, so my recommendation is give it a try! If you don't now, you probably will later, but you may not like that you missed out on the journey in between.