Dandy Ace Review (Thana)
Hesitant recc, here.
This game has a lot of potential, and beyond that it's already pretty great. However I think warnings are in order:
(1) This ain't Hades. The characters and design is absolutely wonderful, but don't buy or play this for story. You'll be disappointed, understandably Hades' dialogue system can't be matched but as it is, dialogue here isn't trying to use Hades' system or any meaningful one whatsoever. Expect lots of repeated dialogue as you play, expect- well don't expect anything for story. Wonderful charming characters, but it's repetitive.
(2) Early game is a slog. I've not actually gotten out of the slog yet in fact. Progress is slow and you have far less movement options (customizable however) than many other games of this genre, and outside of rare RNG cupcake drop, and a cup of tea you bring along (starts off with 1 cup, can be refreshed moving between areas) there seems to be no options for actual sustain. The card system is fun and unique, but at the end of the day slow, cautious and honestly kinda tedious traversal wins out when you have extremely limited heals and cupcake RNG seems to be incredibly low. There doesn't seem to be any item that increases the likelihood of cupcake drops, and if there's any meaningful upgrades/options for sustains it's still very stingy. Perhaps this fits- you're a magician and a dandy, not a brawler. The slower pace, combined with repetitiveness is currently a detriment though, one that the card system and general charm of the game makes up for, but I'm hesitant to recc as a result.
If the devs are reading reviews- what's here can be great. Just needs some tweaking and a few additions, really, and it'd be confidently recommended. Give some healing options, maybe with a risk/reward sort of gambit. Or give a bit of a shielding/dodging option other than the current (eh, alright) fairy summon and dashing. Perhaps a decoy illusion?
The dialogue is probably fine if the game's slog is minimized at least a bit (for instance through either healing or damage avoidance... that isn't just "stay far away from enemies"). More would be wonderful, though.
Maybe I'm missing out on the condition-affecting item, but if not there should be one that increases duration a fair bit. The debuffs and buffs ones (+5s) are nice already but when damage is so costly and movement options limited by the number of card slots- well, something to incentivize or at least make viable more "brave" playstyles would be nice.