Having spent thousands of hours (and still do) on Gems Of War, this game was the logical choice for me to write a review. However, starting the game, I saw myself, unlike GOW, here it is not about deck-building, but about a roguelike dungeon crawler that combines match-three mechanics with randomly generated dungeons, in which you will collect mana, different weapons and numerous spells, while fighting against various enemies.
The story is as follows: three friends find a secret temple, and of course they want to explore it and find the mystical Nekonomicon. However, they discover that they can only enter one at a time. Sorceress Sonya enters first and disappears. Paladin Biscuit rushes to her aid, but he also gets lost. And that's where you come in, a cute Bungeoneer (pun intended) bunny named Feya.
The principle is very simple. You move through dungeons that are full of mana-gems. In order to open the way to the next room, you have to complete certain tasks: sometimes it is collecting a certain amount of mana of a certain color, discovering secret pictures on the floor, destroying all enemies, or winning a boss fight.
To defeat enemies, you have to match certain colored gems near them (when you click on an enemy, it shows you which color hurts them and which heals them) or just hit them when you're standing right next to them, which I wouldn't recommend because it will bounce back.
Green gems are wind, red are fire, blue are water, etc.
Destroying enemies will earn you EXP which you can use to power up your character by giving them more attack power, more damage with a certain color of mana, and the like.
You will also have a handful of different weapons and spells at your disposal, each linked to a certain color of mana, so you can combine what you need most. There will also be a MerchAnt, where you can, for a certain amount of mana, ask them to look for what you might have missed in a room you didn't open.
You can combine mana gems by moving your character over them or by selecting a gem and moving it in the desired direction.
Since this is a turn-based game, you have time to think about what you want to do and where you want to be next to avoid enemy attacks. Combining gems of a certain color will absorb mana, which you can then use to cast powerful spells. On the left side of the screen you can see how many mana you have at any time, and on the right side how much each spell costs.
When you win, you absorb all the mana from the remaining gems in that dungeon.
All dungeons in the castle are randomly generated, so you'll never know what's behind the next door (except the main boss dungeon, which has a specially designed door, so you can go to other dungeons to collect weapons and mana before you decide to attack). Once you beat a dungeon, it remains empty and is marked on the map, so you can more easily orientate where you have been and where you haven't.
When you die, and you will die many times, you go all the way back to the beginning. All rooms are closed and randomly generated again, everything you collected will be lost. But once you find one of your lost friends, they remain permanently unlocked for you and you can use them in new attempts to find Nekonomicon.
The game is charmingly drawn, with cute characters, and the enemies don't seem intimidating either (except for their size). I didn't notice a drop in framerate even with larger chaotic mana blasts.
The soundtrack is discreet, in a simple loop, and although it nicely complements the style of the board game, over time it can become repetitive and boring.
Although this was a bold attempt to combine multiple genres, I must say that they succeeded in what they set out to do. This game may not be for everyone, but I recommend giving it a try if you get the chance.
A copy of the Switch version was provided by publisher Starstruck Games for review purposes.
I’m all about traveling and Nintendo, not necessarily in that order.
