Awesome
Wed Oct 30 2019 artfoundryThis was a Kickstarter game I contributed to called Labyrinth for desktop. Unfortunately the service got shut down last spring (don't know why). So glad to see it's back! Not sure why they changed the name either, but as far as I can tell it's the same great RPG card game.
Just one issue I've found - after tapping on the last dialog panel in character conversations, if there's another panel after it that gives scenario information (I'm assuming that's what they say - haven't been able to read them), it gets immediately dismissed.
Update - turns out the dialog panel I thought it was skipping was the one I saw before the conversation, so I wasn't actually missing anything. Would be good to close that panel when the conversation starts though, so it doesn't look messy/confusing.
Update 2: I got to the Northgate Turning point battle, and I can't pass it. There are just too many enemies and all too powerful. I've tried changing my cards, but it didn't help.
Another issue - once you pick your three heroes/decks, you're pretty much stuck with them, as the other two don't increase in level in parallel - you'd need to replay all the battles to level them up (assuming you can get XP the second time around), and I'm not about to do that. It would be really nice if the others also increased in level so I could further modify my strategy for battles like the one I'm stuck on.
Because of these two problems, I'm removing a star.
More than hoped for in Arcade
Sat Oct 12 2019 Madd0lexxGoing into Apple Arcade I was not really expecting too much better than the usual shovelware that clogs up the App Store. But Spelldrifter was one of the first games that really got me engrossed in the possibilities of what experiences were possible in this service. The prologue/tutorial is brutal, and I don’t mean in a hard way but really difficult to want to finish. But it was so worth it. A deck builder/strategy RPG is something that can very easily go wrong, very very wrong, but the developers did a great job of using cards to customize play styles and grow your combat strength. The story is decently written for the most part, but if you are looking for a deep strategic RPG cardgame then you need to play this game.
Great game
Tue Jan 19 2021 DMV000The game is really fun if you like tactical RPGs based on a grid. The intro is short and then you hit the ground running with basically no handholding after the prologue. There is no shortage of challenging levels but you don’t need to grind if you’re thoughtful about the decisions you make.
New cards are earned through completing missions and leveling up your characters. Artifact cards can be bought with the in game currency which provide buffs to your character’s abilities, but these are also earned through missions completion and leveling up. I think I bought one artifact from the shop and I just entered the third world.
I’m probably going to beat this game soon and I think I can safely say I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end.
The Game Arcade Was Made For
Wed Oct 09 2019 Ace198702I love a good strategy game and Spelldrifter delivers. The cards and characters have some fun mechanics you’ll be familiar with along with some new ones and there is enough variety to encourage you to experiment with different deck configurations.
What I REALLY want to talk about though, is how this game shines thanks to it being in the Apple Arcade. If this were a free-to-play game, you would be constantly bombarded with ads to purchase more card packs, you would have energy limits on how many levels you could play, and there would be arbitrary difficulty spikes to encourage you to spend money to avoid grinding.
With Arcade I can just enjoy the game as it was meant to be played without being nagged to death with the next carrot on a stick. A+
Fun but disappointing
Sat May 02 2020 FverdeI really enjoyed the beginning of getting the characters then entering the main map with the prospect of mixing up the characters. When hitting an early hard node, i found grinding on a particular node my go to. So i got my characters to level 15 early on. I saw the expensive artifacts and said to myself “oh great, more to come”. But it didnt come. I got to second map and no more experience, capped at level 15. What is the point now? Delete.
It would much more rewarding to cap next stage at 20 or something with more challengingly bosses, not more annoying of just trying to figure out which set works better. Alot of people are completionists so trying to get everything makes it more rewarding. That could be tied into a sequel with more characters, IAP, PVP, etc.
Fun but disappointing
An IAP game modified
Fri Oct 18 2019 CasualGamerWI just finished the current game (starfall with the three sections). The gameplay was good and the strategy is interesting but this was a game built around IAPs and just modified. Here is my reasoning.
1. There are some extremely hard levels early on making you want to buy overpowered artifacts or forcing you to possibly grind to level up.
2. When you replay levels you get experience but you don’t get any gold or items on consecutive runs.
3. If you beat every single level you don’t have enough gold to buy even half the artifacts (you can get them all through gambling by buying all the cheaper artifacts as it doesn’t seem to give you repeats).
There is a major pitfall in that you need to level up your heroes to 15 to be the best equipped. However, you get new hero’s mid way through at level 1 and they are too weak to fight the current levels. So you either have to go back and replay earlier levels to level-up your new heroes or just beat the game only using 3 heroes (what I recommend).
Overall the game is fun but there are very blatant balance issues and it definitely wasn’t made to be a one time purchase game.
TrialOfFire-Like
Sun Sep 22 2019 Aka:TrapsSo I’ve been playing all the arcade games the past day or so and this one I’ve spent the most time on, took me awhile to get it, because of the size and not knowing what it’s about. Not enough reviews.
I doubt many people have played the early access title Trials of Fire on PC but that is what it most reminds me of. It’s quite original for a card based Rpg. Getting past the prologue for all the characters was a task I just wanted to play the actual game but I’m glad I stuck with it, it explained a lot and told a decent story. Im just starting the actual game, so i will come back after I’ve played a bit, to say more.
Great at what it does
Thu Aug 20 2020 seancassidy999As an old head who played Pong as a kid I’m a bit stuck in my ways. I prefer the more classic RPG format.
This is the first card-based RPG I’ve gotten into. At first I resisted card management and just played the turn-based strategy. But eventually I started seeing the value of managing the cards and now I’m pretty well hooked.
It’s a little tough to get used to, but it’s fine. What you don’t want to do is shoehorn players into some manager tutorial that treats them like a toddler and basically plays the game for them. Let us learn it as we go.
The art is incredible. Really, really good. Just, wow.
I love the music, too. I’m actually trying to learn the map theme on my acoustic. it’s in Bb minor, I think.
Overall, it’s a slam dunk. Whoever’s making this game, please keep making games.
Achievements glitched
Fri Apr 08 2022 HdjdbbdndThe game itself is good I’ve only had the game have 1 fatal error where there was a lot of enemies being spawned in and I had a counter attack active and during the enemy turn they just refused to move or do anything. The game wasn’t frozen bc the characters where doing idle animations it just refused to work but it wasn’t too bad bc I just clicked restart and beat the boss again.
My main issue is I’ve beaten the game 3 times now using all the different characters and it will not give me the achievement for beating the 3rd act. I even sat through all the credits and end animations and still nothing. Rather frustrating that I have a single missing achievement when I’ve done everything the game has to offer.
Boring derivative mess
Thu Oct 01 2020 SamSBDThis is a tactics/deck building game that has promise on the surface; in fact, I’ve downloaded it, played it, found it snooze-inducing, deleted it, forgot about it being boring, and started the cycle over several times. It really should work but it just doesn’t.
The characters are your standard derivative fantasy tropes, some of which flirt with copyright infringement; similarities to a certain wise-cracking white-haired monster hunter who had died and come back to life in a Polish-book-series-turned-video-game-franchise cannot be an accident.
Beyond that, it’s just too much talking and not fully fleshed out gameplay. A perpetual disappointment.
