SpellRogue Impressions: A deckbuilder with extra oomph

When you hear the pitch for {Guidelight Games}' {SpellRogue}, it's easy to assume that there's too much going on at once for this game to work. Turn-based strategy mixed with deckbuilding and roguelike elements, all on top of featuring random dice mechanics to boot. It's a lot to digest on the surface but in practice, SpellRogue is a very interesting and compelling project.

I say this as during my time at Gamescom this year, I had a chance to sit down and play the game for a short while. During that demo session, I got to check out one short round of gameplay, which lasted for approximately 20 minutes, but could have gone on much longer if I had the time and opportunity to continue my roguelike run.

The game starts with the player selecting one of a trio of magic wielding characters. Each character is attuned to an element, be it destructive fire, forceful water, or regenerative earth. The type you chose (I went with {Lapis the Azure Seer}, the water wizard) reflects how you should be conducting your strategy in the gameplay, as for example, Lapis is all about combining cards and effects so that fewer dice rolls have greater effects, but this will all make more sense as I delve into the rest of the mechanics.

Once you're in-game, the deckbuilding and dice mechanics come into play. The idea is that as you travel through the map, which is set out like {Slay the Spire}'s world map, you come across random encounters that could include battles, shops to buy cards and items, boss level foes, and more. Whenever you visit one of these areas (bearing in mind you can only ever travel forward, so you have to think about the path you take well ahead of making the first step) and complete the encounter, you will have the chance to add a new passive ability or useable card to your deck, which can be used in battles and in tandem with others cards to generate effects in combat.

As for how the effects and damage of a card is determined, this is when the dice mechanics come into play, as you have a specific set of dice that you can roll each turn, and you have to decide how to spend those dice on your cards or instead to risk a reroll in the hopes of higher dice values. So, assuming you roll a three, six, and four, you have to decide if you want to devote the biggest number to a protective shield, or instead to throw out some damage, or perhaps instead to commit it to a card that requires 10 in total to activate its powerful effect. The choice is yours and depends solely on the way you have built your deck up for that moment and encounter.

The really compelling part of SpellRogue that grabbed my attention is how it has this depth whilst still remaining very simplistic and intuitive to play. It has that {Slay the Spire} charm, all while boasting just a tad more depth in the way it tackles customisation and buildcrafting. I will say that SpellRogue will benefit from additional content, as what I saw, while overflowing with potential, it didn't have that much substance to it, but with the game lacking a release date, there is still plenty of time for the developers to double-down on content and stack it with activities and additional options.