In a shop in the lustrious forests of Faeria lies a mysterious magical book: the Roguebook. Containing all legends of the world of Faeria, the book gained a will of its own and trapped four heroes inside. Ever-changing in its nature, the book will throw every legendary creature at them to keep the heroes inside. The heroes need to pair up to explore the book and overcome any challenge that presents itself, every page different from the last.
The Deck of Legends
Roguebook is a roguelike deck-builder developed by Abrakam, creators of the unique card game Faeria, and Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering™. In the spirit of Slay The Spire, Roguebook focuses on building a deck of cards, with unique offensive, defensive or support abilities, to defeat enemies in turn-based combat. As you enter the book’s first level, you select two heroes out of four to create your party for that run. The leading hero will be at the front of the party and will receive the brunt of enemy attacks, while the hero in the back will be safe, as long as the enemy does not have other tricks up its sleeve.
Each hero has access to unique mechanics and playstyle, items and cards. The cards’ abilities vary widely. You can simply attack the enemy for a certain amount of damage, or increase your block modifier which reduces the potency of incoming enemy attacks. But as you progress through the book, you gain access to new cards with more complex abilities and mechanics for both heroes. Summoning temporary allies to provide additional buffs or attacks to the party, or swap your heroes’ position while also providing other boons. You can even further boost a card power by infusing it with a gem with its own unique property, such as instantly drawing the card at the first turn, or add a duplicate to your hand. The amount of combinations you can make is quite staggering.
To make it all the way through the three levels and defeat every boss fight at end of each level, you’ll need to optimize the synergy of your two heroes. When you pick the correct cards, you can get a satisfying streak of combos going without having to end your turn. You have access to six different pairs of heroes and luckily each pair seem to have some sort of synergy that can result in your pair becoming an unstoppable force and combat quickly becomes extremely satisfying. A perfect combination of cards, gems and heroes can easily turn a difficult run into a relaxing stroll through the park. Sometimes, it even felt somewhat unbalanced. Of course, Roguebook is a purely single player game and you still have to be lucky to find the cards you desperately need to maximize the synergy on the map, being unbalanced at times does not really matter. If luck is not on your side, don’t expect to progress very far through the book.
An Ever-changing World of Color
Besides satisfying combat Roguebook also offers a lot of exploration to enjoy. When you enter the book, the map is divided in hexagonal tiles covered in fog. To clear to fog and gain access to the hidden tile, you have to use your paint brush. Using your brush will unveil any tile within a two tile radius, and any gold treasure, enemy, or item on those tiles. The items you find provide permanent bonuses to one of your heroes, or even the entire party, giving you an extra edge to overcome any challenge you’ll encounter. You can also uncover scrolls that contain one of Faeria’s legends, and offer you a choice. Every choice you make will give you something, an item, a gem or a card, to boost your party, but some choices can backfire.
You only have a limited amount of brushes you can use in each level, exploring every single tile on a level is most unlikely. But common enemies drop inks that can reveal additional tiles in a straight line, ranging from three to five tiles, or three tiles of your choice all over the map. Elite enemies drop an extra brush you can use to further explore the map. Once you run out of brushes and ink and have prepared yourself at the shop by purchasing new cards or items, it is time to start the boss encounter of that level. Boss fights up the ante quite in a bit in comparison to elite enemies, but a well-prepared party should survive this battle. Once you have completed all three levels, you have completed your run.
But the game is not yet over after you have completed it once. You’ll unlock the New Run + game mode, which allows to play the game again with different modifiers that change an aspect of the game: Wealth, Exploration, and Heroism. Each modifier also increases the damage output of all enemies, plus the modifier’s unique trait. Combining modifiers makes more complex and interesting runs possible. Finishing runs with different heroes will also level up those heroes and permanently unlock those heroes’ cards. You can also use scrolls in your party’s talent tree to purchase permanent buffs, making your life a bit easier while exploring the Roguebook and giving you that helping hand on more higher difficulties. There is quite a lot of incentive to keep playing, that first run is only a small introduction to the Roguebook.
Roguebook is an excellent roguelike deck-builder, with unique and interesting mechanics from other game in the genre, Slay The Spire most notably. The two hero party allows for creative deck-building during your runs. Even more so with the gems you can use to add new mechanics to cards in your deck. It could get a bit unbalanced at times, as I felt I had way too much firepower in my deck for that run’s difficulty level. The game’s colorful design fits right into Faeria’s world, and the soundtrack, while limited, does not get repetitive and complements with the game’s pace and aesthetic. If you have played a roguelike deck-builder and you have enjoyed that experience, I’m sure you’ll have a blast playing Roguebook.
4.5/5
Reviewed on PC.
Download code provided by the publisher.
