Witch's Apocalyptic Journey

took me 15h (as of this review) to beat my first final boss. 9/10 you can make your own card, would give perfect score if put more effort into english translation

Fun game if u know wuh u doing and not screw up ur teammates or ur self (Funni that my friends just ded outa no where, lmao)

เป็นเกมที่สนุกจนถึงขั้นเสพติด... อืม... บอกแค่นี้ละกัน คนที่ชอบเล่นแนวนี้น่าจะเข้าใจนะว่าทำไมมันถึงได้น่าเสพติดขนาดนั้น

Roguelike deckbuilder full of magic and conjuration, riffled with opportunities of endless experimentation. Witches with various appearances and abilities, unlock the world of endless creative possibilities. TL;DR: Do not get dissuaded by the negative reviews here. This roguelike deckbuilder, filled with freedom and choice is a hidden gem that, if you are looking for something fast paced and non-restrictive compared to other deckbuilders, with gorgeous graphics and music, and up to 4 player online coop, is worth checking out. First and foremost I would like to thank MeowAlive, the game's developers, for making such a wonderful looking and fun roguelike deckbuilder. I normally do not write reviews, but this game, which enchanted me with its wonderful pixel art visuals, amazing co-op multiplayer, amazing music and most importantly amazing gameplay, which is keeping me playing this game again and again. The reason for making this review were negative Steam reviews, which criticized the game's difficulty, calling it too easy and casting it as an overall negative thing. However, even if there is some truth to that, to which I will get later on in this review, the overall tone of these reviews and complaints make it seem the game is bad because of it. As someone, who is by no means an expert and considers themselves as a beginner in the genre, I find this kind of criticism narrow minded and shallow, potentially dissuading new players from trying this game out. The gameplay has several elements associated with the genre of roguelike deckbuilders, popularized by the game Slay the Spire, made by MegaCrit. You have your mana, deck making and cards with various effects which you use to attack enemies. However the way the game utilizes these elements results in a vastly different approach than in the aforementioned title and games inspired by it. In Slay the Spire and some of its inspired games (I am familiar with Touhou Lost Branch of Legend (made by Aliot Sloth), so I am gonna go with that as a reference from this point forward), the main gameplay style is: Shield/Barrier > Attack. This is because health is a much more scarce resource to replenish, often requiring high risk vs reward cards, certain characters or rest points to restore. This inevitably forces the player into this singular style of play, making the gameplay more methodical, and deliberately slow. In Witch's Apocalyptic Journey (WAJ for short), health can be very easily replenish with various effects (such as Life Rewind, which acts as a "savestate" for your health > you record it and then use it again to restore the HP to that state), as well as passive abilities (self healing) in addition to healing cards (that can also deal damage), means that health is just another resource in your arsenal, making "Warlock" builds viable. This also means you do not have to worry as much being in an "unblocked" (without a shield) state all the time, allowing you to focus on other things instead of guarding your health. Touching onto passives, there are other types you can acquire, which as passive that allows you to draw an extra card or apply an extra debuff to the enemy. These stack too, meaning already the game can provide this additional help for the player in combat. This in turn allows the player to experiment with various different other types of cards, without forcing the player into making "highly synergistic" deck to just progress forward and clearing the game (meaning niche and gimmicky setups can become just as viable as highly optimized decks), which is refreshing to see and encouraging player experimentation. Moving onto something vital to this genre: card removal/deck optimization. Unlike in STS/Touhou LBoL, where card removal is often ridiculously difficult, requiring careful consideration of adding a card into your deck, since opportunities to remove said card are difficult, requiring one to visit a shop (whose card removal increases in price every time (in LBoL)), getting a relic to remove at a resting place or reach the end of an act. This is a problem, because, in Touhou LBoL (and I am pretty sure in STS too), the game requires you to have a "looping/meta" deck even as soon as the first boss of Act 1 (out of 3), since the bosses and enemies get progressively super strong, leaving the player very little choice but to have this kind of deck, which often means: "finding the loop", then skip every other card you acquire to afford basic card removals, to make the "loop" endless to beat the game's final boss. In WAJ, you can not only destroy cards whenever (for a fee), but also sell them at any shop, all this up to a "minimum deck limit". You can also freely put cards you do not want to have in your deck, before a combat encounter (they are not auto added to your deck either after you get them), meaning that you can experiment with every card you come across, not being afraid of a single card messing up your deck, which, again, is greatly appreciated. There are other mechanics too, such as storing up to two cards and relics into your box for safekeeping, then picking up one of your stored treasures in your next run, CREATING of YOUR OWN CARDS with broken effects or adding extra effects to your existing cards (at a specialized shop) making them extremely strong and freely equip-able and always sell-able relics, further putting control into the hands of the player. Compound this with the fact that there are NO CHARACTER-SPECIFIC CARDS (which means you do not have to relearn a combo if you switch characters) and the specific powers of a selected witch are only additive to your deck (with the powers being vastly different, some easier to understand or stronger than others) makes it so you do not have to build a specific deck for a character. This also means that there are no HARD-counters to a character play-style; you are not "punished" by playing a particular character and can experiment with different characters and deck combinations with ease. Again, unlike Touhou LBoL/STS, where you pretty much have to make a deck for a specific character you are playing. Not to mention that the cards are designed to work with one another, even if they all have different themes, making you able to go by a very gimmicky "all flavors" deck and still being able to clear the game. All of this combined pushes this game, with its heavy player-focus choice and freedom, into a "power fantasy" deckbuilder, where you can get extremely overpowered with relative ease, without being an expert at the genre, while allowing for very niche builds or combinations to exist and become viable, without the game being "artificially difficult" due to enemy design counters or tight player restrictions reliant on RNG, pushing the player into a more "generic/optimized" build like in STS/Touhou Lost Branch of Legend (though difficulty modifiers do exist that push the game more in-line to the aforementioned titles). It is something to be celebrated. in my honest opinion, not shamed. Graphically, the game looks amazing, with its gorgeous pixel art and animations, along with neat particle effects when an enemy dies. Amazing to see, with even the backgrounds being an eye candy. Sound design is well done. The sound effects are on point and the soundtrack is fitting and filled with songs that I ended up listening to on repeat (some of the soundtrack is consisting of freely available music and it is not on the OST bundle as a result). There is even some voice acting, in Japanese, for the main character, Amelia, whenever she attacks. Multiplayer coop works well without any issues that I have encountered. Had a blast playing it with my friends, multiple times. As far as UI goes, it is well done, though it can feel a little unintuitive and cluttered at times when you first start playing. All in all, this is a wonderful game that I am so glad I had discovered and I hope that my review will make you check this game out.