Sadly, though, roguelites aren’t often known for their storytelling. If the story did more to grab your attention and pull you in, the atmosphere wouldn’t feel quite so wasted. Enemy designs are fun if not entirely original, but the beauty of the world makes up for it. Plants and crystal formations pop up, while twinkling light effects spark and flash. As you spend ink, the map squares burst into live. Not a million miles from Faeria in aesthetics, the world is gorgeous. Roguebook does enough to keep you feeling positive even in the face of defeat. So many roguelites fail to adequately reward the player. As you progress you’ll gather experience and items that will stay with you even if you fail, allowing you to grow and improve. Maps have bosses, too, which you may often be forced to tackle early if you run out of ink to explore with. From power-ups and treasure to enemy encounters and fonts to replenish your health, there’s always something to work towards. Once painted, you can walk on them to reach points of interest. You will begin with a certain measure of ink, which allows you to fillin the blank spaces. At the beginning of each run it’s featureless save for the odd tantalising icon begging to be reached. That said, you’ll spend as much time exploring the map as fighting on it. Learning when to risk an attack and when you need to block is the toughest aspect early on. It may not be quite as complex as some deckbuilding games, but it has enough elements that you won’t feel cheated out of a challenge. Roguebook makes you think, that’s for certain. These will apply various buffs or aids but can’t be used like the main characters. The only external help you’ll get comes in the form of summons. You can’t switch out during a run though, so be prepared before you begin. As you play through the story, two other characters will join Sharra and can be selected to accompany here instead of Sorocco. Enemies deal damage to the character in front, so a miscalculation can leave a vulnerable character exposed. Some allow you to hit multiple enemies, others only trigger as counter attacks. There are, of course, lots and lots of cards. In order to defend against an attack, you’ll need to play a defensive card with the character in the lead. Sirocco is tougher, with more defensive cards in his hand. For example Sharra is fast, deals heavy damage but can’t mitigate it well. Each has their own deck based on individual attack types. The former is the white-haired warrior that graces all the art the latter is a frog-like ogre. Of course, you’ll pick up new cards as you play, and new decks in the form of playable characters. You’ll find artefacts that carry forward through runs, level up your deck to give you more action points to play with. The roguelite element may not be wholly fresh, but it works wonderfully well alongside the card collecting element. A lot of it works, but some of it doesn’t. But here, there’s a definite sense that Abrakam have taken what they know and attempted to apply a degree of newness. Roguebook seems to be aiming closer to the middle ground between strategy and strong-arming, though it still remains much closer to the former.Ībrakam Entertainment are better known for their Faeria series, which in fairness isn’t a far cry from what’s on offer in Roguebook. But the simple truth I’d rather not admit is that I don’t have much of a head for tactics. I’ve played a few over the years, like Hearthstone, Gwent, and Slay the Spire. You can watch the interview with Abrakam's Lead Creative Designer Jean-Michel Vilain and legendary designer Richard Garfield in the YouTube video below.I’ve never really gotten my head around deckbuilders. This screenshot depicts a battle against a monstrous enemy. Another screenshot from the roguelike deckbuilding indie game Roguebook, by Abrakam and Nacon.
One notable mechanic of this roguelike deck-builder is the "fat deck" mechanic created by Richard Garfield, in which the goal of players would be not to thin out the deck for the sake of consistency, but rather gain as many cards as possible to reach a certain threshold and strengthen abilities and the like. The player characters of indie roguelike deckbuilder Roguebook from left to right: Sharra, Seifer, Sorocco, and Aurora.Įach of the characters in the game have their own special abilities and cards that help them achieve their goals in the game. The characters have opened the Roguebook, a chronicle of the events of the realm of Faeria, and thus been sucked into its pages.
These characters are some of the most well-developed and well-received characters from Abrakam's previous game Faeria. According to Steam's page on the game, Roguebook is a roguelike deck-builder RPG wherein players may play as any two of four characters.
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