Placid Plastic Deck - A Quiet Quest

a short and cute inscryption really surprised but so happy with what the devs were able to do they did an amazing job, hopefully there are more games in this series

If you like Inscryption, you'll like the game. It's kind of like Act 3 with Act 2's artstyle but you can't make yourself nearly as overpowered so fights are always tense, but usually fair. A couple fights towards the end and in the optional challenge mode are a little too RNG dependent, there's nothing like the fair hand mechanic in Inscryption, unfortunately. Cards only move forward at the start of your placing turn instead of at the end, so if you play it exactly like Inscryption you might get frustrated, the game only mentions it once but you should always be playing mana the instant you get it so you can attack with ducks right away, the card game is much more fun once you know this. The main character has more personality than I expected from the trailer, you get a lot of funny and awkward dialogue options that aren't usually the "bad" choice. Choices do matter but they don't really lock you out of much besides just having different cards. The VS. Mode is essentially this game's version of Kaycee's mod, an even playing field only focused on a harder version the card game mechanic, unlocked only after beating the game once. It's supposed to unlock cards based on what you've gotten in the story, but because you only unlock it after beating the game, you have to replay the game to get most of them. That wasn't that annoying to me because the game is decently replayable, giving you an opportunity to pick the unpicked dialogue options and see ducks you didn't see the first time around, as well as having 4 different endings. It's a little short for the price, but I'd buy it on sale for sure if you liked all 3 acts of Inscryption.

This is the first game I've played where I genuinely hated the experience. I struggled to find anything about it that I enjoyed, and unfortunately the card game is the biggest reason why. I wouldn't consider myself bad at strategy games, so maybe there are things about the card system that I'm missing, but I could never get any real synergy going in my deck. It constantly felt like I was just throwing together a bunch of random cards rather than actually building toward something. With only 20 cards and such a limited variety, every match started feeling very similar, and I never felt like I had much control over how my deck developed. The lack of duplicates especially made it difficult to build anything that felt consistent. Modifying cards is a decent idea, but it can also feel like you're being punished for experimenting. I used the modifications when I got them, only to later find better options, with no way to undo or change the choices I'd already made. That made experimenting feel less rewarding and more like a permanent mistake waiting to happen. The normal fights were okay, but they never felt rewarding. Too much of the outcome seemed dependent on RNG. When I won, I often didn't feel like I'd outplayed the enemy, and when I lost, I didn't feel like there was much I could have done differently. The 2 lanes instead of like summoning sickness has some strategy but if i fundamentally cannot build a deck i like it's moot to me. Then there's the final boss. I spent around 50 attempts on this fight and never legitimately beat it. At that point I wasn't having fun or feeling challenged—I was just repeatedly throwing myself at the same wall and hoping the RNG would finally cooperate. The final boss was what pushed the experience from "not really enjoying this" into actively hating my time with the game. I also hate how your opponents don't play by the same rules you have to follow, it feels like you are the underdog but not in a good way. You constantly feel cheated. The dialogue was decent for the most part, although I could have done without the brainrot humor part. Maybe there's a deeper strategy to the card system that I never figured out, and if so, that's fair. But after playing it for myself, I never reached the point where I felt like I was making meaningful strategic decisions or building a deck I was actually excited to use. This one just wasn't for me and perhaps a lot of you. Bought it at a discount below 5 euro's and still want my money back...