Dawncaster is an amazing deckbuilding roguelike where you fight monsters and build your character using a ton of different cards, powers and strategies. It’s the kind of game that really sucked me in and I would still be playing it right now if I didn’t feel like I had to try other games constantly. I had a great time with it and the sheer amount of content to unlock and ideas to test out makes the purchase completely worth it. Being a premium title, there are no ads or annoying microtransactions as well, another great plus in my book!
Each run starts by picking up a class, you have a few options and they all have their playstyles, related cards and weapons that you can unlock by leveling them up through gameplay. The core of the game is simple but addictive - you got through a deck of ‘location’ cards, picking fights, finding treasures, interacting with NPCs all until you get to the end of that deck where you’ll have to fight a boss. Locations can have effects that will strongly encourage you to go quickly and find the boss while others will need you to be more methodical.
Combats make you play cards using energy you get based on your class, each of them with their own gimmicks and special strategies. The mage class will have freezing, burning and chaining effects, with cards giving you “focus” that help you draw more cards, the fighter class will deal more damage if they have been damaged previous turn, rogues have poison and bleed effects, and so on. As a deckbuilder, it can get frustrating sometimes that the rewards you are offered for defeating enemies do not match at all the kind of build you wanted to try that run, so you either have to improvise or cut your losses and restart, but I feel like this is a difficult thing to avoid in such a game.
Besides fighting, there’s a light story to go through, you also meet some NPCs that can either upgrade your weapons, sell you new cards or transform them, you’ll also find mysterious shrines and decisions to make from time to time and their result aren’t clear, so you’re not always sure what you’re doing (which can be weird when you’re actively transforming cards from your deck) and there is no way to back down once you’ve decided you’re going to use a mysterious shrine. But this is just a small part of the game and thinking about cards that combo well with each other, with your class talents and other passive abilities you might have makes up for it.
I had a great time with Dawncaster! The core loop is very enjoyable and even in defeat you see some new strategies that you want to try out during another run. There is a ton to do and it works pretty well on mobile, so if you enjoy card games or even RPGs in general, I recommend this one wholeheartedly!
