Takara Cards

I have had a conflicted time with Takara Cards. I really enjoy the atmosphere and world the game sets up, and the mechanical foundations of the game are very solid. However, the game gets to be extremely repetitive extremely quickly. There is a distinct lack of enemy and encounter diversity, and it leads to the game feeling stale overtime. I would love to see some new enemy types and obstacles with different drawbacks / rewards. When I got to my act 2 boss and it was the same as the act 1 boss I basically lost all interest in the game. The node travel is fun, but the fact that you can visit every node on the map really drags out the travel segments. having to choose certain nodes and forgo others is a core strategic element for many rougelikes and its sorely lacking here imo. The UI while beautiful is also needlessly confusing, and while I definitely want to keep the flavor, I would appreciate more clarity in how elements are labeled in the UI. I think you definitely get used to it but it’s needlessly obtuse imo. The deckbuilding elements are kind of thin, there aren’t many cards with explicit synergies and the fact that you can’t upgrade cards (combined with the lack of enemy diversity) makes me feel like I’m not really progressing my deck in a meaningful way and instead am just filling it full of the best cards I can in every shop. Overall, really beautiful game with a really solid foundation for some very strategic gameplay, but I just don’t think it’s there yet.

Important note: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3441540/Takara_Cards_Academy/ There's a free "prologue" available (you probably know this type of demo by now) Stealth sequel to critically underappreciated "NEXT JUMP: Shmup Tactics" Both are turn-based Shmups, but while NJST was much more of an FTL-like with its fairly fixed stable of ship and equipment-defined moves, TC is [i]entirely[/i] card-based: Yes even the traditional Ship Equipment, available every turn, is served in the form of cards! The variety of available cards is fantastic and opportunities to refine your deck are plentiful. TC also features a "Card Search" mechanic which allows you to increase the likelihood of certain cards appearing for a small cost. The visual aesthetics are fantastic throughout, though I do wish the enemy drones had a bit more flare to their design.