Deck of Ashes

by Aethyna Jul 4, 2020 | 1 Votes | 42 Played | 0 Reviews

10 rate

Genres:

RPG , Card

Graphics:

Labels:

Adventure , Roguelike/roguelite , Collectible Cards

Platforms:

Publishers:

Buka Entertainment Deck of Ashes doesn’t only offer unique gameplay to spice things up; the game has an extensive campaign, a storyline that’s made up of 4 individual backstories for each of the anti-heroes you get to play as, and doesn’t use common, and oftentimes, overused tropes-fueled plots. Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Community Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

In this day and age of Slay the Spire clones, Deck of Ashes doesn’t only offer a unique gameplay to spice things up; the game has an extensive campaign, a storyline that’s made up of 4 individual backstories for each of the anti-heroes you get to play as, and doesn’t use common, and oftentimes, overused tropes-fueled plots.

Plotline

The overarching plot here involves a gang of 5 adventurers called the Outcasts, who, due to greed, ventured to the Valley of Death in search of an artifact that grants its users unmatched power, the Ash Box. They encountered the owner of the Box at the peak of the Valley, Lady Death, but to their surprise, the Lady made them a deal – “Leave me be and you may have the Box”.

Unfortunately, none of the adventurers wanted to share the power and they dueled. The weakest of the group, aptly named the Weakling, took the Box while everyone’s busy fighting each other, but he couldn’t handle the surge of power that radiated from the Box. He dropped the Box and it broke into pieces. The Ashes contained in Box were released and they corrupted the world and every being in it, especially the Outcasts who were closest to the Box when it broke. Until the Curse is lifted, the world will forever be mired in evil and darkness.

The Ash Master is determined to be the one to save the world as he believes a vision gave him insight as to what to do. He decides to seek out and recruit each Outcast to help him in his endeavor.

As you may have expected, the game features 4 unique characters, each with their own paths to take. So essentially, you’ll need to play through the game 4 times in order to unlock the final ending.

Gameplay

Deck of Ashes is very similar to Slay the Spire in many ways. For starters, the game is set on a “region map” where you can move your character from node to node. Every move you make will cost you some time and time is very valuable here mainly because the boss of the region you’re in will actively seek you out after a day or so of wandering around. Getting found too early by the boss would usually go poorly for you since you probably wouldn’t yet have the means to defeat the boss. It’s all about getting as much time as possible to prepare for the final boss fight at the end.

Each node you move to will also allow you to gather certain resources at the cost of some time. These resources are crucial to the gameplay as they are the “currency” you’ll need to unlock and upgrade new passive perks at the base camp. Not all nodes are benign either. Some will trigger an event, which may be good or bad depending on your choices, while others are straight-up battles that you’ll need to win. Depending on the difficulty you’re playing at, if you die, you may lose everything and have to start over.

If you have enough keys, which you can get by defeating enemies, you can unlock chests to get some nice loot. There are also “caves” at certain points on the map that will bring you to an instance dungeon where you can attempt to take on the dungeon boss to get a ton more loot.

Fights in this game is fairly standard if you’re familiar with card-based RPGs. This includes having enough “mana” to play your cards or matching and playing certain cards together to trigger a powerful synergistic effect. However, there are some unique aspects that made Deck of Ashes so much more entertaining to play.

For instance, since the game is all about the Ashes from the Ash Box, every card you play will be sent to the Deck of Ashes. There are some cards that would benefit you if they are in your Deck of Ashes (like Ailments) while there are others that would do well to stay in your Battle Deck (most Non-Playable cards). There are also plenty of card mechanics that are interwoven into the gameplay such as the ability to immediately send a card from your hand to your Deck of Ashes without being played or being able to deal slightly more damage at the cost of losing a bit of health.

Once you ran out of cards in your Battle Deck, the game will then add the Ash Pact card to your hand which will allow you to randomly recover a certain number of cards from your Deck of Ashes to your Battle Deck. Since everything’s random, some cards that you hope would stay in your Deck of Ashes may be recovered, which is to your disadvantage.

Fights are also fun here because the enemies are all very well-designed and the AI isn’t a complete idiot. Some types of enemies have special resistances and passive abilities that you’ll do well to take note of during your first encounter with them. The AI also knows when to take advantage of certain situations so it’s best not to navigate yourself into a figurative dead-end. The boss fights are the most interesting of all mainly because bosses here usually will go through certain “phases”. Couple that with an unusually long health bar and special, hard-to-counter abilities, and you’ll get a battle that’s as teeth-grinding as it is challenging.

Like many card-based RPGs, deck-building is another important aspect of the game, allowing you to mold your deck to your liking. You can destroy cards that you no longer want, and upgrade the cards (not all cards can be upgraded though) that you want to keep. You can even get new cards whether via the Ash Cloud events or by purchasing them from the vendor and crafting them at the blacksmith. All of these actions require you to have enough specific currency or resources, so there’s a lot for you to strategize and think about even when you’re deciding whether or not to craft or destroy a card.

To help, Deck of Ashes also offers you some potions and items that you can use whenever you need to during combat. Although it is entirely possible to play the game without ever having to use any of these potions, they do come in handy in certain tough situations where a little extra heal or being able to negate the enemies’ high dodge-rate would tip the balance in your favor.

Community

Deck of Ashes is a single-player game but it does have everything it needs to offer a multiplayer mode as well. Maybe this is something that the developers will be adding into the game in the future either as a free update or a purchasable DLC.

Graphics/ Sound

The graphics in this game are both unique and amazing - Absolutely love the hand-drawn card art, the map and even the characters. The voice acting is also spot-on in this game, and the music and sound effects really bring out the atmosphere.

Conclusion

With a storyline and gameplay that are both intriguing and unique, Deck of Ashes is definitely a game worth buying and playing, especially if you enjoy Slay the Spire or any other card-based RPGs that offer quite a bit of challenge and are looking for something similar and yet different. There are multiple playthroughs that await you, each with its own unique character and storyline, all converging on what is the true ending of the game.

New Game Added: Deck of Ashes

by Aethyna Jul 4, 2020

Deck of Ashes doesn’t only offer unique gameplay to spice things up; the game has an extensive campaign, a storyline that’s made up of 4 individual backstories for each of the anti-heroes you get to play as, and doesn’t use common, and oftentimes, overused tropes-fueled plots.

by Aethyna Jun 10, 2020

Popular turn-based tactical battle card game releases its full version with a new campaign story and three new card archetypes, plus a boss design competition for players!