Roguebook (PC) Review

Reviewing something like RogueBook this is always a tough one, because it is clear time, effort and heart went into it, yet it fundamentally lacks simple basics, like not crashing from normal gameplay. Taking place in the same world as the previous game by the developer, Faeria, it tells the story of a few characters trapped in a book who are trying to escape. Part of it takes place on an overworld where someone's inner artist is unleashed through an addicting 'paint' system to the map. Most of the level starts hidden, and players get a very limited number of paintbrushes and inks that are used to reveal a few tiles. These open up pathways to treasure, gold, fights, cards, and so on. There is never enough to go around, and it's a fun part trying to best maximize where to go.

Eventually, players are drawn into a fight that is a turn-based card battle. On your turn you generally do two things: throw down attacks, or build up 'block' which is defence. The enemies partly telegraph what they are going to do, making it an element of planning, such as making sure there is enough block to nullify the damage, and preparing some attacks back at the enemy. The cards come from a basic starting deck, some randomly found cards, and cards that are bought throughout the scope of the map. It is interesting seeing how the decks come together, but the biggest criticism might be how random it ends up being. Sometimes the right cards come down, and other times the deck is just bloated and useless.

What really stops this from being enjoyable, though, are some serious balance problems, and how outright buggy it gets not that late into it. Starting in the second world, certain enemies are insanely overpowered with various types of moves or stats that clearly were not tested for balance much. One egregious example was some 'yak war wagon' that every turn summons 1-2 creatures that take most of the turn just to kill, meanwhile every turn building up more and more damage - eventually one-hitting the characters. This was a regular enemy, whereas even the world's bosses were easier. It just felt very untested and unpolished.

Regrettably, starting from the second world as well, the bugs are very, very prevalent. In the scope of only a few hours (most of the that time was recovering) there were probably over ten complete freezes and crashes. A single time might be forgivable, but it is just clear the game has way too many bugs to be ready for release at this point. It is sad, as it is actually addicting, and largely a fun time. It embitters players very rapidly, though, when they can't even play the game for how often they are sent back to the desktop with a crash report staring at them.