I’m not exactly looking for new games to play right now, but as a fan of other roguelite deckbuilders such as Slay the Spire and the upcoming Griftlands, I do keep an eye out for new experiences in the genre.
Monster Train, another roguelite deckbuilder, recently released on Steam and generated some great buzz, bringing it to my attention. I picked it up and played it some, but it didn’t really dig its hooks into me the way I’d hoped it would. While reading through some discussion on Monster Train, a user mentioned a similar game called Gordian Quest, a game that somehow flew under my radar. Not expecting much, I searched it out on Steam and found what looked to be a surprisingly polished game with great art and more of an RPG approach along the lines of Griftlands, a favorite game in the genre that I’ve written about a couple of times and follow closely.
Gordian Quest draws clear inspiration from a number of different games and genres, but manages to combine them pretty well. At its core, Gordian Quest is a party based RPG with the mechanics of a roguelite deckbuilder serving as its foundation. That said, there are elements of games ranging from Slay the Spire, to Darkest Dungeon, to Diablo, to Final Fantasy X all present within the game.
New cards are acquired in two ways. The primary method being the purchase of nodes along a Final Fantasy X style grid. Each hero has three different specializations and cards to go with those specializations, but you can mix and match cards to build whatever sort of deck you like. Cards are also tied to pieces of gear, which is where the game’s ARPG DNA shows. All heroes can be equipped with full sets of gear and each piece adds a card to your deck while it’s equipped. A wand for your wizard may add a single copy of Magic Missile to your deck, for example. This could prove ideal for a character built around exploiting the Magic Missile related passive card that double casts the spell each time it’s played.
There’s a bit of tension with this particular system since these deckbuilder games often encourage putting together efficient decks which focus on a specific playstyle or theme. It’s possible to find pieces of gear you’d like to equip for their stats or bonuses, but don’t necessarily want the attached cards to clutter up your deck. It’s my understanding that the developer is looking at ways to allow players to decouple cards from some items, but this isn’t a feature just yet.
Typical roguelite trappings such as events and traps are found all throughout the game and individual party members can often perform a skill check using cards in their decks for additional bonuses towards the roll. Succeed and the party member gets a bounty of experience and a positive outcome from the event. This exhausts the card until the party rests or a consumable potion is used. Failure results in taking damage and a negative outcome, but failure can sometimes be avoiding by utilizing the game’s Fate system.
Fate points can be earned in various ways and these points can be used to reroll results in the game ranging from failed skill checks to card draws when unlocking nodes on the skill grid. Often, you’re given the choice of denying yourself potential loot in exchange for Fate points, which feels pretty great as it forces you to decide between short term and long term rewards.
Like Griftlands, Gordian Quest is a huge step up when it comes to combat. Attacks have great animations and sound effects and the ability to field a party is more interesting to me than focusing on a single character. It’s super addictive and there are plenty of encounters to grind on if you choose.
Some of the gear, particularly the Unique (Legendary) gear does an OK job at creating the sort of interesting build supporting items you’d find as Artifacts in Slay the Spire, but it’s not quite there yet. There’s definitely a lot of opportunity there to iterate and make these items more impactful, but they’re not terrible.
Characters can earn Renown throughout a campaign unlocking up to six Renown points that can be spent at the start of a new run to give you a boost. This isn’t a unique feature by any means, but it’s nice to have. I do feel the options on the table could use some work, though. Many of them don’t feel impactful enough and the choices become pretty obvious once you’ve played through a couple of runs.
Currently, only one Act out of a planned four are available in Early Access, but that single Act is quite meaty so there’s plenty to do and plenty of cards to collect. Right now I’m attempting a solo Druid run using her pet build to replace my party members. It’s pretty tough, but you get a lot more experience for rolling solo so it’s an interesting challenge. Between Griftlands and now Gordion Quest, it’s a great time to be a fan of roguelite deckbuilders and I’m glad I was able to find the game when I did. If you’re at all interested in these sorts of games, I highly recommend checking it out.
