One More Door: We tried Ankama Studio’s new roguelike card game in Wakfu Legend

Ankama Studio He continues to expand the world of Wakfu, which started with the previous Dofus, with a new interpretation of this particular fantasy, a deck builder with roguelite elements as we see here, rejected by the rules of the card game. One More Gate: A Wakfu Legend essay. The setting and the story draw on the fantasy world of the team, which, by the way, has also become an animated series. The game in question is most inspired by this, with its minimalist and square style, but it can give characters, creatures, and scenarios a remarkable identity.

protagonist History He is the young warrior Orobo, accused of reassembling the broken runes of a portal he had destroyed through it. Our hero has to start himself from a quiet suburban village and go through various environments, fighting numerous enemies in turn-based card battles.

The hybridization between the card game, roguelike, and turn-based RPG is now quite well known, and One More Gate: A Wakfu Legend is limited to perfecting the features of this particular blend with some new additions, but it can offer a few interesting ideas. . The paradigm remains above all else, Slay the Spire, which can also be predicted just by looking at the evolution of the framing and levels, not to mention the basic structure. However, Ankama’s game manages to come out with its own personality, first of all, thanks to some variations that can significantly change the meticulous mechanism of this mixed genre and enrich it with seemingly marginal elements that manage to make a difference. The trial version we’re experiencing these days looked pretty promising even though it’s still early access, so let’s see why.

Cards and turns

main element Gameplay This is battle that takes place strictly in sequence and (like the rest of the game) framed in 2D, with the Orobo on the left and the enemies on the right of the screen. From a deck of up to 14 cards, each turn a hand consisting of 6 elements appearing below is removed, while on the enemies it is possible to see what their next move is, which allows us to examine our moves strategically. path. Cards are usually divided into offensive, defensive, and modifiers: the former are distinguished by different powers for the fact of hitting a single enemy or an entire group, and any additional effects applied, such as poison or stun. Defense cards create a barrier that allows you to absorb damage points before they are directly drawn into the hero’s energy, while modifiers have a variety of effects, from temporarily boosting other cards to lowering energy costs per turn, for example.

Compared to other classics of the genre such as Slay the Spire, the first element of distinction is given by the top bar that shows the progress of the battle: there are 6 frames and the last three are broadcast one after the other. Progress through the first three rounds until you reach the entire queue.

These boxes are usually related to the energy available to the player, which is filled according to the amount required by each card played, depending on the strength of it. After all six squares have been opened, if we manage to combine moves to fill them all fully (hence without exceeding energy consumption or, conversely, leaving slots out) “perfect”This allows you to unleash a particularly powerful move and can also upset the fate of the battle. This already represents a distinctive element of certain importance, plus part of the entire battle strategy is played out in this particular shot, so much so that once activated you have to start from the first stage with three final boxes to unlock it.

Level design and progression

There level structure and hero progression They follow the classic roguelite logic, have to face dungeons (4 of them appear in total, excluding later additions) with only one life. When his hitpoints reach zero, Orobo faints and finds himself relentlessly in the starting village; here he can buy new cards and upgrades or edit the deck to have the best possible deck within the limit of 14 portable cards. However, the progress is not completely lost, as the hero progresses on the same level as the accumulated experience points by increasing his life points and taking the tried deck of cards. It is therefore one of the standard and well-established roguelites that forces a return to immediate action, especially in this case, given the progression mechanic, the overall pace of the game, and the dynamism of the interface and card management.

levels dungeon It consists of a series of “rooms” (actually, these are mostly open scenarios) interconnected and often contain fights with standard enemies or bosses. Given the possibility of choosing the path in front of various intersections with hermetic symbols that herald what can be hidden in the next room, there is a minimum of freedom of choice in exploration. This also provides an additional element of strategy by examining the consequences of the path, as we can partially plan our path based on the situation we are in and the resources we may find along the way. By winning skirmishes we can obtain various types of runes to equip in four different slots to receive bonuses, but these are lost upon reaching defeat.

A world alive but in need of filling

It is clear how Ankama has been experienced so far by designers and graphic designers with varying experience in animation and media as well as video games. This is evident from graphic style For the cleanliness and consistency that distinguishes the feature in any element of the game, from the characters to the scenarios, it was adopted in One More Gate: A Wakfu Legend, which could easily switch to a Cartoon Network-style cartoon. All of the atmosphere is there, but the impression remains that the world of Wakfu is pretty empty here, and even an excessive amount of presence repetition. It’s true that fixed-loop gameplay and random generation of levels necessarily require repetition of the same graphic elements, but more variety would be welcome, even with regard to enemies.

There characterization it’s really great both in terms of graphics and sound accompaniment, but you need a little more variety and richness, even in purely quantitative terms, because the world of One More Gate: A Wakfu Legend looks very bare in that way. , obviously it’s still a starter version and therefore will likely be further enhanced in the coming months. On the other hand, cleanliness and graphic simplicity are particularly pleasant in terms of the interface and representation of cards, elements that are of great importance in this type of game, appearing with great clarity and providing the necessary information at first glance.