Mahokenshi is a hex-based techniques deckbuilding recreation — with out decks

Builders appear to be keen to use deckbuilding mechanics to each style and setting as of late. At first, this appeared slightly faddish, however as designers chill out into it, some fascinating, considerate hybrids are rising.

One such instance is Mahokenshi (out now on Steam), a techniques recreation set in a world of Japanese-style folklore from French studio Sport Supply. It’s not that Mahokenshi does something revolutionary with its card recreation parts, however the care with which the developer has built-in deckbuilding into each component of the sport — not simply fight, however exploration and adventuring, too — may be very pleasing.

It’s not value spending an excessive amount of time on the setting. You management magic-wielding samurai from 4 elemental colleges as they battle cultists and goblins throughout some mystical islands. There’s some good paintings, particularly on the cardboard illustrations, and the miniaturized maps of temples, forests, and little warring figures have a bonsai-like high quality. However, coming because it does from a Western studio, it smacks slightly of a sort of reverential however generalized Orientalism that’s falling out of favor. There’s nothing offensive right here — only a obscure, borrowed mysticism that doesn’t appear deeply related to the sport itself.

As a techniques recreation, Mahokenshi is comparatively light-weight, however enjoyable. Missions play out on hex-based maps the place you direct your samurai to discover and battle. You spend the card-game staple of power when shifting or taking part in playing cards, and it’s fastened (to start with, you have got 4 power per flip) reasonably than constructing over time, though there are methods to extend it later within the recreation. Tiles have totally different properties — standing in a forest boosts your protection, whereas mountains improve assault ranking — and in addition comprise chests of gold, new playing cards so as to add to your hand, and places like villages, dojo, and castles, the place you may enhance your playing cards or your character in varied methods. As a result of every part is dependent upon power, you’re all the time balancing the rewards of exploration towards protection and engagement, normally with one eye on a flip restrict for the mission. It’s strong risk-reward design. A number of the cleverest card designs entwine all the sport’s techniques directly, combining motion with assault or protection abilities in ideas like Fly or Cost.

Picture: Sport Supply Studio/Iceberg Interactive

As a card recreation, Mahokenshi has a twist, in that it’s not likely a deckbuilder in the long term. Each mission resets your deck to a couple primary starter playing cards, and you’ll want to construct a brand new deck on the fly by means of exploration and shopping for playing cards from villages. That is fairly refreshing, in a means — it means Mahokenshi is a recreation of improvisation and considering on the fly, reasonably than theorycrafting your strategy to an ideal construct. It makes the sport fairly quick and approachable within the early levels, too.

But it surely additionally basically doubles the affect of randomness on the end result of your mission. Not solely is the order you draw your playing cards every flip all the way down to likelihood, however so, to a substantial diploma, is the choice of playing cards you’ll have to attract from. As missions get more durable, this generally is a downside. Some would possibly discover Mahokenshi too capricious in consequence, however it definitely retains the sport each fascinating and light-weight on its toes.

As deckbuilding burrows deeper into each nook of online game design, it’s popping up in ever extra assorted locations and getting bent into ever extra fascinating shapes. As amalgamations go, Mahokenshi is a refreshing one to construct on.