Roguebook is a roguelike deck-building game where you explore a book.

Does this paint something new into the genre or does it have flaws you need to brush off?

Craft your cards, assemble the perfect deck and defeat the Roguebook itself… or die trying.

Roguebook Game Play

This is a live stream of my first game of Roguebook. It includes the tutorial so if you want to know how to play the game, I’ll show you.

Theme

It’s fantasy with a unique take on it’s own world and that’s a good thing.

The fact that you’re in a book in a shop is cool but I have no idea why you’re there. But the story here (Which I don’t fully understand) is cool. The use of brushes and ink add to this world and you know what? I like it.

Visuals

This all looks very nice with it’s bright and colourful look and smooth animations.

The characters are weird and wonderful and look great. The map is really nice and you can easily see where you need to go… Except I’m not sure how to scroll the map? Not even sure you can. But what you can see does look good and makes you want to have a look around.

UI & Ease of Play

Everything is clear which is good because these games need to help you know very quickly what the monsters are going to do to help you make your own choices. You need to know how much defence you’ll need or if you can risk attacking or not so I’m glad the game does it well.

The “tutorial” is odd… It teaches you things but seemingly not everything. If I hadn’t played Slay the Spire before I would have had issues once combat started. It does teach the things outside of combat well though so there is that.

Roguebook Summary

Positives

A nice unique theme and overall good look.

Choosing two characters gives you plenty of options for gameplay allowing for combinations in the vein of Monster Train.

Also, having to use your skills to rotate which character is at the front, therefore taking damage, is a nice technique you can use to your advantage.

Resurrecting a character is is actually quite fun having to play cards to get them back up.

The map exploration outside of combat gives the game something different over similar games….

Negatives

…but it does slow the game down in-between combat.

The combat is VERY similar to Slay the Spire, maybe a little too similar.

Summary

Overall this is a very good game and one I do want to spend my time playing. A good thing about these types of games is you can play them on mute while watching TV on the other monitor. So, with that in mind, I look forward to pushing through, unlocking new characters, trying new strategies and combinations and maybe even winning?

Jesta ThaRogue