Phantom Rose

• Genre: Roguelike Deckbuilder
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: 10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's appropriate for what it offers.
• Soundtrack: It's only a few tracks, but they're really good and help set the mood.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pleased.
• Why I played: I had seen this on mobile years ago and played a little but dropped it when I dropped all mobile games. Thankfully they released a Steam version sans microtransations.
• Did I cry: No.
• Recommend to others: I like it and I like the aesthetic, but there isn't much to recommend it over the more popular examples of Slay the Spire and other bigger games it's inspired. So I'd only recommend it to people whom the aesthetic really appeals to.

Having already starting diving into the second, I can already say that despite some of my preferences for it visually, Phantom Rose is more of a proof of concept or prototype for it's successor that looks like it might offer a good bit more. It's fun and engaging, and for me is just the right level of challenge. Not so hard it's frustrating, but I really need to optimize my moves to come out on top, and when I do I feel like I succeeded.

Though, once you get further in the game, I'm really only talking about the last leg of each run. Eventually the first two sections(of three) start to feel too easy and it ends up just kind of being a chore to get through them. That or because you haven't yet built up enough of a deck, resetting to the standard strategies feels dull.

Regardless, at it's best it's pretty fun, and I liked seeing more of the characters and art, so no real complaints.