it took me a while to figure out why i initially put down dungeon drafters, picked it back up, then put it back down again.

at its core, i don't think it's a bad game. there's a decent amount of ideas - supplementing grid-based movement with insanely customizable abilities? that's really cool!

unfortunately that's not why i play mystery dungeon games. i play those games to have an *actual* dungeon crawling experience. that includes getting screwed over by traps, wandering floors to find the exit, proper item and loadout management, and so on. to an extent, dungeon drafters does feature some of that - the deckbuilding, trinkets and runes - but any and all crawling is non-existent.

dungeons exist, you do "explore" them, but you go from box to box. you know what is ahead. you will have a vague idea of what the game is on the brink of throwing at you. and that's not, personally, what i want out of a dungeon "crawler". you could effectively replace the room-by-room navigation with a simple slay the spire progress path and it would not change how you approach the game.

there's also a lack of direction. another thing i like about dungeon crawlers. let's try progressing a floor! maybe try a new dungeon. dungeon drafters just throws you 5 dungeons and expects you to maybe figure it out. which you will probably end up doing after trial and error i guess? not my favorite way of designing a game but shrug i can chalk that up to personal preference.

somewhat more nitpicky but the cardbuilding UI isn't fun to use with a controller. i could think of several ways to make it better but as it stands it's kind of tricky and unpleasant to use.

i suppose this isn't "this game is bad" thumbs down but "the game tries to punch above what it actually is and doesn't succeed". there is something to like here. the game is insanely charming, pleasant aesthetically, it has good ideas, it just fails to merge its ideas together satisfyingly, and ultimately just is not for me.

it took me a while to figure out why i initially put down dungeon drafters, picked it back up, then put it back down again. at its core, i don't think it's a bad game. there's a decent amount of ideas - supplementing grid-based movement with insanely customizable abilities? that's really cool! unfortunately that's not why i play mystery dungeon games. i play those games to have an *actual* dungeon crawling experience. that includes getting screwed over by traps, wandering floors to find the exit, proper item and loadout management, and so on. to an extent, dungeon drafters does feature some of that - the deckbuilding, trinkets and runes - but any and all crawling is non-existent. dungeons exist, you do "explore" them, but you go from box to box. you know what is ahead. you will have a vague idea of what the game is on the brink of throwing at you. and that's not, personally, what i want out of a dungeon "crawler". you could effectively replace the room-by-room navigation with a simple slay the spire progress path and it would not change how you approach the game. there's also a lack of direction. another thing i like about dungeon crawlers. let's try progressing a floor! maybe try a new dungeon. dungeon drafters just throws you 5 dungeons and expects you to maybe figure it out. which you will probably end up doing after trial and error i guess? not my favorite way of designing a game but shrug i can chalk that up to personal preference. somewhat more nitpicky but the cardbuilding UI isn't fun to use with a controller. i could think of several ways to make it better but as it stands it's kind of tricky and unpleasant to use. i suppose this isn't "this game is bad" thumbs down but "the game tries to punch above what it actually is and doesn't succeed". there is something to like here. the game is insanely charming, pleasant aesthetically, it has good ideas, it just fails to merge its ideas together satisfyingly, and ultimately just is not for me.