14 DAY TRIAL // 
Arcana of Paradise – The Tower takes the roguelike deckbuilding formula and adds a few twists of its own that are supposed to make it stand out. It’s also one of the few that bets on narrative, despite the fact that games like this are very light on the story.
The premise is both interesting and weird at the same time. A group of children is stuck at the top of a 13-story tower, and they have to descend at its base where Paradise awaits. Although Paradise is usually associated with heaven, the developers have decided to switch things around for a bit. And this is not the only thing that, ironically or not, has been turned upside down.
The game has a total of 20 children available to recruit, but you’ll only meet 10 of them during a playthrough. You start with just a few children at the top of the tower and as you descend into the bowels of the tower, you’ll meet more and add them to your army.
Each day that you spend in the Tower requires food for your children. Luckily, the Tower also provides since every descend into the lower levels you can choose to either explore or specifically gather food. In this case, everything requires bread. The several broken buildings on the top of the Tower can be rebuilt using bread, and each of the children eats one piece of bread per day.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of bread available in the Tower, so that will be the least of your worries. Your team adventuring into the Tower always consists of two children. With three classes available to play with – Swordsman, Mage, and Diviner, there’s not too much variation and things will become repetitive pretty fast.
Children have their own “deck” of four cards, but only three are available until you reach a certain level. They also learn new perks as they level up, which can be re-rolled using bread. The character progression is confusing and not as interesting as I had expected from such a game.
Typically, you’ll be taking with you’re a Swordsman and a Mage for your entire playthrough. The Diviner class is unlocked later on, but it’s weaker and less appealing than the other two. The only twists to the typical roguelike deckbuilding formula are related to combat.
In Arcana of Paradise – The Tower, combat happens in real-time, so you have to react fast to the enemy’s plays. In addition to that, many cards can be played upside down to different effects. Some cards cause damage to the enemy when played right-side up, but when played upside down they will offer you some defense against enemy attacks.
The number of cards is pretty limited and the enemy variation leaves to be desired. Even with the non-combat encounters that either reward you with food or items that give you passive bonuses, the entire gameplay loop becomes repetitive pretty fast.
These non-combat events play like puzzles where you must use a certain card. Usually, solutions are pretty straightforward, but those that aren’t, don’t really make any sense, so feel free to experiment if the most obvious answer isn’t the solution to the puzzle.
You can choose to return to the top of the Tower at any time during your run by using a certain card. It prevents players from losing children in combat and makes a game easier for those who don’t have trained reflexes.
I feel like real-time combat isn’t a good fit for this genre. Having to quickly play your cards and keep your eyes on the opponent’s moves to counter any attacks makes the experience a bit unfun. On the other hand, if you get a shield up just before the enemy’s attack, you stun them briefly. The fact that there’s no text on the cards doesn’t help either when you have to play them fast. That wouldn’t be a problem if the cards wouldn’t have a different effect when played upside down.
After each encounter you are rewarded with cards for the two children or bread. However, cards variation leaves to be desired, so the only viable strategy is to chain as many similar cards as possible for the highest effect. It’s not a bad strategy, but it’s the only one viable in Arcana of Paradise – The Tower.
What saves the gameplay experience is the soundtrack and the art style, which are absolutely gorgeous. It makes every run a bit more interesting and enjoyable, but there’s so much presentation can do for a roguelike deckbuilder that’s missing falls short of expectations.
The Good
- Gorgeous art style and soundtrack
- Innovative twists on the traditional formula
- Compelling premise
The Bad
- Needs more enemy and card variation
- Uninteresting character progression
- Real-time combat is a mixed bag
Conclusion
Overall, this is a decent game that needs a bit more variation when it comes to cards and enemies. Character progression is another aspect that needs more work too because right now it’s quite uninteresting.
Although the premise is interesting, it remains completely unexplored. Even if these types of games don’t usually go in-depth into story, Arcana of Paradise – The Tower is one of the titles that totally qualify for one of the exceptions. I also would have liked to see more playable classes. Having 10 children to choose from and only three classes to play with doesn’t look too good.
Review key was provided by the publisher.
