Shattered Heaven – A New Dark Fantasy Roguelike Deckbuilder
Enter the mysterious world of Shattered Heaven, a new roguelike deckbuilder game that will test your strategic skills in a dark fantasy realm
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Enter the mysterious world of Shattered Heaven, a new roguelike deckbuilder game that will test your strategic skills in a dark fantasy realm
After getting my hands on the Shattered Heaven demo, I need to share my first experience with the game! Shattered Heaven is a dungeon crawler with rpg elements tied into a unique card system. In other words, it’s a dark fantasy roguelike deckbuilder with similarities between Slay the Spire and Monster Train. The game challenges players to build synergy between each character’s deck of cards to be used against the wicked creatures of the wasteland.
Four factions are forced to fight for survival. Victims of a terrible curse that condemns them to sleepless nights, infertility, and death at the age of 40. The only way to break the curse is to offer a Vestal and a team of valiant warriors in the War of Rise, a bloody and cruel battle. Shattered Heaven’s narrative will be shaped by the player’s choices, influencing the destiny of the characters and the world.
We play as a trio party from Ashram, one of the four factions in the Shattered Heaven universe. Andora is the main protagonist, Vestal of the Ashram tribe, and a stalwart warrior. Androa’s cards synergize with redrawing cards and attacking. Magni is the loyal guardian and protector of Andora. Magni’s cards revolve around armor and protecting his comrades. Ishana is a hermit of the tribe who has an inner demon that thirsts for blood. Ishana’s cards deal with buffs, debuffs, and hitting all enemies.
Andora, Magni, and Ishana have branching skill trees that separate into three distinct paths. These form an offensive path, defensive path, and utility path for all three characters. This opens up a variety of options for passive skills and active abilities. Since Shattered Heaven allows to equip up to three active skills per party member, there is a lot of freedom to formulate a strategy with your cards. On top of the skill trees, the party members each have their own innate skill which reflect during combat.
As I delved into Shattered Heaven’s dungeons, my party encountered several events. We stopped for story dialogue, battled demons, found forbidden fruit, and destroyed butterflies. I’m sorry, I know that sounds terrible. If it makes you feel better, I was inflicted with a heavy debuff for a few turns. More events that appear in the dungeons are trap rooms, treasure rooms, and merchant rooms. Like other roguelike deckbuilders and dungeon crawlers, there are campfire rooms to rest and re-energize the party. You can remove cards from your deck at these locations as well.
Shattered Heaven features a crafting system where players can use treasures and recipes found in dungeons to create and upgrade potions, weapons, and amulets. Before setting out, players will see floor effects that change how difficult gameplay will be in each dungeon. You can go further and select more hindrances in exchange for black bones (rare game currency) to improve characters at the Dark Forge.
The dark fantasy graphic style of Shattered Heaven is what makes this roguelike deckbuilder amusing. I specifically love when a character rolls a critical hit (screenshot below). A unique splash of card art flashes on the screen along with their iconic voice line and it’s SO GOOD! The soundtrack is also too damn good. They went all out and even featured opera singers! I was nodding my head in approval during my livestream. I’m getting really good vibes so far! Are you thirsty for more roguelike indie games? Click this link to learn more about an awesome fantasy roguelike survival game, Spirit Hunters Infinite Horde!