Arcana of Paradise —The Tower—

If you are someone who enjoys deck building battle games, then you would do well to keep an eye on upcoming SHUEISHA GAMES release, Arcana of Paradise —The Tower. It looks vey interesting indeed, bringing you the typical deck collecting fun that is so prevalent in modern roguelike games. What it does also bring to the table, though, is a cutesy atmosphere and a charming battle system that will have veterans and newbies alike interested.

A new take on the turn-based card battler

So, one thing to note about Arcana of Paradise —The Tower is that it very clearly takes its ideas from some of the industry legends.

If you have ever played Slay The Spire, you will feel right at home here. However, one thing to note about Arcana of Paradise —The Tower is that it doe have its own differences. You battle through a tower, yes, but you need to get used to intelligent timing on your guards, attacks, and your combinations. This opens up the chance for counter-attacks, increasing the damage of your ripostes.

As you work your way through the game, you will be given the chance to pick up all manner of relics. Your job is to guide the children protagonists down to the bottom. In total, there will be 20 kids to pick from as your main characters, each with their own quirks and issues.

What comes in an endearing art style, though, is a game that is packed with challenge and frustration.

A solid attempt at changing a proven genre loop (7.5/10)

While Arcana of Paradise —The Tower does a good job of building on the likes of what Slay the Spire popularised, there are some issues. For one, there is an inherent difficulty in here that can feel as unfair as something like Darkest Dungeon. As you progress, you will find that it gets a touch easier, but every new run has the potential to end very quickly through what feels most likely bad luck.

There is quite a lot to like about Arcana of Paradise —The Tower, though. It does a good job of taking a very popular gameplay style and building upon it to add something else. If the developers can tune the RNG elements a little more, this could easily be up there with other popular card battlers like Monster Train.

The Tower itself never actually ends, and each floor brings new challenges that you need to be ready for. With the fact that card battles are real-time as opposed to turn-based, too, there is a quicker pace and a greater challenge to Arcana of Paradise —The Tower than users might firs appreciate.

Pros

• Takes a proven formula and tries to improve upon it, with some interesting results
• Excellent level of detail in the characters, with each kid feeling quite distinctive
• Addictive gameplay loop that uses real-time battles to speed things up and add jeopardy

Cons

• Hard to tell how well the gameplay loop will age after your first few runs through here
• Interesting concept, but can feel a touch luck-based with runs ruined by luckless RNG