Card Quest is a dungeon crawling adventure game with unique card combat. Play with a variety of unique character classes, and customize decks to fit your playstyle. Explore the strategic depth of tactical roguelike gameplay, and crush the undead plague.
Players do not build their deck from scratch in this game. Instead, the player's deck is determined by the equipment they choose for their character. Each piece of equipment, whether a weapon, armor, or accessory, comes with a preset set of cards that get added to the player's deck. This creates an interesting deckbuilding element where players must carefully choose their equipment to create a synergistic deck for their desired playstyle.
The core gameplay revolves around managing a limited hand of cards and using them to execute powerful combo chains. Many cards have additional effects if they are played immediately after another specific card. Players must carefully plan out their turns to maximize these chained effects and efficiently use their limited resources like stamina and energy. Different cards and abilities consume these resources in different ways, so players have to make tough choices about how to spend them each turn to set up devastating combos without overextending themselves.
The game features four distinct character classes, each with their own unique mechanics and deck-building strategies. Within each class, there are also multiple specialized subclasses that further diversify the potential playstyles. This allows for a high degree of replayability as players experiment with different class and equipment combinations.
While individual runs are roguelike in nature, with perma-death, the game features a persistent progression system. As players complete levels and encounters, they unlock new equipment, abilities, and other permanent upgrades for their characters. This allows players to gradually build up their power and overcome increasingly challenging content over multiple runs.
Many reviewers praise the game for its unforgiving but fair difficulty. It requires players to think several moves ahead, carefully manage their resources, and execute precise combos to overcome the various enemies and bosses. Mistakes are often punished harshly, but the satisfaction of overcoming a difficult challenge is very rewarding.