I love deckbuilders, however I do not love this game.

First off the performance is all over the place. I'm playing with a 4070 super and Intel 13700kf and I get all sorts of performance drops. This is nothing new as it would also occur on my older rig. Randomly when walking around it appears that the game will go into slow motion. I've also played it on the Steam Deck and you'll be lucky to maintain 30 fps. Another issue on the deck is that the cards are so big that they block the enemy's information half of the time, which is very annoying.

Gameplay-wise it's a decent deck builder but just comes off as extremely bland to me. Blocking works differently than most other games in this genre where it will block a full attack regardless of the damage dealt. Within 2 or 3 battles you'll be getting 5 attacks thrown at you at once with limited ability to block.

To give this game a fair review I would probably have to put in several more hours, but that is one of the problems... I can't bring myself to do it. This is at least the 3rd time where I've tried to get into it but just can't. I'll be shelving it for a 3rd and probably final time.

It was my first rogue deck builder game and now I'm hooked! So much fun to play. The difficulty is fair and well balanced. You've got this great story that make each run interesting. A lot of replayability with 9 classes.

The only drawback: if you value your hours of sleep, this game may be a problem :-)

Tainted Grail may not be from a big name developer or publisher but it is an excellent title. Awesome gameplay, great art style and some pretty decent voice acting. The various little stories and characters you experience and meet throughout the game really make the world come alive. Every action counts, make some lazy or poor choices during an easy battle could make things harder for you later on as your health and items are persistent. So its best not to waste your HP or items and really think each move through and be as efficient as possible. Apart from cards, there are tons of skills and abilities for your character. The mechanics in this game are amazing. I really hope the devs follow this up with a sequel thats bigger, better and offers more character customization. However, as it stands, this is a must play for turn based strategy or deck building card game fans.