Jumping into Shuffle Tactics had me considering the genre as a whole. When you think of deckbuilding roguelikes that utilize branching map navigation between shops, minor encounters, and elite encounters, all culminating with a boss battle before moving onto another map, quite a few games come to mind. Honestly, ever since Slay the Spire came out back in 2017, it feels like a third of all games have aped that exact formula with some tweaks, to varied success. If you want Slay the Spire meets Peggle, there’s Peglin. For Slay the Spire meets Mega Man Battle Network, there’s One Step from Eden, and now, if you want Slay the Spire meets Final Fantasy Tactics, there’s Shuffle Tactics.
None of that should be taken as an insult, mind you. Shuffle Tactics takes some well-worn mechanics, shines them up, and executes them in fun and interesting ways. Each stage opens with a mess of dudes on a map, cut up into a grid, and some objective: kill all the dudes, take out the boss, things like... Read more