Arcana of Paradise - The Tower Nintendo Switch Review 6.5/10 “A game full of charm that just needs more variety” 🗼 @TheTowerEN #IndieGames #GameDev

I picked this game purely on the strength of its trailer and the interesting concept. Several children suffering from amnesia are stuck on top of a gargantuan tower, the top of the tower is in ruin and the kids are barely surviving, but in their minds lies a thought that if they can reach the bottom of the tower and escape - they will enter paradise. It’s an interesting set-up, so I was eager to play, I then learned it was a roguelike deck-builder, which are two words I understand but have never seen together, so I was excited to dive in.

Right out of the gate, Arcana of Paradise has a very ethereal feel thanks to its wonderful art style and gorgeous music. You feel you are in a strange - almost dreamlike - world, the combination of both really paints a vivid picture, and I was sucked into its vision very quickly. 

You start off atop the tower with a handful of children who are about to come into their roles, which are either swordsman, mage, or diviner. Each role has a starting set of cards related to the job that they are given, once each child has been given their job, they can now enter the tower - max of two at a time - with two goals, either reaching the bottom or going to find bread, every day the children consume bread to survive so you have to find enough bread to sustain the camp.

Luckily, bread is easy to find but it does mean entering the tower multiple times. As you go through the tower you will encounter various enemies, bosses, and encounters. Enemies and bosses will need to be battled, whilst encounters need a specific card to be used to advance, such a torch to melt ice or start a campfire, a sword to cut through objects etc. it’s a good little distraction from the battling and you can get decent rewards from doing them.

Now the main crux of the game is the card battling, and after doing a bit of research I’ve come to understand the fact that the battles take place in real-time is a change for the genre, it creates a weird parallel where it causes you to speed up, but also as you need to block enemy attacks you must slow down to make sure that you guard. Cards range from the typical attack, defence, and magic - you have the option to chain together cards or discard your hand quickly to find the cards that you need, it does take time to get used to but when you learn the system it creates interesting battles. As you progress through the tower you boost your tower level which adds new cards to your deck that you can then shuffle into your hand. As you progress, you will find what cards work for you and will largely rely on them. 

Bread is the currency of the game, whilst also feeding the children it can also be used as a tribute to a magic tree which grants you wishes that can repair some of the damaged equipment at the top of the tower, things like an oven to produce daily bread or a war statue that blesses your adventure. You have to decide what you need vs how much bread you are willing to give up.

Sadly, the flaw that runs through the game is constant repetition - card and job variety are lacking, you meet the same enemies and bosses in the multiple runs, and the same encounters happen. It gets very monotonous very quickly which is a real shame as so many positives are undermined by a lack of variety throughout.

Summary

My passion for Arcana of Paradise - The Tower did wane the longer I played it, its lack of variety through runs dulls some of the shine, but with wonderful design and sound creating an ethereal atmosphere and a change to the standard roguelike deck-builder genre, some may find it worth filling up on bread and trying to descend the tower to Paradise.