NEOVERSE – Review

Written by Aiori

Reviews
NeoverseHeader

From the Korean study Tinogamez comes Neoverse, an entertaining deck-building rogue-like game without a told story, but with very interesting mechanics.

Introduction

This game is settled on 3 different eras: the Ancient and Classic Greece, the Middle Ages, with some Lord of the Rings tweaks and a Dystopian Cyberpunk Future. Each era has a protagonist, Helena the Summoner, Claire the Paladin, and Naya the Agent. Each one starts on their respective eras, and then they travel to the others. The girls’ design is great and you can unlock new skins playing (apart from a couple of DLC). Also, you can buy and equip some accessories at the start of a run, and they will be visible when they are equipped.

All girls have their own deck and the game proposes you 4 varieties when you start a new run. One deck is offensive-oriented, the other one is defensive-oriented, then you can select a hybrid between these two and a daily deck, which propose different combinations every day. Also, after several runs, you will unlock new cards for their decks.

Naya is one of the 3 playable characters. The equipped accessories, as the wings, will be visible

Playing cards with different strategies

The girls have their own styles:

  • Naya has a specialized deck based on cause the Radioactivity ailment, which deal damage after every turn, independent of the enemy’s shield. Her other deck is based on deal area damage to the enemies.
  • Claire has a specialized deck based on dealing damage and healing with her attacks (the Vampire one, very recommendable for start). The other consists on receive Faith to receive special strong cards (each 5 faith points a new card appears), which gives you shield, health, or they deal big damage to the enemies. (At this moment, her decks are my favorite xD)
  • Helena‘s decks consist of summoning 3 different creatures, a white lion, which deals decent individual damage, a red dragoon, which deals few area damages, or a griffon, which gives her shields. You play cards that gives you command, and your creatures will attack each time you play determined cards or after a turn if you have command. The difference, in this case, is that her offensive deck is more focused on the lion and the dragoon and the defensive one on the griffon.

Combat dynamics

The combat system is turn-based, you will receive 5 cards of your deck and each one has a mana cost. You will have 5 mana per turn to spend, but it can vary because of some enemy skills or some cards. The cards are ranked from 1 to 3 stars, is the best the ones with 3 stars. There are several card types, each of a color:

  • The attack cards are red, they are offensive skills to damage the enemies.
  • The defense cards are blue, they give you a shield, which protects you from enemy damage. When your shield is finished the damage will affect your health points (HP)
  • The instant cards are purple, when you use them you activate an action, like inflict the radioactivity ailment to the enemies or generate 5 cards and choose 1 for your hand, among others (There are tons of different actions on these cards)
  • The constant cards are yellow, when you use it you activate a passive ability, like generate a determined type of card at the beginning of the turn or damage an enemy when you use a card that consumes 2 mana, among others (There are tons of different actions on these cards too)

The enemies will attack you, will upgrade their shields, or they can inflict you some ailments, even introduce some hindrance cards on your deck, cards with annoying effects like blocking your defense cards or hitting you at the end of the turn if you do not get rid of them, using part of your mana. There is a nice variety of enemies, and they are thematic of one of the 3 eras, for example, you will fight against Ares and Theseus in Classic Greece.

You can trigger a Parry or a Precision if you meet the conditions. A parry occurs when your shield is the exact number of your enemy attack, then when it hits you, it will be stunned for the next turn. The precision occurs when you kill an enemy with the exact remaining life. For example, if your enemy has 3 remaining HP and your attack deals 3 damage, a precision will trigger, giving you extra money. Also, you can trigger a combo, if you use some cards in a determined order (for example, a red one, a blue one, then a red card again) you will get some bonus, like extra damage for the next attack. The required combo is indicated on the battle screen, above the mana.

Nice parry, the best part is that it was a boss. Claire rules!

During your runs you will have access to the data store, where you can buy cards, items to use in combat or skill gems, gems required to acquire new skills on the skill panel, a panel which can vary from run to run. If you get all the skills of a row or a column you will unlock a legendary skill, which is very useful, as their name implies.

Finally, before every combat, you can select a mission, which asks you a specific target, like win a battle in less than 5 turns or use 20 cards in a battle, among others, and if you accomplish it, you will obtain a reward, like extra health, evolve a card or an item, for example.

The beauty against the beast

Neoverse modes

In Neoverse there are 3 modes: Adventure, Hunter, and Challenge. Each one has 20 rounds to pass, but they have important gameplay differences. First, you have to unlock Hunter and Challenge modes playing the Adventure mode.

The Adventure mode is the one where you start you pass the 20 rounds and you finish the mode. After this, the Transcendental Universe is unlocked which is the possibility of putting some handicaps in the adventure mode, like the enemies’ health and damage will be bigger.

The Hunter mode is similar to a survival mode, you will get resources from the defeated enemies and some bonus after pass determined rounds, then you have to go to round 20 with these resources.

In the Challenge mode, the hardest battles await for you, is recommended to play it after some hours of experience.

From these modes you will obtain trophies, the required currency to buy equipment at the start of the runs. Then when you are in the battles, you will use the gold dropped by the enemies.

Graphics, Soundtrack & Others

The graphics are nice. The girls’ designs are cool, and some of their skins are great. The enemies’ designs are elaborated, and they fit well in their respective eras. The soundtrack is little, they are few tracks, but they accompany the battles well. The game has achievements, some are challenging, but it has not cards (steam). It’s available in several languages, I played it on Spanish, although this only affects card descriptions and little else. The duration per run is about 45 min but depends on the mode or how things came to you during the game.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Aiori

PhD in the wrong country | Dad | Lover | Always available for a good talk | Old School Member | Gamer since I was 4. Turn-based system is my favourite system for games. My favourite genres are turn-based RPGs, turn-based strategy, Point & Click adventures and Fighting games.

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