Roguebook

Roguebook arrives with a notable pedigree. Co-designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering, and built by the team behind Faeria, it promised to bring fresh ideas to the roguelike deckbuilder genre. The result is a competent game with some clever twists that never quite reaches the heights its creators’ reputations might suggest. It’s not a failure by any measure, but in a genre dominated by a few exceptional titles, being good isn’t always enough to stand out.

Community opinion settles firmly in the “solid but not essential” range. Players who stick with Roguebook tend to appreciate its mechanical depth and hero variety. Those who bounce off it cite a sense that something is missing, a spark or cohesion that the best deckbuilders have. The discussion around this game is often about what it almost is rather than what it actually achieves.

The Two-Hero Twist and Hex Map Discovery

The dual-hero system is Roguebook’s most distinctive feature. You pick two heroes from a small roster and manage both their decks simultaneously in combat. The front hero takes damage while the rear hero is protected, and swapping positions mid-combat becomes a key tactical consideration. Cards can interact across heroes, creating cross-deck synergies that add a layer of strategy you won’t find in single-character deckbuilders. Building two decks that complement each other while individually staying functional is a satisfying puzzle.

Map exploration uses a hex-based system where you spend ink and brushes to reveal tiles, uncovering encounters, treasure, and events. This creates a resource management layer on top of the standard deckbuilder structure. Do you spend ink to reveal more of the map and potentially find better rewards, or do you save it and head straight for the boss? The hex map gives each run a sense of physical exploration that most deckbuilders lack, and finding hidden vaults or powerful artifacts tucked away in unexplored corners adds genuine excitement.

Combat encounters are well-designed, with enemies that demand different approaches and boss fights that test your deck’s flexibility. The gem system lets you socket enhancements into individual cards, customizing their effects in ways that standard upgrades don’t allow. A card that draws more cards when gemmed one way might instead deal bonus damage with a different gem. This adds meaningful decision points to card improvement beyond simple stat increases.

Hero variety is meaningful. Each character plays differently enough that swapping your team composition changes the run substantially. Learning how each hero’s card pool meshes with the others provides the kind of replayability that keeps deckbuilder fans engaged across many attempts.

The Progression Wall in Roguebook

Meta-progression is the game’s most divisive element. Between runs, you spend a currency to unlock permanent upgrades on a skill tree. The problem is that some of these upgrades feel necessary rather than supplementary. Early runs can feel underpowered not because of poor play but because key upgrades haven’t been unlocked yet. This creates a grind period where you’re playing to unlock tools rather than playing with tools you already have. For a roguelike genre that thrives on each run feeling complete, this friction is significant.

The gem system, while interesting in concept, can feel overwhelming in practice. The number of gems and their interactions with different cards across two heroes creates a decision space that’s wider than it is deep. You’ll often socket gems based on general principles rather than specific synergies because tracking the implications across two full decks is more bookkeeping than strategy.

Card balance has been a persistent concern. Certain card combinations are dramatically stronger than others, and experienced players report that optimal play often converges on the same strategies regardless of hero pairing. When the meta settles, runs start to feel less like creative problem-solving and more like executing a known formula.

The visual presentation is adequate but forgettable. The storybook aesthetic is pleasant and fits the theme, but it lacks the visual identity that makes other games in the genre instantly recognizable. In a crowded market, being visually generic is a real disadvantage.

Standing in a Crowded Genre

Roguebook’s challenge isn’t quality. It’s competition. The roguelike deckbuilder space has several genre-defining titles, and anything new needs to offer a compelling reason to choose it over the established options. Roguebook’s two-hero system and hex exploration are that reason on paper, but in practice, they add complexity without proportionally adding fun. The ideas are good. The execution is good. The package just doesn’t generate the same enthusiasm.

Should You Try Roguebook?

If you’ve played through the genre’s top tier and want another deckbuilder with some fresh mechanical ideas, Roguebook is worth your time. The two-hero system creates genuinely different strategic considerations, and the hex map adds an exploration element that’s unique in the genre. Skip it if you’re new to roguelike deckbuilders. The genre’s best titles are better starting points, and Roguebook’s meta-progression system makes it a slower burn than it should be.

The Verdict on Roguebook

Roguebook has good ideas and a pedigree that promises more than the final product delivers. The two-hero system and hex map exploration add wrinkles to the deckbuilder formula that are worth experiencing, and the combat has enough depth to sustain a few dozen hours of runs. But it struggles to escape the shadow of the games that inspired it, and the progression system that’s supposed to keep you coming back can feel like it’s gating the fun. It’s a solid second-tier deckbuilder that’s worth trying on sale if you’ve exhausted the genre’s best.