The roguelike field is now a busy one. We’ve moved a long way from the days when Spelunky blew people’s minds. I’m desperate to bring back the Japanese term Mystery Dungeon as a means of describing the genre as a whole. I actually think it is more descriptive of descending into most of these games. In the beginning it is pretty confusing as to what you are supposed to be doing, and then once you get to grips with what is going on, you are trapped there for the foreseeable future. Roguelike just means you are referring to a game that almost no one born after 2000 has played. Is it hypocritical of me to bring this up after having written at least a dozen reviews and used the term “roguelikes”? Yes.
Alina of the Arena is a deckbuilding mystery dungeon, that has hex-turn-based combat. The player gets dropped into a based arena at the beginning with a basic Slave class and a set of cards that are split between attack and defence and then expected to manoeuvre around the battlefield to take on different opponents. There are 3 action points each turn and, initially, it is only possible to move at the beginning of the turn. Progress is made by choosing one of three pillars of encounters and working through fights, special events, rest spots, or shops. The player only has to defeat a set number of enemies to unlock the boss fight, and then they can choose to fight the boss straight away or try for more loot. This requires some tough decisions: is it worth fighting through a few more enemies to be able to upgrade a card, or will that leave your character too weak to fight the boss?
Alina is very good at forcing the player to make hard decisions, something clear from the special events. The game is clever at stressing the importance of making choices right for the type of playthrough I was trying to accomplish rather than relying on finding the default ‘perfect’ run through. One example of an event is that you can choose to regain a little health or get some incredibly powerful boosts, the correct choice is based on how much health Alina has, and whether the boost will really benefit her taking the risk.
How a playthrough changes is dependent on the class and weapons that a player picks up on the way. I warn any one now, that Alina introduces the worst class first, and drops people into a real mystery dungeon of torture.
Fortunately, the player will unlock a bevy of classes that all work differently. The Warrior starts off with a big sword that hits three enemies in adjacent hexes, the mercenary has a shield that allows them to carry over half of their obtained block between turns. They also each have clauses with their attacks and blocks which are more subtle and add up as more cards are added to a deck on a run.
Some classes do more damage the more cards of the same colour are in their deck, others power up the more frequently they reload, while others take advantage of a combo meter to deal increasing damage over the course of a turn.
The cards picked up also lend themselves to changing the course of play, using weapons that attack multiple hexes causes the game to shuffle a ‘fatigue’ card into the hand. On their own these fatigue cards take up space and cost an action point to spend – something that can lead to a player being an entire hand of fatigue cards and render their turn useless. However, if the player gets a ‘last stand card’ this card will increase in damage the more fatigue cards present and will discard them when it is played. Another card called ‘enlightenment’ burns cards in a player’s hand from the deck to power the player, this includes ‘fatigue’ cards. So, instead of wanting to get rid of fatigue cards immediately there are tactics where a player might want more of them.
There are lots of nifty little things in Alina of the Arena that had me smiling as I had another epiphany about how my tactics needed to change. Upgrading a card to unlock a new process of using it, attaching a gauntlet or necklace after beating a boss that then allows for new tactics, or simply bouncing an enemy against a wall and seeing them lose their turn – all of them sparked joy.
For all the things that Alina of the Arena gets right there are enough things that also grate.
There are only 3 levels, but each boss is a roadblock and not in a pleasant way. Learning how to fight them requires playing them completely differently and each of the 3 levels will generate one of two random bosses. This means that you can build well for one boss and then be completely inadequate for the next one – and that doesn’t always feel like it is your fault. It is possible to do an hour run and hit the final boss and realise that you made a mistake two levels ago and you should have given up before the first boss, it is just that you could never have known that.
The controller layout takes a while to get used to, I’ll say that I never quite gelled with it, and it just made things like picking up items off the floor to throw one button press too many.
Finally, there are just too few cards. I had already unlocked everything that was available after my first successful run and that resulted in fewer ‘aha’ moments as a result. Mystery Dungeons rely on having a new thing for players to pounce on, instead Alina relies on a certain level of masochism.
Alina of the Arena is still a good game. There is enough here for people looking for a punishing mystery dungeon, and the classes encourage experimentation. What it lacks is the carrot to lead players to the next run, instead it relies on a castigating stick.
Conclusion
Alina of the Arena is a great proposition for players that love Slay the Spire and Into the Breach.
Become a Patron!This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.