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An excellent deck builder with great PVP and PVE | Review - Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game
2K View2024-01-25
✨Overview
Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game is an online deck-building game that blends elements of card battles, autochess, and rogue-like genres. With both a focus on both PvP and PvE modes, players embark on a journey of cultivation, drawing cards and strategically building decks from scratch.
🟩Pros
+Charming and distinct art style
+Building decks from scratch every match keeps gameplay fresh and dynamic
+Excellent 8-way PvP system
+Excellent rogue-like singleplayer PvE game mode
+Good free-to-play model; everything can be bought with F2P grind, with in-app purchases for cosmetics
Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game is an online deck-building game that blends elements of card battles, autochess, and rogue-like genres. With both a focus on both PvP and PvE modes, players embark on a journey of cultivation, drawing cards and strategically building decks from scratch.
🟩Pros
+Charming and distinct art style
+Building decks from scratch every match keeps gameplay fresh and dynamic
+Excellent 8-way PvP system
+Excellent rogue-like singleplayer PvE game mode
+Good free-to-play model; everything can be bought with F2P grind, with in-app purchases for cosmetics
🟥Cons
-Heavy reliance on RNG system to draw wanted cards
-Minor translation and localization issues
-Heavy reliance on RNG system to draw wanted cards
-Minor translation and localization issues
⭐️Score: 9/10
📖Story and Premise
There is little story in this game, aside from the tutorial segment where you take control of the first character in the game Mu Yifeng, while training with the other characters. Apart from being set in a fantasy version of ancient China, the backdrop itself is ambiguous at best. However, in the PvE rogue-like game mode, there is a little bit of dynamic personal story roleplaying with how you are presented with randomized encounters and choices.
🎨Visuals and Art
Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game features a distinct ancient Chinese mythological-inspired art style with a mix of cartoonish design. The animations are detailed — the swinging of swords, swaying of clothes, and hair — character movements are all charming and exquisite. They are executed in a stylistic cardboard-like movement, reminiscent of classic 2D Adobe Flash animations. The soundtrack is relaxing, although its variety is a bit lacking for a game you’d play for hours on end.
The English translation is a bit spotty; some aspects are still untranslated, and the voice-overs are always in Chinese, but it’s generally intelligible. Understanding some of the terminologies used in the game mechanics can be challenging at first, and the tutorial only does an okay job of introducing the mechanics. However, you get used to it over time as you play.
🎮Gameplay
The game is a deck builder at its core, but the card lineup is randomized every match, and players build their decks from scratch each time. This adds gameplay variety and freshness to the experience, but introducing a bit of reliance on the RNG system to win as you have to rely on it to draw your wanted cards.
Players begin by randomly drawing cards from the pool and selecting which ones to place on the table, forming their 'Deck.' These cards are then automatically executed from left to right, offering various effects, modifiers, and synergies with each other. This is effectively an autobattler/autochess experience in deck building form.
The cards are executed endlessly, looping back and forth until one side drops to 0 health, ending the round. The resolution of rounds takes only a few seconds, as the game automatically speeds up the rounds exponentially faster until the round ends. I do wish there was a way to stop this speeding up, at least in the single-player version, as it’s enjoyable to see your deck synergy in full action instead of in ultra-fast forward motion.
There are many mechanics at play here, featuring various card types: passive cards, cards that require Energy to activate, cards that need other specific cards beside them to trigger a bonus attack, cards that only run on one loop and do not activate again, and perhaps cards that start weak in the initial cycles but become exceptionally powerful as you accumulate more cycles —- in turn, easily countered by burst damage cards aiming to end the round early.
The way the cards interact with each other is very strategic and engaging, as there are just so many things you can do with them. It's a matter of balancing offense and defense, choosing between aggressive and defensive cards, or perhaps deciding between early high damage output or a slow build-up.
The matches start with just initial three card decks but expand as the rounds progress. Throughout the matches, players have a set number of redraws each round, providing additional chances to secure desired cards for their decks. They also have the option to ‘absorb’ cards to increase their 'Cultivation level,' which determines who gets to move first in the rounds and unlocking 'breakthroughs' that offers powerful character-specific bonuses. You can view the opposing enemy’s deck of cards once they have been revealed, so that you can adjust and counter.
A minor pet peeve I have in these deck-building games, which this title also partially has, is that it's hard to see all the cards without hovering over the cursor onto them. This occurs mainly when you have many cards in your hands, and it gets crowded — though this doesn't happen too often.
📜Game Modes
Aside from being a deck builder, the act of building a deck every match makes the game rogue-like by definition in both its single-player and multiplayer modes, as the game features two main modes: a rogue-lite PvE mode and an 8-player PvP mode with ranked and unranked matches.
⚔️PvP
The 8-way PvP, reminiscent of Teamfight Tactics mechanics, is an interesting approach that made the matches more fun and engaging for me. Each match consists of multiple rounds, with participants paired with a new opponent each round until only two participants remain. It's not solely dependent on two people or well-balanced opposing teams battling it out; everyone is out for themselves, striving to win as many rounds as possible to avoid elimination.
Players have an overall health called Destiny, determining who gets eliminated. Players take damage when they lose a round, and when it reaches zero, they're out. The 'live' deck-building nature is a great mechanic, allowing for exciting comebacks as some builds may not seem strong initially but become powerful as more pieces fall into place. I've experienced being ahead by a lot, winning more than 10 consecutive matches, only to lose to a low HP opponent who completed a powerful build. I've also made comebacks after losing consistently in the first few rounds, eventually creating a decent build.
🕹PvE
This exciting aspect of dynamic matches are also present in the PvE rogue-like game mode. Instead of an 8-way PvP with rounds and matches, the game transitions to a more rogue-like format with encounters, events, and choices in-between the matches. You still get to build your deck slowly from scratch.
💵Monetization
As for monetization, the game is free-to-play with in-app purchases. What's great is that all the characters and content can be unlocked through free grinding. While you can spend money on cosmetics and artwork, it's not a requirement, and the game avoids a pay-to-win system. In fact, in this game, I find the non-premium currency is more powerful than the premium currency, which is very uncommon for a F2P model.
📊Technical Performance
Despite infrequent server connection issues, performance-wise, I had no problems with the game; everything ran smoothly. My only gripe comes from the English localization, which definitely has room for improvement. The game is very lightweight and even seems a perfect fit for a mobile port.
⚖️Conclusion
I have played many rogue-likes and deck builders in the past few months; due to this, There is a possibly that I might be experiencing some mild form of genre fatigue one way or another. However, this potential fatigue didn't bother me at all and didn't stop me from being impressed by Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game and fully enjoying its engaging rogue-like deck-building gameplay in both its excellent PvP and PvE game modes. Despite some minor language barrier, It’s definitely a must-play for deck builder and rogue-like fans.
There is little story in this game, aside from the tutorial segment where you take control of the first character in the game Mu Yifeng, while training with the other characters. Apart from being set in a fantasy version of ancient China, the backdrop itself is ambiguous at best. However, in the PvE rogue-like game mode, there is a little bit of dynamic personal story roleplaying with how you are presented with randomized encounters and choices.
🎨Visuals and Art
Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game features a distinct ancient Chinese mythological-inspired art style with a mix of cartoonish design. The animations are detailed — the swinging of swords, swaying of clothes, and hair — character movements are all charming and exquisite. They are executed in a stylistic cardboard-like movement, reminiscent of classic 2D Adobe Flash animations. The soundtrack is relaxing, although its variety is a bit lacking for a game you’d play for hours on end.
The English translation is a bit spotty; some aspects are still untranslated, and the voice-overs are always in Chinese, but it’s generally intelligible. Understanding some of the terminologies used in the game mechanics can be challenging at first, and the tutorial only does an okay job of introducing the mechanics. However, you get used to it over time as you play.
🎮Gameplay
The game is a deck builder at its core, but the card lineup is randomized every match, and players build their decks from scratch each time. This adds gameplay variety and freshness to the experience, but introducing a bit of reliance on the RNG system to win as you have to rely on it to draw your wanted cards.
Players begin by randomly drawing cards from the pool and selecting which ones to place on the table, forming their 'Deck.' These cards are then automatically executed from left to right, offering various effects, modifiers, and synergies with each other. This is effectively an autobattler/autochess experience in deck building form.
The cards are executed endlessly, looping back and forth until one side drops to 0 health, ending the round. The resolution of rounds takes only a few seconds, as the game automatically speeds up the rounds exponentially faster until the round ends. I do wish there was a way to stop this speeding up, at least in the single-player version, as it’s enjoyable to see your deck synergy in full action instead of in ultra-fast forward motion.
There are many mechanics at play here, featuring various card types: passive cards, cards that require Energy to activate, cards that need other specific cards beside them to trigger a bonus attack, cards that only run on one loop and do not activate again, and perhaps cards that start weak in the initial cycles but become exceptionally powerful as you accumulate more cycles —- in turn, easily countered by burst damage cards aiming to end the round early.
The way the cards interact with each other is very strategic and engaging, as there are just so many things you can do with them. It's a matter of balancing offense and defense, choosing between aggressive and defensive cards, or perhaps deciding between early high damage output or a slow build-up.
The matches start with just initial three card decks but expand as the rounds progress. Throughout the matches, players have a set number of redraws each round, providing additional chances to secure desired cards for their decks. They also have the option to ‘absorb’ cards to increase their 'Cultivation level,' which determines who gets to move first in the rounds and unlocking 'breakthroughs' that offers powerful character-specific bonuses. You can view the opposing enemy’s deck of cards once they have been revealed, so that you can adjust and counter.
A minor pet peeve I have in these deck-building games, which this title also partially has, is that it's hard to see all the cards without hovering over the cursor onto them. This occurs mainly when you have many cards in your hands, and it gets crowded — though this doesn't happen too often.
📜Game Modes
Aside from being a deck builder, the act of building a deck every match makes the game rogue-like by definition in both its single-player and multiplayer modes, as the game features two main modes: a rogue-lite PvE mode and an 8-player PvP mode with ranked and unranked matches.
⚔️PvP
The 8-way PvP, reminiscent of Teamfight Tactics mechanics, is an interesting approach that made the matches more fun and engaging for me. Each match consists of multiple rounds, with participants paired with a new opponent each round until only two participants remain. It's not solely dependent on two people or well-balanced opposing teams battling it out; everyone is out for themselves, striving to win as many rounds as possible to avoid elimination.
Players have an overall health called Destiny, determining who gets eliminated. Players take damage when they lose a round, and when it reaches zero, they're out. The 'live' deck-building nature is a great mechanic, allowing for exciting comebacks as some builds may not seem strong initially but become powerful as more pieces fall into place. I've experienced being ahead by a lot, winning more than 10 consecutive matches, only to lose to a low HP opponent who completed a powerful build. I've also made comebacks after losing consistently in the first few rounds, eventually creating a decent build.
🕹PvE
This exciting aspect of dynamic matches are also present in the PvE rogue-like game mode. Instead of an 8-way PvP with rounds and matches, the game transitions to a more rogue-like format with encounters, events, and choices in-between the matches. You still get to build your deck slowly from scratch.
💵Monetization
As for monetization, the game is free-to-play with in-app purchases. What's great is that all the characters and content can be unlocked through free grinding. While you can spend money on cosmetics and artwork, it's not a requirement, and the game avoids a pay-to-win system. In fact, in this game, I find the non-premium currency is more powerful than the premium currency, which is very uncommon for a F2P model.
📊Technical Performance
Despite infrequent server connection issues, performance-wise, I had no problems with the game; everything ran smoothly. My only gripe comes from the English localization, which definitely has room for improvement. The game is very lightweight and even seems a perfect fit for a mobile port.
⚖️Conclusion
I have played many rogue-likes and deck builders in the past few months; due to this, There is a possibly that I might be experiencing some mild form of genre fatigue one way or another. However, this potential fatigue didn't bother me at all and didn't stop me from being impressed by Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game and fully enjoying its engaging rogue-like deck-building gameplay in both its excellent PvP and PvE game modes. Despite some minor language barrier, It’s definitely a must-play for deck builder and rogue-like fans.
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Game: Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game Platform: PC Genre: Card Battler, Strategy, PvP, Free to Play
Overview
Yi Xian has so much to offer that it makes you want to keep playing, even if you're like me and don't enjoy competitive games where you're competing to be the best player.
Even if you lose, you can only grow and bounce back stronger than ever in this auto-battling card game where you're not really building your own deck, but rather building around the cards granted by your deck across a handful of decks depending on the character chosen. Decreasing the likelihood that each game is the same.
Pawkt2K2024-01-25
Learn the Mystic Arts of Card Battling Roguelikes! - Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Gameplay
Verdict Overall, Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game is a unique and engaging deck-building game with a lot of depth and variety. The absorption and combining mechanics add a new dimension to the gameplay, and the elemental abilities and summoning of pets allow for different strategies. With over 10 different characters to choose from and both PVE and PVP modes available, there is plenty of content to keep players engaged. However, the game's learning curve can be steep, and the reliance on luck and RNG may be frustrating for some players.
IndieVoice3K2024-01-26
Strategically building your decks from scratch | Gameplay - Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game
Yi Xian: The Cultivation Card Game is a deck-building game with rogue-like elements where the card lineup is randomized every match, and players build their decks from scratch each time.
Players begin by randomly drawing cards from the pool and selecting which ones to place on the table, forming their 'Deck.' These cards are then executed from left to right, offering various effects, modifiers, and synergies with each other.
lyndonguitar2K2024-01-25
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