There are moments early on when playing Inscryption. The games up to that point had been pretty thematic and interesting card games, but this was the first sign that I was playing something truly unique. Mysterious Game He sits across from the master and he asks you to get up and grab something from the cabin. The game already showed you being able to look around the playing field during card battles, but this is the realization that you can move freely around the cabin where the match takes place. This was the first of many poignant moments that elevate Inscryption from a brilliant card game to a stunning narrative game full of twists and turns that sets it apart from many other digital card games.
The basic setup of Inscryption is deceptively simple. When you wake up, in the hut on the other side, you’ll find a figure shrouded in darkness, visible only by candlelight and his piercing orange eyes. His sole purpose is to play a card game that advances through the several worlds and realms he has created. It’s as if he’s playing the dungeon his master, his one-on-one Dungeons & Dragons his campaign. He uses masks, small totems, and scene changes to play multiple bizarre characters. Horror elements are always present, but this is what makes the game incredibly engaging. But it’s the horror element that always kept me on my toes. There is no combat or jump scares, but his sound design, visual style, and especially the story of the player fighting this omniscient figure make me feel uncomfortable. Anything can happen at any time. And when the shit hits the fan, you don’t expect it in the slightest.
Combined with the thematic vibe, Inscryption is also a great deck-building card game with roguelike elements. Each “round” a deck of four cards is dealt to him in addition to Squirrel. This is another deck of cards that you can draw at any time, but creatures that cannot attack. Each card has an attack value, health value, cost, and possibly a sigil that enhances the card’s abilities. This seems simple, but there are so many variations of sigils that no two of them feel the same even though he has two of the same card. The purpose of each battle is simple. His 5 points of direct damage to the figure tip the scales in his favor. The battle is now over and you can move on to the next event. Each turn you have the option to draw from either a deck of cards or another squirrel. Playing a card with a cost almost always requires sacrificing another card to pay the blood cost. Squirrels tend to come into play here because they have no cost and offer a cost of 1 blood. The game becomes a balancing act of choosing when to sacrifice creatures to protect yourself from attacks or to effectively attack your opponent. The game uses scales to track the damage you deal to your opponent, so depending on how often you’ve previously hit the Mysterious Figure, you may be able to survive more hits. , making it a game of both strategy and luck where you choose to draw a squirrel or take your chances with the deck itself.
The sigil comes into play here. Sigils come in all shapes and sizes. From sigils that generate a copy of a card when it’s killed or sacrificed, to sigils that levitate creatures so they can attack directly, to sigils that kill creatures regardless of their defense stats. Always accessible, the rulebook is chock-full of sigils and their descriptions. What makes the game fresh, though, is that in between card battles, you’ll encounter shrines along the world map in the Dungeon Master game. However, you can place the sigil on another card in your deck. So every time you get a new card, it’s very valuable to get just the sigil and later transfer it to his one of the more powerful cards. A card can contain multiple sigils. At one point I was able to create a card with a sigil that attacked both diagonal positions and in the air. This means you can do double damage against your opponent without having to deal with your opponent’s creatures. Strategies like this keep the game fresh. Especially since you never know what creatures you’ll encounter.
That freshness is where Inscryption excels during matches. It introduces so many variables and factors that new options are always available. Yes, a card is one thing, but there are additional squirrels that aren’t tied to drawing cards, scissors to destroy your opponent’s cards, and some items that are truly tied to manipulating the playing field. There are also items that are useful for A horror theme to tip the scales. I think the woodcarver’s totem also deserves a mention here. With Woodcarver, you can use both your head and body to enhance cards of that type with permanent sigils during a match. Combining the dog’s head with an airborne sigil, all dogs (Wolves, Stouts, Cubs, and Coyotes) can be airborne and attack opponents directly during a match. But there are some that feel like game-breaking moments, but they’re very satisfying to pull off. I have. Especially when the Dungeon Master starts using his own wood carvings during the match. Rounds are fast, and each loss to the Dungeon Master gives you a new card that you can use in future matches.
As far as I can tell, the Switch version of Inscryption is the best way to play the game. The loading screen before launching the game seems long, and the occasional stuttering appears to pop up, but nothing prevents the game from being playable. I found the game to look worse than it did when played on . The edges of objects in the world map and cabins look jagged compared to when playing in handheld mode, probably due to lack of anti-aliasing. Personally, I tend to prefer playing this game handheld, but it’s worth noting for dock-only players. I often lost a game or two because I hit the ZL button and passed the turn to another player. The game doesn’t prompt “Do you want to pass the turn?” From a thematic standpoint, I understand that, but I had to keep that in mind when playing longer sessions.
As other reviews have pointed out before, roguelike elements tend to put off certain games. Usually they’re too repetitive for my liking, because the progress feels tedious rather than rewarding. I was able to break this loop for me. You may wonder why it hasn’t been talked about much until now, but it’s something that takes time to talk about, and I think it’s best to experience it firsthand. If you’re a fan of unexplained scary movies and games, we’re sure you’ll enjoy what Inscryption has to offer. But what kept me coming back again and again was the deck-building system, sigils, and strategy, and Inscryption felt like a perfect fit for the Switch, and great on the go. I expected to play it for short sessions, but the game pulled me in again and again, keeping me playing for hours. You can have everything you wanted while playing Inscryption. This is one of the must-have card games for Nintendo Switch.