Wildfrost

Genre: Turn-Based Card RPG / Roguelike

Players: 1

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: Chucklefish

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Review:

Wildfrost is a Turn-Based Roguelike Card RPG released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023. This game is set on a snow-covered landscape where players must help their chosen hero fend off enemy forces.

The mechanics of Wildfrost are fairly straightforward once you get the hang of them. Players start each battle by placing their hero card selected at the beginning of each run, which must survive the entire battle. In subsequent turns, players may play one card per turn. These can be other allies who stand on the battlefield in front of, behind, or alongside the hero. There are also single-use cards that take effect and are discarded. Finally, there are “clunkers”, mindless automatons that are sorta’ like allies, but are usually weak, and respond to things that happen during the battle rather than on a set turn rotation.

Speaking of turn rotation, your hero, allies, and enemies all attack after a set number of turns has ended, with their attacks resolving from right to left, top to bottom, with enemies always going first. While this may put you at a disadvantage, knowing when and how enemies will attack gives you some agency in determining which cards to play, and you do have your own advantages – you can always rearrange your heroes freely without taking up a turn, ensuring your defender is always in position to take damage that could kill a more vulnerable member of your team, or ensuring that units acting in sync will get the best possible results. You can also discard any ally for free to heal them, ensuring that they return to the deck’s rotation and don’t get permanently taken out of the battle.

Through the game’s Roguelike progression, you’ll gradually add cards and heroes to your deck, as well as acquiring charms that permanently enhance your cards. As with any good Card RPG Roguelike, it is your selections here that are some of the most important choices you’ll make while playing, as you have to be mindful what cards you add so your deck properly synergizes.

The presentation here is solid, with your cards bearing expressive cartoony animated art with some silly and whimsical character designs, and the soundtrack having some really catchy upbeat tunes that make use of some interesting instruments that really give the game its own sound. Some good examples of this are Spirit Call, Relentless Blizzard, Sunbringer, Trapped Spirits, and Wildfrost all being well worth a listen.

Okay, so it’s time for that inevitable question, the one each game in this genre inevitably faces… how does this game compare to Slay the Spire? Honestly, I don’t think Wildfrost quite reaches the heights of that genre-defining game, but it certainly comes closer than most, making for a truly excellent game in its own right. I wish this game offered players more variety and agency in determining how their deck will shape up over time, and while you do get some progression after each run, it doesn’t feel as fast as I’d like.

Still, fans of this genre will absolutely want to play Wildfrost – it is a well-crafted and genuinely fun Roguelike Card RPG, and even if it doesn’t quite beat Slay the Spire, it is nevertheless an absolutely superb game well worth playing.

tl;dr – Wildfrost is a Turn-Based Roguelike Card RPG where players must help their chosen hero fend off enemies in a frozen wasteland. It doesn’t offer quite enough agency or variety to surpass the likes of Slay the Spire, but it’s a delightful entry in the genre all the same, and one absolutely worth playing.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Card Game – Plenty of games have tried to topple Slay the Spire’s reign as the king of Roguelike deckbuilding Card games, and none have yet succeeded, but Wildfrost comes darn close, with its compelling mechanics and evocative setting. It also really does a great job hitting that “just one more run” feeling you really look for in this sort of game. Absolutely a great game for anyone who enjoys building up the ultimate deck to take on the opposition.

Runner-Up: Best Roguelike, Best Song (Spirit Call by Paul Zimmerman)

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