I see a lot of comments sort of ripping this game apart for not following every standard of a rogue-like, or not having replay-ability but to all of that I just have to say

I bought this game for $8 lmao. If I can get an hour of fun out of a game per $1 spent, then I think it's a fair ratio. And I'm reviewing this game almost 8 hours in, and my ROI ratio has been met, with still some to spare. This isn't a big fantasy RPG game like Skyrim that is supposed to have years of replay value. It's a unique take on an already niche sub genre of gaming. Ya'll need to stop holding every game you ever play to the same measuring stick - it just doesn't make sense lol. I will never say someones opinion is wrong, but man.

Pros - It's unique. It's a cool twist on the genre that I honestly thought going into it, I wouldn't enjoy. But thankfully the claw physics are nowhere near as dreadful as real life claw machines. You will miss some grabs, just due to how filled up and crowded the machine can get when you overfill your deck - but it's a problem that becomes self inflicted, and just adds a bit of needed challenge.

- Multiple characters to start: I've read a bit in the reviews that even though there's different characters, you cant really make like "a build" so to speak. Where as there is some truth to that, I did enjoy not being locked into having to beat an entire run with a character just to unlock the next playable character. There were already a handful of available characters, and I got to use a character that more fit my "gaming personality" type if you will. I enjoy this level of freedom, and their specific perks did feel unique enough to feel separated from one another.

- The overall aesthetic and vibe is just cool and fun. It's very vibey if you will lol. Soundtrack is a bop, the colors are not overwhelming or jarring to look at (I feel this is important for a game where you're going to be intently staring at one thing for 2 hours at a time).

Cons - I think generally some more of the key functionalities/synergies could be explained better. I did not understand why I would feel the need to transmute cards for a hot a minute. I saw that each card had an icon, and that they meant something, but the game (unless I missed something) never really tells you why that's important. It may seem obvious to some, but if you start the run on the default character (which I imagine most people do) there's really no need to build a whole build around a specific type of card (glass, wood, metal, etc). It becomes fairly obvious using the magnet hand dude that you're intentionally supposed to use transmute feature, but even then I still had to google it just to make sure I understood that my suspicion was correct.

Overall summary - ya'll it's $10 full price, which alone has been more than worth my time, and I got it even cheaper than that (on sale at the time of this review). I can see myself putting in 10 more hours into the game, just from an unlocking standpoint, and there is more than enough here to keep me coming back to it even if it's just as a game I boot up to unwind after a long work day, but I don't want to get invested into some big long story heavy game. If you're on the fence and you enjoy other rogue-like games like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, etc (or maybe even if you just like claw machines I guess?) I think this is a perfect title for you.

Purely addictive! I haven't stayed up this late since I was in my 20's lol! Strategy plus Roguelike plus Claw game, its really fun!

Unique take on a deck builder rouge-lite where you build up a claw game machine to fight your enemies. It's fun and easy to start up just one more run; trying to achieve that perfect build. Its still early access as of my playtime, but its darn fun and will hook(claw) you too!