Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend

It's everything I wanted in a roguelike deckbuilder.
Multicoloured mana is an excellent mechanic allowing for a lot of variability between runs.
Also Touhou.
Music is also excellent.
Because Touhou.

Solid game, especially if you like deck builders and / or touhou

Its core mechanics are nearly identical to StS, which in itself makes it a great game. What makes it stand out though are the extra mechanics and build diversity, packaged together with all its charming tributes to Touhou. I just hope it can get out of early-access hell.

Fun slay-the-spire-like with a MTG-style twist done well, and easily one of my favorites in the genre.

At this point it feels like a complete game that keeps getting free updates, I completely forgot it's still "Early Access".

played the hell out of slay the spire? this is different enough to entertain for hours while scratching that deckbuilder itch

Very fun game, although I'm pretty casual with these deck builders. The card art and animations are very pretty.

Phenomenal fun! Coming back after 1.7.0 is out. I had put in plenty of time before Koishi's final release and only tried her out in beta a couple of times. Definitely a unique character.

Gameplay? Well its a deckbuilder roguelike, just like it says. Compared easily to other games in the genre like slay the spire which I haven't played, I just want to give my two cents on simply how fun this game is and how it potentially got me into the genre. Its just one of those 'its so satisfying, trying another one in the genre can wait till I'm completely bored' type things. I wanted to write this review just to make sure the game gets its thumbs up from me. I was really hype when I heard somewhere on the side through out notes that Alice was in development, it made me wonder why they didn't make this more upfront as well? Oh well. I suppose I just want to give my support in this case.

If you like deckbuilders, the game is for you.
If you've never played one and you're into Touhou Project, I highly suggest it. I believe its accessible to just about anybody thats willing to at least try, and from there use your brain a little depending on your play style, some of the randomness that plays into your deck building, and by the end of it, I'm sure you'll be cooking. Its almost inevitable. The game does a great job at showing just how unique the play style through out will change depending on the character and their deck you pick effects gameplay. One of my absolute favorites being Marisa's potion deck. Theres something out of this world satisfying about unloading 9 potions on some poor bastard or taking out an entire encounter of 4 mobs doing so. I just love everything the game allows you to experience when it all comes together and you feel near unstoppable. That being said, it does have its difficult parts like lets say the true final boss. We're also now in the time where a certain really hard regular mob encounter has been nerfed (thank god) so the game is shaping up more then well. To say I'm looking forward to playing as Alice is an understatement. This game is addictive, beautiful illustrations and effects, and it'll have you likely whipping out your calculator sometimes or simply using your brain to think 7 steps ahead to pull out a killer move and ensure not just your survival, but the enemy's defeat.

I love it.

i can only imagine how good slay the spire is when this game is already this good

and wow an early access game that isn't abandoned and is actively being updated? awesome

Phenomenal roguelite

Highly addictive. I know nothing about the series, but the game play is fun, the battles are tough, but rewarding, each character has TWO play styles, and the music is INCREDIBLE

I bought this game just because the devs seem passionate about it. I wouldn't go mainly off that fact at all with games. but they seemed to be genuine and they keep updating the game after all these years. Never been a big slay the spire fan or a really big fan of rogue likes, But i thought i would give it a try and it has surprised me, It has been a lot of fun for the little time i have put into it. And i hope the devs don't let the number of sales discourage them. They clearly made this game with passion and the intention of making something great, and they hit the nail on the head. I wish the devs the best of luck with their future endeavors and whoever reads this. i hope you enjoy the game too.

Very well made Slay the Spire x Magic the Gathering rouge like deck builder wrapped up with Touhou's aesthetics. Each card has unique animations reminiscent of the old bullet hell games.

Love the Tohou character. Plus, i love deck bulders, And the deck building in this game is amazing

This game takes a lot of Inspiration from Slay the Spire. So first of all: If you want something like StS but Touhou, you already can't go wrong with this.

But it's not just a copy with a different theme either (personally I've spent a lot more time on this than on StS, though maybe that's just because I'm a hopeless weeb). The different mana colors add some more strategy to the gameplay, and the ability to mix different characters' cards after the first boss can lead to some fun combos. There's a lot of variety to be had here, with soon 5 characters to be fully implemented, and a 6th already being planned. Each character also has 2 different starting decks (and accompanying starting relic) which usually lend themselves to different deck archetypes.

And, being a touhou game, the music is as great as you would expect.

It's not a perfect game but I don't really have anything major that I'd complain about, strongly recommend for anyone that likes roguelike deckbuilders or Touhou.

the best STS mod out there

Can't wait for the full release, the gameplay is simple yet it's fun. Very recommend if you like rouge-like deck builder game.
Even if some of enemy and boss is not really balance but you can still go through it, hope they'll balance things up in the future.

It's okay.

Amazing and engaging card game, I'd recommend it both for touhou fans and also for those that do not know much about it.

It is in my opinion better slay the spire. From my experience far more enjoyable, just as complicated, and having a mana system of starting 5 feels so much more better the base 3 you get.

The cards are fun, artworks can be cool, silly and god I've spent so much time playing this game.

Also a Touhou game you need not know knowledge of playing the game. Just have fun.

Great game

Great game

Y

Like Slay the Spire but 2hu + MTG

So put aside if you don't know the source material or not [Touhou is basically a free-use IP for other indies as long as ZUN is credited].

This game is in the same genre as Slay the Spire; and the base format of the game is similar. However, there are two massive differences:

1 - The Mana system; which is inspired by MTG. Each character starts with 2 colors of mana [favouring one color depending on which starter deck you take] As you progress, you'll gain relics which increase your mana pool, but different relics grant different colors of mana, which can add new cards to the card pool you can gain. There are some cards which you will only ever see by taking unusual mana combos [such as cards which need 3 different types of mana]

2 - The system with the Stage 1 boss. Halfway through the first stage, you'll get to choose which boss you fight, which will be one of the other selectable characters. When you defeat them, one of the relics you are offered will be one that gives you one of the two colors associated with that character of mana, AND allows you to find cards unique to that character's card pool. So you can hybridize decks. It's like if you were playing the Silent and after defeating the first boss, you could suddenly add Defect cards to your deck as well. This only takes up 1 relic option, if you don't want to hybridize, you can always select one of the two other choices as well and stay "pure".

It's worth noting you will never find a card you cannot use as well.

This makes this game similar to Slay the Spire in core concept, but with a lot more diversity in builds, experimentation and the ability to hybridize characters. If you like Slay the Spire; definitely try this game out!

There are also various difficulties; an Ascension-like system [Going up to 7 instead of 20, Lunatic7 being the hardest difficulty before challenge settings], and some addittional settings you can use on top of this to change the difficulty/add some weird mods as you please.

Touhou + Slay the spire = This banger ass game.

Brilliant game, must have for any strategy enjoying touhou fans.

you can play as marisa

If you like touhou and Slay the Spire this game is literally perfect for you, it has the depth and engaging gameplay of STS but with enough new and exciting mechanics to still be a fresh and fun experience.
Koishi my beloved

steam age, baby.

You can play as Reimu.

The store page hasn't been updated in awhile so don't be fooled by the early access sticker. The game as it stands now is well worth the pricetag. If you like StS and other roguelikes you'll find something to enjoy in this game. If you like to go zoom more easily than StS will allow you to, you might fall in love with the game like I have. Despite a generally higher power floor and ceiling for the player, the difficulty is well balanced to always give you enough of a challenge. In general the devs and artists have a lot of love for Touhou Project and it shows.
There's one more character left (at time of writing Koishi has become playable in beta) and a story mode before it'll be out of EA, but if my advice is worth anything I reckon you might as well pick it up now and enjoy the two free DLCs' worth of content as it comes out. There's plenty to do in the main game as it stands (I'm at 300 hrs and counting).

I shouldn't be allowed to play card games. You can play Reimu.

Slay the Spire but 2hu and super fun.

you can play as Reimu

Very fun deckbuilder rogue-like with some pretty visuals.

Great Hakurei Barrier, Dichromatic Lotus Butterfly, Barrier Slam.

This game is great, it became an instant favorite for a more casual Touhou fan like me.
The music is great and I often find myself sitting in the main menu and just listening to the theme.
The cards and balance feels good to play, the games is sometimes difficult but very rewarding if you learn it.
The artstyle is also great, it's fun to see your favorite characters on the cards. On some cards you can also change the artstyle for a more meme style or a more traditional style.
If you run out of content or just want to play a character that doesn't exist, you can mod the game to play as your favorite characters.

Love deck building games and this one sets out something unique compared to most. Not only are enemies vastly different but the amount of play styles you could make out each deck makes for more value to replay.

If you like Slay the Spire, or you like Touhou in general, you should give this game a try. If you like both of those things, you'll adore Lost Branch of Legend. While the inspiration it takes from Slay the Spire is very clear, it does put a meaningful twist on the genre via the MtG-inspired colored mana. The characters are fun and satisfying to play, and while the maximum difficulty is easier than ascension 20 in Slay the Spire, it's still a meaningful challenge. (For comparison, I was struggling to get past A15 as Defect in StS, and I can win somewhere around one in five or so L7 runs here.) I think this lowered difficulty also makes the game easier to get into, and if default difficulty is still too much, there's an easy mode available.

As for the theme side of things, the Touhou integration is well done. The little character interactions feel fun and natural, the visuals look great, I love the little descriptions tacked on to the various cards, and the boss themes are all fun remixes of the original character songs. The theming of the decks themselves is similarly fun; there's just something satisfying about picking Sakuya and obliterating someone with twelve throwing knives, or taking three turns in a row to finish off that last enemy. (Or Cirno freezing the field, or Marisa obliterating everyone with master spark... you get the idea.)

But yeah. Amazing game, and I actually prefer it to default Slay the Spire.

Slay the spire, but with funny 2hu characters and other fun mechanics. Lots of fun and variety! Every update so far has been great

I like it more than Slay the Spire tbh (not only because I like Touhou)

Fun Slay the Spire x Touhou game. Builds all feel quite different if not always balanced well.

Great foundation for a rougelike deckbuilder. Great soundtrack and fun encounters. Only criticism is that it needs an "Endless Mode" once resolving an incident.

Overall great game. As someone who has played a lot of Slay the Spire and other Roguelike Deckbuilders, this game is really fun, and it's also Touhou, so that's a plus for me. The soundtrack is also amazing, as is usual with Touhou games. All that said, the game is pretty unbalanced early on. It's manageable, but it generally prevents or makes it much harder to play into a certain type of deck, so you tend to end up building a deck of random cards. The early on difficulty also makes you end up mostly healing at the gaps, and most of the events have more negatives than positives, so I generally skip them. But, even with all those problems, the game is still only in early access, so problems are to be expected, and I'm sure it'll continue to improve over time. I'm definitely going to keep playing though, as I've had a lot of fun with it so far. (Also, please add Sanae as a playable character.)

i love touhou and silly card games!!! the gameplay with every character is unique and fun! really good artwork too! looking forward to the full release!!!

This game is wonderful and keeps getting frequent updates, please buy

rog lik

I'm on the fence with this one, especially since it's in early access, but it's just not there yet.

On the positive side, the core gameplay, mechanics, and flavor are great. If Slay the Spire and Magic: The Gathering had a baby and raised it on a steady diet of anime, this is what you'd get.

On the negative side, and this just beats out the positive, the balance is way, way off. Early battles are often too punishing, causing you to need to heal at the gaps, rather than upgrading or heading to the shop. Events are too often negative (and repetitive). Money income is low. Combined, you don't get to shape your deck enough to get those killer runs that you can with Slay the Spire or its best imitators.

Additionally, avoiding elite enemies, which give the equivalent of StS relics as rewards, seems to be the best strategy, especially given one of the abilties of the final boss.

Most rougelike deckbuilders simply feel like a copy of slay the spire and rarely/barely feel like they've evolved past it or experimented.
This is one of the few exceptions where the game took slay the spire and then actually managed to evolve slay the spire and create something special and unique while feeling familiar

For a game in early access, it has a lot going for it right now and is still getting updates, so I highly look forward to the full release. I didnt expect this games systems to make it so much harder to go back to slay the spire-likes when i could go back to this

"Erin, I am going into the Bamboo Forrest of the Lost, and I need your most unstable potions."

"My potions are too unstable for you, Marisa."