At this point it’s getting tougher and tougher to break it to people who regularly check in on my reviews that there’s yet another roguelike deckbuilder on the eShop, without it somewhat feeling like an apology. It is a subgenre that can be challenging and enjoyable when done right, but even when holding up a reasonably-high bar of expectation, I’ll admit there’s getting to be a real sense of “deckbuilder fatigue” at this point. 

To its credit, while Talespinner may not particularly break radically new ground, it’s at least set up with enough potential for variety that it’s worthwhile for fans of this style of play. In terms of what it does differently than the rest, consistent with its name, its way of working through the typical map of options roguelike titles use has a different feel. After initially choosing the overall “story” you’ll be pursuing, which will consist of a specific boss, differing potential rewards, and the encounters you’ll have to choose from, you’ll then have the power at each encounter along the path you choose to shape what you face. This means you can opt to take on elite foes earlier on, or perhaps avoid them entirely, depending on the sequence you put them in, but in the end it’s still quite similar in function, just a little different in terms of presentation. One disappointment was that I’d hoped it would put more effort into constructing some sort of dynamic narrative to go with your journey, though admittedly that would only have been novel the first few runs. Still, it feels like an opportunity to differentiate itself was missed.

What’s then left to carry the lion’s share of the load are the different heroes you’ll have to choose from, and how radically different each of them play from a strategic standpoint. Not only are the core rules around each of your warriors different to begin with, the custom cards that you’ll have the opportunity to accumulate over the course of each run help to differentiate them further, letting even repeated attempts with the same character play out quite differently. I’ll admit that in the case of Rinka, in particular, it took me some time to really understand how best to handle her lotus flower-driven abilities, but for genre fans that could well be considered an opportunity to be challenged in new ways. Given the glut of games of this kind, it’s nice that its art style and strategic depth help it to stand out, but there still may not be enough here to substantially differentiate itself from its middle-tier brethren.