Solnox: Grimoire of Seasons Review - Great Mechanics, Forgettable World | The Gamerheads Podcast

Platform reviewed: Steam (PC)

Price: $6.66

Strategy games and deckbuilders are two of my favorite types of games, and Solnox: Grimoire of Seasons combines both genres. I hadn’t heard much about Solnox before I played it. I was familiar with the developer, ByteRockers' Games, though, from playing Beat Slayer, and in some ways, both games had a similar feel. Both are roguelites, and both feature fantastic art in their cutscenes. However, Beat Slayer featured voice acting, which made its absence in Solnox a noticeable disappointment. While the gameplay was fun and inventive, the level design didn’t quite live up to ByteRockers' previous game either.

One thing that stood out to me was how accessible Solnox's gameplay is. Most deckbuilders like this don’t give me much freedom to move around the playing field, and this is where Solnox shines. I had several different runes (cards) that allowed my character to move around the board. The playing field is set up like a tabletop board game (probably one of the reasons I enjoyed the gameplay as much as I did), and playing movement cards let me move a certain number of hexes. This allowed me to move in, deal some damage, and then move my character out of harm's way.

There are three different characters to play, with two of them locked from the start, and each character has their own set of ability runes. The Crusader is the first character available. Their main ability is to act as a tank; I can place block runes on my warrior to absorb a lot of damage. Compare that to the Rogue, who doesn’t have any block abilities but has a lot more movement runes, and I started to see how each character caters to a different playstyle. I tend to love playing a tank, so the Crusader was my go-to character.

As I progressed through the paths, many of the encounters allowed me to add new runes to my deck. There were locations where I could remove runes too. Just like any good deckbuilder, it was important that I created a deck that would work well for my intended run. I started collecting a lot of shield runes and found a card that dealt damage equal to my block count. I added it instantly and started removing cards like Fireball in favor of more blocking. It meant I didn’t have any ranged attacks, but I could deal some serious damage up close.

The other factor in Solnox is the seasons. Each round, the season changes, and each one provides me with different bonuses. For example, winter provides additional points to the score of block runes, while spring provides bonuses for attacks. I can even change the seasons on the tiles around me with certain runes. More powerful enemies also corrupt the land around me, preventing me from playing my two leftmost runes. Once I started to realize how powerful this season system was, the game really started to click, and I could make it pretty far into a run.

My biggest issue, though, was the level design. There wasn’t much difference between the various locations. While there appeared to be objects on the board that should have provided cover, they didn’t. Instead, they simply blocked my path to the enemies. The most frustrating moments came when I was chasing down an enemy who was just out of my reach. They would run around the objects, firing arrows at me and eventually killing my character. It felt anticlimactic.

The enemy design wasn’t much better. Many of the enemies had the same look and feel. Even the bosses didn’t look much different from the standard enemies, aside from being larger. I was left wanting more from both the level and character designs. Since the levels in Beat Slayer were so well crafted, I expected the same from Solnox. Combine that with the lack of voice acting (which, again, was well done in Beat Slayer), and I was left wanting more from the overall experience. It was too bad, too. The concept of a strategy deckbuilder where the changing seasons provide buffs and advantages is clever; I just wish the rest of the game had received that same level of attention to detail.

Final Score: B-

Solnox: Grimoire of Seasons has a solid gameplay core. The strategy and deckbuilding elements are clever, especially when combined with the changing seasons and the buffs they provide. Unfortunately, the level design isn’t as strong. Each area feels the same, and there’s no environmental cover, which seems like a staple of strategy games. The bosses didn’t feel particularly special either, and the character designs were too similar to one another.

Review code provided by StridePR