Path of Achra
I purchased Path of Achra last year but only finally set aside time to play it when it came back up on the Ranged Touch Monthly Podcast.
I had largely not paid close attention to how it worked because I knew I would get to it eventually and would closely examine it as research for a future game I had in mind. So, I was surprised to learn it’s a turn based auto-battler! A very pleasant surprise since I had mostly let the auto-battler genre pass me by, and I’m glad to find one very suited to my taste.
Approaching PoA from the roguelike direction and not auto-battler has been fun! I feel like there are some very obvious parallels that are new to me because of this. For example, PoA does not have any (mostly) consumable items, which means no inventory management beyond keeping or sacrificing an item. Consumables sort of exist for certain builds in the form of summons which can be sacrificed to cue up various effects.
Build composition is also tricky in a pleasing way, it's easy to identify some synergies but learning their weaknesses takes time. I've died instantly with quite powerful builds because an opponent had teleport and I was not prepared for it! I find this kind of build interruption much more appealing compared to something like Balatro, which is satisfied to increase the numbers and throw a few modifiers at you with the boss blinds.
Speaking of Balatro, this game is also 'my Balatro', especially in the theme. Short, evocative, flowery dying-earth prose? Hell yes. Encounters that have much more texture and variety in the environment, not just in how your build plays out. A lot of starting variety with the Class/Origin/Religion instead of waiting until the third ante to see what kind of deck I have.
Path of Achra is good!