LogFAQs > #967576008

#23 Shadowhand

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/7/7/AABIPnAADmld.jpg

Maybe the most obscure game on the list? It's a casual solitaire card game, with a story campaign and good atmosphere. (Also NOT run-based, thank god.)

It has RPG mechanics like upgrading skill points, and you CANNOT upgrade all of your stats fully, so you do feel like you have your own playstyle. There's also like 10 slots for stat-buffing equipment (which appear on your character! yesss) and consumable items, so it's got surprisingly decent RPG-like depth!

The solitaire fun is all about big combos for extra rewards: how many cards can you clear, without having to draw a new one from the deck? As you improve your character through the RPG mechanics, by the end of the game you're getting combos way longer than when you started the game, and it feels awesome, like you're a solitaire god.

I think the magic of a good Casual game like this, for me, is that you instantly start playing 90% optimally, which means you instantly can start pondering that last 10% of micro-optimization--and I think that last 10% is actually the most fun to theorycraft about...but in most games it takes 5-500 hours of learning the basics, to get there!

BEST LEVEL: There's a chapter where you're in jail, and you lose all your stuff, and the inmates teach you the gameplay techniques of fist weapons. It's cool.