Zoeti Review

I have played a lot of deck-building card games as of late, so I am always interested to see if new titles to the genre follow the other popular entries or if they try to reinvent it and make it their own. Developers Dusklight CO. LTD have joined the ranks with their turn-based roguelike game, Zoeti. In this new title, you battle enemies using a deck of standard playing cards — no crazy-themed cards here — to activate skills and use card combos to defeat your enemies. When you begin the game, you see that there is both a Story Mode and an Adventure Mode, but only the first is unlocked for you to select.

The story goes, there were two goddesses: Zoeti, the one who watched over the Moon, Sun, and stars, and Nesis, an evil goddess who reigned over Demonkind. One day, conflict erupted between the two of them with Zoeti standing victorious. The demon goddess now defeated; her body transformed into evil Soulstone Fragments that fell into the Mortal World. These would attach themselves to the creatures living there, mutating them into Fiends bent on making the Mortal World a nightmarish Hell.

Zoeti, who was grievously wounded in the battle with Nesis, took her remaining strength and created 22 rays of light that she scattered throughout Mortal World. These rays granted the power of the stars to the holders of them, the wielders were then known as Astral Envoys. They would fight against the evil Fiends using astral energy to seal them away. Meanwhile, the Mortal World was losing its faith over the loss of Zoeti. This faith is what gives power to the Astral Envoys to ensure that the seals on the Fiends won’t be broken. So, in response to the diminishing levels, the Astral Envoy’s gathered astral energy that was scattered around the world to create four new gods:

• Batons — god of creation and passion — brandishing the Scepter of Fire.

• Epees — goddess of wisdom and conflict — wielding the Sword of Wind.

• Coupes — god of emotion and inspiration — equipped with the Holy Grail of Water.

• Denieres — goddess of matter and harvests — bearing the Coins of Earth.

This act created Arcania, a kingdom worshipping these four gods, and the fallen Zoeti. A young member of this kingdom has now set out on a sacred quest to the four Origin Temples, assisted by a Griffian — a mythical creature who is dubbed a “Cute Guide” in Zoeti. She/he/it has the ears and tail of a cat with the body of a human and is there to guide you to the examiner. Each of the four temples has an examiner — who will test you with a trial in order to determine your worthiness. The Cute Guide lets you select one card from three that you can add to your deck for battle during the trial — these include weapons, armour, and defence power-ups to select from. 

For the first part of the trial, you will face off against Rabelle, the examiner for the Goddess of Coins. Like your guide, she is a Griffian, but instead of cat ears, she has ram horns and pointed elf-like ears. She gives you some papers needed to face the first part of your trial, and here you get to choose what path you want to follow. The first one is called the Trial of the Greedy  — the examiner is the Power Incarnate with a reward of 50 sand coins or A Trial of Survival — the examiner being An Alluring Empress and the reward is your choice of accessory. Once a trial is selected you can’t change the route you are on until it is complete.

A tutorial begins by teaching you how to use your card decks in battle. Each deck of cards represents a different skill. The game makes it easy to switch between each deck just by hitting a button. Your cards are based on traditional playing cards; there aren’t any with crazy designs here. This is where Zoeti is unique from other card-battling games I have played, your attacks are based on poker hands. The more rare the hand, the stronger the attack, so a full house or a flush will be stronger than a pair. You have the option to sort your cards by suit or by number, whichever you prefer. When you click on a card, the game shows you all the possible hands you can play using that card, and playing single cards is also possible. You can also view a hand preview that will show you the upcoming hand so you can save cards that you want to use along with that next draw. Once you are out of cards, your turn is done, and the enemy gets to make a move. They have the option to use a defensive skill, attack, or use a skill that will weaken you. You keep taking turns until one of you is defeated, then after the fight, you enter the Preparation Function phase. Here, you can go to the Equipment area in your menu then to the Skill Page to change which attacks are assigned to the different Poker Hands. Some of the hands increase your armour, some attack the enemy multiple times, and others will give you temporary strength. It is up to you to configure your skills in the way you think will be most effective.

Once you arrive at the trial location, Rabelle is surprised that you aren’t injured, so she casts a spell on you to increase the chances that you will get hurt, making it a more challenging trial. Truthfully, this doesn’t make too much of a difference as the monster you battle isn’t that strong, but it was awesome to get a new card that has stronger attacks. Now that the quest is clear, you get to claim your coins, or accessory card depending on the path that you had selected. If you went for the accessory card, you will get to select between an attack card, defensive move, or bump up your overall health by 10 points.

With the quest complete, you can now go meditate; this can be done when you go to your room, or when you go to a campsite. Here, you can use Soulstone Fragments that you have obtained to level up your character's skills and abilities, with the cheapest costing five Fragments. Some of the selections that you can purchase make your offensive moves stronger or improve your defence by making your armour stronger. You also have the option to save your Fragments until you have more to spend later on the bigger ticket items. Once you are done shopping, you can rest and recover your HP to get ready for the next battle.

The visuals in Zoeti are very whimsical and have a hand-drawn look to them. Though there isn’t much variety — or any,I should say — in the still pictures that are shown when a character is speaking, it was always the same image no matter if it fits the conversation or not. When I first started playing, there was no music or audio whatsoever, and it wasn’t an issue with my speakers. Going into the settings for some reason all the sliders for music, sound effects, etc. were turned all the way down. Once I turned it up, I was greeted with music featuring flutes, violins, and big brass instruments that tried to give an epic feel. But, unfortunately, the music got very repetitive and lost its “epic” feel pretty fast.

Zoeti is a fun card-battling game that felt different from all the others I had played recently, as it was more like a poker battle than just single-attack cards, which was really cool. I really enjoyed being able to select the attacks that you would perform with each of the different poker hands and being able to get a peak at your next hand so you could save cards that would work great with the new draw when it was your turn again. Though, in true roguelike fashion, if you lose a battle and get a game over, you have to start right back from the beginning, so all the cool new cards you got on this last run are gone. If you enjoy deck-building/battling games, Zoeti is a twist on the traditional ones in this genre.