Spirit Duels

Absolutely amazing game. Lemme give a classic pros and cons list:

Pros:

• This game is just straight up fun. (What more do you need after this, right?) Gameplay is well designed, mechanics are unique, and I just have a good time playing it.
• Love the artwork. The colors, the character designs, the UI, all of it. I found myself just staring at the cards in my hand looking at the art. Plus, due to the cartoon style of the game, my wife (who is NOT a big gamer) didn’t feel intimidated trying to learn how to play it. And now that she likes playing it she wants to build a spirit line of the ones she finds are “cute”. Classic.
• Deck building. This is one of my favorite features of the game. Yes you do essentially build your deck, but it is not in the over-complicated min-max way like Pokemon or Magic. The way you build your deck is simply by picking 3 spirit lines, and each of those spirit lines come with their own unique cards. That’s it. For me personally I think that’s perfect. It gives me just enough flexibility that I can make fun combinations, but I don’t have to think about what specific cards to put in my deck. By the way, there are 9 different classes and 3 different spirit lines within each class. So LOTS of options.
• Good combination of skillful choices options and luck. And the luck is always something you can take into account when building your team and making plays though, which I love. Makes every game that much more unique.
• The game is fairly simple, but also has quite a bit of depth. You can just pick it up and choose what spirit lines you think look cool and you’d have fun playing it. Or you can dig into each spirit line’s unique cards and come up with cool combinations and strategies and you’d have fun playing it that way too.

Cons:

• Easy to follow game mechanics, but the mechanics took me a second to learn as I read through the rulebook. Once you understand them it’s pretty straightforward from there. If you’re an avid gamer then you’d probably have an easier time than me learning the mechanics. There is also some terminology I had to refer back to my first few times playing.
• I do wish there was a 2v2 game mode. Although I did hear from the developer that it’s in the works and the game just barely arrived for kickstarters, so I’ll cut them some slack.
• This is more of a complaint than a con against the game. The dice symbols on the spirit cards are a bit small and I have to look close to see which dice I roll (especially the blue magic and the green essence). The lvl 2 dice are easier to differentiate and I’m sure over time I’ll just know what dice that spirit uses.

Sdj

Can't wait for this game, has the looks of Poekmon and the structure of Star Wars Destiny with added mechanics. Check the game out on Kickstarter if thoes are games that you like.

Pretty good little game. I think it's cute and it introduces some interesting mechanics. I've only played the initial match up however, and the fire side does seem a bit strong with its burn tokens and its armor. It may just require some more experience playing on my part. I am looking forward to future content that may add options for more than 2 players.

Such a well designed system. I love the combo of evolution mixed with dice. My 8 year old son is really enjoying it too!

This game is fantastic, and quite frankly I'm shocked it's far better than Disney Lorcana, and on par with Pokemon. It's accessible like Pokemon, but not light like Lorcana (the reason I got tired of it quickly).

Love the dice, all of the artwork and lore is fantastic. Can't wait for any expansions that come!!

This game restored my faith in the crowdfunding platforms. This independent small publisher made a great game with the help of the community. Their love for the project reflects in every aspect of the game, from the snappy and full of choices turns to the big book of Lore that comes with the game and the great rulebook. Highly recommended. Also, there is great replayability. I hope and wish that we will see expansions for the game. They will be an instant buy for me.

It's Pokémon adapted (slightly) to be drafted...plus dice.

The rulebook is so full of typos you can't even assemble the recommended precon decks with getting help online. The game ships with errata replacement cards, but that's not the end of the typos. The rules are poorly worded, often saying one thing literally when they clearly mean something else entirely. The graphic design is not very functional.

As best I can tell, the game is a jumbled mess of ideas that are not cohesively connected. The die rolls are pretty random, the dice manipulation is fiddley, and every creatures has an element with special rules you have to look up in the rulebook (not printed in the cards). There does not appear to be a lot of synergies or combos or counters going on, which is what would make drafting interesting. There is just a back-and-forth slog of combat and attrition.

Exceptional monster dueling game with great detail to lore, how mechanics interact and due to spirit multi-classing, how those mechanics should mesh, along with a very clear route to future expansions.