Taking too long to decide which card to play in Golden Swirl could end with a sword in your face. The dark fantasy action deckbuilder from Snako Production launches today, combining deckbuilding with semi-real-time combat that keeps you moving while you’re deciding what to play next.
Published by Infini Fun, Golden Swirl arrives with four playable characters, five acts, more than 120 cards, 100 relics, runes to modify your deck, and a procedural journey into an enormous swirling abyss that’s already done a pretty good job of ruining the rest of the world.
You’ll need a decent deck to survive it and some quick reflexes wouldn’t hurt either.
Pick a Card, Dodge the Sword
Combat gives you a hand of cards to manage, but enemies aren’t going to stand around while you work out the perfect move. You’ll need to reposition your character, dodge incoming attacks, find the right angle to strike from, and choose when to actually play the cards you’ve drawn. Timing becomes part of the deckbuilding as a result, with different decks changing the rhythm of how you fight.
There’s plenty to experiment with once you start building one. Each of the four characters has their own card pool and starting relics, while more than 100 additional relics can be collected during runs. Runes add another layer by modifying cards, opening up combinations between all three systems and giving individual characters plenty of room to head in different directions.
A great hand is still only useful if you can stay alive long enough to play it.
The Golden Will Isn’t Necessarily on Your Side
There’s more waiting between battles than another opportunity to fiddle with your deck. Runs generate different maps, enemies, treasures, and NPC encounters, with the decisions you make affecting the resources and rewards you receive along the way. Those choices also feed into the Golden Will system.
Events can change your character’s state and even alter the composition of your deck, with risks capable of producing either a useful advantage or another problem you’ll have to deal with further into the run.
More than 20 fully voiced NPCs are scattered throughout the journey too, including merchants, swordsmen, and other survivors who have been affected by the Swirl in their own ways. Not everyone you meet is particularly pleased to see you.
Something Went Very Wrong With the Moon
To be fair, they have bigger problems. Golden Swirl takes place in a world that was once watched over by the Golden God, until a being known as the Great Dreamer arrived and things went downhill remarkably quickly.
Eldritch whispers drove people into a cannibalistic frenzy, the gods fell, and the Black Moon eventually twisted into the enormous Golden Swirl that’s now threatening to consume everything. The remaining survivors responded by creating the Nameless One, sending you into the Swirl to discover the truth behind what happened.
That journey stretches across five distinct acts in the full release, with different starting areas, bosses, enemies, encounters, and rewards changing what you find between runs. There’s even gothic metal accompanying the trip, just in case descending into a reality-warping abyss filled with eldritch horrors wasn’t dramatic enough already.
After months of demo updates, balancing, boss changes, new areas, and the addition of voice acting, the complete version is finally ready. Golden Swirl launches on Steam today, just remember to keep one eye on your cards and the other on whatever is currently trying to kill you.