Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-01-25 18:48 JST)

Taiwanese game developer PINIX has released their game Alina of the Arena onto Steam Early Access to high praise from players.

Alina of the Arena is a roguelite deckbuilding tactics game that developer PINIX describes as a combination of elements from Slay the Spire and Into the Breach. Players take on the role of a gladiator fighting in a colosseum in turn-based battles, and stages have elements of randomness that occur as you fight for your survival.

Each match contains a variety of enemies that appear, and players take action by playing cards. There are numerous cards such as attack, defense, status effect, and a variety of skill cards. Players will spend AP to use cards as they fight. The colosseum has a hex grid giving players a high degree of freedom with positioning. Some attacks can knock enemies back, and there are movement related cards, so considering positioning is a must.

There are also cards related to equipment, and it’s possible to equip items to your left and right hands. Depending on what you equip, you can receive effects like attack cards being stronger or having higher defenses. However, some of these also come with negative effects as well.

When you win a round, you will receive new cards from a random selection. Plus, when an enemy is defeated during a round, spectators will throw cards and items into the arena that can be picked up and used. From there, plan for the next match and fight on.

The game is Early Access, but the core elements seem to be mostly complete at this stage. As for their continued plans, they say new areas, enemies, bosses, cards, and more are going to be added. Releasing the game in a suitably playable state seems to have worked out as the gameplay is being received quite favorably from players. Of the user reviews on Steam, 92% are favorable giving the game a rating of “Very Positive.” Alina of the Arena is even doing well enough to rank highly among recent releases on the Steam charts (SteamDB).