Demon’s Mirror is an upcoming roguelike game from developer Be-Rad Entertainment. “Great! Another roguelike game!” you might exclaim in exasperation. Don’t worry, though, because Demon’s Mirror offers an additional twist, one that sees the genre combined with deckbuilding reminiscent of Slay the Spire and match-3 or, in this case, chain-3 gameplay, akin to Puzzle Quest.

I had a chance to check out a hands-off preview of Demon’s Mirror. I joined Brad Johnson, the founder of Be-Rad Entertainment, as well as folks from publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment. While I only saw a brief glimpse of the characters and mechanics, I was still very much intrigued by tactical intricacies.

Demon’s Mirror features three heroes who have been trapped in a dark realm. Only two were available in the demo, Wulf and Draga, though it was easy to see their unique perks and card abilities. For instance, Wulf gets a free chain point, whereas Draga can lower the cost of chaining and cards by a point. Sounds a bit confusing? Well, then, I’ll go ahead and explain the mechanics…

As mentioned earlier, Demon’s Mirror combines deckbuilding and chain-3 gameplay. During your character’s turn, you can use action points to either chain tiles on the board or play the cards in your hand. Chaining essentially means drawing a line across multiple symbols of the same type, such as swords to deal damage, shields to block damage, or essence (i.e. green orbs) to buff cards. There’s even another resource called willpower (i.e. purple gems), which gives three potential effects to choose from.

“Demon’s Mirror offers an additional twist, one that sees the genre combined with deckbuilding reminiscent of Slay the Spire…”

Naturally, the more symbols and the longer the line you chain, the stronger the effect. This is where your tactical acumen comes into play since you need to ascertain whether it’s better to deal damage to a foe, empower your next action, or block an oncoming hit. Another cool tidbit is that there’s an accessibility setting that automatically shows you the longest line you can trace, in case that’s the action you want to do during that turn.

As for the card-based gameplay in Demon’s Mirror, those in your hand are refreshed each turn, allowing you to make use of various abilities and quirks. For instance, one card might deal flat damage to all enemies, while another has a bigger boost against a single target. The most useful, as I’ve seen, is the card that swaps tiles that are next to each other. It’s another layer of strategy for those who really want to create the longest chain on the board.

Similarly, the foes you battle can place their own enemy tiles, which automatically deal damage to your character after a few turns. When this occurs, you have to prioritize destroying that tile or at least prepare to take the brunt of the hit. As you plan your moves, you also have to consider your chosen character’s unique perks as they relate to the action economy.

“…with each run in Demon’s Mirror, you could find yourself completing objectives or tallies, allowing you to unlock modifiers for future attempts.”

I asked Be-Rad Entertainment founder Brad Johnson how he conceptualized Demon’s Mirror, especially since it combined the three genres of roguelike, deckbuilder, and match-3/chain-3. According to Johnson, it was a challenge to try and balance all three genres. However, the team did obtain a lot of feedback after doing two beta tests, the second of which had over a hundred testers. I was told that the team is confident that Demon’s Mirror will be “more accessible, fun, and balanced” due to the preparations that they’ve made.

I should also mention the roguelike aspect since your journey in Demon’s Mirror requires you to clear three zones. Each zone’s map has icons representing enemies, elites, bosses, shops, campsites, and even random events. (Regrettably, I’ve been told that there are no multi-stage event sequences or secret outcomes as of this moment.)

With each attempt, your character’s cards are randomized from a pool of those that you’ve unlocked. Likewise, the icons on the map will have randomized positions, too, which means the path you take to your goal will be different. Lastly, with each run in Demon’s Mirror, you could find yourself completing objectives or tallies, allowing you to unlock modifiers for future attempts.

All in all, Demon’s Mirror is shaping up to be a promising title that offers a unique mishmash of mechanics from different genres. The game will be available soon on Steam. We’ll keep you posted once a definite release date has been announced.

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