Alina of the Arena

The strategic gameplay of Alina of the Arena is enjoyable and replayable with the starting class, cards, abilities, and weaponry you can receive during each run. The game isn’t that difficult if you’ve played roguelikes before, but still manages to be fun.

I really enjoyed playing Alina of the Arena. It sticks to the recipe for the most part, but it does it well. The arena aspect gives it a slightly distinct flavor, one that I found compelling. It was a little tough early on, but once I unlocked a new class or two I found things clicked really nicely. I wish the UI was a little less awkward, and it’s a little light content-wise compared to some of its peers, but on the whole this is a battle worth fighting.

My nitpicks aside, there’s still a great game in Alina of the Arena, especially for hardcore fans of rogue-like deckbuilders and tactical warfare. The biggest hurdles to get past are the game’s UI quirks and the overall difficulty, but if you’re willing to persevere you’ll find a deep and satisfying combat system and a good amount of replay value. It’s especially fun for handheld gaming on Nintendo Switch.

The Taiwanese studio PINX Games blends Slay the Spire and Into the Breach in a deep, accessible, and highly enjoyable strategy and deck-building game that allows for numerous different strategies within its hexagonal arena, despite its unattractive artistic design, especially in the interface.

Overall, I found Alina of the Arena to possess one of my favorite battle systems in a roguelike since Hades. I can’t understate how fun it can be when you’ve crafted a well functioning deck. It would benefit from improved production values, a story, and many quality-of-life enhancements, particularly to the user interface. If there were more depth and longevity to the core experience–with a complete run taking about an hour–this would be an easy recommendation. As it stands this is a game for fans of the genre who are dying for something new to try. Like making a delicious soup out of the bones of leftover thanksgiving turkey, this is an excellent experience, but it will have you hungry for more; Alina comes up just short in that regard.

Alina of the Arena offers a neat blend of the typical deck-building fun, with the more complex battlefield of a grid-based strategy title. That said, it's a little underwhelming in terms of content, and even presentation (although the arena feel it provides is quite good). Plus it is in need of some rebalancing. Oh, and more cards that enable movement. Ah, yes, and the console-unfriendly control scheme leaves a lot to be desired on the Switch.