If the Steam storefront was a physical space, you would barely be able to move around it without knocking into another roguelike deckbuilder. Yet developers, perhaps inspired by the unbelievably strong experiences the genre has to offer, don’t seem to tire of bringing new deckbuilding games to market. Voice of Belldona is yet another example, but is it worth checking out? Let’s take a look!

What is Voice of Belldona?

A roguelike deckbuilding title with a strong anime flavor, Voice of Belldona is an indie game that’s currently in early access. That means that you can buy it, but that the developers are still refining the experience and adding new elements, based on feedback from players and their own roadmap.

Though the presentation is unique, with familiar mechanics such as a map of encounters to work your way through as you progress, there’s plenty to set Voice of Belldona aside from its peers. There’s an almost bewildering number of stats, values and keywords, for example.

Combat relies on spacing, summoning and a clever use of combos to defeat enemies. There’s a lot to take in with the combat, and the fact that a choice of characters, with a variety of specializations, are available, means that you can explore numerous playstyles.

Grid-based exploration and revealing of waypoints makes the world of Voice of Belldona feel larger and more coherent than other roguelike deckbuilding games. Exploration in similar titles often takes place along just a single path of encounters, for example.

Is Voice of Belldona Fun to Play?

Despite a steep learning curve, with a tutorial that feels like it’s lacking lots of elements to prepare you for the full experience, Voice of Belldona is worth persevering with. The tutorial feels almost like a holdover from a prior version of the game, given how different it feels to the game’s currently available mode.

The choice of characters and their specializations allows for a great deal of variety and experimentation, with the turn-based combat feeling weighty and impactful. The variety in just character selection alone, even without considering the starter deck is really impressive too.

The music is fantastic, and the visuals, including superb character design (if a little, well, busty in the case of the female characters) as well as animation, also excels. The game’s biggest issue right now is just how overwhelming the various card effects and abilities can be when first setting out on an adventure, and how little preparation is given for the game when completing the tutorial. Even so, there’s enjoyment to be had in learning the satisfying number of combos and strategies available with the very well designed cards in each character’s decks.

The Card Gamer Verdict

Though many elements of Voice of Belldona need some refinement (which is incoming), everything is built on a solid foundation of card-based mechanics. The audio and visuals are excellent, and improvements to the tutorial and UI will make the deeply strategic, well-paced experience even better. That’s before we even consider the additions to other modes and story content which is yet to come. Though we’re not quite there yet, the developer has released a roadmap of improvements and updates to be implemented in order to work towards full release over the next six months. With this plan in motion, the future looks bright for Voice of Belldona.

You can view and buy Voice of Belldona from Steam using the below widget:

Take a look at our reviews of other deckbuilding roguelike games, such as The Spirit Lift and Hungry Horrors.