Fans of games like Slay the Spire or For the Warp are no stranger to the concept of a roguelike deck builder. This hybrid genre of deck-building card games and procedural-generated randomness works extremely well when done right. Canadian-based developer Big Blue Bubble knows this, and its latest take on the roguelike deck builder – Power Chord – looks to make one hell of a riff on the genre.
Power Chord’s main gameplay hook is its ‘band’ mechanic. During my time with the PAX East 2022 demo, I put together a band of a drummer, guitarist, bassist, and a singer, and hit the road. Instead of choosing a character-type that has a unique deck/playstyle like in Slay the Spire, each member of your band has their own set of cards, each with their own specialty. My drummer, for example, was a big ol’ beefy boy built for defense, My guitarist, a MASSIVE DPS flaming banshee. My bassist was an AoE poison punk. And Healing/Stat Buffs came courtesy of my singer.
When a match starts – which plays out like your watching dueling bands on stage, complete with explosive pops of color, crazy lighting, and tons of spectacle – you draw cards from your deck and are limited on how many you can play. When you win a match, you can pick one of three random cards as a reward to add to your deck. Much like Slay the Spire, Power Chord offers branching paths that you are able to choose from. It adds another bit of strategy as your band does not heal between battles, so the entire time you will be weighing that risk/reward system as you decide where to go next.
One of the best bits I took away from the Power Chord demo, was that you can build a deck that really plays well with each of your band members. My initial build focused a lot on building up my corrosion effect (which just melts away your opponents defensive stat), so that my AoE attacks dealt a ton of extra damage. A few of my other bandmates weren’t as well-prepared for battle, unfortunately. My drummer for example, was lacking in defense during my first run. But that just excited me more about the deck-building possibilities that Power Chord offers. I just wanted to play more and see how differently I can build my deck. The best part is that you have multiple unlockable characters to swap in and out of your bands during each playthrough. So while my bassist was a corrosion beast, maybe my next one would specialize in damage over time attacks, etc. It leaves a LOT of opportunity for replay, and that is exactly the feature you want in a game like this.
As a HUGE fan of the deck building genre, Power Chord really struck a chord with me. It adds plenty of variety to the genre to get me really excited for the full release. While Power Chord has no set release date yet, you can try it out for yourself right now on Steam.
