During my visit to the stand of the publisher Iceberg, I had to see Land of the Vikings, a very enticing exclusivity announced at the show. As I arrived early, I was offered to take a look at Mahokenshi for about twenty minutes. I gladly accepted. Except that once this first presentation was over, that of the Viking survival game had started with another journalist (who was late for him). So more time for Scandinavia (which I should normally see online in a week or two). My only stopover was in the fantasy world inspired by Japanese mythology of Mahokenshi developed by Game Source Studio!
Mahokenshi is a deck-building turn-based strategy game:
Four characters are playable, samurai mages (which incidentally is the literal translation of the word Mahokenshi). Each belongs to a different school, with special abilities drawn from an elemental spirit. They thus combine martial and magical abilities. The sword and spells. In their quest to save the celestial islands, they will have to go through twenty levels, twenty missions, each representing a new challenge, a kind of puzzle to solve, to achieve a very specific goal.
At the start, the character has nothing, no gold and all four cards alike. Cards that are played with energy. The same energy that is used for movement. As each objective requires to be achieved in a set number of turns, it's all about finding the balance between the power needed to fight the enemies and the path to be covered. Taking a detour may seem like a good idea, in order to gain power or complete a secondary quest. But if it's to arrive too late to accomplish the main objective, it's useless.
The fights are resolved in the same way, without any notion of phase, just that it is attack cards that must be played this time. Bonuses are offered based on positioning. A hill gives +3 in attack. A forest +4 defense. Each downed enemy gives gold, and even cards. So do side quests (which can also offer energy rewards). The initial deck is gradually improving thanks to all this loot and hidden treasures. Different places can also be visited during a mission in order to optimize its deck: the village is the place to buy new cards, the dojo is used to improve them, the sanctuary to destroy them. In all, 200 entirely hand-drawn cards are waiting to be harvested.
At the end of each mission, crystals are given according to the results, a currency that is spent in a talent tree common to the four characters. An excellent decision because it doesn't block progress or unnecessarily force replayability to impose a style of gameplay that might not be liked. Nothing therefore prevents you from completely focusing on one, or switching from one to the other of the Mahokenshi according to your desires or mission objectives.
Scheduled for January 2023, Mahokenshi can now be followed on Steam:
