Alina of the Arena is another attempt to revitalize the deck-building roguelite, a noble endeavor as ever existed in the game world. I cannot believe how many variants we’ve seen in the past few months, across every platform imaginable, and still the projects soldier forward. Every version seems to bring something new, and, seriously, I’m here for it. I loved playing Magic: the Gathering well into my adult life, and still look fondly at my discarded deck of The Legend of the Five Rings and wonder: would it have been fun if I found someone to play against?

With Alina of the Arena, deck-building takes on a more mobile role as you play the aforementioned Alina, slave/warrior of the Pit and attempting to battle your way out for victory, glory and freedom. You must defeat five opponents of mixed difficulty (some normal, some elite) to ultimately earn the chance to fight the Champion of your level. Defeat them and descend to a deeper location with more nefarious combatants to push you to your limit. Along the way, you can encounter various events to change your circumstances: shops to buy new items and cards, spots to heal Alina or alter your deck (remove cards, improve cards, etc.) and even random chances that will improve your overall situation…for a price.

Alina of the Arena is set, as you may have guessed, in a gladiatorial style area with various enemies and traps that get strewn about the floor. Each turn you have a limited number of action points and cards that cost said action points, allowing you to move, attack, defend or do some other activity that’ll either improve your being or otherwise change how things are going. I feel like we’re at a point when I say “deck-building roguelite,” the average player should have a reasonable idea of what’s to be expected in terms of cards and things like that, considering its popularity with games like Slay the Spire. Sure, there’s plenty of nuance and difference (new names for status ailments, different takes on passive elements), but it’s par for the course. You fight, they fight, he/she/it fights, and further conjugation that translates to “use cards to win.”

The differences come in how Alina of the Arena uses the aforementioned arena. Since it’s a wider area, players often need to figure out how to best utilize movement, which, like SRPGs, only allows players to move first and attack second. Much like my time with Front Mission, it became important to identify what sort of movement was worthwhile, not only because you had to do it first but it also took action points in order to affect. This made the importance of finding cards and sometimes items that improved or altered movement exceedingly important. If you’ve got the best attacks in the world but enemies continue to be out of reach and pick you off with ranged weapons, you’re not a mighty warrior, you’re just a refrigerator with a grudge.

Additionally, the arena aspect means a crowd, and this is a wonderful bit of atmosphere and gameplay. While you fight, the attendees will yell things of encouragement or disbelief and, because they’re absolute savages, will throw things into the arena. This is probably the wildest element of randomization because the items tossed in vary greatly. Maybe it’s a rock and you can hurl it at someone for a quick single damage. But maybe it’s a goddamn heal potion that someone decided to bring with them to Shay Stadium and thought “I ain’t quaffing this tonight, I’ll throw it at the game.” I’m not judging nor complaining, but what an incredible choice for someone who spent their like twelve gold on general purpose seating!

The crowd also rewards you at the end with gold they huck onto the field, which funds your future purchases of cards and, more importantly, items. Alina of the Arena does a fantastic job of making sure that players have just as much reliance on their hardware as their cardware, and the results make things incredibly fun. For example, you might consider investing in a two handed sword so you can hit multiple enemies at once, but that also generates fatigue cards, which take up valuable draw space. You’ll want to get rid of these quickly UNLESS you have the card that then adds bonus attacks if you’ve got fatigues in your deck, so what’s an arena fighter to do? It’s these little bits of strategy that make for an exciting, investible moment in terms of deck creation.

Moreover, Alina of the Arena continues the longstanding tradition of additional character classes, meaning you can also change up your approach to deck-building based off your initial stats. I personally don’t like ranged weapons: melee always feels like the right choice in terms of brutality. But, if you can get a decent role and end up with some crossbows or a more dexterous class to begin with, why not take the assassin approach and not get beaten into a fine paste within the first few minutes of battle? I mean, that’s still going to happen, but at least you’ll be easier to reduce if they don’t need to remove a bastard sword from your corpse as well.

I will admit, despite the many variables to consider, Alina of the Arena moved a lot faster in and out of battles in comparison to other deck-builders. Besides being snappy and quick, Alina seems to understand that players are here for the thrill and the run, not overdone storytelling and lore. You get in, you move around, you fight, you win, pick your prizes and get the hell to the next place. You’re always in control, but the urgency to move forward and to continue the run – keep fighting, keep improving – has a stronger tone throughout. There’s no time to digest lore or figure out the who or way, just FIGHT. It does this better than Slay the Spire, a game that I jump in and out of faster than a too cold bath.

Having said that, the atmosphere can be a little off-putting in terms of visual input. The arena itself has some decent lighting, but the choice of the pixel sprites that are both clustered and muddy results in things feeling a bit too dim. When you get to the choices screen, it’s just a lot of black with a bit of white and it just blends together. I’m not saying that you can’t identify the different choices, but it just doesn’t pop on the screen, especially the Nintendo Switch’s rather tiny display.

Speaking of which, I did play this on the Nintendo Switch, and Alina of the Arena could have benefited from some touch input. Being able to figure out all the different toggles – changing items, using weapon-based power attacks, even ending the turn – was not as easy as it should have been. The learning curve isn’t steep, but my instinct was just to touch the button to move things forward, and it wasn’t an option. A trifle, in the grand scope of things, but trifles can get you the subject of a one act feminist play in Providence Town.

In any case, Alina of the Arena takes some bold steps forward in maintaining the constant of deck-building while injecting plenty of fresh ideas and approaches to the game. It was satisfying, engaging and never left me bored. I didn’t always have the easiest time making choices, but that was part of the thrill, and I appreciate it. Players who love Into the Breach, but wanted a bit more chaos to it should give this a play, and for the rest of us it’s a great exercise in keeping you always surprised by video games.

 

Graphics: 6.5 The spritework looks great in individual instances and the card designs, though small, all work and identify the card clearly. However, the lighting and the omnipresence of the squashed screen result in some things just looking too murky and unrecognizable.	Gameplay: 7.0 Fantastic gameplay loop that maintains the deck-building elements, while introducing plenty of originality with weaponry, movement, and different events. Lightning fast in terms of starting and ending runs without cheapening the experience. Lack of touch interaction and some unintuitive control binding does take you out of the experience, though.
Sound: 6.0 Music was very subtle and, at times, quite forgettable. Different sound effects pepper the enemies, the fights and the items but nothing sticks in the mind. Because it’s forgettable without being offensive, it gets a pass but doesn’t leave a mark.	Fun Factor: 7.5 I dread the day that I meet a deck-builder that makes me tired of the genre, and thankfully, Alina of the Arena is not that game. It still has plenty of great ideas, a wonderful presentation and lots to unlock, experience and perfect.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Alina of the Arena is available now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Alina of the Arena was provided by the publisher.