Inscryption was one of my favorite games of 2021. I’m a fan of the deckbuilding roguelike genre (e.g. Slay the Spire, One Step from Eden), so I was predisposed to it, but Inscryption does such a terrific job building an atmosphere that it holds up amazingly well three years later. Character oozes out of every stylistic decision, from the disturbing sound design to the trinkets and items that adorn the play table. It’s unforgettable if you experience it for the first time blind.
To start, you’re plopped in a black room across the table from a shadowed individual, Leshy. He invites you to play a card game, but it’s not like there is much of an option to refuse. Leshy teaches you how to play cards, take turns, attack, and sacrifice them for gain. Unlike Yu-Gi-Oh, Inscryption gives weight to your sacrifice. It seems like you’re sacrificing sentient beings to compete in these battles.
The cards themselves aren’t often inspired creatures. Most are real animals. Coyotes, Wolves, Snakes, Grizzlies, Mantis, these are all common creatures in an Inscryption encounter. I find this to be rather exciting! There’s a level of abstraction that comes when your opponent summons the Four Headed Blue Shadow Dragon which deals 9001 damage in a card game. There’s something a lot more grim when they aim a grizzly at your face.
Similarly, the bosses in Inscryption are real professions. The Prospector, Angler, Trapper, are all people with a job, some who you had previously interacted with in a polite fashion. They all look a little… off .
(the prospector has seen better days)
You don’t know where you are, why you’re fighting, but Leshy implies rather strongly that the consequence for your loss is your death. You push on.
How do you die? There is no health bar in Inscryption. There’s a scale weighed against you and your opponent. Deal damage to them, place a weight on their side of the scale. Take damage and a weight is placed on your side. The closer it gets to your expiration, the more strained the scale itself sounds, with clinks that escalate in pitch. It may seem like a tiny detail in sound design, but I remember it so vividly.
Sometimes you may be in a desperate situation to tip the scales. You could use some rusty pliers to pluck out your tooth to earn a single tick of damage. These are the things you have to do to survive after all, and better a tooth than your life. What if a single tooth isn’t enough? You may be lucky enough to find a knife. Use the knife to stab out your eye to gain four ticks of damage. There is no ceremony about this, no agonized scream your character provides, no gore. You simply point the knife at your eye, hands trembling, and play the rest of the fight with half blackened vision. Inscryption is a serviceable deck builder (especially in Kaycee’s Mod), but I remember the game for these scenes more than anything else. .
(might be a knife angle)
Also, can we talk about the music? It’s so disharmonic and ominous! It’s not a soundtrack that I’d put on anywhere else, but the Trapper encounter, that’s got to be the best song in the game. Low humming vocals with a stressful metronome keeping time, strings plucking in the background, grotesque slurping noises accentuating it all. Leshy’s theme itself is also quite the banger. It’s the only boss theme with a real melody line and actual instruments. The theme motif repeats as more and more instruments join and it warns you that this is a decisive encounter.
In the course of clearing Leshy’s path, there’s an interesting little event you may have missed. The game expects you to fail your first run, and that’s understandable! Everything is novel and you aren’t aware of the mechanics. However, if you persevere, during your first fight with the Trapper, the screen flickers, and Leshy’s eyes turn red. The enemy’s board has changed.
Who could defeat 8 flying Grizzly bears? Not me.
There’s a lot of good in Act 1 of Inscryption. If the game was just Act 1 it might genuinely be one of my favorite games of all time, though I’d classify it more strangely as an RPG rather than an actual roguelike deckbuilder. However, the game has more to give. What minorly disappointed me was the later acts and the actual overarching plot of the game. Act 1 in Leshy’s cabin is where the game shines strongest. When you’re first thrust in, you don’t know whats gotten you in the cabin. There’s just a strange man across from you in the dark, he tells you to sacrifice sentient cards to fight and sacrifice your organs to survive. Mystery is the essence of horror. I can’t expect the game to maintain such a sinister atmosphere. Eventually we will have to uncover the secrets and chase away the demons. However, the last 40% of Inscryption is completely absurd. I wouldn’t say I particularly disliked it, but I couldn’t finish replaying it this time. I do think that it is a large downgrade from Act 1.
Inscryption was a delightful experience that has one of the best atmospheres of any game I’ve ever played. It doesn’t quite stick its final landing, but Act 1 as a standalone experience is well polished and excellent. Given that most people will only ever be exposed to Act 1, I think Daniel Mullins can stand proud of his one man project.
It sounds like “Inscryption” really left a strong impression on you! I totally get why, especially given your appreciation for deckbuilding roguelikes. The way you describe the game’s atmosphere and its unique blend of straightforward gameplay with eerie narrative elements is captivating. It’s fascinating how the game uses seemingly simple mechanics like a scale instead of a health bar to intensify the sense of dread and urgency. That detail about sacrificing your own body parts to tip the scales in battle adds a grim but intriguing twist that isn’t common in most games.
The use of everyday animals and regular professions for the card characters and bosses also adds a layer of realism that makes the horror elements more relatable and unnerving. It’s cool that you found the soundtrack memorably dissonant and effective in enhancing the game’s unsettling ambiance.
It’s a shame to hear that the later parts of the game didn’t quite live up to the promise of the first act for you. It seems like the shift in tone and perhaps the narrative direction didn’t mesh well with what made the initial experience standout. It’s always a tough balance for developers to maintain consistency while expanding on their game’s world. Nonetheless, it sounds like “Inscryption,” particularly its first act, will remain a memorable experience for you. Thanks for sharing your thoughts—it’s definitely piqued my interest in the game!
I really liked your points about the music/sound design and the choice of real animals rather than the fantastical, mythological creatures that you typically find in card games. These are all “small” choices that contribute a lot of to the grim and thrill of Inscryption. I hadn’t even noticed myself the full effectiveness of the sound design, for instance; when you mention the scale increasing in pitch as it clinks with weight, I found myself recalling the noise and realizing how I’d intuitively understood it without much active thought. It’s great to see someone who had a similarly strong reaction towards Inscryption especially during the first playthrough, and as another deckbuilder lover. I
Hi Khaled!
I enjoyed reading your takes on Inscyption. I would agree that this game is unforgettable when experiencing it for the first time. As you said, the game’s atmosphere was incredible and immersive, and you pointed out little details with the music and game mechanics that I didn’t pick up on when I played.
I also compared Inscryption with Yu-Gi-Oh, but I couldn’t put my finger on what made this card game so distinct. You are so right about the sentient beings and realistic creatures present in the cards! I was very surprised to see the stoat come to life and start lecturing, as well as threatening me if I sacrificed its card. This is something new that I have not experienced before, and I realize that that is a unique aspect that I rarely see in the games I have played. Battling a sparrow or bumblebee is indeed quite different from having to combat a legendary Pokemon that is level 90 and far replaced from what we see in the real world.
I am sorry to hear that the latter acts did not meet your expectations. I am hoping to play the game in its entirety and am even more curious now to see how everything unfolds. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!