Moon’s Creed Preview

 I got the chance to check out the Early Access of Moon’s Creed, a roguelike deckbuilder by Creedon Games. Now, I’ve played plenty of titles that were heavily inspired by Slay the Spire, and for good reason; It’s what good deckbuilders should strive towards in terms of quality, offering the thrills of strategy and luck in one package. However, it’s one thing to be inspired by the by Mega Crit's genre-defining experience; it’s another to copy it. Just on the surface, aside from the theming, Moon’s Creed looks very similar to the game, even down to the art style (although not the colour scheme). However, you should never judge a book by its cover, and I want to give it a fair shot. So what should you expect if you pick it up?

In this game, almost everything is based around the Zodiac signs: You play as one of three Zodiac heroes who must battle the corrupted Zodiac avatars in order to save the universe. Each character has their own playstyle with unique cards, abilities, and mechanics. However, you can also pick your Zodiac sign to start a run with, and each sign has a different focus when it comes to granting you a boon.

Once you pick a character and Zodiac sign, you are off on your galaxy-spanning adventure. You’ll be travelling across a board of branching paths full of events, shops, and fights, improving and refining your deck and gaining special boons in order to beat the boss, move on to the next area, and eventually beat the run by killing the final boss. Pretty standard, nothing special.

Battles are also a familiar affair, where you draw from a deck, play cards by spending a resource, and do your damndest to beat all the enemies without losing too much health in order to win. Lose all health at any point, and your run ends prematurely. Again, nothing special, but overall, it works for a reason. Cards and boons interact with each other in interesting ways, and you can definitely create a good deck with whatever random cards you get. However, there is a difference in that you get to choose who you face when selecting the final boss of the area, rather than the encounter being randomised or having a set order. It’s intriguing and it allows you to figure out what the best avatar you might want to fight at the moment.

At its core, Moon’s Creed looks to be a fun time, but it’s all built on an already established formula that doesn’t really offer anything new aside from its theme, with only some surface-level differences. That’s not bad and if you’re looking for another deckbuilder to play this might be right up your alley, but if you’re itching for something unique, then you’re best looking elsewhere. Still, you’ll get the same thrill of strategy and luck if you play your cards right. It looks to be aiming for replayability, offering both daily challenges and making mods easy to develop. I look forward to further developments.