Mahokenshi is an action adventure/card-game fusion developed by Game Source Studio and published by Iceberg Interactive. You play as a collection of four Mahokenshi, warriors that utilize both sword and magic channeled from mythical guardian creatures from Japanese myth such as the Tengu or the Kappa. In this game, the Mahokenshi travel across the Celestial Islands, a mystical world teeming with beauty and wonder, in order to attempt to stop an evil cult from unleashing powerful evil and destroying the peaceful lands forever. But despite the alluring premise, does Mahokenshi slice through the competition and stand alone as the next card-building game, or will it shatter against them like a flimsy blade?
PROS:
First and foremost, the graphics are incredibly well-designed. It isn’t anything truly groundbreaking and doesn’t push any boundaries, but rather the art style holds a lot of charm and nostalgic weight. When looking at the illustrations displayed on the cards as well as the interactive elements, I feel as though I am back playing Magic the Gathering for the first time as a teenager. It holds a retro, D&D-like style that I find really charming for this type of game; a game that attempts to convey itself as a grand adventure through a magical land. Too gritty and the game would’ve looked bland and unexciting. Too cartoonish and the game wouldn’t feel serious. Mahokenshi walks the fine line that allows it to execute its art flawlessly.
But art alone is just art. Gameplay is where the game truly shines, as Mahokenshi tackles and solves the card-game genre’s greatest problem, which is the sense of adventure. Instead of being limited to just cards on the screen, the player is displayed on a hexagonal grid, much like city-builder games and the like. The player can maneuver around the map based on how much energy they have and what types of board tiles they can maneuver across. For example, roads and plains take only one energy to travel across, but forests take two and tall mountains take three. Not only this, but all of the cards that the player can use require energy to play. So, the player must strategize between movement, buffs and attacks in order to best accomplish their missions.
The missions themselves are also a great addition to the genre and a highlight for this game. Each mission consists of a main goal such as defeating the boss, reaching a ruined village, or sealing a mystic gate. On top of this, the player can find new cards to add to their deck scattered across the map, upgrade their cards with gold found from defeating enemies, upgrade their health, damage, and defense, as well as accomplish secondary objectives such as killing a certain amount of enemies or defeating a very powerful enemy. The game’s mechanics require a lot of planning and strategy, but because of these new features, the gameplay is extremely engaging. For an anecdotal example, one mission I played was to seal a gate by turn 22. However, I needed to rebuild my deck, as every mission starts the player with a basic deck, fully unupgraded, as the player needs to upgrade/build their deck differently each mission, lest they become stuck because of what cards they have. I needed to travel across the entire map, and as I made progress, I found myself seeking new upgrades, fighting goblins to finish a quest, and so on. By turn 21 out of 22, I didn’t know if I was going to have enough movement to reach the end. Luckily through sheer chance, I drew the proper cards I needed and beat it. This shows how even though the game’s mechanics are straightforward, if the player isn’t careful, it can get really difficult really fast.
CONS:
And while this game is, for all intents and purposes, really great, Mahokenshi isn’t without flaws. However, one of the only issues I can really think of would be the sound design falls flat. Sound often cuts out or isn’t present where one would think it would be. It simply lacks polish. Besides this, the game’s decks resetting after missions seems like the only other issue. If there was an option to allow the player to pick their starting deck, I would think that this would be fine. By starting from a default deck, the beginnings can feel rather similar, despite how fluid and well-designed the rest of the game is.
CONCLUSION:
But despite the lackluster sound design and the unfortunate deck resets, Mahokenshi is a fantastic card-game/action-adventure hybrid that elevates both genres together. With an incredible art style and setting, followed up by a fantastically designed gameplay loop that flows into itself to create tense and rewarding gameplay, Mahokenshi is definitely a game that I would highly recommend. Props to Game Source Studio and Iceberg Interactive for pushing the genre forward, and I would also love to recommend that any other game developers should look at what they have done with this game.
SCORE:9/10
Mahokenshi releases today for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by Matthew White
An avid gamer, Matthew is also an aspiring game developer. Because of this, Matthew knows not only what makes a game great, but also the hard work and artistry required to craft such a phenomenal experience.
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