Extremely Repetitive Experience

I couldn’t finish this one; Each exploration feels extremely similar and started to get pretty dull. I played 7 different Derelicts on the hardcore mode and there was hardly any difference outside of a few character interactions and the amount of square area each ship encompasses. I couldn't imagine having to go through again on another playthrough.

On top of this you rarely feel like there is much at risk. It’s very easy to get back to the central hub safely whenever you need if you are low on health or energy.

As for the card play and building a deck there are more problems here. Since cards are attached to equipment, I found myself holding way too much loot just in case I changed weapons and then constantly having to sort through it to find specific combinations of card and ability boosts. This seriously detracted from the pacing of the game. Also, it was a bit annoying to track certain character abilities that give bonuses for playing specific types of cards. There are no reminders in-battle that you will receive X as a result of playing the card. Example: Medic can give +X HP to the targeted unit if a medical card is played.

Balance-wise certain control effects are way over-tuned compared to others. In general whichever side successfully deploys these first usually has control and will win the battle. If by chance that ends up being the enemy side it is fairly easy to be completely locked out of play and leaving you watching your party get wiped.

Despite having some pretty cool art; there are too many other detractors that make this one an avoid in my book.