.Long ago, the Four Archetypes sealed away The Stranger, who wanted to turn the world back into formless chaos. Until a young man found a Tower and unleashed that seal, bringing The Stranger's powers back into the World of 4 Corners. People from all over the world set sail in an expedition to the Isle of Doom in order to reseal that corrupting power and save the world.
Set in a fantasy world where magic is encoded in cards, the player must build a deck based on the four Archetypes in order to brave the six dungeons of the Isle of Doom and ultimately seal The Stranger.
Dungeon Drafters provides examples of:
- Anti-Frustration Features: Quill and Jar Shrines. Quill Shrines let you continue from the same floor of a dungeon if the game closes out or crashes for some reason, while Jar Shrines allow the player to safely send their cards back to town mid dungeon trek.
- Cards of Power: The very basis of gameplay. The cards hold the power of the Archetypes who created the world, and their magic can be recreated by using them.
- Critical Status Buff: Grit cards, which have better or additional effects when the caster is at low HP.
- Friendly Fireproof: Averted. Enemies can damage each other with their attacks, and you and your summoned units can also damage each other.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: The player character is a Returner, able to come back from death in-universe. Returners are also (for some reason) unable to trade cards with one another, explaining why players can't trade cards.
- Geo Effects: Plenty. Most dungeons have tiles with unique effects, such as magma or slippery ice, and the player is also able to create their own.
- Hub City: The aptly-named Town.
- Lethal Lava Land: The Magma City dungeon.
- Mini-Dungeon: The Misty Grove, less than a fourth the size of any other dungeon.
- Power Copying: Several enemies might drop a card based on their attacks or powers. All bosses also do so.
- Randomly Generated Levels: Every single one.
- Rewarding Vandalism: Jar, shelves, chairs, and everything else the player can break will sometimes yield Shards.
- Schrödinger's Player Character: The start of the game gives you six characters to choose from, each of which has a default deck that specializes in the magic of two of the four archetypes: the Mage (Oracle/Raider), the Explorer (Traveler/Warden), the Brawler (Warden/Raider), the Shinobi (Raider/Traveler), the Monk (Oracle/Warden), and the Bard (Oracle/Traveler). The first two were available in the demo version of the game, while the other four were added after the fundraising campaign hit milestone goals. Beating the game once unlocks a seventh protagonist, also added due to milestone goals, who uses the Stranger element.
- Shifting Sand Land: The Dune Dome dungeon.
- Ship Level: The Lost Wreckage dungeon.
- Shout-Out: Several cards reference moves from other franchises.
- Limit Breaker is Cloud Strife's Omnislash.
- Master Spark is, of course, Marisa Kirisame's signature skill.
- Shinespark is borrowed from Samus.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Glacial Library dungeon.
- Status Effects: Several, from poison to being turned into a frog.
