Good Game
It's a nice little game and of a style that i haven't seen in years. there are some balancing issues but I enjoyed this game. I tried using the fighter but I just kept dying, I then switched to the wizard and used a shoot and run for the hill tactic and was able to survive a lot easier. I think that if you tweeked it a little and made it longer you could market it to something like XBLA or steam.
A love letter to rougelike crawlers
The tile-based gameplay of this game brings back fond memories of Castle of the Winds and the legendary NetHack. The design is not complicated, not to say the game isn't difficult, because it is. It starts out easy enough, but quickly picks up steam. In what seemed like no time at all I had burnt through all of my potions and was desperately hoping I found one in a chest or charged up my healing spell before I died. And you will die, luckily the designer thought to include extra lives, but a save system would have been nice as it is irritating having to start from square one multiple times. But as it follows the permadeath tradition of NetHack it is both understandable and forgivable.
There is no attack button, leveling is rudimentary, magic works via cooldown eliminating a mana gauge, and the inventory is a lite system of Castle's. Put simply, the game does not have a lot of bells and whistles, and this is intentional. The stripped-down gameplay is a tribute to tile-based, dungeon crawling, computer rpgs, and it is done to the T.
You sir, have made a wonderful time consuming, yet awesomely classical game.
Graphics : 10/10
The pixels art was done fantastically. It wasn't very detailed, which suits the game perfectly since the game itself is simple.
Game play : 6/10
The overall game play was good, but I really wish that you would have had a story line (well more of one), a town, characters and the like. Also, try expanding the character skill building. I do like the way that the spells are found, too many games have unlockable skills, and the repetitiveness gets quite tedious.
Cardinal Quest has real potential; it seems unfinished.
4/5 due to lack of storyline...
Fantastic game! I love the simplicity and casual feel it has compared to other roguelikes (most of which are ridiculously difficult). Although this game is still challenging, I like that it gives the player room to make a couple mistakes. The graphics and soundtrack are just excellent. Honestly, this game could be my favorite roguelike if it had a few enhancements:
*A couple of randomly placed merchants would make use of gold and loot.
*A wider variety of items and enemies could really add some depth to the game.
*An option to turn off auto-equip.
*[SPOILER] A boss battle or two would add more excitement and deeper strategy options. Especially at the end of the game (the minotaur could still escape right before defeat). [SPOILER]
*Many roguelikes have different species choices as well as deity worship. In this case, it would take away from the simplicity of the game, but it would definitely add more replay value.
Otherwise great game!
Made it in the first attempt with a wizard. Abscence of some bad guy in the end was kinda annoying, but the gameplay overall was really fun, variety of spells gave me some space for different tactics throughout the game.