Hearthstone in RPG Maker? I do like that digital card game, and I'm impressed to see it in RM. It seems maybe most of the effort was spent in making the card game work, since the game does work, but there are some significant weaknesses throughout the overall experience.

I'm not a fan of the monochrome scheme. If the art were stronger, I may have been able to see past it. That said, nothing was ever unclear or hard to see, it just wasn't that appealing.

The battle music was good and fitting and the main town theme was nice, but there was no music in the forest. Also, the lack of sound effects outside of the main menu was disappointing. I missed having the auditory feedback that normally reinforces my actions.

The story made no sense. Was the main character hallucinating the whole time? Sometimes he would be talking to unseen allies. Were these allies the cards? Was the card game a representation of Leoric commanding actual people who were fighting monsters? When you return to town, someone says we should settle down for the night, but Leoric just keeps going. The cult plot comes out of nowhere. Yet despite all this, I never felt unsure of where to go or what to do. Perhaps the whispers of the old gods are corrupting my comprehension?

Maps are boring boxes that don't justify the space they take up. Characters are effectively floating in space. Again, the monochrome aesthetic would work better if the design of the game justified it, but it really didn't sit well with me. At least nothing was too cluttered or hard to navigate, and again I never felt unsure of where I was going or how to get there.

There are a few odd design choices as well, namely the Aegis shield: why not just auto-equip it when it's made? The card game plays pretty clunky too, with difficulty selecting your hand and ending the turn. The lack of audio/visual feedback did the presentation no favors, too. It wasn't clear to me how the card game actually worked, but I eventually caught on that it's Hearthstone. After that, I was able to get through, but I'm still not clear on the win conditions for the battles. It seems some are completed when you get the opponent down to 0 life, and others just need to have their board cleared? A tutorial is desperately needed, and maybe some sort of pre-battle hint about the objective.

I applaud getting RPG Maker to do a card game, and one that is pretty devoid of obvious bugs; however, it may have been a bit too ambitious for this jam. It's still a neat idea, and I'm interested to see if you develop the concept further.

I really enjoyed the card system here. It's a bit clunky, but it is intuitive enough that after my first death I was able to pick it up even without a tutorial. There is the start of a good story here, and with more time I feel like the dev could have really done something amazing. I really enjoy the simple 1d art style and colors. I hope this gets fleshed out into a full game in the future.