I dunno whether to leave this as a review or a post; maybe much of this has been covered, but I haven't read through this entire thread.
The Good:
- image/clip selection + organization is fantastic. 10/10
- functional deckbuilding + pack-opening w/ pack themes & card rarities; there's not many games on F95 that feature deckbuilding, let alone card rarities + pack-opening
The Meh:
- core gameplay loop is very repetitive: fill deck with 30% pornstar cards w/ max attack, 30% action, 30% finisher, 10% item (not to use item, but to feed discard). Rush Main + Action + Finisher, optionally play Duo if higher attack is needed and computer player can't attack first
- card text font is very thin, leading to difficulty reading due to anti-aliasing, especially if game is not fullscreen
- card selection/highlighting is clunky; to read a card requires selecting it and dragging it partially out of hand
- card stats/mechanics are very limited; except for image/video hunting, there is no reason to have common/rare pornstar cards in deck, as epic/special/MVP cards have strictly better stats.
- if you play a main/action/finisher and then want to change your mind, there isn't an undo. Similarly, if you later draw a better main, or the complimentary action/finisher to possibly get an evolution you're looking for, you have to use two turns to discard the already-played card, and then play the new card. (Due to opponent always attacking as soon as they assemble Main + Action + Finisher, it almost never works to discard a played card and still get to attack.)
- if you like the cards you have in your hand, you can't keep them/play them all; to end your first two turns, you have to discard a card. (This makes it significantly more difficult to hunt/farm for evolution images/combo clips, which seems to be the main point of the game?)
The Bugs:
- card selection (see clunky highlighting/selection above) occasionally leads to card(s) being stuck glitched until beating the opponent (through multiple rounds); unable to select the card or move it.
- cards in deck seem to occasionally glitch duplicates? multiple times even though I only had one copy of a card in my deck, I would see two copies in the same hand
- the game help/wiki says that cards get discarded after each round (for a fresh hand on the next), but this doesn't actually happen; incidentally, this bug leads to marginally *more* interesting gameplay, as there are edge cases where it makes sense to discard instead of attack, if the player can still guarantee a win, and can discard a bad card from hand to have better cards for the next round.
Thoughts/Suggestions:
- it would be nice to be able to play a new card "on top" of an already-played card, in effect discarding the old card and replacing it with the new card (using one action instead of two)
- for the purposes of hunting for remaining evolution images/combo clips, it would be nice to be able to end the player turn after playing a card, without discarding (unless the mechanics are reworked to allow better card draw/discard/filter options)
- compared to other deckbuilding games, there are very few meaningful deckbuilding decisions to make. Sure, the +10 defense or +10 lewd here or there can rarely make the difference between winning and losing a round, (and with the PBWC cards, the +20 lewd can occasionally make a larger difference), but in general, "pack the highest atk cards in your deck; card ratio near 12 pornstars, 7 actions, 7 finishers, 4 items; given two pornstar cards with similar stats, choose the linkable one; discard duplicates from hand to ensure fast victory for next round" there isn't any "should I do X, or Y, or Z" decisions to make.
I think the concept of Main + Duo + Action + Finisher cards is quite interesting, and there's a lot of media that's been collected to flesh out the library of cards, but it feels like the gameplay of deckbuilding and playing the cards is just... unsatisfying? Uninteresting?
I understand that various games like Magic: the Gathering, or Balatro, or Monster Train 2 -- they've been developed and refined and those are high bars to clear. I mention them (and less-well-known games like Drop Duchy or Tetra Tactics) or, on F95zone, TF Card Battle, as examples of games that have meaningful decisions to make in the deckbuilding/card mechanics/combo gameplay. Maybe there's something with the card pack themes (see color circle mechanics in MtG, where e.g. Red is hasty/direct damage, Blue is control, Green is big stompy, Black is death/sacrifice, White is protection and balance) -- does that offer some inspiration for e.g. MILF, teen, redhead, latina, etc. could be somewhat different mechanics?