I Keep Having This Dream

This game came out of nowhere to become my favorite new addiction. Your first impression may be that the game is too easy, or that there's nothing you can do to get farther than your last game. That's not the case! The game rewards the time you spend figuring out its systems and learning how to optimize your progress by making it possible to do better and better. It helps that it's so snappy. Games can take a few hours if you're doing well (but the autosave is perfect for mobile), but compared to other games with interesting min/max systems, there's really very little bloat. I like the idea of fire emblem or xcom where your tactics and upgrade choices make a real difference in outcomes. But in reality they stress me out and lead to save scumming or resignation because it might take ages to realize that I've messed up irreparably. Fun, clear graphics. The music is good. The unlock scheme is interesting. I like that the game isn't a pseudo roguelike where you can eventually grind your way to excellence with a persistent reward. I'd love to read some interviews with the developer, he clearly put a lot of thought into creating a fun, balanced system. Edit 2018: fixed some typos

For what it does, this odd game is great: it throws together a slew of symbolic creatures, events and gear, and makes you place an increasingly hostile hand of tiles down to get to an exit. However, the Nemesis is the ugliest, indiest graphic placeholder asset I've seen for an adversary. At least use a cool shapeshifting monster face that gets increasingly hostile as it levels up, with its level as a small Roman numeral near it. Nobody past Sesame Street age gives a crap about being chased by the number 3. Well, some slow Electric Company types, but you'll always have those. I may not have unlocked a problem-solving event after a few hours, but there should also be an increasing base percentage of providing a fitting tile each time you get stuck. Stalling is random to the point of ugly. Maybe it's a neat risk-to-reward mechanic for bending your path backwards, but it really is a showstopper in a game that is so slow to start with. If you're an accountant with a big manga collection, knock yourself out, but if you have to reset three times in three seconds like Angry Birds, move on.

I don't write reviews much but this developer has earned it. I have played DungeonRaid for probably hundreds of hours definitely more than any other mobile game so when I saw Alex had a new game out I jumped on it. I have played IKHTD for a few months here and there. It's definitely addicting but it's not quite as satisfying. It does not feel like you have nearly enough agency over your fate due to there being such a wide variety of abilities but only being offered a few. This wasn't a problem with DR since leveling up was much faster and more frequent. I keep wanting to try a *build* only to be given what feels useless abilities over and over. When I do finally get the abilities I want normal the difficulty ramps up so quickly I don't get to enjoy it. I think the game could of been improved by having equal loss of attack and defense. Losing half of your defense every time causes me to treat defense very oddly and not invest in it much. I also think that picking up hearts should count towards events even if your health is full. IKHTD is worth picking up but if you are here because of DR don't expect quite as satisfying experience. Great job Alex I'll be watching what you do next.

IKHTD may be one of the single best games on the App Store. It's simple and intuitive, but with compelling depth that keeps drawing a player back in. Unfortunately, as other reviewers have pointed out, the game is plagued by terrible balancing issues. The decision to have attack reduced by 1/3 it's value, and defense by 1/2 it's value on every single "attack" is... We I just don't know. I understand that the game is supposed to be difficult- but this decision was just odd. Defense essentially becomes a throwaway stat because it reduces so quickly. I would suggest reducing both of these ratios to 1/4- this achieves much the same effect. This would lend a consistent viability to both stats that is sorely needed in the game. Level length is another issue. The distance between start to finish really ought to ramp up at a slower pace. I don't know what the correct answer is here… I suppose I would suggest starting at 20 tiles, and increasing by 20 each additional "world" until capping at 100 at world 5. Lock count can increase from one to four with each world. Who knows, my ten cents.

To the developer: remove the okay button when placing a tile. It slows the gameplay considerably. We also don't need to manually move a tile each time especially if there is only One place we can place itat the moment. This game would be a lot more fun if we could just tap the tiles in our hand to choose and place one down. Also why are the gear icons on the map hidden? It's tedious to hold down a gear tile just to see where I can place it on the map. It hinders a lot of planning.