RoguedexPart 4 (Dec 2025) · #3 of 10 in that tierWatch the moment (2:30:45)
The Royal Writ
- Developed by
- Save Sloth Studios
- Published by
- Yogscast Games
$14.99
Sacrifice creates stories in this medieval roguelike deckbuilder. Watch your cards march to glory or permanent death as they battle toward the enemy. Each fallen hero becomes part of your kingdom's legend. Command wisely... some sacrifices are necessary.
Consensus
B70.9/100
Steam players83.1% positiveVery Positive539 reviews
Metacritic ↗80/100
VG Insights estimate ↗≈29.2K copies · ≈$278K gross
What creators say
What players say
A medieval roguelike deckbuilder from Save Sloth Studios (published by Yogscast Games) in which your cards are animal characters that march down lanes toward the enemy base, and any card that reaches the base is permanently lost from your deck.
Well received by players (Steam Very Positive, about 83% of 539 reviews) and by the handful of critics who covered it (Metacritic 80 from 5 reviews). Praise centers on the art, music, charm and the card-synergy puzzle; complaints center on unclear rules text, RNG swings, and above all a steep difficulty and mechanic jump in Act 2. It is a small-scale indie (Steam revenue estimates around $96k gross) that players repeatedly say deserves more visibility. It is not abandoned: patches 1.1.0 (balance) and 1.2.0.2 (Act 2 boss eased) shipped, and a recent review mentions an announcement of a sequel (single-source, unverified). It has also come to console (Metacritic lists Switch, Xbox Series X and PS5).
Players love
- Storybook hand-drawn art, detailed animations and character design are the most consistent praise, often the reason people bought it
- Soundtrack and whimsical medieval tone, with lore-heavy card flavor and historical references
- Card-synergy experimentation: building absurd engines from odd characters, transformations, hidden interactions and events is the core joy
- Two distinct acts with different mechanics and card pools, which some players describe as two games in one
- Permanent card death gives runs memorable stories and meaningful stakes, distinguishing it from Slay the Spire style deckbuilders
- Blend of Inscryption-like board logic, Balatro-like blue damage x red multiplier scoring and Slay the Spire-like map with events and bosses
- Challenge modes, custom seeds, an option to disable timed boss fights and strong accessibility options, plus 41 achievements to chase
- Good value and strong 'one more run' pull; players report anywhere from about 5 to 100 hours
Common complaints
- Act 2 is widely described as a brick wall: new bullet, honor/morale and poison mechanics plus a huge-HP final boss (reported around 444k HP) made many players quit
- Heavy RNG: a run can collapse from card draws or an early card death spiral with little player agency
- Rules and ailment text are unclear; players guess what cards, bosses and keywords do and can lose cards permanently through misunderstanding
- Many cards and relics feel weak or must-pick, so balance feels uneven
- Bullet mechanic and unit death in Act 2 compound each other and are called frustrating or add-nothing by several reviewers
- UI gets cluttered in busy battles; base power vs current power is not clearly shown, and misclicks can put upgrades on the wrong card
- Some critics and players report repetition over extended play and fairness issues where a run is killed before you can react
Can feel tedious
- Constantly replacing dead or injured party members makes it feel like deck repair rather than deck building to some players
- Grinding through failed attempts at Act 2 bosses hoping for good cards, with the huge final boss HP bar seen as a slog
- Opaque interactions that require trial, error and wiki/community lookups
- Rising score requirements while your deck strength drops, producing a downward spiral
- Unlock bloat: more unlocked cards and relics can make it harder to reliably find fun builds
What's unique
- Cards are characters that advance column by column toward an enemy base, gaining buffs each column, and die if they hit the base
- Every card is disposable and your deck is repaired and swapped after each battle rather than steadily built up
- Act 1 and Act 2 play by different rules and use different card sets, with some Act 1 characters reappearing with new abilities and art
- Score is blue damage times red multiplier, Balatro-style, plus gambling and shady-bargain sacrifice events
- Character cards with hidden abilities that reveal their text only once triggered
- Stun and corpse mechanics where stunned cards become corpses when trampled, and a cover system and projectiles in Act 2
Players want
- Clearer tooltips, keyword explanations and on-card display of base vs current power and health
- Rebalance Act 2 (boss HP, bullets, poison cleansing) and the weakest cards and relics; 1.2.0.2 reportedly already helped
- More ways to reliably build around a synergy and reduce feast-or-famine RNG, especially as more unlocks dilute the pool
- Better controller support and UI polish (one reviewer wanted easier controller play; Steam lists full controller support)
- More character cards with hidden unlockable abilities, which a reviewer specifically wanted more of
- Better onboarding so the opening hours are less confusing; more content after the main acts was requested by a couple of reviewers
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
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Tier list Part 4 (2025)
The Royal Writ is a board-centric deckbuilder where placed cards advance up the board and score points, using a Balatro-style system of additive (blue) and multiplier (red) units. He finds it unique, charming and build-diverse, but it is complex and poorly explained, so it is not casually approachable. He recommends it to experienced deckbuilder and Balatro-like fans. He places it in a very high B tier.
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