Review: Nowhere Prophet (Nintendo Switch)

Review by Harvard L.

Digital card games and roguelikes have become rather hip in the indie scene, so much so that a game like Nowhere Prophet by German studio Sharkbomb Studios feels more like a follower than a leader. And while I do absolutely want to take the developer on his word for it when he says work on Nowhere Prophet began in 2014, well before the current ecosystem we see in the indie space today, it’s just so hard to isolate mechanics from this game and discuss them without making links to other games. Since while deckbuilding, power/toughness cards and rogue-lites aren’t in themselves derivative concepts (I’d say they’re more elements of game design which are fair use for developers to iterate upon), the recent and very lasting success of games like Slay the Spire, FTL: Faster Than Light and the digital resurgence of dozens of Magic the Gathering-likes means that my initial response to Nowhere Prophet’s setup was, “oh, I’ve seen this done before.” I hate to say it, but it feels like an X-meets-Y type of game. Namely, it’s Slay the Spire meets Magic: the Gathering with a little bit of Darkest Dungeon and Into the Breach mixed in.

Read more »