I was honestly really excited for this game, but after giving it an albeit short try, I am convinced that AI was used extensively. The level of detail in the animations and pixel art is insane, especially for a solo project, and yet the creator used AI for the capsule arts? The overworld sprites are often wildly different from the talking sprites, even though they are clearly meant to be connected. One sprite, for Lilith, features a character with a black face and a white body. Other sprites and animations have strange errors that I wouldn't expect from handcrafted work, like the cart in the tutorial having a nonsensical pattern on the cart. The writing seems to not know what a comma is and uses em dashes for everything, both in the game and on the steam page, not to mention the totally random and jerky pacing. The mere fact that a game with this level of detail was created in a single year, as stated on the developer's twitter, is an absolute impossibility for a solo dev. As for the gameplay itself, it's fine. The animations are far too quick and make it difficult to know what's actually happening to you, and you are not given the time to think after encounters and process what you've actually received for beating it. It's also *very* horny, which isn't necessarily a problem, but just. Man. Basically every female character has massive honkers that bounce with every breath, haha.

I would genuinely love to be wrong--but as it is, I can't recommend the game in good faith.

Encounter: The Lost Cards is a good roguelike! I dont usually like roguelikes but this one is pretty fun! 8/10