izigame.me

Wildfrost is, at it's shallowest level, a fun roguelike deckbuilder. You may have seen the countless streamers who were sponsored by this game and have watched their playthroughs and thought, as I did, "Wow, that looks great; cute art style, fun mechanics, those charms look neat" and give it a go.
This game is moreso similar to Monster Train than it is Slay the Spire. Monster train is a great game, but it's great because it's balanced well. And that's where Wildfrost falls down.
I've only put 8 hours in so far, but even so the issues are GLARING.

Leaders rarely feel powerful. When they do, you win - more on this shortly. Otherwise, they largely feel useless and a burden. The countdowns on some are truly ridiculous for the low reward they offer. 7 rounds to hit one unit for 5? And you have 11 HP. Great. That'll go a long way when the board is getting stacked with enemies or has one that's scaling.
Wave management is abysmal. Taking too long to get beefed up? More enemies. Kill the board super fast? No buffs, no benefits, just more enemies immediately. What's the point? I don't think it would have been insane to add a "you finished the wave 3 turns early, here's +3hp or +3 gold".
Combat balance is absurd. 'Bigfoot' is a 15 Health 7 attack minion that attacks every 4 turns, and is aimless so ignores tanks? And now there's 3 more of them? Enemy is stacking damage every turn earlygame and you haven't drawn an answer? You haven't found a Yank or don't have ten direct damage every turn so enemy is buffing their entire team into invincibility nonstop?
I'm hardly the best player in the world (6th best, if the leaderboards are anything to go by), but far too often you're asked to provide a counter to a playstyle you simply haven't had the chance to counter. Not to mention you need to build your deck around 6 or so different enemy encounters at once - and if you haven't been able to pick up said answer, it's a good chance it's GG.
Let's talk 'final boss'. After defeating the boss for the first time, they take over your body (RIP Wodge) and they become the final boss moving forwards. The issue with this is that to beat the final boss, you've had to craft some crazy highroll BS that handles every situation to even get there in the first place. You've got AOE, statuses, multiattacks, crazy tanks and charms. The boss steals those AND gives them CRAZY HP/ATK buffs on top of that. So this means even if you BEAT the final boss, the next time you want to try you have to not only build to counter the trashmobs on the way but you also have to somehow counter your previous counter. My first win was a massive AOE poison frost desk. Next run when I made it to the boss, my leader got poisoned for 6 on turn 4 because I didn't draw a unit that could survive long enough to bait the barrage. I then died 3 turns later, as I could not deal 60 damage to kill the boss before time ran out.
And despite being able to beat the final boss, there's still a very high chance that I get buried by the first boss. Your deck is still relatively normal, maybe a few extra companions and treasures and a charm or three, but the balance is such that unless you've got sufficiently LUCKY, you're still going to get rinsed by what becomes a DPS race against a boss.
Now, that's not to say that deckbuiders should be easy - far from it. A20 in STS, C25 Monster Train; two great examples of providing realistic hurdles that you can overcome with game knowledge. But why is Wildfrost providing intricate deckbuilding puzzles at base level? Stage 1 of these sorts of games SHOULD be (when you've got a few hours in) "OK, i get it and I know what these enemies are up to, not too tricky.". Where are the early bosses that you can take on with MOST decks if played well? If I'm not running ink or reliable high burst, Infernoko phase 1 will clap me. If I don't also have a solid tank, Phase 2 will clap me. Curiously, Wildfrost DOES have a "you beat the game, here's a hardmode" mode - and it's giving random enemies random charms. Great, guess I'll coinflip every single round if a particular enemy has a combination which instantly wins. Or one which requires a specific counter on top of the existing specific counter that was already present. This is the only change, and it's not organised, controlled difficulty scaling. It's a bingo machine that only dispenses balls that say "fuck you".
I've been trying to take every companion and every treasure in an attempt to give as many cards a chance as possible and see what kind of useful tech they have. But some really are "Oh, are we playing a stategic game? I forgor" - Ice Dice is a great example. 50/50 on if you just lose then and there. Soulbound Dice - 83% chance to kill that boss or tough minion on the spot, and between a 17%-100% chance to immediately lose your run. However it's still an instant-include in any deck because it gives you a fair shot at out-BS'ing the final boss. Many companions also do unbelievably little when they're not even a third of the strength of a single enemy minion.
Lastly, when I do well, I rarely feel as if it was my decisions that led to the positive outcome. I can sweat countdowns and positioning and recalling and maybe complete a battle well-ish, or I might just have got 3 insane charms on a decent unit and it was a stomp.

Wildfrost is a game that I am continuing to try and put time in and trying to love, because it's charmingly presented and the genre needs more high-quality games. In it's current state, it's fun for 1-10 runs blind, and then at best a tricky problem solver and at worst a helplessly frustrating mundane grind, hoping for a highroll.
Here are the positives I could gleam from it:

Charming art style. It really has nailed that art trend very popular at present and it's executed well.
Variety of enemies and allies. The lever's been pulled a bit too hard on the balancing for these, but the ideas are nice.
The ending, while perhaps predictable, was fun. And if not for the absurd tuning of stats this could have been a fantastic way to extend replayability, essentially rebattling yourself each time.

It seems the devs put a lot of heart into this one, but a-la Cult of the Lamb, they've spent too heavily on sponsorships rather than creating a game that is genuinely enjoyable to play for longer than an hour. I'd only recommend buying this game if it goes on sale for £8.00 at most, or if you've played other roguelike deckbuilders to exhaustion and need a kick of something new(ish).
Finally. If you have bought this game and intend to continue giving it a chance, here are some tips:

If you think you're making it to the final boss, but know you can't realistically beat them - pick up the Soulbound dice. This might just cheese you a victory to keep your streak up if you've had bad RNG up until that point. Don't forget to flood the board first if possible to reduce the chance of game-ending yourself.
Killing the enemies that buff is priority; however if it's coming down to the wire and you might be able to squeak out enough damage, you can try YOLO'ing it on the boss and hammering away to kill them before they get too buffed.
Following on from above, kill as many enemies as possible; minions run away once the boss leaves, and they'rerunning away with your tasty tasty coins. If you can greed it, do so.
Same goes for setting up combos on enemies; these give increased gold, so if you have ways to chain kills, try to slot them in when it isn't too risky.
Crowns are INSANE. They're 80 gold, but not only do you get a key card in hand but it also does not trigger the countdown. I like crowning a solid tank & a lane buff.

GL, HF(?).