Who would have thought that releasing a grinning god with a huge, boundless appetite would ever come to anything but good things for you? A life of servitude and danger following the destruction of your entire village isn’t what I expected but it makes for a heck of a good time in one of Yogcast Games’ latest releases, Kaya’s Prophecy.
A card-based village management sim, Kaya’s Prophecy has introduced me to a new style of gameplay, the card stacker. Using resources to generate booster packs, essentially random decks of digital cards, you’ll be clicking and combining the goodies contained therein into multi-card stacks to create ever more useful items for your villagers to rebuild with, whilst using more redundant items to create even more boosters to bolster your inventory. Your main drive here is to keep on feeding Kalades, the god whose hunger is seemingly eternal. Time management is paramount as you need to have food ready at the end of a daily cycle, lest you incur the wrath of an impatient deity.
Just in case the rebuilding of your former home and constant quest for nourishment isn’t enough for you, how about throwing in a card battling system in the style of Slay the Spire, just for good measure? Simple though it may be, and certainly lacking in challenge for anyone familiar with the genre, it’s a nice break from the village building and helps to keep things fresh as you collect unique resources from angry buzzing bees, angry native chiefs and other seemingly angry adversaries. It could do with upping the difficulty a touch but will be a gentle introduction for any newcomers looking to try out something fresh. Grab whatever you can from ancestor’s tombs, cheery shopkeepers and guarded chests to take home and offer in service of Kalades.
With the narrative guiding you via a series of quests to complete, I’ve not had a moment of confusion or indeed downtime whilst being pushed ever onward to adventure through the biomes, with ruins, jungles and more, full of enemies to despatch and treasures to be plundered. With simple instructions to follow, there are slowly building layers of complexity that feel just right for players such as myself who may not be familiar with the genre. It’s well paced and offers just enough of a hook to keep things compelling.
There’s a tactile feel at play in Kaya’s Prophecy, with cards being dragged around a large playing area, the player free to make piles of whatever cards they like. It’s satisfying in a way that’s hard to put your finger on, a lovingly crafted software version of something that would feel right at home on a tabletop. I’m sure that each player will find their own unique way to organise items by type or by use, but I can recommend making piles of goods in recipes, the constituent parts piled ready for your villager to combine and create much needed foodstuffs or equipment, even if there’s nothing quite as frustrating than a god munching down on those two bananas that were vital to progress.
With time ticking ever onward and night time drawing in, you know that you’ll be hard pressed to get enough food ready in time for his return tomorrow. Well, back to the booster packs we go, then. The village management elements slowly build as you progress, from commanding a single villager to do your own god-like bidding, to adding more totems to build, each requiring evil blood to create more and more of the booster packs or to creating items for your tiny adventurer to take on their next expedition.
There’s a constant, delicate balancing act required as you contend with Father Time, forcing you to weigh up decisions, each action whittling away the day as you watch progress bars slowly build. Should you push for progression through the story, risking the wrath of Kalades should you fail to gather the required offerings or take your time and play the long game, gathering goodies on another battle through the traps and tribulations of the jungle?
A stylish blend of genres, Kayas Prophecy brings together some of the best parts of each and comes up with something that feels both comfy yet refreshing in equal measure. Adding a persistent time constraint into the mix sprinkles a little bit of tension and pressure, never quite allowing you to relax as you frantically manage resources to appease an ever gluttonous god.
