Finished: 2026/07/19
One Step From Eden is tough. Part of it is due to the combination of grid-based movement, spell card casting and mana management. However, the true challenge comes from the sheer amount of information on the screen and how to deal with it. Processing attacks and the grid state while dealing damage is no easy feat.
Despite this, the game feels fair. Enemies are predictable and practice makes the clutter manageable. Some damage instances feel unavoidable but the game provides heals and other ways of mitigating the damage. The major exception is, in my opinion, the shopkeeper fight. While all attacks are dodgeable, some of them are very hard to process and properly avoid. With the very high damage she deals, the fight feels a bit cheap.
While other bosses feel fair, they can be somewhat annoying to fight due to their erratic movements. This is not a flaw in itself, but it does make decks with low cost or guaranteed hits feel better to use. I would pick some spells that would fill the enemy fields with hazards only due to this boss behavior. This did not feel like a limitation though: the game does not punish you from getting a bloated deck so, in practice, most of my runs ended up with very large decks with all kinds of cards. Combined with the late game mana abundance, I could almost ignore the mana cost and spam my spells.
The game tries to push the player towards some deck/playstyle specialization with its characters, as each one has a unique starting kit. This has mixed results in my opinion. While some characters, like Shiso and Selicy, feel great to play, others, like Hazel and Terra, feel too gimmicky with mechanics that are too annoying to use for the value they provide. In the end, I would mostly default to Saffron as her kit is pretty balanced and generalist, being a nice starting point for diverse builds.
Character design is one of the highlights of the game. Not only do they feel unique, but their sprites and animations look great. The game lightly suggests some lore to them but does not go very deep on it. Considering that this is mostly a solo dev project, I think it is the right approach as badly written dialogue or lore could damage the overall experience (as is the case in something like Neon White). However, it does make the endings fall a bit flat as there is no emotional connection to them.
One Step From Eden feels like, in some senses, a game made for me: challenging, 2D, indie. I loved it despite its flaws and wish this niche would be more explored in the future. In the end, this is what I love about indie games: a singular creative vision that is uncompromising and becomes something very unique.