Battle Waves' solo-developed matches made me question what I've been doing with my life
Build your decks with a side of existentialism
In the past year, I've managed to serve the most basic cup of coffee to a lovestruck elf, screw an HDD into anything for the first time, and learn how to say "green tea" in Japanese. Those are hardly Hall of Fame-worthy accomplishments, and when you compare them to the solo developer of Battle Waves, it's enough to drive me into an existential crisis.
Honestly, with the mobile card battler's deeply strategic lane-based gameplay, it's hard to see how any of my so-called achievements can match up. For one thing, Battle Waves has managed to scratch that card game itch that always gets me; for another, it's done so in the most incredibly polished way possible, in my opinion.
It doesn't even have that not-quite-finished feel a lot of indie projects have on mobile. The graphics are lovely, the sound effects are on point, and the tactical feel of combat makes that "just one more run" urge a real thing.
As you might expect from a card battler, you'll build your deck, draw from a set of cards, and deploy them onto the battlefield. There's a mix of tower defence here too as you'll need to keep your base safe while waiting for your mana or energy to replenish (reminding me a bit of Kingdom Rush Battles and Lego Star Wars Battles). The strategy comes into play when you're deciding where to deploy your units - do you prioritise defending against enemy units charging towards you, or do you opt for an empty lane instead so you can fast-track your way to your unwitting foe's undefended tower?
To spice things up even further, once a turret goes down, a nifty little phoenix egg pops up in the middle of the field. Whoever breaks that open first gets to enjoy a very special, very useful perk - a majestic phoenix swooping down from the heavens to bring death and destruction upon anyone who dares to stand in its way.
It's a handy advantage, and one you'll definitely want to have in your back pocket.
That's just an example of the seemingly insignificant but actually crucial elements that add fun twists to every match, which is why, despite having played my fair share of card battlers myself, I still found plenty of pleasant surprises in this one.
The narrative in the campaign mode is a nice touch too - I'm always a sucker for story even when it generally doesn't matter in a genre. Here, though, you get bosses with actual personality, like that emo rock monster named Taurus who seems obsessed with the meaning of life.
Anyone who says, "Today, I am death. Tomorrow, I am life. Soon again, I will be rock. Neverending is the existence of a rock, no matter how many pieces it may be in," is a philosophical genius.
There's another one named Skeletaur too, by the way, who also happens to have a penchant for saying "until next time", just like a similarly skull-faced He-Man villain, as you can clearly see below.
So thank you, Battle Waves solo dev Gabriel Langlois, for making me realise how unproductive I've been all this time. Perhaps this is a wake-up call for me to get up and do something meaningful with my life - or perhaps I'll go for another run in Battle Waves, because really, that just seems more fun.
