Today’s roundup take us from retro-inspired action-adventure and Slavic folklore to the decidedly more modern world of trading card shops. Isle of Reveries brings a charming Game Boy Color-era aesthetic to PS5 while putting its own spin on the classic Zelda formula, Folk Hero turns repeated runs and challenging combat into a compact roguelite adventure, and TCG Card Shop Simulator offers a surprisingly addictive mix of business management and card collecting. Three very different games, then, but each with its own strengths and shortcomings.
Isle of Reveries review (PS5)
Isle of Reveries, developed by desertcucco and published by Electric Airship, is an unabashedly retro action-adventure that draws heavily from the Game Boy Color era of The Legend of Zelda while adding a few ideas of its own. On PS5, the result is a charming and generally well-crafted adventure starring Lief, an owl travelling toward the mysterious Isle of Reveries in search of a wish that may or may not be worth the journey. The premise has a surprisingly melancholic edge beneath its colorful presentation, while the characters encountered along the way and the growing settlement give the adventure a welcome sense of warmth. The narrative itself remains fairly straightforward, though, and the town-building element never becomes quite as substantial as its promising setup might suggest.
The real strength of Isle of Reveries lies in its puzzles and dungeons. Exploration, combat and environmental challenges are closely intertwined, with new abilities gradually expanding what Lief can do and encouraging players to revisit previously inaccessible areas. The standout addition is the fairy companion’s ability to duplicate and spawn objects, which can be used to manipulate switches, create platforms, interact with other items and occasionally help during combat. It is a clever mechanic that gives the familiar Zelda-style formula some individuality, even if the game does not always push the idea as far as it could. Combat itself is deliberately secondary to puzzle solving, which suits the adventure well, although players looking for deeper action may find the swordplay fairly basic. The difficulty is also relatively approachable, with puzzles generally rewarding observation rather than demanding extensive trial and error.
Movement and exploration are where some of the game’s rougher edges become apparent. The controls are generally responsive and easy to understand, but the jumping sections can occasionally be imprecise, making otherwise simple gaps more frustrating than they should be. The overworld also has a tendency to funnel the player through narrow, maze-like routes, and the lack of convenient shortcuts makes backtracking more tedious than it needs to be. That is particularly noticeable because the game encourages returning to earlier areas after gaining new abilities. The handcrafted, screen-based structure fits the retro design beautifully, but it sometimes feels more restrictive than exploratory.
Visually, Isle of Reveries succeeds because it commits completely to its Game Boy Color-inspired identity rather than trying to disguise its limitations. The colorful pixel art, carefully constructed environments and expressive character designs give the world plenty of personality, while the pixel-art story sequences add a more atmospheric and occasionally melancholic tone. The soundtrack is similarly successful, providing melodic and atmospheric music that complements the different environments. Taken as a whole, Isle of Reveries is not a reinvention of the classic action-adventure, but it does more than simply imitate its inspirations. Its excellent puzzle design, distinctive object-copying mechanic and appealing presentation make it an enjoyable modern tribute, even if the cramped overworld, relatively light combat and underused ideas prevent it from reaching its full potential.
Folk Hero (PS5)
Folk Hero takes the familiar roguelite formula and gives it a distinctly Slavic fantasy setting, sending the player to the mysterious island of Buyan where folklore creatures, dangerous environments and plenty of death await. Developed by Chudo-Yudo Games and published by Targem Games, the game combines procedural exploration with action-focused combat and permanent progression. The premise is intriguing enough to provide some atmosphere, but the narrative largely takes a back seat to the gameplay, with the mystery surrounding Buyan serving more as motivation to keep making another run than as a particularly compelling story in its own right. The different locations and creatures do give the world some personality, though, and the minimalist pixel-art presentation will either be an appealing stylistic choice or a limitation depending on how much detail is expected from the visuals.
Combat is clearly where Folk Hero puts most of its emphasis, and there is a satisfying amount of precision involved in surviving its encounters. Attacks, dodges, blocks, parries and stamina management all have to be used thoughtfully, while enemies often require observation rather than simply button-mashing. Boss encounters can provide a significant difficulty spike, and the challenge can sometimes feel inconsistent, particularly when ordinary encounters are relatively manageable before a much tougher boss appears. Enemy movement can also be unpredictable, which makes positioning important but can occasionally make fights feel more awkward than challenging. The controls themselves are responsive and straightforward, allowing the player to move, attack and evade without much fuss, although the overall combat system remains fairly simple compared with the deeper action roguelites it takes inspiration from.
The roguelite progression gives the runs more substance, with different classes, weapons, artifacts and runes allowing players to experiment with builds. The rune system is one of the more interesting ideas, particularly when different effects can interact and produce more specialised setups. Permanent progression also means that failure is not entirely wasted, since resources earned during a run can improve future heroes. However, the game can be rather stingy with its variety, especially early on, and unlocking additional classes can take longer than expected. Some runs can consequently start to feel familiar, with repeated events, loot and exploration patterns reducing the sense of discovery. Local co-op adds another welcome option and can make the relatively simple systems more enjoyable with others.
Ultimately, Folk Hero is an enjoyable but modest roguelite that understands the appeal of challenging combat and repeated runs without doing quite enough to distinguish itself from the crowded field. Its Slavic folklore setting, attractive minimalist pixel art and flexible rune-based builds provide a solid identity, while the responsive controls and emphasis on stamina, positioning and enemy patterns make combat more engaging than its simple presentation might suggest. At the same time, the limited variety, slow unlock progression and occasional difficulty imbalance can make the experience feel repetitive, particularly for players who already have plenty of roguelites in their backlog. Folk Hero therefore works best when approached as a compact, straightforward action roguelite rather than a genre-defining experience.
TCG Card Shop Simulator review (PS5)
TCG Card Shop Simulator takes the familiar shop-management formula and gives it an appealingly specific twist: instead of running a supermarket or gas station, the player gets to build and operate a trading card store. That premise works particularly well because there is a second layer to the business beyond simply buying and selling stock. Every booster pack can either become another product on the shelf or an opportunity to chase a valuable card for the player’s own collection, creating a surprisingly effective risk-and-reward loop. The game is at its best when these two sides of the experience collide, although the lack of a substantial narrative means the focus is entirely on the satisfaction of building the business and collecting cards rather than any kind of story.
The day-to-day management is straightforward but remarkably effective. Stock has to be ordered, deliveries unpacked, shelves filled, prices adjusted and customers served, while profits can gradually be invested into more products, furniture, space and staff. Customers can also sell cards to the shop, while tournaments and additional merchandise provide some welcome variety. There is a pleasing amount of detail in the small interactions, from handling cash and card payments to dealing with changing market values and shipping costs. The controls generally support this hands-on approach well, although repeatedly dealing with transactions and other routine tasks can become tedious once the novelty disappears. Progression is also where the game starts to show its limitations: the opening hours are addictive, but after roughly ten to twenty hours the grind becomes increasingly difficult to ignore, with larger goals often requiring more repetition rather than introducing substantially different activities.
The card-collecting side remains the real star. Opening packs is tactile and satisfying, particularly when a rare card appears, and the decision to sell something valuable or keep it for the collection gives the otherwise simple simulator a compelling extra dimension. The fictional card designs also provide much-needed personality, with foil effects and other details making the collection itself enjoyable to browse. The shop customisation is functional rather than exceptional, however, and the wider presentation is similarly modest. Furniture and environments can look bland, while the recurring NPC designs lack much variety. On the PS5, the game’s simulator-style presentation gets the job done, but it is the cards and merchandise rather than the environments that provide most of the visual appeal.
Audio is less successful, with the limited musical variety likely to become irritating during longer sessions, although the game is well suited to being played alongside some music or other background listening. More importantly, the core loop remains strong enough to make TCG Card Shop Simulator surprisingly difficult to put down for its intended audience. There is no shortage of repetition, and the long-term progression can feel overly grindy, but the combination of running a shop and ripping open packs gives the game a hook that many conventional management simulators lack. It is not the most sophisticated or visually impressive simulator around, but for players who enjoy card collecting and watching a small business gradually grow, there is plenty here to keep the shelves stocked for quite some time.