Playing card games have undergone immense transformations within the past century, evolving not only into a myriad of genres, intensities, and styles outside of the standard deck, but have also transitioned beyond household tables onto the digital screen. From trading card innovations like Magic: The Gathering, early video-gamified pillars like Hearthstone and Yu-Gi-Oh, and roguelike revolutionaries such as Slay the Spire, card games have the ability to rouse the mind with tactics and strategy-building alongside the inclusion of diverse characters, lore, and aesthetics. Card games are intuitive to most people, are highly re-playable, and tap into the innate human joys of collecting!
Developed by Flash Cat Games and published by Kwalee, experience a new tactical deck builder/card battler – but this time with an immense appeal to those fascinated with Japanese mythos – with Tailspinner. This rougelike adventure released August of 2026 and can be played on PC, Steam, and the Nintendo Switch 1 & 2.
Score for the Japanophiles
Tailspinner is beyond basic rougelike gameplay, containing choose-your-own-adventure elements. Players select from three distinct “heroes” and embark on a self-guided journey. Character options include Gyokushin the “jade hearted monk,” a fairly strong and straightforward attacker with the most hit points; Rinka the “lotus flower kitsune” who is a magic-user specializing in chaining buffs and unique card effects with the lotus flower mechanic; and finally Himura and their dragon Kiri – a duo that relies on timely teamwork. Himura is the offense of the two, while the dragon serves as the punching bag. However, if either of these two run out of HP, it is a total game over!
At the beginning of a game run, players can choose from three different major narratives. This includes the “demon hunting” storyline about the infamous demonic ninja named Hattori Hanzo, the “trouble in the temple” plot about the colossal skeleton Gashadokuro, and the “whispers in the snow” story about the murderous ice woman Yuki Onna. Each selection is based on real Japanese folklore. On my personal playthrough, I initially chose Himura and Kiri’s characters, and decided to pursue Yuki Onna! Each narrative contains three chapters with various amounts of stages. As you progress through and complete each chapter, players will unlock plot twists. Essentially, plot twists are extra challenges that minorly or majorly influence gameplay. Examples include decreasing the number of available companion slots, or ramping up enemy difficulties.
At the start of each chapter, players will also choose another more mechanic-based option as depicted in the image above, with varying rewards, starting story points and companion slots, and encounter possibilities. Tailspinner features zero cutscenes – the game is rather simple narratively, relying on folklore more-so as an aesthetic.
Remember to play your cards right
The two main objectives of Tailspinner are obvious: like any card battler, players collect, upgrade, and customize a deck. Akin to other roguelikes, make it to the end of a chapter without total HP depletion, or you will have to restart completely. Of course, Tailspinner has uniqueness that sets it apart from other titles within the same genres, with both its Japanese-forward approach and distinct playable characters. According to the developers, there are over 200 battle cards to collect, over 50 enemy types to encounter, 15 different boss fights, more than 29 random events, and over 50 companions to collect!
When it comes to the cards, there are attack and defense options. Each card can be upgraded only once. If you play as Himura (as I did), the dragon will be the primary defender and Himura can attack from either the front or the back position. Certain cards will have buffs depending upon your positioning! The positive aspect about Tailspinner is that gameplay is not luck based at all. This game requires some careful calculations and strategy. It can be really difficult to navigate status conditions, to discard unwanted cards, and to keep your player character alive. One misstep and its game over.
Players will have around three slots to hold companions, which you will acquire from either random events or battle rewards. Companions may offer offensive buffs, health restoration, decreased cool down times, and other active or passive abilities.
Encountering crossroads
Each game run includes normal battles, harder “elite” battles, random encounters, opportunities to set camp and restore HP, which will all ultimately lead into a (noticeable difficulty spiked) boss battle. Players can pick and choose how to make it to the boss battle destination, like Slay the Spire and the like, but only some selections are free. Certain battle and event choices may only be selected by spending story points. Story points are also needed for loot of specific options during random events, so spend them wisely!
Tailspinner is somewhat difficult, especially for those entirely new to the genre. “Elite” battles are quite tough and aforementioned, the boss fights are remarkably harder to endure. The tutorial flies by rather quickly despite the myriad of little mechanics featured in the game, and there are virtually no reminders on how each playable character functions. This is particularly confusing when trying to play as Rinka for the first time, as the lotus mechanic can be hard to grasp.
Considerably Yōkaicore
Tailspinner is anime-esq and contains vibrant colors and shading. Every character model is super animated which keeps scenes interesting! There is a variety of atmospheres and biomes all related to Japanese landscapes and folklore, ranging from snowy mountainsides to villages ablaze to vividly green bamboo forests.
The soundtrack is perfectly suited to each atmosphere, featuring ambient Japanese folk sounds and traditional instrumentation. The music did not particularly stand out as a focal point, it merely just blurred into the matching visual background.
Final thoughts
Flash Cat Games’ Tailspinner is super fun with relatively high re-playability, immediately hooking veteran card deck battlers and being visually engaging enough for newcomers. The “plot twists” and three separate heroes offers fair experimentation with gameplay; the visual and sound designs are pleasant and interesting with its Japanese mythos-inspired elements; and while the combat can be slightly confusing for the first few runs, the overall game is not too long nor overly intense. The game lacks cohesive lore, only featuring fuzzy plot points for the purpose of, well, giving a purpose for the journey, alongside splashes of folklore and self-guided narrative options. Of course, the game really isn’t about a grand story. Tailspinner is an enjoyable card challenge moving through beautiful landscapes and folkloric baddies.
This title is somewhat interesting as a rougelike and fair enough as a deck builder. However, Tailspinner successfully harbors an image of its own within the sea of card battlers. Also, quite frankly, it has an addictive quality to it. Tailspinner is highly recommended to veterans of this genre, and worth a shot for newbies.
