Digimon Story Time Stranger
Digimon Story Time Stranger
Game
Game2023
Mahokenshi - The Samurai Deckbuilder
Developer Game Source Studio
Begin your journey to become a mighty samurai mage! In a blend of adventure, strategy and deckbuilding gameplay, choose how you will follow the way of the Mahoken. Explore the Celestial Islands, build your deck, battle challenging demons, and protect the land from the forces of corruption. From the Steam store page
190 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy) · newest Aug 25, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
71
Fresh
132 positive · 54 negative
95% range 64–77%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 132 | 54 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
4 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
480 of 624 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 190 · most liked firstAs others have said, beautiful game until it crashes with a corrupted save, leaving you unable to ever finish the game. This occurs over two accounts& computers in our household alone, in different levels. The issue has been reported multiple times for over a year now without any response or action taken by the developer. Inconceivable that this is still being sold.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I need to preface this review and say that this is actually a great game. I played the whole story, enjoyed the game play, the uniqueness of each character, the art style... With that said, I can't recommend this game. Many, many years after release this game is still riddled with catastrophic, time wasting, or infuriating bugs everywhere. Forum posts were raised years ago with no response from the devs. I've received no response via email, and the Discord server is dormant. The devs…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I WISH I could recommend this game, but no. I played it to the end without any major issues untill I stumbled upon a game breaking bug that hardlocks (not even softlocks) the game and I HAVE to delete my save file and restart from the begginng, This game needs more polishing and testing. Heartbreaking experience, beacause I actually love this game. Don't play until fixed. p.s. I used Kitsune hero with a bunch of cards that generate "spirits". For some reason the game just can't handle that much…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game looks great and plays great. There are some interesting mechanics. However, I can not recommend this game because of the time pressure in missions and how fast the difficulty ramped up. The game started great but the missions started to dissapoint pretty fast.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I immediately fell in love with this game... too bad it's so BUGGY. And I'm not just talking little annoyances, like the fact that the "back to menu" button is mostly covered by the "character select" button, or that the game will sometimes get stuck on the new character introduction screen. Those (while irritating) are at least fixable with a game restart. No, I'm talking about game-breaking bugs which can end an entire campaign, such as the fact that your unlocked skill trees can LITERALLY…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A turn-based deckbuilding strategy game with samurai-themed classes and a light map progression system. The core gameplay is enjoyable at first, with a satisfying deckbuilding loop and thematic combat encounters. However, the game offers limited build diversity, which leads to repetition once the basic systems are understood. The strategic map layer is functional but does not significantly enhance long-term engagement. Difficulty is moderate but not especially challenging, which reduces the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is a game-breaking bug that makes it unplayable. The boss suddenly got stuck and the card deck turned into “99.” After that, nothing can be clicked. Moreover, It does not allow you to start a new game after restart the game—loading just takes back into the same broken mission where everything is stuck.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This not just another Slay the Spire clone. And that is good. If anything, it's a super "lite" version of Mage Knight, with an L5R skin. And that is great.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Only worthwhile if you like the setting, otherwise too generic a game. This is a first impression review. Recently I bought a Humble Bundle and decided to play one randomly, well sort of, the name sounded intriguing. The game plays on hexshaped tiles which create the board. Your character moves turnbased on said board. The amount of 'energy', your resource to move and play cards, cost is dependant on the sort of terrain. When playing a movement card instead of clicking the board directly,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unplayable condition............. Keep finding game blocker bugs! They need to hire better QA because these bugs are so obvious it's embarrassing. Example: On the first mission, if you save the game and quit to desktop, when you return to game again, at the start of your turn you have 4 moves and NO cards. The End turn button was also disabled... I really want to like it, because the idea is great and the artwork is nice. Coders get your shiz together on this one as you're letting the team…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a tough one, and I really want to give it a thumbs up. The design is fantastic. All the systems come together in a very enjoyable way, it looks and sounds great, etc. The problem is that as half the other negative reviews mention, there just isn't enough content and what does exist is much too easy. If we had a good random map generator, a campaign 50%-100% longer than what's here, some sort of endless mode, or it were 1993 and I believed the game would catch on enough to see a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just Look at the other Neg Reviews for more info. for me it more of a good bait and switch game. Looks good when you are watching someone stream the first levels play but when you purchase based on that you saw find out everything is not what it seems. every level is a turn limit of some sort and you cannot just enjoy the game but trying to hurry up to the end. cannot explore or just casual play. I understand if it was an achievement for finish quick but ever level is like this.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mahokenshi is a mixed bag of a game. On one hand it's a solid deckbuilder with workshop support for custom missions, great visual design, and has built in challenges to test you in case the base game is too easy for you. On the other hand you have a game with very little gameplay variety, poor sound design, occasionally unsteady performance and a not all that interesting story. If you are desperate for a deckbuilder, it's actually a decent purchase on sale. Otherwise, I can't really say it's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has so much potential but it's mired down by a couple of questionable design decisions. 1) Your deck resets back to the basic 4 strike cards and 2 move cards after every mission. Each mission is only 15-20 min so you'll be resetting back to this constantly. Despite there being four heroes with very different decks, the majority of the time you're building off this basic set, which gets repetitive. 2) Timers. Now normally don't have to be a bad thing when implemented well. But…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Get it on a discount. There are a lot of good ideas in this game. It is a little short. Almost every mission is time based to create artificial difficulty. The tile movement system is unique but ultimately slows the game down to being a chore. Thumbs up? It's fun, just needs to be made better in the sequel. Oh, and it has furry characters OwO So +100
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →5/10 solid game, needs more game for that price thought 25$ gets you 18 levels - gameplay is slow. i played it at 5 times the speed + works on windows 7 + build your own levels - crashed on me once + reloads at the start of the turn when i crashed killed every single enemy on a level and it would not let me finish it. waited 20+ turns and reset the level. did the same thing again and it worked
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is good reason to argue for either rating, but I'm coming down positive because despite the multiple frustrating, experience-ruining, time-wasting bugs that prevent quest completions from triggering after load, I still want to keep playing the game. A worse game gets put away after 1 strike. Still should be fixed, but the core loop is a very satisfying deckbuilding snowball.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game with fun deckbuilding. However the further you go into the game it breaks more and more. After 5-6 missions I encounter game-breaking bugs every mission that makes me have to restart the level in question. At this point the game is barely playable. A shame, because without these issues it would be an easy recommend.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Why would you ruin a perfectly great game by not letting the player keep their new gained cards after the mission. Instead every mission you start with nothing,zero,nada,zilch!! Completely ruins the strategy aspect of the game. Sorry cannot reccomend! Recommendable only possibly with using cheats!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mild to moderate recommendation. Enjoyable but not especially deep. Low difficulty, which could be a plus or a minus for you. Mahokenshi levels are shorter than competing games' roguelike runs, again a possible plus or minus for you. Game length is 8-10 hours, apparently 13 for me to 100% it, plus the mission maker and user-generated content. "Mahokenshi" could be translated to "Mage Knight," and there are similarities to that game. Deckbuilding is combined with movement across a hex…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun game for about 14 hours. Then I found a bug and my character disappeared off the screen. Unfortunately I don't see a way to reset this game since my only option it to reload to its bugged save. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling but the game still keeps it save file somewhere and reloads where I left off. Its unplayable now.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Reading the rest of the reviews I was a bit hesitant to play this game which has been in my library for years. For me, the game has been running perfectly, no crashing, no bugs, no issues whatsoever. If you like Slay the Spire, you should love Mahokenshi! Very similar play pattern, build paths, classes, but each mission has a different goal rather than just "kill boss." I'm a big fan of how the movement system works, and the different terrain benefits, it's very rewarding to learn all the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Loved the gameplay and theme, played decent on the Deck too...until I hit a hard lock bug around the third or fourth level. The only game I've ever requested a refund on. Will consider repurchasing if the developer patches a lot of bugs (based on other reviews as well).
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mahokenshi is an interesting spin on the deckbuilder genre. Its a deckbuilder strategy game with roguelite elements. The game does two fairly unique twists to innovate in the fairly saturated market of deckbuilders. First, the game is played on a hex based, overlay map. That means movement is done alongside card plays, with movement costing energy along with cards. Enemies and objectives are littered throughout the map, which means that you can run away from an enemy by, well, literally…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was having a good time with the game up until campaign mission 3 where I encountered a visual bug that blacked out my whole map. Attempted to save and quit in order to try and fix it, when I came back to the game, the load feature did not work properly. Saving does not save your talismans, town purchases, or anything related to your hand or where you last were when you saved. Killing the boss after loading the game also did not complete the mission, which left me in limbo as I was roaming the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Mahokenshi" is exactly what I've been looking for—a deck-builder that lets me play my way, with no pressure to dive into PVP battles. The art? Stunning. It's like stepping into a painting where every character brings their own flavor to the journey. I'm all in for mixing and matching abilities without worrying about messing up. It’s all about strategy over wallet size here, thanks to zero micro-transactions. Combat is the right kind of challenging—makes me think, but doesn't drive me nuts.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a buggy mess. I just had to quit and restart the third mission because the "Kill the boss monster" goal did not trigger when I killed the boss monster, and the game just softlocked. When I replayed the third mission, this time the "Kill the boss monster" goal triggered as expected, but then I saw on the level summary screen that the "Kill the sidequest monster" goal did *not* trigger, so I'll have to play the scenario a third time with the hope that everything might work…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Buggy. Game crashed during a long mission. I had to kill four pursuers. Killed two of them before game crashed. They were still dead when it loaded the most recent save, but when I killed the other two, it still showed that I had to kill the two that were already dead. Long mission was a waste of time. Quit playing game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game crashes and becomes unplayable. Do not purchase.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Believe it or not, deckbuilding is not the most important aspect of this game, as you don't keep the deck you built from one level to the next. And this is not a bad thing. It allows you to focus on being adaptive and to try different combinations quickly. In some ways, it's more of a turn-based tactics game rather than a deckbuilding game. The story isn't particularly rich, even though the theme is very interesting and eye-catching. It's a great pick for completionists. I was able to beat…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I encountered a game breaking bug: my deck was reset to an earlier state after some missions. Progress seems not to be saved properly. Since the game is one year old and this crucial function still is faulty, I do not think it will be fixed in future. So I requested a refund.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →On the surface it's almost as if Mahokenshi was made for me, yet after a few hours of gameplay it's fallen quite flat. The theme of samurai combined with deckbuilding and board game strategy is sweet, but the deckbuilding mechanics are mostly nothing new. It also feels a little uneven. Some aspects are pretty neat, but then there are other aspects that barely work (or not at all). For example the save function lets you return to where you were, yes, but it resets your hard earned setup and bugs…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mahokenshi – The Samurai Deckbuilder is a distinctive blend of turn-based card combat, tactical board-game movement, and Japanese mythological style, resulting in a hybrid strategy experience that stands apart from most modern deckbuilders. Developed by Game Source Studio and published by Iceberg Interactive, the game places you in the role of a Mahokenshi—one of four magical samurai sworn to defend the Celestial Islands from corruption and invading Oni forces. Its foundation lies in a unique…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quite an enjoyable experience that is mired by a bunch of random bugs. Sometimes the progression upgrades you bought won't trigger, other times the talismans you acquire won't aggregate effects. I haven't experienced more serious game breaking bugs other reviewers talked about yet but I think that might have more to do with me finishing a level and only letting it save in the mission hub. The mission timers and all the other conditions are fine, that's where the fun and challenge of the game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is pretty good and original but seems abandoned by devs. Saving functionality has a very serious issue. But bug reports about it are being ignored on Discord and Steam forums.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun game in concept. but a lot of bugs still persist. unfortunately some like the ones i experienced has made the game entirely unplayable unless i remove my save file. its unfortunate that this bug still persists even as it has been reported over a year ago by other people experiencing the game issues.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a deckbuilder with a tactical map. Each turn you have 4 energy, which you can spend on playing cards or moving. Basic movement cost is 1 energy, but it can be as much as 3 in mountains, or really unlimited if you've been hit with a high Slow debuff. There are cards for movement as well as attack and defense, generally allowing you to move several tiles for the cost of the card, ignoring terrain cost. Movement cards can be very important strategically when there's a time limit, or you need…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is an interesting combination of board game and deckbuilder. But I just can't play that much of it because it keeps bugging out. Either the whole map gets covered in blackness or sometimes an enemy will just never take their turn.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is well balanced card game of adventures in eastern mythology land. Balance is pretty good, skills are 50% shared and 50% unique to different heroes. From negatives - all buildings are basically red on red background, often it is hard to see if there are any interesting building in the area. Also some missions are gated behind hero levels to have necessary tools to defeat enemies. Game is around 10 hours long for all the missions. Unfortunately had to change to "not recommended" as…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mahokenshi is a Japanese themed deckbuilder where the player must protect villages from goblins and cultists who are trying to summon powerful demons. Combat is turn based, and each mission takes place in a rural landscape that is divided into a hex grid. Each turn you’ll draw cards into your hand which allows you to attack, defend, move, or perform special abilities, and you can spend energy to either play cards or move around the map. Certain tiles such as hills, forests or mountains give…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game bug has hard locked the game 5 times for me today on 2 separate missions. Shame, because I am enjoying it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay is ok, but the game is quite buggy. Sometimes the game gets unresponsive (happened once every mission or at end of mission) and the only thing you can do is close and restart it. If this happens mid mission upon reload it can happen that you no longer have all your cards... I haven't played much yet, and I don't see anyone else reporting these issues, so hope these bugs are rare and that I won't see them anymore.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game suffers from many bugs and lags, and the devs don't seem interested in fixing them anymore. I can find forum threads from a few years ago about many players having their screen flashing repeatedly while playing, and all the devs have to say is "use borderless mode". Well, guess what? Borderless doesn't help. Windowed mode does, but then the sides of the game interface get cropped. And that's only the most annoying of many bugs. I also recently loaded a game after unlocking a side…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Solid. deckbuilding is fun, it doesnt make you grind. It encourages you to play all the styles with varied challenges. The mission designs are just unique enough, (rush <--> slaughter spectrum) but the draw here is the gameplay loop of getting cards and stats while achieving the various sub-objectives. Each turn is tense and thoughtful in a way that feels very very good. "Too many options" is such a good thing for the genre and this has it for both the card building and tactical sides.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is what happens if Slay the Spire and Heroes of Might & Magic have a baby. You are running across scenario map and combat is deck-builder very similar to Slay the Spire. Making completely broken deck is much easier than in Slay the Spire. The game contains several main missions and side missions which are preset and always the same (you can play them how many times you want, but they don't change) - once you complete every mission and every challenge there is nothing to do - maybe…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked that achievments are easy to get. Some need some thinking or proper preparation but not endless hours of grind. But in general there is no balance in this game. Just throw all the cards that you have at enemy, and you won. If you like relaxing card game for 10h it is a good choice. I do not regret buying or completing the game. I would say I am neutral but opinions cannot be neutral, so it is negative.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Way too linear, short stages. Its not very entertaining to be rushed through tiny maps with timed challenges.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty fun variation on the roguelike deckbuilder genre. The voice acting with it's fake Japanese accent was off-putting, and I encountered a couple of glitches that forced me to restart the level. But overall it was rewarding, balanced and challenging.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a nice idea with solid gameplay, but lack of difficulty options hurt it a lot. It's much easier than many games of its genre.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First of all, performance here is complete trash. The game runs at 40 fps on my system, while Baldur's Gate 3 runs at 60+ fps. This is completely unacceptable, even if performance is not critical for a turn-based game. Now, about the gameplay. It is clearly inspired by Slay the Spire (some cards are literal clones). At the same time, instead of climbing a randomized tower and losing all progress as you die, in Mahokenshi you play predefined scenarios, and if you die you simply have to restart.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a fun twist on the roguelike/roguelite deckbuilder genre. Each mission looks like it's hand-crafted, which feels really good and makes for a great experience. I assumed that would harm replayability, but there are multiple characters, optional objectives, and multiple difficulties which works really well. The meta-progression feels good - the bonuses are impactful and require some real thought as to how I want to play. The characters all feel distinct and are fun to play. There's…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →love this game , the gameplay is fun!! graphics are nice , wish there was more missions! highly recommend
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really loved this game. It's a deckbuilder where you must gather ressources on the maps, defeat enemies, improve your warrior while doing objectives. I found it a bit on the easy side, but it felt like a new fresh take on the deckbuilding genre. I really recommend it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Meh-it's Aaaiiight.... I want to leave a positive review because there's potential here and would be interested in what this studio makes as a follow up. The game itself is pretty average. There is nothing wrong with it, but there's also not much super right either that other card games don't do better/more interesting/prettier. Yes, I said "prettier" because one of the cons is the world map and the interface. Firstly, with the world map it's a mess. I want to like it. It has pretty colors and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Devious Deckbuilders Humble Game Bundle: bit.ly/3TZ6AIc my affiliate link $20 for 7 games (worth $159) - Book of Hours - Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles - Dungeon Drafters - Mahokenshi - The Samurai Deckbuilder - Zoeti - Gordian Quest - Flippy Knights
unlabelledView post →DISCORD seems DEAD SAVE YOUR MONEY game is BUGGY with the SAVE FILE if you crash mid-gameplay, GOOD LUCK USE AUTO BACKUP BAT FILE TO SAVE YOUR LIFE DONT BE LIKE BEN
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a pretty interesting deckbuilder that does some new innovations. Rather than battles being their own scene, all of your movement and battles are on the world map, which makes battles a lot more tactical. Well, they would be, if the game wasn't mind-numbingly easy. This is probably the easiest deckbuilder I've ever played. You can 100% the achievements in about 12 hours, which are just all the challenges for each mission. That being said, it's a gorgeous game and I enjoyed my time…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mahokenshi is a creative board game-like deck builder wherein you split your cards and energy between movement and attacking. Upgrades and unlocks between missions are solid. Note that many missions and bonuses are tied to performing tasks within a set amount of time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really fun game but the difficulty goes up really quickly. This happens because of the randomness of cards you get in game, sometimes you just can't get the right cards to beat a challenge. Wish there was a way to buy cards between tries to help fill your deck so you can redo your deck as needed per challenge. Still recommend it, it is fun and if you get the right cards you can do really well.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I enjoyed this game for what it was, there's a few bugs that killed the experience for me. 1. Exalted Warriors card has a progression blocking bug. I found this out near the end of a long mission. 2. If you have an Ultrawide Screen then fullscreen will stretch it to fit (rather than adjust the aspect ratio) and windowed mode will cause significant frame drops. there's no reason this type of game shouldn't have UW support. anyway. Get it on sale, put a few hours into it but expect bugs…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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