Part of this might be tied to the basic poker concept, but sometimes I'd win battles in a single turn and other times, I'd be overwhelmed with seemingly no way to counter. I also found the balance to be a bit off. This comes with the unfortunate side effect that basic skills are inherently more boring.

In comparison to the more straightforward energy system that most genre games use, saving up for a royal flush to use a key skill felt limiting enough that I shied away from using the big-ticket skills in favor of smaller but more reliable ones. Having to build a strong poker hand is a cool concept, but it left me feeling pretty limited in terms of what I could do with combos. The system has a few flaws that keep it from being as instantly engaging as more traditional deck-builders. You're limited to how many cards you can hold at one time, but certain skills can increase that. This effectively gives you a more flexible energy system, à la Dawncaster and its ilk. Any cards you don't spend are carried over to the next round, and you get a preview of upcoming cards so you can roughly plan ahead.

Higher-tier hands allow for more powerful attacks, and lower-tier hands can be used more. This means the game doesn't have an energy system, but the number of actions you can take is determined by how big of a hand you're willing to spend. Each 'slot' can only contain one skill, but you can swap out skills between fights if something isn't working for you. You may use a one pair for a defense card or a straight for a heavy-hitting attack with a debuff. When battle starts, you're given a poker hand and can play any combination of hands you get. Rarer hands have more powerful skills associated with them. Instead, you gain skills that you can associate with different poker hands: one pair, two pairs, flushes, straights and so on. Where Zoeti differs from the standard deck-builder is that it is focused on poker hands. I think there's a lack of enemy variety to some degree, but the game's runs are not long enough to demand more.

This really isn't uncommon for the genre, and the general design of the characters and enemies is fun. It's really in the vein of Slay the Spire, right down to the playable character choices being a thief, warrior or wizard. You and the enemies take turns hitting each other, with enemies foreshadowing their attacks with intents. At first blush, Zoeti looks a lot like any other deck-builder on the market.

Instal the new for android Zoeti