Malys is a religious themed deck builder where you step into the role of a former priest turned demon hunter that has entered a city that is slowly being consumed by malevolent forces. Demons roam amongst the population hiding within city folk they possess. You have to remove not only the demons from the people through exorcism but find greater demons that are feasting upon the darkness being cultivated through this city. 

This game was intensely addicting. It possessed my thoughts for hours and days outside of playing and completion. It's very rare where the narrative and gameplay cohesively blend this well. Each run felt exhausting due to the volume of demons you will cross to reach the end. The harder path exorcisms felt akin to an endless war. A singular run could take two to three hours of thoughtful deliberation. Every encounter is dangerous, underestimating enemy damage or misreading the demons inflicted debuffs could easily compound into a spiraling descent of pressure that ends with death or in extreme cases a OHKO. That constant pressure kept me locked in forcing careful planning around damage mitigation, defensive layering until I could find my opening for explosive turns. 

Between these battles the developers created pre-battle vignettes which give context of the possessed and hint towards the demon’s nature who you will battle. From my perspective the addition of this narration style came off as genius. After reading these dark religiously charged vignettes, you are confronted with the demonic abomination that absorbs the screen. Then having to move from one battle onto the next, in the hopes you can save the next victim without dying yourself spellbound me to this game’s world.