Clicker Arena

Besides the hero's fighting automatically, this isn't a clicker nor an idle game. I played for roughly 1 hour before deciding to refund. (I also want to note that at no point is this game fully ''idle'' as if you have to step away and die, instead of the game continuing, you're brought to a hub area where all of your progress is wiped, hence why I feel the game is extremely misleading on the consumers part)

In games like Cookie Clicker, you click till you get the game to do it for you and so forth till you have an empire. Then you can ascend to unlock permanent bonuses. However, during my playthrough, at no point did I deal any more damage or feel like I was making any progress in the slightest. Characters still felt weak, and despite having a skills section, none of them seemed to carry over, leading to virtually no real progression whatsoever.

I also feel calling this game a "clicker" is extremely misleading, as at no point are you required to click, unless you're upgrading your hero. Not to mention, clicking does nothing anyway.

A lot of items in the game become extremely expensive, some items requiring 500 or in some cases 3,000 glory (the currency used), which can take several hours to earn. Almost all of those items are one-time use and feel pointless. Why buy a damage potion for a whopping 500 when I could just buy a unit that deals more damage or a new passive? It makes no sense honestly.

What makes no sense to me the most is idle games like this are meant to have a permanent system, and at no point does this game deviate towards it. It simply feels like a never-ending grind till you die and or leave. Almost no progress is carried over, leading you to start all over again. Imagine this, you're on a good run, got a decent amount of skills and some arena coins to boost your money multiplier, and you have to step away briefly, only to come back find you've been killed and several hours of progress has just gone, poof, only for you to have to start all over again.

Overall, I just can't recommend it, and it feels too half-baked. Why settle for this when Kiwi Clicker or Cookie Clicker exist and have far more polish and have systems to make me feel like I'm actually progressing and reward you for restarting? Why should I restart here so after several hours I can buy a health potion?

TLDR:

- Cool Art-style with a nice soundtrack
- Misleading in terms of being ''idle''
- Progress is wiped on death leading to no form of progression
- useless currency after an hour I could buy 1 health potion (one time use only)
- half baked compared to Kiwi clicker and cookie clicker
- no end goal just an endless grind
- Skills and characters still feel weak even at high levels
- 0 permanent progression
- Items are ridiculously expensive and useless
- No achievements for a fully released title

In just over two hours of play time, you will find out that this game offers just over two hours of play time.

Also, it's a scam.

After reading through the comments i have some points of my own to make as a person who randomly discovered this game on release day and never heard of it before

Firstly the gameplay -

If you're looking for a game that can run in the background then this might not be the game for you. you can still afk but it definitely is not the way the game was intended to be played.
This more more of a micro management game where youre trying to get to the end as fast as possible with many different playstyles and things you can focus on to progress
Personally i cut my personal best down to 19:37 after 7 runs and unlocking many new artifacts and characters which change the game drastically in terms of how you play

Secondly Replay Value -

I have personally seen people complain that you can finish the game super quick and that is probably the most ignorant way of looking at it as i assume what was meant is beating the final boss for the first time which is easily done on you first run within 1-2 hours
some would say "hey 1-2h that is a scam!?" but if you read the earlier section you would know that by ignoring all the unlocks in the village after a run or 2 you are not even trying to engage with the content,
i completely understand that the game may look like an idle clicker, which it is not, at face value and this may have lead to a lot of disappointment from what i have seen in the reviews. whilst i agree I will also say reading the description will help immensely as it is pretty clear that this is a mix of genres

What could be better -

for the amount paid i think i could more than enough fun but i look forward to extra content such as artefacts, heroes and maybe even new types of arena stages with different enemies and difficulty.
I would also recommend not kicking the person out for losing unless they are playing in rush mode. this would make the casual experience a little more enjoyable and would lead to less frustration

Overall thoughts

The, as far as i know, solo dev who made this game seems like a very nice person who seems very responisve on is discord and really wants to make this a good game. it is a shame there was miscommunication with the community and some people feel like they have been scammed as they expected a different experience.

The game has a lot of varied ways to play and a lot of potential for optimising runs which may be the target audience this game is intended for

If you're looking for a quick 30min to 1h of fun speed running the game and not taking things too seriously then i would recommend the game fully and I would love to see your record on the discord. My PB 19:37

Edit: Since release a new class has been added and bugs keeps getting fixed as they are being found. I also forgot to add that some people have said there are not many hereos and the top negative reviews claims ther are 4 iirc... that is false there are 7 hereos unlocked as you play through the game.

the dev seems very proactive and is constantly working on the game despite the unfair way people judged the game after minimal effort was put in to give the game a fair try