Developer – Jérémie & Thibaut

Publisher – Yogcast Games

Platforms –   PC (Reviewed)

Review copy given by Publisher

Kaya’s Prophecy is a card-driven village builder that puts your strategy and resource management to the test. As the head of a growing settlement, you’ll shape a thriving community while contending with the unpredictable will of your god. Balance your resources carefully, craft a synergistic deck from a variety of powerful cards, and steer your village toward prosperity. Just remember to keep your divine patron pleased—fall out of favor, and you might regret it.

Building your village in Kaya’s Prophecy starts with the thrill of cracking open booster packs—yes, just like in your favorite collectible card games. But instead of rare monsters or spells, you’re pulling a variety of essential gathering cards and resources. These packs form the lifeblood of your strategy. Each card has a purpose, and the early game quickly becomes a balancing act between deploying workers, harvesting efficiently, and laying the groundwork for sustainable growth. It’s not about brute force or racing to an endgame—it’s about playing the long game, reading the board, and stacking small wins that snowball into something greater.

The resource system itself is delightfully layered. You’re not just collecting wood, stone, or food for the sake of stockpiling—you’re setting up a flow. Cards synergize in clever ways: a hunter’s lodge might give you food, but pair it with a smokehouse and suddenly you’ve got preservation and bonuses. These tiny innovations become crucial when you start earning your god’s favor. Divine approval unlocks technologies and game-changing cards that take your village from a basic settlement to a hub of innovation. New materials, tools, and structures open doors to strategies you didn’t even know existed in the early game.

But the divine relationship is a double-edged sword. Your god isn’t some passive background character—he’s present, demanding, and extremely temperamental. Fail to meet his expectations, particularly when it comes to food offerings, and you’ll feel his fury almost instantly. Tornadoes might tear through your progress, lightning could obliterate key buildings, and sometimes, in truly harsh moments, your own followers may suffer. It’s a mechanic that keeps you constantly on edge, forcing you to juggle appeasement with progress.

Offerings are a game within the game. Figuring out the timing, quantity, and type of food to give your god becomes an art form. A well-fed god rewards you with boons—temporary buffs, resource boosts, or even divine protection during tough times. It’s a rewarding push-and-pull system that elevates the stakes. You can’t just focus on building; you have to respect the spiritual economy.

Once your village stabilizes, you’ll need to look outward. Expeditions are where things get really interesting. These journeys into the wild are risky but necessary for long-term growth. You’ll face wildlife, harsh terrain, and unknown threats. The deck-building aspect shines here—your combat deck plays differently from your village-building one, and you’ll need to craft your loadout carefully to stand a chance against roaming beasts or aggressive rival factions.

Combat itself isn’t an afterthought—it’s a deliberate, strategic system that rewards synergy and preparation. You’re not mindlessly clicking “attack”; you’re managing stamina, card costs, status effects, and terrain modifiers. The thrill of surviving an encounter and returning home with rare resources or new blueprint cards never gets old. These moments make the world feel alive and unpredictable, like anything could happen once you venture past the edges of your map.

Kaya’s Prophecy thrives on unpredictability. One moment, you’re flush with resources and coasting on divine favor. The next, a missed offering or poorly planned expedition turns everything upside down. These sudden shifts keep you engaged and force constant adaptation. It’s not just a game about building; it’s a game about reacting—learning from missteps, bouncing back stronger, and knowing when to play safe or gamble everything.

Every decision you make ripples through the entire game. Choosing to spend resources on upgrading a smithy instead of making an offering might give you powerful tools down the line—but it could also leave your god fuming in the short term. Ignoring the wilderness too long might keep your villagers safe, but eventually, you’ll fall behind on essential materials. There’s a constant tension between short-term survival and long-term vision, and the best players are those who can read the moment and act accordingly.

Narratively, the game ties it all together with a compelling mystery. Your god doesn’t just demand offerings—he whispers of a prophecy, of a future your village might fulfill or doom entirely. The story is told through events, cryptic visions, and fragments uncovered during exploration. It’s subtle but ever-present, giving weight to your actions and making you wonder if you’re truly building a future… or just staving off an inevitable collapse.

The art style reinforces the game’s tone beautifully. Soft, hand-painted visuals contrast with moments of divine wrath or wilderness danger, lending the game a storybook aesthetic with teeth. The soundtrack hums in the background with ambient calm and builds into swelling tension during storms or boss-level encounters, helping sell the emotional highs and lows of village life.

Replayability is another of Kaya’s Prophecy’s strengths. No two runs feel quite the same. The card pulls, divine moods, and expedition outcomes are randomized just enough to keep things fresh, and every new village offers different challenges and opportunities. You’ll want to experiment with different deck builds, divine appeasement strategies, and expedition priorities. And once you discover some of the rarer cards, you’ll find new layers of synergy you didn’t know existed.

There’s a meditative rhythm to the gameplay loop—draw cards, play your turn, feed your god, plan your next step. But that calm is always laced with tension, because the moment you get complacent is the moment the storm hits. The game respects your time but also demands your attention. It’s the kind of experience that makes you say “just one more turn” over and over again, only to realize hours have passed.

It’s not a perfect game—some early balancing issues can make the first few hours feel slower than necessary, and divine wrath might occasionally feel too punishing. But these moments are few and far between, and most of the time, the systems interlock beautifully to create a cohesive, engaging whole.

In the end, Kaya’s Prophecy delivers a deeply strategic, card-driven village builder with heart, danger, and a healthy dose of mystery. It asks a lot from the player—careful planning, quick adaptation, and a willingness to roll with divine punches—but rewards those who stick with it. Whether you’re here for the deck-building, the godly drama, or the challenge of building something that lasts in a hostile world, this game has something to offer.

Just remember: feed your god. Or don’t—and see what happens.