When does the Card game end?

I kept hearing great things about Inscryption, and how it does crazy stuff, and I've been playing this card game for like 2 hours and.....

Do I have to beat this card game? I was really hoping "THE THING" would happen sooner than it has. The card game is fine, but... I play too many card games as it is. This one does Nothing for me.

Is there any way to skip the card game? Like, can I do something to make Whatever happens next happen already? Open a door or click on something in that cabin?... Or do I just have to keep playing the card game until I beat all the bosses? I wanna get to the part people keep talking around. Googling for "How to skip the card game in Inscyption" isn't giving me the results I'm looking for.

Like, at this point, If I have to beat all those card bosses Again... I'm just gonna look up what happens.

EDIT: THANK YOU! I have gotten my answer loud and clear. I kinda assumed this was more of a Frog Fractions-type game, and was expecting a few genre changes. Message Received!
This is a Card Game.

You need to do more stuff in the escape room before beating the card game lets you get to The Stuff. I would focus on solving puzzles in the room and using the items and cards you find there.

the entire thing is a card game. the thing is just another card game. and then another card game. if you don't like the card game then you don't like the game. save yourself the slog and just watch the good bits on youtube.

There's nothing else. There are three different versions of the card game, but they’re all pretty mediocre. The amazing stuff is everything around the card game, but you’ll be playing the card game until the end.

Anyone have a good let's play? I don't have a gaming PC, but want to see the story of the game.

Inscryption is a card game. You can't skip it.

@vikingdeath1: It doesn't, it's a card game from start to finish.

Yeah, PSA to gamers everywhere: Inscryption isn't some kind of Frog Fractions rope-a-dope where it ends up being several weird genres for 15 minutes each.

Certainly, some Weird Shit happens, but at all times the vessel for Weird Shit Happening is some version of a card game. If there is no love in your heart for a card game video game, you will probably have trouble getting to the end of Inscryption.

And if you really like card games, you might still have a hard time getting to the end of Inscryption because it's not a very interesting card game.

Maybe it's because I've played too much Slay the Spire or something, but I didn't find the log cabin card game especially difficult or long. I'd say two hours is plenty of time to figure it out. If you're not invested in the actual game, then you might get frustrated or bored and take longer to get through it. I suggest you just stop playing. The majority of the game, even the big dramatic stuff people don't want to spoil, relies on you enjoying the card game.

@besetment: @thatpinguino: Yeah, Inscryption definitely occupies a weird middle ground. A little too simple for experts, but also not much handholding or explanations of strategy/card game basics for novices.

For people with dozens or hundreds of hours in Magic: The Gathering, Slay the Spire, or other card-based video games, Inscryption is comparatively pretty simple. It's a lot of keywords for abilities, but the primary mechanics and strategy are extremely simple. For people with experience in the genre, the card game is pretty straightforward aside from the handful of times a boss ambushes you with a crazy "cheating" mechanic you couldn't see coming.

On the flip side, I have seen some streamers play the game who admittedly are not typical card-game players or strategy game players, and it's just blunder after blunder as they lose board position and put themselves so far behind they can't catch up. As simple as they made the card game, I still don't think it quite works as a game you could easily complete if it's really your first foray into this type of game.

@ginormous76: Yes, Waypoint as an EPIC playthrough: https://youtu.be/P7bZHHXR_H4

@bisonhero: Yeah, I felt like I understood the ways to break the game after two runs, but the game decided that I needed to complete like 10 more because I needed to do more escape room stuff. So by the time I got to The Stuff I was thoroughly burned out on the card game. The last third of the game was a real slog because both the escape room and the card game felt played out. The first third of the game is the best part by a lot.

The game only took me like 14 hours to get through (give or take some idle time) and I'm not even good at card games. I only just got into them in the last year with Monster Train, Griftlands, Slay the Spire and I'm still only any good at Monster Train. The main attraction of Inscryption was of course the styyyyyyle and it delivered for me. But yeah it's a card game all the way through, just keep up with the escape room stuff.

The entire game is a card game. If you do not like the card game you're probably better off not continuing to play the game.

The game's story and twists disconnected from the gameplay and the presentation are not interesting enough to stand up on their own, so I would not bother trying to find the spoilers because they likely won't do anything for you.

This is definitely a great example of how you can *make* the card game interesting by sheer force of will.

@humanity: For me personally: the game was interesting enough because it encouraged high-risk play through unlocking stuff via exploration, rather than locking it all behind "perfect play."

I always wanted to see what a new card could offer, so it honestly drives me a LITTLE nuts how conservative and "seriously" Rob and Natalie play (still loved watching it for their reactions and banter) since looping and trying new shit is sort of baked into the narrative.

Maybe I'm just not that serious of a TGC player, but I was rarely bored by the card game.

@undeadpool: Yeah, Rob and Natalie's insistence on trying to win fights that are meant to be unwinnable was amusing, but overall you can tell the devs don't expect the average player to be so strategic. You're definitely meant to bounce between the card game and escape room as you make unlock progress in each, not like "try to win at the card game at all costs, all the time." The duality is neat, and it's one of the best successes of that first act, I think.

On that note, the third act is honestly kind of a bummer in how little escape room stuff there is to do, and instead of doing it at your own pace, it only comes up a couple times as prescribed by the antagonist. Maybe that lack was intentional to reflect how lame and mechanics-focused the antagonist is, but I still found it disappointingly restrictive compared to the first act.

@undeadpool: Their entire playthrough was madness. I certainly couldn’t make it through the entire streams but there were some really fun bits to it. I wouldn’t recommend it as a video for someone to watch instead of playing the game though cause yah that’s errr not how you were meant to play it - hey hats off to them for making it work.

@humanity:They're INCREDIBLY long, I know, but I'm recently blessed by an abundance of free time. But no, I still wouldn't recommend someone watch ANY video before playing if they intend to return to the game. But if you're JUST curious about the lore/secrets, and don't want a "straight" playthrough with no talking, I think they do very well.

@bisonhero:I mean to their credit: if the dev didn't want you to overcome the Wall O' Grizzlies, they should have made them immune to death-touch. Or automatically scroll forward to fill the gap infinitely. Or have the Grizzlies be flying or have some kind of 'First Strike.' If the point is: Leshy breaks the rules when you disrupt his story, have him BREAK the rules, not bend them. But yeah, their almost compulsive need to maximize their every turn is endearing and also infuriating.

I liked what they did with the 3rd act, showing how Leshy and P03 really did want to control things and be different from one another. "Just another escape room with a card game" might have been a little also-ran, both in-terms of gameplay and story. I think it did what it intended, ESPECIALLY because P03's game is exponentially easier to break.

I also don't love hiding something that takes the ending from "edgy student film" to "part of a bigger picture" behind a single frame, but it's clear that Mullins is doing it the way HE wants to, and people are certainly responding. I doubt it'll be the next Undertale, but I can't remember the last time a single little game was talked up by enthusiasts this universally positively.