Big news for my personal project: Magic: Legends released their first gameplay overview, and it's…very similar to what I had in mind.

Basically, the idea is to play an ARPG like Diablo where you run around smacking things and casting spells. But instead of a traditional skill list, you would collect cards and pile them into a deck then "draw" them for use in battle. The advantage of this system is that your gameplay is always "fresh" because of the sheer number of permutations you can have with a deck. The disadvantage (as some comments on that Youtube video have highlighted) is that gameplay is far more luck-based and if you get a poor draw it just feels bad and unfun.

Of course, I had several additional ideas that make my game different: I had a dark steampunk theme in mind actually, with aesthetics based on Bloodborne and Underworld. I also had a number of other mechanics, e.g. weapon swaps and DOOM-style glory kills. But I am fully aware a majority of people will home in on that one thing that is "a ripoff" rather than consider the game might be different in every other aspect.

This might sound bad on paper, but it's actually a very good thing. If Magic: Legends can just be the game I've been looking to make, it would allow me to have fun while saving me a ton of money and effort to actually make a game. Alternatively, I can just change the project to not resemble that game, which isn't a problem either.

So there's several options for me to consider:

1. Abandon the project entirely.
   As described above, I could save myself a lot of time and effort in to a project that might be headed in a very futile direction.
2. Continue the project in its current trajectory OR delay the project and continue it later.
   Perfect World Entertainment kind of has a bad reputation in the English-speaking market (which makes no fucking sense* but that's how the world is). So the game could end up unpopular, and if it gets shut down in 4 years due to financial constraints then, well, it's time to start building again.
3. Change up the project to no longer resemble Magic: Legends. This is the one I'm leaning towards. My vision doesn't really rely on this deckbuilding system, you see. I just wanted a game that involves fancy footwork while also having a strategic/building aspect. If I could change things up to not involve a deckbuilding system, then there's no problem.

*most of Perfect World's poor Western reputation is solely due to the fact it is Chinese. Having published Neverwinter and Remnant From the Ashes, is limited consistent evidence that tells me they will apply predatory marketing policies in their games outside of China, despite everyone on social media claiming the contrary.