You are dead. Your judgment is settled over a game of Hwatu

You are one of the dead. At the gates of the afterlife your judgment begins, not in words but in cards. The Reaper deals a hand. Reach the score and you pass to the next gate. Fall short and hell takes you. Korea's national card game, remade as a run for your soul.

The hand you draw is the life you lived

Every card that reaches your hand is karma you earned in a past life. Live well and the cards come kind, and their order never changes, because that life is already spent. But luck alone will not carry you through a gate. When to call Go and when to stop, what to collect and what to let pass, that is yours to decide now.

Your opponent is the Reaper

Your opponent wears black robes and a wide brimmed gat, the horsehair hat of a Korean death messenger. He is not trying to beat you. He simply takes the cards you were building toward, one step ahead of you. He is in no hurry. Time is on death's side.

Korean history and culture, dealt across 48 cards

Korea from antiquity to the present day, spread across the 48 cards of a Hwatu deck. Ttakji, the folded paper tiles Korean children slam against the ground. Dalgona, the honeycomb candy they pick apart with a needle. Korea's own games become the parts this game is built from. A sly goblin merchant sets out his stall. Come meet Korean Hwatu as it really is.

Win, then spend it at the night market

Beat the Reaper and you walk away with coin. Take it to the Jeotgeori, the night market of the afterlife. Items that bend the scoring rules outright, upgrades etched onto a single card, growth that raises your scoring hands themselves, and fresh cards to fold into your deck. The more you gather, the better your odds at the next gate, and no two runs ever build the same way. When a combo lands, points and multipliers snowball until one small hand erupts into a screen filling score.

Losing is not the end. Through hell, back to the gate

Fail to clear a gate and hell takes you. Pay for your sins and you stand before judgment once more. That is rebirth, and that is your next run. The deeper you go, the more the Ten Kings watch from their thrones, and the Reaper turns grim under their gaze. Past the final gate waits a match that never ends.