Slay the Spire (2019)

It's a great rouge like deck builder and super addicting. My go to game to play in the background.

My biggest problem is that it relies to much on RNG so some runs it just feels like your screwed no matter what. Especially since there aren't many moves that heal and you don't always draw blocks. While it feels great when you get the perfect run, i feel there's more restarts than perfect runs.

Overall it's addicting and i do recommend but if your not a fan of massive RNG and grind i would stay away.

I came late to Slay the Spire after it was made available on PS Plus. I'm a huge fan of deck-builders but harder to please when it comes to roguelikes, so my anticipation for playing this one fell somewhere between interest and apprehension. Turns out it was a solid and fun challenge, but for me and my tastes, didn't last longer than a handful of hours.

The story

More or less non-existent, as far as my playthroughs could decipher. You choose 1 of 4 hero archetypes (that can be unlocked after successive playthroughs) and you're trying to make it to the end of the dungeon. There's very little in the way of exposition in flavour text or reasoning as to why you're in the dungeon.

The gameplay

Great as far as deck builders go! Lots of card variety for each player archetype and some great implementation of this or that mechanics, like sacrificing health to gain a new card, or choosing to upgrade a good card at the cost of losing two cards. It made for some really fun and tense situations as I was nearing the end of a run, trying to min/max in my mind what's the best chance of getting me across the finish line.

The replay value

This is where my opinion may be an outlier. I really enjoyed playing a couple of the archetypes but a few of the others were lacklustre to me. Also, the deck and build variety can probably be seen as a great challenge for some players, but I found myself wanting to just keep building the same poison deck with the thief rather than trying something new. I can't say that's a knock against the game though, more about my personal playstyle. So that being said, the drive to continue playing the same style over and over wore off quick.

The conclusion

As far as PS Plus games go, this was a huge winner. It made for a really enjoyable afternoon and I can see how certain gamers will dump hundreds of hours into this trying to chase all the trophies or master every deck build for every archetype. While that wasn't my style, I was still content with my time with Slay the Spire.

I can finally write a review as I beat the heart with one of the characters (Ironclad). I'm not a min-max player and I feel like the folks who get really into this game take a really strategic and holistic view to their deck. I never gamed out what the level 3 boss would be like with early card picks, but just went for easy synergy. Similarly, I'm awful at skipping card rewards which bit me in the ass with huge decks at the end of the game.

I'll probably keep playing from ttime to time to see if I can get my other characters past the end game, but I won't be shooting for 100% achievements. Some seem damn near impossible and sadistic, like beating the game with 1 relic or just common cards. Not my idea of fun.

Played another hour or so last night and I "get it" now. I really like that there's no possibility of really planning your run in advance and instead it's all about making the best choices along the way. This makes the game less stressful to me as I don't feel a need to really plan out a min/max strategy (which I hate).

I did "beat" the game on my second ironclad run due to some helpful relics. Looking forward to the variety of different characters and trying to get the "true" ending.

I've been playing on Game Pass, but I imagine I'll buy this game on Switch once I'm traveling for work again. Perfect game for a plane flight or winding down in a hotel room.

I've been holding out on playing this because I was so confident I'd love it. I needed a break from Jedi Fallen Order so decided to give it a go.

I only played about 20 min, and am so far underwhelmed, but I get that I'm still in tutorial mode, but the fights early on have been so basic to the point of boredom. I know it gets better and I'm excited to get to that point.

I'm starting to notice some much unneeded, unwarranted and unneccessary callousness around here at times. Knock that shit off. This is a good place. Don't turn it into the rest of the internet.

In other news, I've finally, as of tonight, reached the 3rd major boss in Slay The Spire. Unfortunately, I'm going in with 30 health, but a shit ton of decent relics and a whole hell of a lot of solid defense cards, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow I suppose lol

Slay the Spire is coming to iPhone this month apparently! I don't have an iPhone, but still, pretty great to have a portable version of this (apart from the switch). Android coming soon too apparently.

Hey everyone, we’ve got some great news to share. We’re happy to announce that Slay the Spire will be in your pockets this month on iOS! When specifically? We’ll have that news very soon, but as a hint, you should try to tune in to the Guerrilla Collective show on June 13th.

https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/646570/view/2259065423079593208