I wanted to try a new type of post: just taking a particular videogame and see if there are others who would like to talk about it.
To start I’m taking Slay The Spire. A beautifully balanced game with infinite replayability. What are your favorite classes? What is your favorite way to win the game? What is the highest ascension you’ve beaten? Are there similar games you enjoy? Let’s go!
I mostly play it as a kind of chill casual game. I like to do endless more on ascension 1 and slowly build up the most broken deck imaginable (there’s many options). I just stop when I get bored of it, I usually don’t die ever on endless if I made it past the initial run.
Ironclad is my first and still my favorite class, strength scaling is just so satisfying when even your strikes start to do insane damage. I also love entrench to get very high block and then body slam to turn that into damage :).
Completed all characters on A20 with heart kills.
I almost exclusively play for A20 heart kills. I play all 4 classes but in a “whichever I feel like today” way. I tried rotating between the characters for a while and really didn’t enjoy playing silent or watcher while in the wrong mood for those classes.
My favorite deck in recent memory was probably a silent discard combo with Grand Finale as the only damage-dealing card in the deck. My favorite archetype in general is probably ice defect. A good all-you-can-eat ironclad run is great too.
I don’t think I agree that STS is especially well balanced - some regular hallway combats do irrationally more damage on average even to players much better than me (for example, floor one jaw worms or any act 3 darklings). In general, the game could be quite a bit harder on A20 and still be fun for players who want a challenge. It’s also weird to me that A1 makes the game easier compared to A0. Between the classes, there is a class which is clearly stronger than the others. However I also don’t think this is a bad thing. Imbalances create more opportunities for new experiences, and for different kinds of players to have different kinds of fun. And that certainly agrees with “infinite replayability.” I’m sure in 5 years’ time I will still be seeing interactions I’ve never seen before.
I wish there were more cards.
I have played it a decent amount, but I probably wouldn’t still play it if it wasn’t also on my iPhone (there’s a “plus” on Apple Arcade that looks identical, too).
I like Monster Train better mechanically for the reason that it does feel like there’s a lot more variety, though I dislike how short the runs are to build a deck with. (I’d like Slay the Spire to go longer on a good run, too).
I haven’t been too far on ascensions. I don’t think they’re really more entertaining. I mostly do the daily runs because at least there’s variety there.
Sure there aren’t that many cards but those cards are so well balanced. Every single card has its uses so you’re constantly presented with interesting decisions. It feels like almost every other roguelike has dead time where you’re just going through the motions whereas in slay the spire you’re making decisions from floor 1.
I find there’s a lot less variety in my monster train runs. Most classes have a distinctly best strategy and the artifacts generally also funnel you towards that strategy. For example, I can’t remember the last time I played an Umbra run that didn’t set up a morsel engine behind a warden or alloyed construct - as far as I’m concerned, those are the same strategy, it doesn’t feel different. The only other build I think is viable is just “play Shadowsiege,” which rarely happens early enough to build for it.
Every class in STS has at least three viable archetypes and almost every run within those archetypes still feels different to me.
I love Slay the Spire. It’s been a while since I played it on PC but nowadays I play it on my phone or tablet every now and then. I backed the Slay the Spire boardgame on Kickstarter that will be shipped some time soon and I can’t wait to try it out.
I think the max I got was Ascension 6, I’m not that good at deck builders I think. The Silent and Ironclad are my favourites and I play whatever fits my mood. Getting insane high block together body slam is just as much fun as getting insanely high poison stacks. I never once made it through act 4 sadly.
The music is also something I really enjoy, it fits the game so well! Sometimes I listen to it while driving or working.
