Recent reviews by Just Can't Wait

Slay the Spire was my first roguelike game, years and years ago. No matter what I played or how I tinkered, I typically lost during the 2nd map, sometimes the 3rd. It was so difficult to know if I was improving or getting worse, I couldn't see the patterns of what made a successful deck. I decided roguelikes were a waste of time since progress can't be saved and they're RNG based.

I then played a number of other roguelikes (Balatro, Cult of the Lamb) and fell in love! I realized the difference was, those games ramp you up and teach through gameplay what is good and what is bad. I never had to google guides for those games to learn how to make successful decks.

I thought I would try Slay the Spire again now that I have 50+ hours of roguelike experience. I still!!! struggle to decipher what makes a deck good in this game.

So for that, I can't recommend this game. There are so many other roguelikes that help you learn while playing instead of requiring researching online which cards are BIS.

This is the perfect small game to pick up when you're traveling or want something to play for a little at a time.

The combat is decent but it's not very intuitive when to press buttons for multipliers or what enemies resistances are. I beat the game but I still don't know the correct timing for a lot of skills/combos/ultis.

That is my only real complaint. Well, also the ending of the story! (Possible minor spoiler) Why did Reshin take off randomly near the end, then show up again right at the end?? He left a decoy so it was purely for story but there was never a good reason given..

banger

I'm revising my review to talk about just the F2P aspect of this game - in case people who have never played are curious about how/if this game is Pay to Win. I have some friends who say it is, some who say it's not, so it's up for you to decide.

Gear progression happens in tiers, where there are currently 3 tiers. Progression happens by "honing" your gear. Materials for honing come from doing quests, dailies, and can be purchased with in-game currency that is connected to real money.

If you do not spend real money, you are limited to the amount of honing materials you can acquire per day. Honing also has a significant RNG factor, where there is a chance your materials will be wasted when you fail an attempt to hone your gear. The higher your iLvl in a tier, the more likely you will fail.

So all of this is to say, you CAN progress in the game without spending money. Game progression is tied to your time (doing dailies), RNG (honing success), and real life money (more honing attempts).

Now to apply this to how it actually plays out in the game with a scenario - my iLvl is currently 980 with 25 honing failures, and my friend's iLvl is 1020 with 25 honing failures. He has progressed more than I have in the game due to slightly better RNG (neither of us have spent money). It would currently cost me about ~$20 of using the cash currency to buy honing materials to catch up to him at this point.

So I'm near the end of my initial binge of this game, and mostly it's great.

The good: The dungeons are the best I've seen in this genre. You noticeably get better at them the more you go through. The bosses are unique and require a little bit of strategy. It reminded me of grinding instances in WoW. The mining/artifact hunting is my 2nd favorite thing to do. Artifact hunting breaks up the mundane task of collecting materials, it's great.

The meh: Raising animals and farming aren't really required. Everything you need to complete commissions that require animal or farming items can typically be bought from stores. I've not yet completed the game but it seems like only horses/stables are worthwhile when it comes down to it.

The bad: Kind of branches off the meh bit. Ores, Bars, and everything that comes from them are required for seemingly everything in the game. Especially Carbon Steel Bars. I thought I was smart to make 4 furnaces early on, but they cannot keep up with the requirement of these damn bars. Every major event that happens in the game requires another 100 Carbon Steel Bars to get through. Which doesn't make a lot of sense because I'm multiple events past when they were introduced. Would be nice if they spread the load to include farming and whatnot so your entire estate isn't just 20 furnaces making charcoal and these bars.