Developed by Nerdook (Reverse Crawl, Vertical Drop Heroes), Monster Slayers is a complete reimagining of the free web-based hit of the same name, which has been played over 4 million times on gaming portal, Kongregate. A rogue-like deck-building RPG adventure, Monster Slayers uses an innovative card-based battle system and lets you customize a deck to suit your play style. Create a new hero to join the Monster Slayers Guild and choose your path through the perilous Northern Valley as you follow your quest to defeat the legendary Harbinger and become a true Monster Slayer.
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Asks the daring question: What if Slay The Spire was not very good
Monster Slayer's does a fine job of making an entertaining game in a genre that's almost impossible to truly get wrong. Is it fun? Sure. Does it stand out at all within its genre? No.
Not for me. I actually like card battlers on mobile, but I find them to be tedious on a PC. Perhaps if I was working a blue-collar job again, coming home from a hard day at work, just wanting to sit down and relax, I might enjoy playing these games on the computer, but at this point in my life, I need something more engaging to keep my attention.
If there was an Android port or I had a Steam Deck I would play this game quite a bit.
If there was an Android port or I had a Steam Deck I would play this game quite a bit.
Discovering this game has been one of the best gaming experiences I've had during the last decade, this game is truly a hidden gem if you like card RPG games.
The most similar experience I've had to this game has been Dicey Dungeons, being both Roguelike RPGs, Monster Slayers has, with the DLC installed, a total of 14 different classes to play, each one based around a gimmick, and a full run can be done in around 40 minutes, being the main part of the game being able to discover how to break each class to maximize their damage output.
Getting all achievements on this game was a total blast for me, it was challenging most of the time, even with the perfect setups, and seeing that your strategy finally works against the enemies is a really cool experience.
Finally, I would recommend this game to everyone, even if you're not the biggest fan of this type of games, because for it's price (I got it for 50 cent with the DLC included in a game pack), it's totally worth the hours of fun it provides
The most similar experience I've had to this game has been Dicey Dungeons, being both Roguelike RPGs, Monster Slayers has, with the DLC installed, a total of 14 different classes to play, each one based around a gimmick, and a full run can be done in around 40 minutes, being the main part of the game being able to discover how to break each class to maximize their damage output.
Getting all achievements on this game was a total blast for me, it was challenging most of the time, even with the perfect setups, and seeing that your strategy finally works against the enemies is a really cool experience.
Finally, I would recommend this game to everyone, even if you're not the biggest fan of this type of games, because for it's price (I got it for 50 cent with the DLC included in a game pack), it's totally worth the hours of fun it provides
I guess it's time to just give up on this game. I normally only keep the games I'm currently working on installed, but I've had this game installed on both my PC and my PS4 more or less ever since it came out, and I've completed hard mode with more than half the characters on PS4 and would like to take it to the finish line by completing everything (partially since it otherwise feels like all the time I've spent so far was wasted if I don't complete), but now it's time to just give up and say goodbye so that it doesn't feel like it's hanging over me in the eternal backlog.
Of all the games inspired by Dream Quest, this one's my favorite. It's a roguelite deckbuilder where you obtain and delete cards as you go, as in any deckbuilder, but it's got a more chilled out challenge level compared to the much more famous Slay The Spire, and the most important two differences between it and this game is that this game allows you to retain armor between hands and it also lets you pick your path at all times and isn't linear. Any armor gained stays until the enemy knocks it off, which just feels so much better than Spire's temporary armor to me, since temporary armor just means that you end up playing dead turns where RNG decided that you could do nothing because the AI is passive this turn, but you drew nothing but armor. At least, in Monster Slayers, you keep that armor for a future hand. The pathing is also enjoyable to me since the game generates these mostly square-shaped levels where you always have several paths and can hop back and forth and take on enemies when you feel ready for them, which just feels like it adds more depth and strategy to the game even though you quickly learn which enemies and decks you can defeat and there isn't much strategy left, it still feels like you're strategizing when you're making obvious choices.
Slay The Spire is probably, or definitely, the more polished experience (yes, despite that art since Monster Slayers isn't much of a looker either), but I just have more fun with Monster Slayers. What's making me give up before I finish it is the fact that sessions in it are quite long, something like 2-3 hours, and I often find myself losing myself in the game and three hours just disappearing from my life, and there's an issue with how the game has permanent equipment that you can find in a run and then keep forever. Except both beating AND losing hard more means that you lose that equipment, which means that you have to make these pointless runs while using the merchant character just do grind out more equipment in order to make a new attempt at hard more. That's just an unfortunate waste of my real-life time and I've decided not to spend that time anymore.
In short, though, this is a very enjoyable game that anyone who likes deckbuilders should absolutely check out, and I'm a little disappointed that we never really got a sequel. I will be setting this weekend as my finishing date, even though I didn't even touch the game this week, and uninstall it with a little bit of regret as I move on with my life.
Of all the games inspired by Dream Quest, this one's my favorite. It's a roguelite deckbuilder where you obtain and delete cards as you go, as in any deckbuilder, but it's got a more chilled out challenge level compared to the much more famous Slay The Spire, and the most important two differences between it and this game is that this game allows you to retain armor between hands and it also lets you pick your path at all times and isn't linear. Any armor gained stays until the enemy knocks it off, which just feels so much better than Spire's temporary armor to me, since temporary armor just means that you end up playing dead turns where RNG decided that you could do nothing because the AI is passive this turn, but you drew nothing but armor. At least, in Monster Slayers, you keep that armor for a future hand. The pathing is also enjoyable to me since the game generates these mostly square-shaped levels where you always have several paths and can hop back and forth and take on enemies when you feel ready for them, which just feels like it adds more depth and strategy to the game even though you quickly learn which enemies and decks you can defeat and there isn't much strategy left, it still feels like you're strategizing when you're making obvious choices.
Slay The Spire is probably, or definitely, the more polished experience (yes, despite that art since Monster Slayers isn't much of a looker either), but I just have more fun with Monster Slayers. What's making me give up before I finish it is the fact that sessions in it are quite long, something like 2-3 hours, and I often find myself losing myself in the game and three hours just disappearing from my life, and there's an issue with how the game has permanent equipment that you can find in a run and then keep forever. Except both beating AND losing hard more means that you lose that equipment, which means that you have to make these pointless runs while using the merchant character just do grind out more equipment in order to make a new attempt at hard more. That's just an unfortunate waste of my real-life time and I've decided not to spend that time anymore.
In short, though, this is a very enjoyable game that anyone who likes deckbuilders should absolutely check out, and I'm a little disappointed that we never really got a sequel. I will be setting this weekend as my finishing date, even though I didn't even touch the game this week, and uninstall it with a little bit of regret as I move on with my life.