What I find the most incredible about Slay the Spire is that: this is a game that released in 1997, on the Playstation 1, kicking off a whole generation of roguelite deckbuilders that continues to this day. You would bet that, in those 30 years of developers trying to catch up with Slay the Spire, they would have done it by now, and might have even surpassed it in its own genre, right? But they hadn't. You can buy all the roguelite deckbuilders on Steam, and not one of them dethrones the masterpiece that is Slay the Spire.

Although I'm a level designer, which means I work in the industry, I struggle a lot when it comes to be informed of which game is currently on development, which game is launched when and how is its reception, both public & critical.

A colleague producer recently recommend me "Silence on joue!", a french speaking podcast produced by Libération newspapers to follow videogames news. It works well, I recommand you this program if you understand french.

The main individual behind Silence on joue! is a huge fan of cards games (which I'm fond of since hearthstone, Kards and much more since LoR). He constantly talks about Slay the Spire, which I never heard of, and which is supposed to represent a whole genre : the rogue deck building. The game cost me 6€. Let's try it.

First and foremost : I have a strange relationship with rogue lites. I love Spelunky & Risk of Rain (& its sequel), I have mixed feeling about Noita, FTL & Rogue Legacy, I hate Binding of Isaac, and I've bought without taking the time to play them Hades & Enter the Gungeon. Why is that ?
Well, to me, it's all about faireness. IMHO, a good rogue lite relies both on skill AND randomness, not either one either the other. I hate Binding of Isaac because when you pick up an item, if you don't have a wiki openned on the second screen, you absolutely aren't able to tell :
- 1 : what this item it going to do
- 2 : In which way it is going to do it
- 3 : As a consequence of the first two points : if you must take it or not.
For instance if you take the peepee item while you already have big tears, it'll nullify both advantage of big tears (which are range+dmg) and replace them with the peepee which makes you shoot fast at a very low range. That means that peepee is, in this situation, abolutely NOT a power-up, but is actually a malus ! I think it's really unfair, I hate it and I don't understand why players tolerate it. An item is a reward, a reward is highly influenced by randomness in a rogue lite, certainly, but it should ALWAYS be positive.
The other aspect of rogues lites I dislike is difficulty. Most of the time, these games simply are waaaaaay to difficult for wrong reasons. It is the deal in order to give the player the feeling of progression, the advantage of experiencing multiple builds and techniques, and to progressively master the game. But it should be used with a lot of care, because it can lead to a feeling of injustice.

Slay the Spire is... Wonderful considering all the things I said above.
- 1 : It is honest : BEFORE you make a choice, it clearly shows you its benefits and its defaults
- 2 : It is hard, without being impossible : I finished the main game mode in about 6h, which constitute about 3 runs. I've not beaten the entire game tho : there are other game modes, other difficulty modes, a lot of characters to play with, daily challenges and a lot of options to customize your runs and never be bored. But I feel like I beat the game already because I did beat the main adventure (which I never did in 50+ hours of Rogue Legacy or FTL for instance).
On top of this (which means on top of the game's rogue lite structure), the game is smart and good. It focuses on what I love in card games, which is the deck building section. You constantly have to make choices that will affect your run in both short, mid and long term. I must also point out that the game's has a very good production value. Gamepad controls are great, interfaces are wondeful, accessibility is good enough (except maybe it lacks an option to adjust the font size), french translation is quite good and the detailled history of your previous runs is a wonderful feature.

There are no reasons you should'nt play slay the Spire unless you know you hate card games. It is fun. It is smart. It is well produced. It is a good introduction to both deck building and rogue lites. It can be played by a children. It is cheap.
I'm glad this game exist and I hope I gave you the desire to play it.
Have fun.

Un juego que define todo un subgénero. Si bien debe considerarse de nicho, destaca por una simpleza más profunda de lo que parece. Tras jugar 1 hora a Slay the Spire podrías creer que ya sabes todo lo que necesitas saber. Lo mismo pensarás cuando superes el tercer acto por primera vez. Y ninguna de ellas tendrás razón. El juego, pese a tener tan solo 4 personajes, siempre tiene algo nuevo que ofrecerte. Y cuando de verdad lo sepas todo sobre él, seguirás queriendo jugar. Esa es la magia de Slay the Spire.

Sencillo, divertido y, sobretodo, incansable.

Slay the spire mixes Roguelikes and Card Games, two RNG heavy genres while maintaining some expectation on the gamer's problem solving and planning skills. It's a good combination of genres that synergies well, but runs often feel unfairly dictated by the luck of the draw.

I started playing this game in late 2022 and very early 2023, but I I stopped playing it until the 25th of September, when I just picked it up on a whim and beat it on my first attempt. So in the spirit of procrastination, I'm writing this review 3 weeks late.

Now, keep in mind that I consider a game completed when I see the credits and/or get an achievement that I beat the game. I haven't actually seen or even unlocked most of the game.

The game looks visually quite nice, I like the art style. However there isn't very much to see. There is a very small pool of enemies across 3 floors, so you will see everything in only a few runs. The music is good, but isn't a soundtrack worth seeking out. There aren't any real attack animations, but the UI and the way the cards are handled is solid. The cards are very well balanced, and there are multiple ways to build your deck, but the deck you end up with is entirely at the mercy of loot RNG. Slay the Spire is more dependent on getting good drops at the end of your encounters than the other roguelikes I've played this year. That is frustrating, and makes the game feel less fair.

EDIT 17/11/23;
The game heavily punishes mistakes through loss of momentum, mistakes compound badly in this game, and culminate in lost runs. You need to bring your A game, and get lucky with card drops. A lot of the skill involved also comes from choosing cards wisely, and knowing when to skip an oppunity by weighing cost/benefit, and keeping your deck light and efficient.

I got my money's worth (A$12.22 for 11.6 hours), but it is yet to be seen if the game has enough replayability and post-credits content to be worth the full asking price of A$36.99. Its a good, but not great game.

EDIT 17/11/23;
I have now played this game for 65.8 hours. I have completed the true ending with 2 characters and I am aiming to do it with all four. Going from any% to true ending took me 38 freakin' HOURS!! So I can def say I got more than double the fun for their asking price of $36.99. Its a game that makes you think "I could'a had that." and then you spend the next 5 hours doing more runs because you feel like you can do it next time.

I don't know where the time went with this one. It started out just trying out a game that combined cards and roguelike mechanics, 2 genres I didn't have much experience in. I played for a bit on Steam, then dropped it. Eventually, I found some Youtube content on it, picked it up on the Switch to play on the couch...and then 500+ hours later I got every achievement and climbed to A20 with each character. Once I had climbed every Ascension and "beaten" the game...I made a new file and did it all over again, for FUN!

This game is the ultimate pick up and play game. The sheer variety in game play between characters, Ascension levels, and the randomness of rewards, make it almost infinitely replayable even after almost 1000 hours across multiple systems. There is nothing quite like learning to recognize what you need to make a deck pop-off, and learning how to maximize your chances of doing that. You can min-max by spending hours trying to craft the best play to get through a given fight...or just unga bunga your way through a quick 45 minute run, all while still engaging the same parts of your brain that likes to problem solve.

For me, this is the game that all roguelikes, deckbuilders, and even puzzle games will be compared to, because the satisfaction of crafting a winning strategy in this game is like a drug. I cannot recommend this game enough, especially on a handheld device like a Switch or a Steam Deck.

Steam Version Only: Special mention to the officially supported Downfall mod, an excellent expansion to the game endorsed by the original devs that adds so much high-quality content, that the game might literally be playable forever.