Interesting, I've looking for another one of these. Griftlands doesn't seem like it's quite done yet.
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Like Slay the Spire? You should try Monster Train
- Thread starter piratepwnsninja
- Start date
OP
OP
All that you pick before you start are your primary and secondary factions. You deck-build as you progress through a run.
I think you pick 2 of the many themed decks(think STS characters but combined) and then pick a champion card but thats about it. You build the rest of the deck out as you play.
Pretty sure this is a deck builder like Slay the Spire.
FYI,
Building a deck as you go = Deck Building
Board games like this include Dominion, Dale of Merchants, and Arctic Scavenger
Building a deck prior to starting the game = Deck Construction
Board games like this include Magic the Gathering and pretty much all TCGs
I would recommend Gordian Quest on Steam as well.
It's Early Access but has a lot of content atm - 1 of 4 acts, 6 classes. You can get about 30-40 hours out of it if you play every class.
Basically imagine:
* STS deck building - but with 3 characters at once
* Darkest Dungeon style combat & equipment (heavy focus on positioning basically)
* A FF10 Sphere Grid Style Level System (different for each class too)
* D&D style stat checks
e: Also the developer is incredibly interactive, look at the reviews and the amount of dev responses.
It's Early Access but has a lot of content atm - 1 of 4 acts, 6 classes. You can get about 30-40 hours out of it if you play every class.
Basically imagine:
* STS deck building - but with 3 characters at once
* Darkest Dungeon style combat & equipment (heavy focus on positioning basically)
* A FF10 Sphere Grid Style Level System (different for each class too)
* D&D style stat checks
e: Also the developer is incredibly interactive, look at the reviews and the amount of dev responses.
A lot of people don't and use the term deck building. They're not totally wrong, but there is a distinction. And that's about all I'll say. Some people get super nerdy and make a big deal about the differences.
In my first run, Hell level 5. Having a blast. The one major difference from StS that I'm REALLY enjoying is the upgrade system.
Slay the Spire has a very undercooked and basic card upgrade system. Slay the Spire always gave me the persistent feeling of my character being weak and underpowered. Even when I beat bosses, it was mainly due to card combo abuse. And the problem with card combo abuse is that you're completely dependent on the game's RNG to dole you out the right cards. There were times where I hadn't even reached Act 4 but already knew this run was screwed.
Giving your cards meaty upgrades in Monster Train completely changes that. You still have to make tactical decisions regarding which cards to upgrade and how, but the feeling of power that comes with these upgrades is a huge rush. The way the game is designed (an enemy unit will climb up the train after every turn even if you have a unit alive on the lower level opposing it) means that you can't really mindlessly abuse the upgrade system.
It's honestly incredibly well designed. It takes all the parts of StS I liked and throws away the parts I didn't. The gorgeous art and lovely music help as well.
Slay the Spire has a very undercooked and basic card upgrade system. Slay the Spire always gave me the persistent feeling of my character being weak and underpowered. Even when I beat bosses, it was mainly due to card combo abuse. And the problem with card combo abuse is that you're completely dependent on the game's RNG to dole you out the right cards. There were times where I hadn't even reached Act 4 but already knew this run was screwed.
Giving your cards meaty upgrades in Monster Train completely changes that. You still have to make tactical decisions regarding which cards to upgrade and how, but the feeling of power that comes with these upgrades is a huge rush. The way the game is designed (an enemy unit will climb up the train after every turn even if you have a unit alive on the lower level opposing it) means that you can't really mindlessly abuse the upgrade system.
It's honestly incredibly well designed. It takes all the parts of StS I liked and throws away the parts I didn't. The gorgeous art and lovely music help as well.
Just bought this based on this thread, the pretty darn great Steam reviews, and the RPS preview. I played through 2/3rds of a run and wow, there is a LOT going on. Far more keywords than Slay the Spire. There are so many subsystems with different floors, floor capacity, modular upgrades for cards, and everything else. Still, there's definitely a ton of cool synergy and interesting plays to pull off as a result.
I think the art and UI are a bit too busy for its own good. Slay the Spire gets a lot of flak for looking like it was done in MS Paint but it's also extremely easy to parse. In Monster Train, you're looking at so many more numbers, and the higher-detail art doesn't do readability any favors. Maybe this is better on a PC monitor, as I'm playing in the living room on a 4K TV. My wife and I have played 200+ hours of StS on said TV without any complaints about readability though.
I think the art and UI are a bit too busy for its own good. Slay the Spire gets a lot of flak for looking like it was done in MS Paint but it's also extremely easy to parse. In Monster Train, you're looking at so many more numbers, and the higher-detail art doesn't do readability any favors. Maybe this is better on a PC monitor, as I'm playing in the living room on a 4K TV. My wife and I have played 200+ hours of StS on said TV without any complaints about readability though.
Thanks for pointing this out. Thanks to that coupon Griftlands was $4.99 and I'll get a steam code when that version is released. Win/win.
Okay so played some of Monster Train and it is very fun and addicting so far. Got lucky on my 3rd run with an artifact that gives -2 to monster cost and I got those heavy demons and plowed through that run.
Ok, I bought and downloaded the game. Will play it tonight and likely will stream my first playthrough on Twitch.
Some of the boss effects are just unfun and limiting. Shit like your first spell played every round gets consumed is bs. Might as well not build small decks.
Slay the Spire awakened a vision demon in me for this genre, I love. We've been eatin' recently too: Griftlands, Neoverse, Iris and the Giant, One Step from Eden, and a bunch other I having't played and now this?
Guess I'll add another one.
Guess I'll add another one.
quoting myself from the steam page because:
Monster Train is very very good. Just won my first run.
"Already rhaknar? wow the game must be really easy"
Interesting question because they take a interesting approach to difficulty, one that I honestly think "fixes" the main problem these games have. Instead of being brutal from the start, it's much more accessible with A LOT more things to unlock compared to most of these, and with 25 difficulty levels to unlock (instead of like, I dunno, 5?).
This allows your average joe (me included) to actually, you know, win at the game, get some sense of acomplishment, leaving the more difficult stuff for later if you chose to tackle it. For example, I played like 25 or 30 hours of One Step from Eden, I never finished a run, and I unlocked most of the shit there was to unlock. Slay the Spire, the arguable champion of the genre, I didnt finish a run until like 30 or 40 hours in, in fact I actually hated the game for the first 25 hours or so.
It's also very polished, the art is fantastic (very cartoony like Hearthstone), there's 5 decks ("demon clans") to unlock (you start with two) and your runs are always two "colors" to use Magic terms, a main one and a secodnary one (the stat screen actually tracks wins with the various color combinations).
Each deck, or clan, has a bunch of cards to unlock of course. Here's the unlocks screen.
and hey, even the run I did win, it was mostly luck. RNG luck because I had some sick combinations (an artifact that gave all my minions armor when they were summoned, and then another one that made it so everytime a minion gets armor, it got attack power aswell for example), and I got to the last boss with 1 health left (lol) from the second-to-last level, so basically that last level I had to make sure nobody ever got to the top floor (where your health thing is). I also had a couple of giant AOE cards (Inferno which does 100 dmg to every minion on a lane, including yours) which I abused a lot, or and another artifact that made it so all my cards had random mana cost, and I lucked out a lot of turns with 0 cost infernos or 0 cost big creatures and whatnot. It still seems easier than others of it's ilk (again, at first, since it's designed to be), but there's still a ton of RNG and it's not like it's a cakewalk.
Monster Train is very very good. Just won my first run.
"Already rhaknar? wow the game must be really easy"
Interesting question because they take a interesting approach to difficulty, one that I honestly think "fixes" the main problem these games have. Instead of being brutal from the start, it's much more accessible with A LOT more things to unlock compared to most of these, and with 25 difficulty levels to unlock (instead of like, I dunno, 5?).
This allows your average joe (me included) to actually, you know, win at the game, get some sense of acomplishment, leaving the more difficult stuff for later if you chose to tackle it. For example, I played like 25 or 30 hours of One Step from Eden, I never finished a run, and I unlocked most of the shit there was to unlock. Slay the Spire, the arguable champion of the genre, I didnt finish a run until like 30 or 40 hours in, in fact I actually hated the game for the first 25 hours or so.
It's also very polished, the art is fantastic (very cartoony like Hearthstone), there's 5 decks ("demon clans") to unlock (you start with two) and your runs are always two "colors" to use Magic terms, a main one and a secodnary one (the stat screen actually tracks wins with the various color combinations).
Each deck, or clan, has a bunch of cards to unlock of course. Here's the unlocks screen.
and hey, even the run I did win, it was mostly luck. RNG luck because I had some sick combinations (an artifact that gave all my minions armor when they were summoned, and then another one that made it so everytime a minion gets armor, it got attack power aswell for example), and I got to the last boss with 1 health left (lol) from the second-to-last level, so basically that last level I had to make sure nobody ever got to the top floor (where your health thing is). I also had a couple of giant AOE cards (Inferno which does 100 dmg to every minion on a lane, including yours) which I abused a lot, or and another artifact that made it so all my cards had random mana cost, and I lucked out a lot of turns with 0 cost infernos or 0 cost big creatures and whatnot. It still seems easier than others of it's ilk (again, at first, since it's designed to be), but there's still a ton of RNG and it's not like it's a cakewalk.
This looks very different from Slay the Spire to me.
Slay the Spire is inspired by Dominion and Star Realms, where you have to remove bad cards, while managing draw and energy to make your turn longer while keeping an effective deck. It's really a card based game that could only work with cards.
This one seems more like Magic, Keyforge or Hearthstone, where a card is just a monster and you build your collection of monsters to fight against other monsters.
Or maybe I am wrong and this game is more card-centric than I think ?
Slay the Spire is inspired by Dominion and Star Realms, where you have to remove bad cards, while managing draw and energy to make your turn longer while keeping an effective deck. It's really a card based game that could only work with cards.
This one seems more like Magic, Keyforge or Hearthstone, where a card is just a monster and you build your collection of monsters to fight against other monsters.
Or maybe I am wrong and this game is more card-centric than I think ?
I played for about 20 minutes the defeated the first boss. It definitely feels closer to Hearthstone, in that you play cards to summon creatures that fight for you. But they all auto attack at the end of your turn. I guess, visually it's like Hearthstone, in that you see creatures on the screen because you played them, but it's just a representation of all the attacks you will perform on one or multiple lanes once you hit this button. There are spells to be played that can buff/heal or debuff/damage. I need to play more of the game, of course. But right now it doesn't really feel like Slay The Spire to me. I did pick up a relic and saw that I could pay gold in a shop to get rid of a card. I even came across an event where I could pay gold/health for a chance at getting a reward, which is straight ripped from an Act 1 event in Slay The Spire.
This game is doing something unique, and I'm digging it so far.
you are wrong, its exactly like StS structuraly. You need to remove cards, you need to build your mana pool (if you so choose to) via power ups from random events or whatever, it's exactly the same. You also have a ton of spell cards, its half and half with monsters. And it's very dependant on the artifacts you pick up, much like StS.
Also as you play more you realize you don't HAVE to defend every lane / floor, sometimes its better to just leave enemies to go up. A good example is earlier I had a row of enemies with stealth (can't be attacked that turn, exactly like the StS stealth buff lol) so I just didnt put anyone on the first floor and decided to fortify the second floor, as I knew they would lose the buff when they went up a floor.
Oh and I got destroyed with covenent level 1 activated so I guess it's not as easy as I was preaching earlier, I guess I just lucked out with my deck that run lol. Think ill go back to zero covenent while I learn the decks more.
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oh hey is that the warrock signal
commercial ones:
EndCycle VS
Build your deck, choose your fighter and take on ever evolving enemies in this epic roguelike adventure. Will you have what it takes to beat your enemies and end the cycle?
www.endcycle-vs.com
Edit-
always forget the VR ones https://store.steampowered.com/app/713440/CYCOM_Cybernet_Combat/
cool shit cool shit. Trying a green / blue run, green deck (as seen when you start the game and its the secondary) is very buff based, the champion seems weird at first but after upgraded with spikes and lots of health its a awesome wall of death, especially with the also green multistrike lady behind it (and buff that mulstrike lady with +8 attack -2 health), loving the combos you can do.
Blue seems like the defensive magic deck, much like MTG, lots of discard effects, lots of consume effects.
edit: wow this deck was absolutely disgusting lol, last boss didnt even pass the first floor or kill any minion. Wish I had activated covenent 1 to see how it would have done (assuming I would have gotten the same cards). I didnt unlock any new deck / clan from my second win (like I did with the first) so I wonder if you need to get a covenent 1 win for the next.
Blue seems like the defensive magic deck, much like MTG, lots of discard effects, lots of consume effects.
edit: wow this deck was absolutely disgusting lol, last boss didnt even pass the first floor or kill any minion. Wish I had activated covenent 1 to see how it would have done (assuming I would have gotten the same cards). I didnt unlock any new deck / clan from my second win (like I did with the first) so I wonder if you need to get a covenent 1 win for the next.
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Oh cool, thanks for the heads up.oh hey is that the warrock signal
commercial ones:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1302770/HeroEXE/ (demo only atm)EndCycle VS
Build your deck, choose your fighter and take on ever evolving enemies in this epic roguelike adventure. Will you have what it takes to beat your enemies and end the cycle?
Edit-
always forget the VR ones https://store.steampowered.com/app/713440/CYCOM_Cybernet_Combat/
You need 350 units summoned for the Umbra clan, 1300 enemies killed for the Melting Remnant. You can check your progress in the log book.
yup I was JUST about to say that, that is fucking dope, just rewards you for playing the game instead of locking it behind some stupid difficult thing.
Beat my covenent rank 1 run with green/blue, I fucking love this game. Had a artifact that sorta kinda ruined my run... maybe, im not sure, I mean I won lol, but it really fucking with my strategy.
It's the artifact that summons 4 random minions from your deck to your middle lane. On one hand, you get a super beefy middle lane, especially since it doesnt take into account the "pips" that only allow a certain number of cards in there. On the other hand, you lose those 4 minions from your deck and you cant place them where and how you want. Not sure if its good or not.
Coming right out the gate supporting Discord Rich Presence. That's awesome. AAA live-service games don't even support that.
I had my fist run earlier today. I got absolutely stomped on a floor with a bunch of ememies and a winged boss that puts pyre damaging cards in your deck that cost energy to remove.
I just don't see the red deck being very good but then again it reminds me with my poor reception to the Ironclad in StS.
I just don't see the red deck being very good but then again it reminds me with my poor reception to the Ironclad in StS.
OP
OP
With the right deck, it could be good, but with green/blue, it is probably more disruptive than you'd want.
trying green/red and my green/blue flowed much better. Of course that all depends on your card RNG.
Need to try blue/something just to see the blue champion.
Game is great so far and definitely scratches the StS itch. Bought it yesterday and already dumped in 7 hours. Beat it on the base difficulty and trying Covenant 1 now. Definitely worth checking out if you enjoyed StS.
not a big fan of blue main. Green > Red > Blue main so far, with Blue > Green > Red assist.
edit: wow had a killer run with another green/blue, some disgusting lockdown stuff... except on the second to last boss, it was the iron eagle guy that stacks attack from every hit he takes, and I guess all my multi strike guys fucked me over because I couldnt kill him before he stacked too high from all the multi hits. Feelsbadman ;_;
edit: wow had a killer run with another green/blue, some disgusting lockdown stuff... except on the second to last boss, it was the iron eagle guy that stacks attack from every hit he takes, and I guess all my multi strike guys fucked me over because I couldnt kill him before he stacked too high from all the multi hits. Feelsbadman ;_;
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Had a successful Blue/Green run starting with the Cuttlebeard artifact (+2 Frostbite each time applied, does not decay). Giving sweeping units attack buffs and the quick status, then stacking the frostbite for easy wins.
My green/red run had the artifact that randomised costs but drew three more, then I picked up one that when I played spells any below that cost became 0. I went all in on healing spells with the champion that damages when healed and melted the enemies.
My green/red run had the artifact that randomised costs but drew three more, then I picked up one that when I played spells any below that cost became 0. I went all in on healing spells with the champion that damages when healed and melted the enemies.
2 tips:
- those fuckers that stay in the back and make it so their group bypasses a floor if they are still alive, it also works on bosses, and they can go from bottom floor to top floor, and since its taking the boss with them, it freezes both floors even if you have defenses there.
- cards that ascent or descent units bypass the "pips" allowed on each floor, so you can ascend or descent a unit that takes 3 pips even if that floor has none available.
- those fuckers that stay in the back and make it so their group bypasses a floor if they are still alive, it also works on bosses, and they can go from bottom floor to top floor, and since its taking the boss with them, it freezes both floors even if you have defenses there.
- cards that ascent or descent units bypass the "pips" allowed on each floor, so you can ascend or descent a unit that takes 3 pips even if that floor has none available.
I'm now a true believer of this game.
In my last winning run, I made an OP build with a Stygian deck with a card that effectively doubles the amount of stacks of frostbite (a DoT debuff) on one enemy. By itself, its pretty good but then I upgraded the same card with the Holdover effect which effectively puts it on the top of your deck every time you play it. If you spare the mana to play it every turn, it's GGs for any encounter and especially those flying bosses.
If you ever played a Silent catalyst poison deck build in Slay the Spire you know exactly why this is broken as hell.
In my last winning run, I made an OP build with a Stygian deck with a card that effectively doubles the amount of stacks of frostbite (a DoT debuff) on one enemy. By itself, its pretty good but then I upgraded the same card with the Holdover effect which effectively puts it on the top of your deck every time you play it. If you spare the mana to play it every turn, it's GGs for any encounter and especially those flying bosses.
If you ever played a Silent catalyst poison deck build in Slay the Spire you know exactly why this is broken as hell.
piratepwnsninja
Hey thanks for posting about this game. It is so damn good and I would of never even bothered playing it if it wasn't for this thread. Juat unlocked the 4th character.
I can easily win with a green red combo but anything else I am getting smacked at the last area. However, it makes me think about my strategy with each losr.
Hey thanks for posting about this game. It is so damn good and I would of never even bothered playing it if it wasn't for this thread. Juat unlocked the 4th character.
I can easily win with a green red combo but anything else I am getting smacked at the last area. However, it makes me think about my strategy with each losr.
Just beat it on my second run overall with a Green/Red deck. I like it a lot. It's very Magic + Hearthstone in its mechanics, and with so many keywords, it's a decidedly more-is-more type of experience. I'd give the edge to Slay the Spire because it's so elegantly designed and manages to be very deep despite its simplicity relative to its peers, but I definitely think Monster Train is the best StS-like since the original.
The logbook is also really well designed, and the individual badges for wins with each combination of factions (20 badges altogether) is a nice touch.
The logbook is also really well designed, and the individual badges for wins with each combination of factions (20 badges altogether) is a nice touch.
I'm a huge Slay The Spire fan and bought this yesterday.
It's got some interesting ideas, but I'm concerned that the game isn't nearly as finely balanced or strategically interesting as Slay The Spire.
I think one of the main problems is that since this involves leaving things on the 'board' between turns, having a consistently reliable deck isn't nearly as important. That, combined with the open ended nature of the upgrade system makes for some fairly obvious decision points.
It's got some interesting ideas, but I'm concerned that the game isn't nearly as finely balanced or strategically interesting as Slay The Spire.
I think one of the main problems is that since this involves leaving things on the 'board' between turns, having a consistently reliable deck isn't nearly as important. That, combined with the open ended nature of the upgrade system makes for some fairly obvious decision points.
Interesting, I've never considered StS strategically interesting as the RNG makes any kind of strategy largely useless, tactically interesting sure but I'd have a hard time agreeing on the strategy side of things. Though perhaps thats just semantics.
I haven't played Monster Train much, only got it installed this afternoon but it doesnt seem to have any less tactical choice than StS nor does it have more obvious choices. But perhaps I'm just not familiar enough with it yet to accurately judge. A persistent "board" state doesn't seem to require a less consistent deck any more than, say the Watchers orbs, does. Going to dig into the game a bit and maybe that will change my mind.
I haven't played Monster Train much, only got it installed this afternoon but it doesnt seem to have any less tactical choice than StS nor does it have more obvious choices. But perhaps I'm just not familiar enough with it yet to accurately judge. A persistent "board" state doesn't seem to require a less consistent deck any more than, say the Watchers orbs, does. Going to dig into the game a bit and maybe that will change my mind.
Seeing how much I want to try it now, I'm clearly addicted to Deck builders because of Slay the Spire. And I'm thankful for that ha ha.
I would kind of disagree on the part before though. Your choices can often make you have very consistent decks at the highest difficulty. The RNG is not as "bad"as it's sometimes described I'd say imo.
But maybe you have a specific meaning in mind that doesn't apply to what I'm saying.
But it's not a big deal.
You mean Defect ?
I would kind of disagree on the part before though. Your choices can often make you have very consistent decks at the highest difficulty. The RNG is not as "bad"as it's sometimes described I'd say imo.
But maybe you have a specific meaning in mind that doesn't apply to what I'm saying.
But it's not a big deal.
Not at all. I'd be very happy to have plenty of games of equal caliber to STS. So far, I don't feel that Monster Train meets that criteria for me.
However one feels about the games depth I think we can all agree that the presentation is really top notch.
I do mean Defect, cheers. What I mean when I say RNG means there isnt much strategy is that you generally cant say to yourself before a run "I will build Deck X", you have to see what you get and adapt to it, that adaption can certainly give you a deck that performs consistently but you cant consistently build the same deck across runs so I'd say the games more tactical than strategic, but as I said that may just be semantics.
I do mean Defect, cheers. What I mean when I say RNG means there isnt much strategy is that you generally cant say to yourself before a run "I will build Deck X", you have to see what you get and adapt to it, that adaption can certainly give you a deck that performs consistently but you cant consistently build the same deck across runs so I'd say the games more tactical than strategic, but as I said that may just be semantics.