Slay the Spire 2 has been on my mind, and my thumbs, a lot lately. I've been playing it for work, my hourly playtime is well into triple digits, and it's time we had an honest conversation about something. Sometimes, this game is genuinely, heartbreakingly unfair.
I can already hear the cries of skill issue, deriding me for having the temerity to get annoyed at a roguelite, but hear me out. This game, at its base difficulty but especially once you start getting into ascensions, is extremely reliant on your builds.
Whether you're putting together a cloned Claw build for The Defect that can shred through enemies once it gets going or a poison build for The Silent, you need to go into the game with a handful of possible builds in mind. By the time you've completed Act 1, you need to have a focused build that you're working towards. Playing cards haphazardly will do nothing but get your character killed.
Play your hand
But you can only do so much to prep. The cards that you get are randomly pulled from those that you've unlocked, which means that as the game progresses and you unlock more cards, you dilute your pool of possible cards. This means that you get two things: more flexibility and more opportunity to be dashed upon the rocks by random chance.
This dualistic nature runs all the way through Slay the Spire 2 like a seam of fool's gold. You will never know high highs and low lows like you do in Slay the Spire 2, a game that manages to oscillate between being as frustrating as smashing your thumb with a hammer to being as joyous as an angelic choir.
If you can nail a build down, when the whims of the game's random chance grants you just the right cards at just the right time, you can punch your way through the Spire. Just yesterday, I had a ridiculously good Necrobinder build where everything came together. Osty was as strong as an Ox(ty) and Squeeze ended the fight with the Queen in a skeletal handful of rounds. Then I decided to try and do the same with The Defect and was showered with cards for all different kinds of build, meaning fewer synergies and fewer opportunities to hand out beatdowns. That poor little robot died in Act 2, I'm sad to say.
After so many hours in both the original Slay the Spire and its sequel, I've got to the point that if I don't get a few cards into a build by the time I'm halfway through Act 1, I restart. That's probably really bad on my part, honestly, but the game encourages this kind of perfectionism.
The most obvious point of comparison for this is Balatro, another roguelite deckbuilder that can get fiendishly difficult. However, the greater variety of decks, increased build possibilities that are more apparent, and the greater frequency with which you visit the shop, and thus have more options to add to your deck, tame that perfectionist feeling quite significantly.
Slay the Spire 2, however, has few shops spread across capacious acts and random card rewards for beating enemy encounters. Sure, you can skip card rewards, but that risks you being ill equipped for the elites that you need to fight to get relics. You see how this perfectionist streak is baked into the game?
Deathtones
Playing it can be heavenly or hellish
I love Slay the Spire 2. But I also hate Slay the Spire 2. Its basic design requires a precision on your part that is then thrown into disarray by the random chance that is inherent in the game, which feels significantly more severe than it does in other roguelites, even other build-focused ones like Vampire Survivors.
Fundamentally, there will always be an element of luck in roguelikes and roguelites. That's part of what defines the genre, but some are harsher than others, and Slay the Spire 2 sits firmly on the harsh end, despite its massive popularity perhaps making it seem softer than other stablemates. Playing it can be heavenly or hellish, but there is something to be said for the game's Yin and Yang approach. Much like the Yin-Yang, even the negative side contains seeds of good, whether they be build inspirations, a deeper understanding of the mechanics, or unlocking new epochs.
I'm going to keep playing Slay the Spire 2. If you have even a cursory interest in roguelites, you should too, because it's a fantastic example of the genre. Just be prepared for the inevitable frustration when the cards don't come up the way that you want them to, because it'll come. Try not to throw your PC out of the window when it does.
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