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    Android Gaming Slay the Spire and its "family"

    February 04, 2021

    Android Gaming Slay the Spire and its "family"

    Slay the Spire and its "family"

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 02:49 AM PST

    https://steam.cryotank.net/wp-content/gallery/slaythespire/Slay-the-Spire-01-HD.png

    Slay the Spire (StS) has finally arrived to Android! For two years many of us dreamed for this legendary game to be accessible on their mobile devices, and finally the day has come. No need to talk about how awesome this game is, how it basically started a new genre of card-based dungeon crawlers (UPD: or roguelike deck-builders, if you prefer the term), and even about how well or poor it works on Android hardware in its current state (there will be lots of these posts during the days to come). What I wanted to talk about is the impact this game had on (specifically) mobile industry and how other developers were able to utilize this innovative formula in their own products.

    Personally, I am somewhat glad that StS release was delayed that much. This allowed a lot of "clones" to be spawned, many of which I enjoyed playing. Some of them appear to be straight rip-offs, but others introduced many fresh ideas of their own, some even surpassing the predecessor's greatness. What the heck am I talking about and how is this even possible will be revealed to you, should you decide to stay on a bit and read through the article below.

    General info

    First and foremost, let's clarify the important thing: card based dungeon crawlers are not Collectible Card Games (CCGs). Even though they share the same ideas, and some of them (StS included) even have a feature to permanently improve starting cards, or a mode to play with pre-constructed decks, this is not the case for the genre in general. There is no place for multiplayer and PvP battles here: a turn-down for the most, but an undeniable advantage for the rest - only though-out puzzle-like single-player experience which we can pause at any moment and continue when the time is appropriate. Thus, there will never be troubles with downtime, matchmaking, ratings, overpowered builds and other PvP stuff, as there will never be a satisfaction of crushing your opponents with the power of your mighty intellect... The fun of discovering interesting synergies between various card combinations is still present, though.

    With this being said, let's quickly look through the core features of the genre, which will be relevant for almost every game we review below: - we must explore a dungeon, which (usually, but not necessarily) consists of three floors with increasing difficulty; - we have limited control over the order in which to face the challenges; - there is a powerful boss in the end of each floor; - we battle using deck of cards, usually drawing new cards from deck to hand each turn; - there is a limitation on how many cards we can play during our turn; - we start with a weak basic deck, but get new cards as rewards for fighting enemies; - there is a possibility to permanently remove (weak) cards from the deck; - successful gameplay strategies revolve around utilizing the synergies between different cards; - there are several character classes, each with their own cards and tactics; - there are often additional items to acquire in the dungeon, providing bonuses and emphasizing specific types of play;

    Before Slay the Spire (StS) came out, there was another card-based dungeon crawler called Dream Quest (DQ), which considered by many to be the first game of the genre (at least the first one to make a significant impact). Not sure if the former drew inspiration from the latter, but certain parallels can easily be drawn: in fact, all of the features mentioned in the list above are valid for DQ the same way as it is for StS. The rich plethora of card based dungeon crawlers (both PC/Console and mobile) originated from some combination of the two.

    StS, however, can not be considered a clone of DQ, as it introduced a lot of original ideas and spawned its own line of descendants. It is always interesting to analyze each new title to see which of two games was the biggest inspiration, and to group them accordingly. For me the main criteria lies in the core difference in battle system: - in StS, enemies (usually multiple) show their intentions at the beginning of each turn, so we know what to expect and what to play against; - in DQ, the enemy (usually single) draws and plays cards the same way as we do, often using the same abilities and synergies we ourselves can use.

    Introductions aside, let's finally get to the interesting part - the games! (Note: Games are listed in alphabetical order to not give any privileges to one over another. For my personal preferences see the comment section).

    Dream Quest clones

    Call of Lophis takes us on a grim journey through infested lands full of deadly monsters, dangerous traps, and one of the most ridiculous card art I have ever seen. It's surprising to see how dark fantasy elements combine with the humor and gags this game presents. From the gameplay point of view, there is enough card variety and interesting synergies, but it will take a long time to reach the interesting parts. Really: this game just does not know when to end, forcing new and new dungeon locations onto us with basically the same monsters and same approaches to dealing with them over and over. Its the boss battles which crank the difficulty up to over 9000, and if we don't have the right deck by the time we reach them, there is nothing we can do to pull it off. Plus there is some shady business going on with monetization schemes, where even paid version of the game makes us spend money to unlock additional classes and grind a lot to buy permanent improvements. Only truly dedicated players will be interested in dealing with all this nonsense. [...] UPD: Haven't checked on it for a long time - maybe the situation improved somehow.

    Crimson Deep is still in early alpha and was not updated for a long time. But the development hasn't stopped, and there is a new major release approaching in the nearest future. It makes no sense to talk about the game till then: the version in the store is too raw to provide any significant gameplay experience, but it would be interesting to see where it goes in the end.

    Dimension of Dream is probably the only game that has the same grid-based dungeon layout as DQ itself. This time with full 3D and a possibility to fight only limited set of enemies before facing the final boss (which allows to moderate difficulty as we go, either defeating tougher enemies with better rewards, or to save HP and fight only the easy ones). This game has one of the most interesting battle systems and 6 truly unique classes with deep complex strategies unlike anything we have ever seen (not only the cards themselves, but the order in which we play them greatly affects the outcome). Unfortunately, the English version was pulled from Google Play, leaving only Chinese version for Asian people to enjoy. UPD: Apparently, the game was re-released under different publisher with the title Dreaming Dimension, so there you have it.

    Meteorfall: Journeys offers the streamlined approach to dungeon crawling, where all our decisions boil down to Reigns-like "swipe left / swipe right" operation: picking the path, encounter resolutions, and even battles are simplified to utilize this binary choice mechanic. But don't worry: these specifics do not affect the gameplay, still providing enough strategic depth to appeal even to hardcore players. Add here a neat visual style, lots of character classes and their variations, cool card combos, and you get a true masterpiece, which is Meteorfall. [...]

    Night of the Full Moon offers a fresh take on a fairy tale of Red Riding Hood, but adding darker elements to it (including werewolves, zombies, mad scientists and cursed cultists). It demonstrates an amazing production quality with top-tier art, beautiful audio support, and intriguing storytelling. Gameplay wise, we have the closest thing to DQ, safe for the grid-based dungeon maps, which were changed to just picking the encounter out of available three. Some people may argue that the game does not offer enough strategic variety, only suggesting a single best build for each class, but you will still get different runs due to the randomness of card and power-up drops. Another argument of it being too easy is completely nullified on higher difficulty levels. Wish the story would develop in a different direction, though. [...]

    Spellsword Cards: Origins provides the gameplay similar to the Night of the Full moon, but focuses more on role-playing character development part. Aside from choosing a class, we also get to pick race with unique traits, and a school of magic, greatly affecting which cards will be available to us during the run. The problem here, though, is that monster encounters do not demonstrate a lot of variety, forcing us to fight the same enemies over and over, and the difficulty is rather high, with starting cards doing almost nothing and enemies quickly run out of hand with their devastating attacks, whereas good cards are hard to come by, and even then you will still be devastated on later stages. [...] UPD: Or maybe I am just bad at this game (welcome to comment section for valid strategy suggestions).

    Slay the Spire clones

    Blood Card offers a unique possibility to construct the dungeon ourselves, providing a pool of encounters of different types: regular monsters, elite monsters, events and shops. We pick a desired encounter from the pool, deal with it and then move on to the next one. Another interesting feature is that our health is defined by the number of cards in draw pile, which limits our tactical possibilities, but is compensated by the fact that we get multiple copies of cards as rewards for fighting enemies. There are a lot of interesting mechanics related to moving cards between various piles, as well as other neat features (like: the Death inevitably arrives in three turns and starts whacking everyone on the field with increasing persistence), but I'll leave them for you to discover on your own.

    Card Crusade seemed like a cool idea of mixing classic "roguelike" dungeon crawling with its "deck-based" counterpart, where we explore the dungeon the same way as we do it in Hack, Angband, Pixel Dungeon and other similar games, but use cards to fight actual enemies. In reality though, this implementation just adds a useless abstraction, as the adventuring does not provide any tactical benefits and is only there to inter-connect battle sequences (heck, even breaking pots and chests does not give us any coin, of which developers themselves warn us at the very beginning!). The cards are not very interesting, with next to none cool synergies, and new classes (which should be unlocked by performing specific actions on previous runs) do not provide any major difference. [...]

    Card Quest takes us on an epic journey through fantasy lands, where we will perform great deeds as one of the classic RPG hero classes (fighter, wizard, rogue, ranger), each with their own equipment and fighting disciplines. The interesting part is that the cards we use during runs are defined by said equipment, and if we find some new pieces during our adventure, we get to keep them for further runs. Also worth noting that defense cards are played not during our turn, but during enemy turn, which requires us to plan ahead a bit. This being said, the game is extremely hard - it will take a lot of unsuccessful tries to finally reach the end. But the variety of dungeons and possible builds will keep us occupied for long.

    Dungeon Tales for a long time was the closest, yet simplified copy of StS mechanics (up to similar cards and gaming strategies), but without certain elaborate features, like upgrading cards or using potions. The basics are left intact though: we still build our deck along the way and face the powerful boss in the end. There are only two characters available yet, but each has a couple of viable builds, so it can keep us invested for quite some time. [...]

    Endless Abyss is a close StS clone with very similar character classes (only two so far) and a lot of cards with exactly the same effects. Graphically the game looks very good, but angry monetization, lots of grinding, and forced ads make it almost impossible to fully enjoy. [...]

    Heroes of Abyss is a predecessor to Endless Abyss with basically the same core gameplay, but very simplified dungeon crawling part. There is no floor map with choosing our path, nor there are elaborate adventure events: just a series of battles with the boss in the end. The spoils we get after each battle go into improving our starting deck and unlocking new difficulty modes with higher rewards. What makes the game unusual, is that we chose the preferred build right from the beginning with appropriate set of starting cards, without the need to rely on the randomness of card drops. It may be interesting to unlock and compare all the 6 available builds, but once the task is done, there is almost no reason to play the game further.

    Heroes Journey provides a different setting for a change: this time we will play as space explorers, who crash landed on an alien planet. Thus, instead of familiar swords and bows, we will be wielding blasters and energy shields: the rest remains the same, up to the majority of cards straight up copied from StS. Unfortunately, this innovative idea was completely ruined by repetitive grinding and angry monetization, forcing player to make dozens of identical runs with the same small card pool, until something adequate is unlocked. Oh, and the game is long abandoned by the developers.

    Pirates Outlaws is an amazing rework of original StS ideas in a pirate setting with some changes to gameplay mechanics, such as introducing persistent charges needed to play certain cards, and different buff/debuff statuses that replace each other. There are also some questionable features, such as ship stamina that deteriorates over the course of the journey and leads to game over if not repaired in time, or a quest system, where quests can not be completed in parallel, but instead picking the new quest resets your progress in the current one. Some may also argue that new classes take long to grind for, or expensive to pay for, but with permanent booster pack this should not be a problem. Anyway, the game is highly recommended for any StS fan. [...]

    Rogue Adventure offers a twist to usual mechanic: our hand is limited by 4 cards, but each time we use one of them, a new card is immediately drawn to its place, thus we never run out of cards to play. Non-starting cards are common for all classes, but are grouped by type (or race), giving huge synergies depending on how many similar cards we have. Aside from this, the game offers diverse gameplay by providing a lot of different classes, each with its own unique strategies and dynamics, and some interesting items to work around. The developers constantly provide updates with bug fixes and new content, but be warned that new mechanics may break what you are already accustomed for.

    Royal Booty Quest started as a straight rip-off from StS with the same classes and abilities, and even cards having the same names. And absolutely atrocious pixelated visuals, which were not possible to look at without eyes bleeding out. Over time, though, it developed its own unique mechanics and interesting card combinations, but the art style did not get any better. However, if this is not a problem, the game is enjoyable to an extent, but since it was not updated for a long time, I doubt it will keeps anyone's interest for long. [...]

    Tavern Rumble adds an unusual strategic element - a 3x3 grid, on each units and enemies are placed. The core gameplay remains the same (we still see what opponents are planning to do each turn and adjust our own strategy accordingly), but the addition of the grid introduces another tactical layer: not only we should maximize the damage output, but also plan the layout for our troops to provide the effective delivery of said output, while at the same time establish enough defense to minimize the damage to ourselves. There are a lot of cards and classes to play around, different play modes and a lot of features that are still being constantly added to the game. Some may argue about simplistic pixel graphics or long repetitive grinding, but it is easy to unlock everything within reasonable amount of time, even without paying. [...]

    Other Games

    Of course, my criteria does not work 100% of the time, as some games are way too different from anything else to confidently enroll them into one of the categories. They either demonstrate traits of both, or implement entirely unique mechanics of their own (which I like the most), while still maintaining the basic dungeon crawling ideas (so a lot of the games you might think of will not end up in the list). What I have in mind is the following:

    Dungeon Reels removes the cards from card-based dungeon crawler - why bother, right? Instead, it provides some kind of a slot machine, where each turn three rows spin independently to pick available actions based on what slots we have in our reel. Winning battles awards us with new, better slots to add, each with their own specifics and synergies. Enemies also randomize their moves with slots of their own, but the most satisfying mechanic is the possibility to spin a jackpot with three identical slots for some powerful effect. It is interesting to see this concept developed further, but the game has not been updated for a long time.

    Iris and the Giant takes us on journey through imaginary world, inspired by Ancient Greek mythology. Each battle takes place on a grid, where various enemies advance in huge numbers. We play a card from our hand, usually dealing damage to nearest enemy, and then everyone who is still standing and can reach us deals damage in return. There are cards that target multiple enemies at once, as well as ways to play more than one card during our turn, so most of the time we will be deciding which card to play at which moment. The deck has limited size, and if it becomes empty we lose, so new cards should be constantly acquired. There are a lot of interesting mechanics to discover, but the game is very hard and luck based, requiring a lot of trial-and-error to finally reach the end. [...]

    Phantom Rose Scarlet has the same basic core, but with completely innovative battle system, not seen in any other game. On each turn there are four positions for cards to be played in strict order, where two of them are randomly filled with opponent's cards, and the remaining two are left for us to fill. Instead of drawing the hand, we have our entire deck available right away, but playing cards puts them on a cooldown, which does not reset between battles, so we constantly face the strategic choice of playing our best cards right away or keep them for later. The game is in active development, providing new mechanics and further developing the story, which is quite captivating here.

    Void Tyrant is a bit of a stretch, but still a "card based dungeon crawler", in which we basically play BlackJack against our enemies by dealing card with numbers from 1 to 6 one-by-one from our deck until we stand or bust. Whoever has the highest value wins and deals damage to the loser. There are various supporting cards on top of this mechanic, allowing us to either jinx the outcome in our favor, or to perform various other metagame manipulations. The only downside of the game is the lack of content, as it quickly runs out of interesting things, and since it was not updated for a long time, it is unlikely that anything new will be added in the future. [...]

    Conclusion

    As you see, there is a lot to play besides StS, so even if you are not hyped by its long-awaited Android release, but appreciate a good intellectual dungeon crawler, you will find something to suit your needs. I hope, even with StS release, new games of the genre will continue appearing on mobile phones, and I will gladly review them and add to the list. If you know any hidden gems (or even trash) that was not highlighted in this article, please share the names and/or links in the comments. I am also open to any discussions on the topic, as I am obviously able to talk a lot about my favorite genre.

    Good luck to everyone in all your endeavors.

    P.S. I am well aware of games like Dungeon Cards, Card Adventure, Dungeon Faster, Meteorfall: Krumitz Tale, Card Thief, Maze Machina, Cube Card, Card Hog, Fisherman, Relics of the Fallen and other "grid-based puzzles", but do not consider them to be a part of the "family".

    submitted by /u/Exotic-Ad-853
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    [DEV] Five years in development, today is launch day. Get BATTLECRUISERS free on your Android tablets - no ads, no monetization.

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 12:38 PM PST

    [REQUEST] sport simulation

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 11:24 AM PST

    [request] I am looking for sport simulation games on android. Something like OOTP or EHM on PC. I am not into soccer or basketball, but I'm open to all suggestions as long as it is sports simulation with the management aspect and not a normal sports game, if you know what I mean.

    It can be free or paid, I don't mind.

    Features you want: as much depth as possible. Management

    Features I dont want: soccer or basketball Not a game were you play the matches yourself.

    Genre: sport simulation

    Paid or Free

    Singleplayer

    Playable Offline: yes

    submitted by /u/Prememna
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    Figment - Android vs PC comparison

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 11:35 AM PST

    After 20 years. Baldurs gate 2.

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 07:16 AM PST

    Is stil the King of D&D. Literally, like good old wine. If you have 7+ inch phone/tablet, get it while still on sale!

    submitted by /u/sangreblue
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    Birdie Crush has been released.

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 06:36 AM PST

    I haven't seen it on this subreddit yet but this released yesterday and I have been really enjoying it. It is basically Golf Clash with anime characters, skills, and more collectables. I just wanted to make sure it was seen by any possible golf and anime fans like myself.

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.com2us.birdiecrush.normal.freefull.google.global.android.common

    submitted by /u/ChurchTheMemeLord
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    [DEV] Is my game as original as I claim?

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 07:32 AM PST

    I've been promoting AlphaVille as a "one-of-a-kind" mix of Word Game and a 3D-Arcade/Endless Runner style game.

    I think it's pretty unique based on looking at the other Word games in the Play Store, which are mostly tile-based 2d scrabble type games or word finders. But I also didn't do a ton of research, so if you've seen anything similar I'd love to hear about it. Also, of course, if you like it or have suggestions I'd love to hear about that as well.

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/fivethousandguilderz
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    [REQUEST] Looking for Squad-based RPG recommendations

    Posted: 03 Feb 2021 10:58 PM PST

    Re-posting in compliance with the board's rules.

    ​

    Hi All,

    I did a lot of searches but I could not find what I was looking for, so I thought I would ask.

    What I'm looking for:

    - Squad-based tactical RPG with character/gear/skill customization Edit: just to clarify the squad-based tactical RPG. I'm thinking of a system where you have opposing parties standing literally in each other's faces in two rows. (or four in a front row, back row setup.) participants with diverse abilities, no tactical movement. the tactics is more picking the right party composition and use the right skills at the right time. FFT and XCom are excellent games in their own right but have "too muc" tactical movement, not something I can just play while riding a single metro stop.

    - A quick jump-in, jump-out playstyle - something you can play for 5 minutes during a quick coffee break

    - Grinding is fine

    - Paid app is fine (or free-with-IAP-upgrade for a sort of "deluxe version", á la Cyber Knights Elite version)

    - Single player gameplay (offline would be even better)

    What I'm not looking for:

    - Map exploration (not compatible with a few quick rounds of play when you lose track after not playing for a few days...)

    - Any kind of microtransactions (except for the IAP outlined above)

    - Action RPG (usually has no squad members, real-time gameplay isn't tactical, and usually involves exploration)

    - Anything in first person mode (like The Quest)

    ​

    Some examples and what my problem is with them:

    - Sonny (ticks literally all the boxes but it's something I finished in two days, and you cannot buy your way out of the ads)

    - Star Renegades (not available on mobile)

    - Angry Birds Epic (microtransactions and a lot of idle time)

    - Marvel: Avenger's Alliance 1 (microtransactions were bearable even though it had a lot of idle time, but this game was shut down a long, long time ago and all the spiritual successors got p2w even for PvE, like MAA2 - shut down -, or MSF)

    - Cyber Knights (too much downtime and a lot of map navigation)

    - Final Fantasy Brave Exvius (oh boy those microtransactions; full rng roster building)

    - Heroes of Dragon Age (... even more microtransactions; full rng roster building)

    - The "original" FF series (too much exploration, hard to jump in and out - I have most of them but I cannot really find the time to properly play them. I finished some but I don't want to start another one.)

    - KotOR or any of the Beamdog games (neither are really good to just quickly jump in and out; plus I played all of them multiple times on both PC and Android. modding them is painful and controls on mobile are straining my carpal tunnel.)

    Any recommendations?

    Cheers,

    -blarke

    submitted by /u/simoan_blarke
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    [REQUEST] High quality and polished games made for mobile?

    Posted: 03 Feb 2021 02:45 PM PST

    I'm looking for a game that's high quality and designed for a mobile experience versus being something ported over. This includes features like good touch controls, good UI, and good performance on the phone. I prefer slower or turn-based games instead of fast action, but I'm pretty open to any suggestions here. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/powbang
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    What is this specific type of game called?

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 01:28 AM PST

    So basically i want to find out if the games i'm gonna mention are called something else instead of just strategy so it can make my life easier finding them. I don't really know how to describe them other than "capture points and hold the ones you already own strategy games". Please take a look at a couple of them and let me know : Cell expansion wars and Tentacle wars.

    I really like these kind of games but i don't know if they are called something specific. I also remember many years ago i played one with ants where you had to push to grab colonies.

    submitted by /u/TheArtOfVEL
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    How's my current collection? (Note: I haven't started a playthrough for all of them so opinions are very much appreciated.)

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 12:41 AM PST

    [Dev] I created a word game after my startup was collapsed

    Posted: 03 Feb 2021 11:54 PM PST

    I launched a startup but due to internet ban (2019 - Kashmir, India) and then Covid (2019-2020) my startup collapsed and i lost my all hard earned money but i didn't lose my hope.

    Now i have come up with a game called "connect words". It's created by me with the help of my Turkish, Indian and US friends. It helps everyone to enhance vocabulary, IQ and focus.

    It's available on Google play store.

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixe.connectwords

    ​

    Kindly tell me how much you like it ?

    View Poll

    submitted by /u/dupelas
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    [Request] Games for Seniors

    Posted: 03 Feb 2021 03:36 PM PST

    I dont know if this is the right subreddit but I thought i would try here first. My mother is asking me for help finding games for her smart phone. She has been into game types like solitare, puzzle games using certain letters to make up multiple words, candy crush, etc. I am trying to find games that I can pay for and will be ad free in exchange.

    submitted by /u/kamedin
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    Bluetooth Controller to touchscreen input?

    Posted: 03 Feb 2021 08:56 PM PST

    I'm aware of Octopus but most of the apps I wanted to use with it were incompatible. So I was wondering if there were other alternatives?

    submitted by /u/fatnut2020
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    [Request] casual mmo for a life full of interruptions

    Posted: 03 Feb 2021 02:56 PM PST

    I am looking for a game to play that has a large player base with massive mulitplayer elements such as classes/pvp/leveling. I have a very busy life so I would like to find a game that I can pick up and put down easily without being stuck in battles, etc. That being said, I don't have a whole lot of time for grinding. I really like the way you can level up in games like Eve Echoes, in which skills progress over time.

    submitted by /u/nightm0de719
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    A Moto G3 for Old Android Games

    Posted: 03 Feb 2021 04:07 PM PST

    Hello good people from this sub, i will be direct, my father have a Moto G3, hold up all those years, but start to get full, I'm planing repair my old phone screen (a Redmi 5 plus 64 gb) and give to him in exchange of his phone. anyone who owns a Moto G3 know if he is able to run that golden age Gameloft games (Lost Oddysey, Dungeon Hunter 2, that clone of Starcraft II, 9mm, etc) and Jade Empire Special Edition (i bought it, but nevetr was able to play it) ?

    submitted by /u/el_caveira
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