When I heard about Slay the Spire I got real excited. Then I finally got to play it and it was a massive letdown. Bland art. Uninteresting story. Bland cards. Meh. I loved the idea but the game was as meh as mayo on white bread with tap water. I tried a bunch of other games to try to find what I've been missing. I tried Neoverse (good, but not great; better than STS). I tried Night of the Full Moon (good, almost great). Then I saw the trailer for this game and wanted to play it BAD. I got a chance to try it on Game Pass and... The only real negative here is that the game is glitchy. REAL glitchy. As in sometimes it won't save. Sometimes a UI element will get stuck on the screen. Sometimes it will wipeout all your progress and you will have to start over again. I have found these bugs in every version of the game I have tested. But it still gets five stars because... I thought this was a game where you have one kind of deck, grow it, get wiped out, start over. I thought this was a game where you just play through different random scenarios. It's actually mostly the opposite. As you play this game you can change your starting cards, you unlock different prophets with different hero decks, you get to add different characters to your decks, and those characters interact with the same scenarios in different ways. No matter how many times you get a cheap death, a quick win, or barely survive a terrible struggle, the game keeps you coming back. The gameplay loop is satisfying. The music is enjoyable. The interface is polished. But most of all, the battles are fun! You're always trying to get the right items and combos to get the best synergy, and trying to outwit the OP computer player, and trying out new cards and hero combinations. The sheer number of cards for followers is the most impressive thing. Every time I think I've seen them all there are more insane follower cards with crazy abilities and that keeps the game really fresh. They are all VERY thematic.
