Slay the Spire, Board Game – Let's Discuss Games

I recently got to try out the French-language board game Slay de Spire from Matagot. Yes, I specify “board game” because it’s based on the video game of the same name.
I've played the video game very little so I won't make any comparisons and my games have been multiplayer so I won't talk about the single player.

Slay the Spire is a deck building game. The goal is to send our character to explore hostile lands, fight monsters, solve events and defeat the level boss.
All this 3 times without dying because a full game is played in 3 acts.
If we die before the end of the three chapters, we start over at the beginning.

The game is renewed thanks to the random order of encounters and other interesting points as well as the unlocking of cards that we will acquire as we play the game.
Each time we die we can select which squares in the booklet will unlock cards based on the previous round.
This is the principle of scammers like.

We have a choice of 4 characters. Each has its own starting set and improvement cards.
There are a few.
The characters are completely different from each other, and we can clearly feel the dissimilarity.

I won't go into the details of the rules of the game, because others have done it well before me. I will just express the feelings I had.

I find the deck building part of the game to be really great. The ways to customize your deck are fun and varied and encourage you to try other things during the next game.
The set will rotate a lot and it's nice to be able to improve or enhance it in several ways.

1- You can get new cards.
2- We can improve the existing maps. The cards are double-sided, a basic face and an enhanced back. The game provides sleeves so you can flip the card over its enhanced effect and hide the back.
3- You can purify your collection by destroying cards.

This gives a rather fun impression of deck control. We can really pull off devastating combos.

Battles are easy to manage, each player is assigned monsters on that line, then we roll a die at the start of a round, this will determine the character's bonuses or specific monster attacks. Simple and effective.

We play our cards, make our combinations, make our strategy and then discard 5 cards and draw again.
It's the monsters turn to attack each player in their row and we start the round again.

As I just said, each monster attacks the character in its line (except for special effects), however, players can attack wherever they want.
This detail is important because if just one player dies, the entire team loses the game.
As a result, natural cooperation between players is organized.

Monster management is not complicated and monitoring bonuses or penalties is fairly simple. The text of the cards has been reduced and there are no 50 keywords to know.
Personally, I find games where you have to check the glossary every 30 seconds tiring because you just gained a certain stat or skill… It's simple here.

At the end of the fight we collect the reward. This can be gold, cards, potions or relics.
Gold can be used at the dealer, cards improve the deck (or not) and effects generally provide passive bonuses.

We continue our little path interspersed with combat and also random events (good or bad), battles against larger monsters (elite) or campfires to restore health.
Choosing which path you take is essential and will greatly impact your game.

Then the boss comes… and there… we squeeze our asses… we'll see if your group has been improved or not.
The bosses are far from easy. There are 9 different ones (plus more to unlock) and each has a unique style.
The feeling of accomplishment when you defeat a boss is immense. The only game that gave me that feeling was Mage Knight.
This requires cooperation and a fine deck.

So far we haven't been able to finish Chapter 3, so we haven't won any matches.
But yeah a little bit. Because we opened new cards and that's good.

The parts in 3 acts can easily exceed 3 hours. Fortunately, it is possible to save at the end of the chapter to resume the game later.
That's good too.

Let's talk a little bit about gear.
I have the store version of the game for 100 euros… oh…
The materials are of high quality. Everything is well thought out.
We find cards as they are the heart of the game, multiple tokens, boards, figurines, and inserts.
Yes, it's not crazy to say that and I partially agree with it.
However, the game has a perfect working environment.
Everything has been thought of to make setup, storage, and the game itself easy.
Token tray, double-layer player trays, card sleeves, and a insert where everything is perfectly stored inside.
Today I find it important for publishers to improve the working environment of their games.
And here it is flawless for me.

The art direction is what it is, we're not Thunderstone Quest. It's faithful to the video game but it's not pretty either. Everyone will see the back at their door.

In summary.
I had a lot of fun playing this game during my 3 player games.
The sensations that building your deck offers are at the top level of deck building type games.
The desire to replay the game to try out the cards we just opened or try a new style is very present.
However, as we mentioned, we are not in a 30-minute match.
The ability to memorize simply and quickly is very cool.
In our games, one player knew the video game very well and the other didn't know it at all.
Everyone loved the game.