Recent reviews by rumplstiltskin

This game is an absolute masterpiece, to say the least. It's incredibly story-rich, complex, and rewarding. And don't even get me started on the dry, sarcastic humour of the narration, or the gorgeous, gorgeous art!

The very first time I picked it up, I hated it. But I spent the next week not being able to stop thinking about the brief glimpse I saw. I hungered for it. I needed more. And once I figured out how the combat system worked, it was glorious. I haven't even found the city of glass yet and I'm already consumed by it. HOMD deserves so much more recognition, god please play this game. It's so wonderful and disturbing in all the best ways. Words alone cannot convey its wonder

Like many others who left negative reviews, I had this on my wishlist until the recent free weekend.
It looks nice, there appear to be lots of interesting options, but playing it was a letdown.

Combat animations are so stiff and mechanical. I'm usually not someone who cares about the visuals in a game beyond the basics, but these were painful to watch and made the core gameplay wear at me like sandpaper on skin.

I was also disappointed in the scale of progression in the game. I'm sure the math would prove out in a high volume spreadsheet simulation, but the choices and upgrades all seemed so lackluster. Spend 1 energy on a card this turn to get a buff which gives you 1 extra energy next turn then dissipates...when energy carries forward between rounds.

I don't like to dump on someone's game when they've clearly put the effort in, but just play Gordian Quest instead. Better progression options, better aesthetics, and you won't have to dig for the fun.

This game left me feeling sad. :(

Every so often I forget my experience with this game and reinstall. I enjoy games where you gather a group of customizable characters, go on adventures, grow and specialise individual skillsets, build your company's reputation in the world. All of these things are present, but the experience is just too tedious for me. So much tedium.

Do you have food? How close to spoiling is it? Are your soldiers happy? Is their gear in good repair? Are they in need of healing? Or suffering an injury? Do your archers have ammunition? Spend 90% of your earnings and 75% of your play time getting those questions in order. Now you are ready to actually do something that doesn't technically amount to chores and busywork. Unfortunately, accomplishing that small bit of progress comes at the cost of food, happiness, gear durability, injuries, etc., so the cycle repeats and you are back to sundry timewasting again.

I should have paid more attention to the specifics of the negative reviews. I have never enjoyed gameplay that amounts to "two steps forward, one step back". If the experience I described is not for you, don't fool yourself into thinking it probably won't be that bad. It is. Do not purchase.

I really wanted to like this game, but I cannot get past how it just feels bad. Single character party, two character party, it doesn't matter.
It just feels bad.

Disappointing. Looks good but poorly implemented.
* Game blocking bugs. For example, a main mission for the green faction to Kill the Alpha Wolf loads into a black screen.
* Terrible balance. Gear scales strangely. While aiming to craft an Epic weapon, I realised I had multiple copies of a Common weapon that outclassed it by 10x.
* More terrible balance. Missions jump drastically in difficulty from one star-rating to the next and it's entirely possible to burn through all your lower level missions and have no way to gain XP other than a single garbage repeatable mission that can award as little as 0 XP.
* Terrible pacing. It took very little time to increase my student capacity to 20. But you are limited to 3 teams of 4. Those extra students are a waste of effort and potentially a trap that just dilutes your XP gain.
There's more, but writing this just reminded me how disappointed I am and I'm just going to uninstall and move on now.

A really fun game. It's not particularly deep, nor is it particularly challenging, but it delivers a quality experience very well. It was the first game I've finished in a long time. Many strategy games tend to bog down in the later stages, but this one keeps things fairly quick and it's easy to make a little progress in 15-20 minutes. Bought the DLC too, and was not disappointed.

Definitely worth the money and, more importantly, the time.

A really great game, hands down. You can really tell it was made with dedication and care.

It's got a sliding scale of challenge that can be brutal but is rarely punishing. When I lose, it's because of a mistake I made or a risk I took when I got too greedy, and I can usually identify where I went wrong for future reference.

Monster Train improves on the basic Slay the Spire gameplay in numerous ways, so much so that the two are only distantly linked. Absolutely worth your money.

Nominated for Labor of Love Award, absolutely fitting! :)

At first, I was intrigued by the idea of party-based Slay the Spire gameplay, but the experience showed its weaknesses in the first few hours. Another review cited "great idea, clumsy execution" and I wholeheartedly agree.

PROS
- Great visuals
- Interesting gameplay that is less like Slay the Spire as might initially appear

CONS
- Loose balancing. The base values of Slay the Spire are fairly low, which, in turn, helps keep volatility low. When you die in StS, it tends to be over multiple battles which gives you time to course correct. In this game, RNG swings wide and will cripple you in a single bad turn.
- Healing is less stingy than StS, but there are so many sources of unblockable damage, you'll certainly need it.
- Card descriptions and rules are hazy and inconsistent. Rollovers sometimes don't exist if you need a refresher.
- Interface is junky. In addition to overly complicated methods for simple things (i.e. swapping a monster into your party involves multiple dropdown menus)
- Long-term progression is unnecessarily punishing. The currency used to buy persistent improvements only comes from chapter bosses and a little bit from battles in chapter 2 and beyond. Not so bad. You also have to spend it mid-run. Also, not the worst. Except you also have to spend it in the card shop on the map. Imagine if in Slay the Spire, XP didn't persist between runs, could only be spent when you reach a shop on the map, and then only if you have enough to buy the next level entirely. Expect many runs to net you nothing long term.

I feel like this game just wants to waste my time. Very disappointed

Tedious.
In my very first combat RNG served me up non-attack cards 6 turns in a row. There's no basic attack, defense move, so I just burned buffs that didn't last long enough to be of any use, while my enemy took pot shots at me with 2 HP left...

Inventory full of random similar junk that wasn't worth sifting through. A base with few options worth building.

1.1 hours is all I needed to recognise that if the fun is buried, it's not worth digging for.

Love the game, it's a great deal of fun, but I have two major complaints that sour the experience.

1) Why does every orc need to regale me with a 40-second unskippable soliloquy? Afew of these guys in the wilderness is dramatic, but in the midst of a chaotic fortress siege, it's incredibly frustrating to have 5-6 trigger back-to-back right when you are trying to time a dodge roll. This particular piece of design services the designer, not the player experience.

2) Fortress overlord battles are often challenging only because you're in a tight space with a bunch of continually spawning fodder which tends to make the auto camera and auto targetting go haywire. Increased difficulty is not the same as increased challenge.

Still recommend it, warts and all, the overall value very much outweighs the flaws.