Continuing my year filled with Roguelikes is another fantastic entry!
Slay the spire is a straightforward card battler roguelike. You pick one of 4 characters, go through levels defeating enemies and coming across random events, and further increase your deck. Runs only last around an hour at most, and the variety of enemies + situations encountered isn't extensive. That level of variety is a double-edged sword: you can learn the details of the game over a dozen runs, but once you learn it all it can become a test to blaze through it without any new mystery to uncover.
In terms of gameplay, it's a simple turn-based battler using cards. The satisfaction of planning out a turn or encounter is awesome. I'm a huge fan of action economy overall so as a JRPG/TTRPG fan it's simple to pick up and enjoy. The 4 characters are each unique and fun in their own ways due to the gimmick/playstyles as well as the specific decks and available cards they can use. For me, Defect > Silent > Watcher = Ironclad. It would be nice to have more characters or build diversity, but it's a fun set to utilize as is. Defect is my beloved, as I clamor together a power card spamming build on each run. I beat Act 4 with Defect twice (once base difficulty, once on ascension 1), which alongside beating act 3 with all characters I consider to be the game "beaten" for the purposes of this review.
The aesthetics of the game are good but nothing too special, though I appreciate the character and monster designs (alongside the fun events you can stumble into on a run). The music had minimal impact on me as I was playing on a low volume Steam Deck. The story is kind of there? It's minimal with bits and pieces of worldbuilding, but there's no cutscenes or major story beats. It's a straightforward world that serves as a vehicle to play cards and beat dudes. Passable stuff that likely won't leave a lasting impact for me.
Overall, it's an absolute blast to play and surprising I haven't gotten to this game before. Similar to other Roguelikes I've picked up like Balatro, I can 100% see myself returning to this game purely for the enjoyment factor. I copped it at a cheap price due to a Steam sale, so it's absolutely worth picking up if you're looking for a card battler and/or a roguelike to scratch your itch. Now is the perfect time with StS2 on the horizon!

(Ascension 10 on Ironclad, Heart with all characters)

- If you are on Ascension 0 (default/first difficulty), losses are 100% your fault and you just need to rethink your strategy.
- Adding cards instead of skipping makes your deck stronger on average in the early game, but bigger decks are less consistent later on.
- Look for card combos for the mid-late game that stack in power over time (aka "scaling")
- Many powerful cards and potions with downsides use debuffs which can be negated with artifacts.
- The Act 3 soft counter bosses can still be beaten with those decks and you have time to pivot from the start of the Act.
- Snecko Eye isn't good because it randomizes costs, it's good because you draw 2 more cards every turn.
- You don't need to block an attack if the enemy dies.
- Kill Elites now to get power for later.
- A less consistent deck is a slower deck.
- HP is a resource you are spending to buy encounter rewards.
- Bludgeon can be card draw, block, or energy gain. Read this MTG article until you understand why: https://articles.starcitygames.com/articles/innovations-the-theory-of-everything/

Favorite character: Ironclad, favorite cards by character: Bludgeon, Calculated Gamble, Biased Cognition, Blasphemy.

Better balanced than your favorite RPG.

Slay the Spire is a very good game that I have some very specific gripes with. For the most part, it is an interesting deckbuilding roguelike with a lot of smart design in terms of how its systems interact. I like that each of the four playable characters have not just different cards they have access to, but multiple, wholly separate playstyles that they can focus on within their class-based cards. A lot of the cards and relics lend themselves to really fun combinations that feel very satisfying to pull off, when it works.

I say "when it works" because... what I don't like is how often the game seemingly expects you to have all the stars align to get a deck you can actually work with. Want a small deck you can quickly loop through? Too bad, you simply won't have the openings to get the junk out in time. Need a specific card on your next draw? You'll probably eat a lot of damage if you don't get it because of bad RNG. And of course, sometimes you just get a random boss battle that hard counters your deck, well past the point where you could pivot it into something else.

And I know, I know. Roguelike! You're supposed to just start another run and try again. But I do think it would be nice to have a bit more wiggle room on most things, because there's a lot of fun design here. I think it'd be even more fun if I felt like I had enough of a safety net to be free to experiment without endangering my whole run. It's something where I feel like FTL does it a bit better.