Review: Monster Slayers

 Goutham Jayaraman

Ravencrow Game Review #12

 

Monster Slayers

https://store.steampowered.com/app/496620/Monster_Slayers/

Genre	Card Battler Roguelike
Platform	PC
Developer	Nerdook Productions
Publisher	Digerati
Playtime	∞
Date Completed	-
Date Reviewed	20/5/2021
Overall Grade	A-

 

Monster Slayers is a deck building rougelike card battler from the minds at Nerdook, one of those developers I can recognize in an instant upon booting up a game.

Somewhat similar to the more popular Slay the Spire, Monster Slayers features fun fast paced combat, 12 characters to play as, 6 areas to fight in and a decent variety of monsters and events to encounter within those areas.

My first few playthroughs inevitably ended in losses, but I was fairly happy going through those runs nonetheless given the addictive gameplay offered by the game. Eventually, after gathering enough experience and unlocking some skills, I was able to complete the game with my first character, about 5-6 hours into the game. Of course, there are more characters to play with and I tried messing around with some of the others before deciding to write the review. Unfortunately though, the game ended up being rather shallow despite how fun it was at the start.

What I liked

-          Gameplay felt consistently fun

-          Having many characters to choose from

-          Having many skills to unlock according to my wishes

-          Having additional characters to try and unlock, encouraging gameplay

-          How easy it is to jump in and just play

-          Being able to plan my route and choose my enemies

-          Companions that journey with you and companions that help you along the way were a nice touch that added color to the game

What I disliked                                                                   

-          The lack of depth, especially concerning the deck building aspect

-          Frustrating or disappointing losses that I couldn’t do anything about

-          Lack of options while playing (in terms of choosing cards), despite what is already available

-          Deleting and upgrading cards became too expensive quickly

-          Sad that there are only 6 areas with mostly fixed encounters

-          Enemies don’t really stand out.

-          Having a fixed subset of cards to deal with regardless of which character I use.

-          My decisions usually just didn’t matter.

Gameplay 17/20	+ Addictive and fun gameplay. + Decent amount of cards to play with + A dozen characters to use + Companions, equipment and random events create enough variation to keep different runs interesting - Losing can be frustrating as it won’t feel like it’s your fault - Decisions are usually easy to make - Only 6 areas total and only 2 to choose from each time
Game Design 7/20	+ Each character has a unique playstyle + Player can choose which enemies to battle in what order, which tiles to explore and so on + Player has access to merchants where there can choose cards to upgrade/delete or buy new cards and equipment + Receiving a full heal upon level up allows players to plan out their course of attack better. + Enemies do each have their own special attribute displayed as a flavor text, and do behave as described. - Each playstyle roughly operates on the same principle (draw as many cards as possible each turn, chain as many cards as possible) - Way too many cards are shared between classes - Monsters have unique appearances and do have a unique attribute but do not stand out enough in terms of their decks. Many of their cards are shared. Would have been nice to see at few unique cards for each monster. - While there are a good number of cards, you will often be coaxed into using one particular strategy, and aren’t making meaningful decisions when picking your cards. You will almost always choose the card that agrees with the deck’s central strategy even if it means passing up on exciting cards with fun effects. You are also never going to be thinking about how to beat a particular enemy because that enemy happens to counter a key aspect of your deck. Just not deep enough, I feel (i.e. illusion of choice). - Battles are monotonous in the sense that you either win or lose depending mainly on strength, regardless of how well you build your deck. - Sometimes does feel like there are not enough options when selecting cards - Buying a card upgrade becomes too expensive after 1 or 2 attempts. Same for deletion. I am rarely ever able to use that feature.
Graphics 17/20	+ Iconic Nerdook graphics and animations. + Good character and enemy designs + Good card art + Different animations for different attacks - Awkward placement of the new equipment icon (small and wasn’t easily visible, so for a long time I complained I couldn’t see the stats of what I was equipping) - Some animations can appear glitchy
Audio 17/20	+ Decent music that gets the job done. + Different music track for each level + Characters that shout out every now and then is a nice touch
Story 0/0	- No significant Story
Lore 0/0	- No significant Lore
Value 22/20	+ Very solid value considering that you have many classes to try using + Despite all the flaws, gameplay doesn’t feel like its ever getting old as long as you do not over indulge + Low price as well + Legendary mode to keep you busy + Plenty of skills to unlock
Overall Grade 14/20	A-
Score	78

 

Overall, given the fun gameplay and the almost endless value you can get from this game, I would say it is worth the purchase.

[Notes]

-          Graphics are reminiscent of Nerdook games

-          Can get repetitive fairly easily because each run only has 3 short stages and you only get 2 locations to choose from each time (6 total locations in the game).

-          Decent enemy designs

-          But the enemies are largely forgettable. They each have a flavor text that does something different and it does do what it says on the tin (Me: “So what?”). However, most enemies share the same cards and so they never do enough to differentiate themselves from one another.

-          There are no instances where you are conscientiously thinking about a particular enemy or obstacle when making decisions regarding your deck. Usually it’s just a matter of picking a core strategy and rolling with it (and usually the core strategy is already decided when you pick the character) (i.e., shallow gameplay). You just keep winning until you find a random enemy that is too strong for you. Would have loved to see more innovative enemy designs (each enemy getting unique sets of cards to use, some of which are designed to counter specific common strategies the player can come up with)

-          14 Different characters to play as, each with a unique playstyle (although the playstyles don’t differ as much as I would  like). Each playstyle only has like 1 or 2 dominant builds, and you don’t get too many different options to go about building your deck.

-          Decent number of cards to use, though I think they will get old after a few runs (Not enough strategies to work with. Your deck is almost always going to revolve around one of 2 or 3 strategies and cannot accommodate different play styles on the fly)

-          Cannot see any information about the equipment I am about to equip as rewards from chests (Ok, I can, but the equipment icon is located in a spot you won’t easily notice)

-          Most of the altars are too risky to bother with. (lose 1 mana permanently actually didn’t do anything strangely enough)

-          Gameplay is moderately fun, fast paced and addictive, but could be better.

-          Nostalgic sound effects, character designs, animations and BG music (Resonates strongly with the Nerdook trademark)

-          Either you win or you lose. Your decisions usually aren’t going to matter.