SoraRabbit Short Hop 010: Monster Slayers

Today's Short Hop is all about a fun roguelike RPG card building game with a generic name. I present to you, Monster Slayers!

What is a "roguelike" game? I'm glad you asked! Rogue was a dungeon-crawling game released in 1980. This game, like many others of the time, featured permadeath, a game mechanic in which the death of your character results in the end of the game. There are no second chances, no save slots. You die, you start over, period. This game influenced many others that followed it.

If a game is considered roguelike, that means it follows that concept. Death erases your progress and you begin the next game exactly as you started the first game. You start at square one each time. This sort of game often incorporates a randomized or procedurally generated game world or dungeon. This adds a freshness to each run and makes every playthrough different. Some well-known roguelike games are Moria, Hack, and the Mystery Dungeon series. Monster Slayer, of course, falls into this category. The only other roguelike game I can think of that I have played was an old Commodore game simply called DND. You played in a randomized dungeon made up of ASCII symbols using a random number generator for combat. I played the shit out of that game when I was a kid. (It’s probably where a lot of my love for RPGs comes from.)

There is a variant of this genre called roguelite. This type of game has the same procedurally generated mechanics, but it adds permanent progression to the mix. In a roguelite, early runs generally result in repeated death, but you are able to add something to your future runs, either by unlocking things or purchasing upgrades. Popular roguelites are Spelunky, Slay the Spire, Enter the Gungeon, and many more. I quite enjoy this type of game. I have played both Devious Dungeons and Swords of Ditto, but my favorites are The Binding of Isaac and Rogue Legacy.

Different players have different opinions on which type of game is better. It’s a matter of taste, really. I personally prefer the progression system in roguelites. Even though your character dies, the next character has a slightly easier time of it. The downside of this is that it involves a lot of grinding and patience. Others enjoy roguelikes more due to the emphasis on skill and strategy. You have to get better to progress, although there is some luck involved in the procedural generation. The downside of this sort of game is that they can be wearing on your patience and the luck aspect means that several runs in a row could be bad regardless of your skill level.

So with the stage set and the explanations out of the way, it's time to talk about Monster Slayers. I know, it has a horribly generic name, but it's actually a fun and challenging game. I bought it because I had played through Rogue Legacy several times and wanted something new in the same spirit. I also really enjoy deck-building games like Dominion and Marvel Legendary. This game promised to combine rougelike and deck-building, and it delivered on that promise.

The overworld map. Note the terrible placement of the Delete button. (Credit: Nerdook Productions, Stage Clear Studios)

The story behind Monster Slayers is a simple one. The land is being tormented by a great evil called the Harbinger. Your task is to journey into three procedurally generated dungeons, conquer the Harbinger, and earn the coveted title of Monster Slayer.

Along the way you have to battle your way through a horde of monsters earning experience to level up and gold to buy various things. You get up to two companions to accompany you, one on dungeon 1 and the second on dungeon 2. The companions have their own powers to support your battles. Leveling up gives you different perks such as more Hit Points, more skill points, and the option to upgrade or delete cards.

The game has twelve different classes like Rogue, Ranger, Wizard, and more. Every class has different cards in their starting deck. Each one has their own strategies and paths to victory. Rogues, for instance, chain attacks to do more damage. Wizards and Clerics are more Mana based, inflicting status effects on monsters.

Your inventory holds the treasures you find in the run and consists of weapons and armor you can equip. These raise your stats and can grant you special cards. You can also sell the items you don’t want for gold. Each class uses different types of weapons and armor.

While Monster Slayers is a roguelike game, it does have some progression built in. Winning as one of the game's classes unlocks a new class. The fame points you earn in your runs can be spent on permanent upgrades for the classes. Treasures you find in a run are added to your inventory and are not lost when a character dies. (However if a character wins the run, they steal the treasure that was equipped to them. Rude.)

Other than those things, each run is fresh and different. This is a deck building game, so you start with a set of cards that are tied to the class you have selected. Through the run you can find or buy new cards to add to your deck. Some are one-shots, others can be used repeatedly. You can also upgrade or delete cards as needed.

Each run takes three in-game days, each day presenting you with a choice between two dungeons on the map. As shown above, the cursor starts on the “Delete Save Slot” button, a fact that made me constantly nervous. You venture into the dungeon, get a choice between two companions, and then fight your way through the rooms looking for the boss monster. Every battle you win grants you treasure, experience, gold, and fame points. If you end up dying, you have a chance to cut your earned fame points to continue once, starting the day over. After that, you’re dead for good, losing your cards, your level, and your gold, but keeping the treasures you have found and the fame points you’ve earned. The next run starts with a new character, back at the beginning of the next three day run.

There’s a lot going on in the battle screen. (Credit: Nerdook Productions, Stage Clear Studios)

Each dungeon consists of rooms that contain a monster, a captain, a campfire, a merchant, healer, companion, altar, or treasure. Captains let you upgrade or delete cards or give you more AP, or action points. (Each dungeon the AP increases, so in the first dungeon it’s only +1, so not really worth it.) The campfire replenishes your hit points and lets you play a minigame to draw cards to permanently raise your stats. Companions you have not selected occasionally appear in rooms to give you rare cards. Merchants let you purchase new cards, heal, and upgrade or delete cards. Altars let you pray to get an advantage while gaining a permanent disadvantage. You could lose HP or Mana in order to gain stats. I usually don’t find these useful.

Battle is based on the cards in your deck and the special abilities of your chosen companions. In order to play cards you need the AP to do so. Spells take Mana. There are cards that replenish these points, and you gain some back every turn. It is possible to discard cards without using them, which helps with cards that are one use only. An important aspect to battle is AP management. If you run out of AP you can’t play any more cards and have to end your turn.

When you run out of cards in your deck, you shuffle and draw them again. There are exceptions to this. Some cards are deleted after use, meaning you don’t have them next battle. Some cards are banished, meaning they won’t come back until next battle. Some useful one use only cards include healing potions, phoenix down (which revives you), and invulnerability potion. These are useful to hold back for the boss monsters or the Harbinger himself.

I am the champion! (Credit: Nerdook Productions, Stage Clear Studios)

As I mentioned earlier, each class has a different strategy. The Rogue was my favorite. With the Rogue you build up a long chain of cards, ending with a big hit that depends on how many cards you played in the chain. This class required a lot of AP. A huge strategy that took me a long time to realize was the importance of deleting cards. This went against every instinct I have as a treasure hoarder, but you start each run with a bunch of low level mostly worthless attack cards clogging up your deck. It wastes precious upgrades to build these up to make them useable, so it’s better to delete them outright to slim down your hand and draw the better cards sooner. Strategic use of the upgrade and delete options are the key to victory in Monster Slayers. That and increasing your AP and draw power.

Look at how skilled I am. (Credit: Nerdook Productions, Stage Clear Studios)

As I was writing this post I was struggling to win the Barbarian campaign. He turned out to be very challenging for me. The Barbarian trades HP for damage, so his main strategy is to replenish HP. A great card for this is Life Drain. Although I knew the strategy, I could not win after repeated tries. I would get to the third day, but then the monsters would overwhelm me, even when I reached max level.

I finally found a good strategy and got lucky. Remember earlier when I mentioned altars weren’t helpful? On my winning run I found a useful blessing. The blessing was to gain 1 HP with every card you play while no longer passively gaining Mana every turn. This really helped me in my Barbarian run since I had no cards requiring Mana and always needed a lot of healing.

Aside from that, I deleted all my low attack cards and a couple of the berserk cards. (Those are the ones that drain your HP for damage.) I upgraded all my Life Drain cards to max. I somehow managed to get an Attack III, Attack V, and a few other nice cards. I got a copy of my Critical card, which increases your crit for the rest of the battle. Then I strategically used Critical and Overwhelm (a card that doubles the damage of your next attack) to just wail on everyone. I saved the heals at the merchant, healer, and campfire for when I ended a battle nearly dead. Careful uses of my healing potion, invulnerability potion and my key cards and I finally managed to emerge victorious! (At, like, three in the morning.)

Yay I’m the best Barbarian ever. (Credit: Nerdook Productions, Stage Clear Studios)

So I finally finished with the Barbarian. Next up I’m going to try the Cleric. With the classes I have played so far I never had much use for Mana before, so that’ll be a whole new aspect to deal with.

Monster Slayers is a very challenging game, but rewarding when you find a strategy that works for your class and the cards you come across in your run. This game forces you to overcome your characters built-in weaknesses, use their strengths, and alter your strategy depending on the companions and cards you get. It takes a mixture of strategy and luck. They hit a good balance, but some of it is RNG— the randomizing of the rooms and monsters, the different rooms you get in each dungeon, the choice of cards in the shops)— you may not get the cards you need, or you may have some bad luck in battles and be unable to finish your run. But with good planning, a solid strategy, and the willingness to alter your strategy mid-run, you can overcome the RNG.

Downsides: As I mentioned above, starting the cursor on the Delete Save Slot button is horrible design. I found some of the controls wonky, especially on the map and inventory screens. It was hard to point it where you wanted. (I played this on the PS4 so I’m not sure if it’s better on other platforms.) I feel like the fame points were underutilized. There could have been more upgrades available. Also, this game can be a huge timesink… it’s easy to think “Just one more battle”.

Upsides: Once you get the hang of it, the battles are very fast-paced. It’s a nice, relaxing game with a lot of strategy. Every run is different, making it easy to keep playing and less frustrating when you do have bad luck… the next run may be better. The variety of characters and the difference in their powers and decks means that each class feels like a brand new game.

All in all, aside from the complaints I stated above, this is a great game, one I will continue to go back to, at least until I’ve completed a run with each class. (I don’t know if I will have the patience for Survival Mode, which is a ramped up difficulty.) If this sounds like the kind of game you may enjoy, check it out. I played it on the PS4, but it’s available on multiple systems.

Thank you for reading my latest Short Hop. I’ll be back soon with something different. So until then, may the cards fall in your favor!