FNGC Reviews: Slay the Spire (ft. Claire & Kanisha of Date with Us)

[00:00:42] What's up everybody and welcome to the Friday Night Gamecast. You're joining us for another FNGC Review where we take one game and do a deep dive on all its moving parts. This time I'm more than happy to be back with the one and only Will for a game that absolutely has no right to be as addictive as it is, Slay the Spire.

[00:01:00] And then also we're joined this week by some very special guests, some brand new cast members and the co-hosts of the Date With Us podcast, the incredible Claire and Kanisha. Ladies, how are you doing? Thank you for joining us. Hi! So excited to be here. I immediately almost started doing, Wow! Date With Us! And I was like, that's us! We are Date With Us! I know them! Let's go! Big fan.

[00:01:28] Big, huge fan. Huge fan of Date With Us podcast. So this is your first time on the show. And I, you know, if either of you would like, could you please just let our listeners know, like, what is the Date With Us podcast? And, you know, what can they expect when they jump in and listen to you guys? Claire, I didn't know if you wanted to jump in or Kanisha? This is the bit. The ongoing bit. Okay, okay. You're making eyes on each other to see who's gonna do it. I'm gonna be outside. Because every once in a while I force Kanisha to give our elevator pitch just to see how it goes.

[00:01:59] Yes, we are Claire and Kanisha. We do a show called Date With Us, which is a dating sim podcast where we, we, we too go deep on games in each of our episodes and take, take what happened in our own run throughs and talk about those, talk about what we liked about the characters, talk about whether or not our choices really mattered and what we learned about ourselves and each other along the way.

[00:02:22] Okay, so we usually, we tend to invite a guest because it is called Date With Us, but, but we well and truly just love love and romance and games. And usually those games are so well written and, and navigate how people do relationships. And I would say we don't think that's explored enough on the forefront of, of certain games. And so we like to, we like to make those arguments. Yes. I love that. I was, you know, when I was writing, when I was putting together, somehow I botched the intro, like when I was writing it in this document.

[00:02:52] So it's completely, it doesn't make any sense. But I was thinking, I was trying to think of like funny, like names, because I always give William like different, you know, heralds whenever we initiate the show. And I was going to call you guys the mistresses of love. And I was like, wait a minute. I don't know if that works. I don't know if that works in the context of this. Thanks for trying. We might have to workshop who we are, like the steamy sisters.

[00:03:22] Put the merch out there. Put the merch out there. We'll come for it. We'll work on it. Well, folks, today we have, you know, very special guests for the show. We're really excited to talk with Claire and Kanisha about Slay the Spire. But for the first time ever, I wanted to do a special little icebreaker game with everybody to kind of get to know each other, you know, learn who we are, you know, and date with Alexie. I think that's like your part of your intro, you know, you learn about games and a little bit about yourself.

[00:03:49] And I feel like we can do a little bit of self-exploration today as well. So I made a slideshow and the format that we're doing here is Courtwed Runabout. Oh, my gosh. That's so adorable. Can you guys see the screen that I'm sharing? Yes. Yes. Okay. I can't see you go, Mr. Unalive. And I just need to say, I'm so honored. I am so incredibly honored that a special icebreaker was made for us.

[00:04:18] I had to do it. This is, I think the first time we've done icebreakers. This is very much the first time. Yeah. But this is going to be fun for sure. Oh, my God. We're so special. So Courtwed or Unalive video game villain edition, hear me out edition. So, yeah, if anybody knows what this game is, I'm sure you can surmise what we're doing here. But I chose a bunch of villains that we would decide, you know, like, what about the softer side of some of the villains?

[00:04:46] Obviously, audio listeners for the show, you would not be able to see my screen. But you can probably guess as we go through the game, as we talk about these different characters. So we'll start it off the top and we'll just go in a circle. We'll start with Claire and Kenesha. Feel free to just, you know, call it out however you feel when we go through it. So we'll go. First up is going to be Ganondorf from Tears of the Kingdom. From Tears specifically, right? A.K.A. Daddydorf, a.K.A. Matt Mercer.

[00:05:16] I was going to say this is voiced by Matt Mercer, no? Yeah, this is Matt. Who did this? Oh, and by the way, I specifically went out of my way to choose the most low res images for this slideshow as I possibly could. It still looks good. So I hope you guys enjoy it. I'm like, oh, look at the lighting detail on this. I'm sorry. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. For me personally, I mean, I got a court in. We need to have a courtship.

[00:05:45] That's how this works. Because with this, do we only have three options? So you're using your court or can we potentially have a harem? Oh, no. You could choose anything. Oh, we can court everybody. Any person. Yeah. Oh, we want to go full harem up in here. Okay. I feel I've never played a Zelda game all the way through. Okay. Fun fact about Claire. I know that I need to. It's on the list, but it's just like never made. You know, it's never come out of the backlog yet, but I have watched other people play.

[00:06:12] So I definitely have seen scenes of Matt Mercer voicing this man. I think I'm I I think I will court this man. Okay. Though. Actually, I feel the issue here is wed and fuck as an alignment. Mm hmm. Well, because I'm like courtless. So so court court is for court. So yeah. So it's like court. Okay. I didn't want to be so lurid as to bring you on the show and be like, are you gonna fuck this guy? Marry him or kill him? So I was just, you know, a little. I will court. I will court this man.

[00:06:41] Okay, cool. Cool. I will court this man. How are you feeling? Yeah. Also with the court. I love a thick muscle man. Like I'm just like, yeah, he's just so thick. T. No, he's like, what do you think? Well, do you think he's like doing like a cycle of trend and of our what do you think is like he's he's he's passing performance and some trend. Yeah. Probably just pop a little bit of classic steroids. He's got to. He's got to. That's how that's how he gets to his. He doesn't like showing the back. You know, he's got.

[00:07:11] So before I make my decision, Claire, you know, you just said that about Legends of Zelda. We have to add that right next to Mass Effect. Oh, wow. I understand that right. Oof. Like you have to. Okay. We got to put a podcast. You really listen to the show. The Jake with us podcast hasn't hasn't played Mass Effect. This is incredible. This is great news. Kanisha has. I have not played. It's Claire specifically. Yeah. This is fantastic news though. This is exciting content. We're getting ready to come up. For me, I'm definitely going to do win. I mean, he's close enough to a king slash.

[00:07:41] Keeping him around. Okay. He's got to have some money. He's got to have. Listen, it's got to be political. Listen, I'm trying to make sure some land moves. I'm securing my future. So got hand in hand in front of the. So smart. We love that. We love that. Okay. Next one. Vaas Montenegro from Far Cry three. My boy. Are we all aware of who this who this man is? No. I don't know anything about this man. I will fuck this man. Okay. That's so crazy. I am trash. I am trash.

[00:08:11] Actually, I'm good. It's just giving. It's not my vibe. I do feel. Okay. Yeah. I feel torn between court and on alive, I guess. If his personality is bad on alive, but if his personality is. He's like the definition of chaotic evil. Yeah. He's crazy. It's like, you know, you could sleep with him, but there's like a very high probability that the ending will be bad afterwards. So, so we'll just, you know, maybe on alive, maybe on alive for my own safety.

[00:08:41] I mean, he's a terrorist scale. Is he a terrorist? Very much. Yes. Very much. Yeah. When it comes to the hot crazy scale, he's very much grinding that line. Yeah. So I'm like, I'd have to unalive him because it'd be really fun for one night. If you live. And that's kind of how it works. Yeah. He's really fan of kidnapping. Huge, huge fan of kidnapping. So yeah, it's a full sweep for unaliving. Sorry, Voss. I mean, you're really hot, but like, come on next time. Maybe tone it down on the. It was a tough choice. Maybe tone it down on the mascara. Possibly. Let's see.

[00:09:10] No, that's not the problem. That's not the problem. Okay. All right. Next we have everybody's favorite. Come on, son. Oh, this lady. Everybody's favorite. Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village. Will, what do you think? I have to wed. I have to wed this. You have to wed. Okay. You can see a life with her. I mean, she has a great castle. On the knee immediately. Once again, she's regal. She has a castle. Yeah. Look, she has three kids. I'm a great dad, right? I could be a stepdad. That's fine. There's like a ton of blood in the basement, but I mean, we can manage around that.

[00:09:40] I can make that work. Listen, I've cleaned before and I'll clean again. It's okay. Okay. Is she a vampire? Kinda. Kinda. Without spoiling. Because if she's a vampire, greatly changes my choices. Okay. In a good way or a bad way. Oh, gosh. We'll say that. But she can't turn me into a vampire. No, she cannot turn you into a vampire. No, unfortunately. Court. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. I agree with Court just because like, I don't think I want to hang around her place, you know? Mm-hmm.

[00:10:09] But we could like meet up. And yeah, I feel like we would have a great time together and she's so beautiful. I'm... She's super beautiful. I was like... Very elegant too. My wife. Carries herself with pose. But I feel like our lifestyles just don't match up as well as I'd like. So, Court. Now, does it change anything that she's 7'6"? Well, I thought she was 8 feet tall. So, that's great. She's just up there. She's like close to 8 probably. It's compelling.

[00:10:39] Like, I think we're in a long-term courtship. Like, you know? Okay. Okay. I like that. Like, yeah. Like, common law. Like, long distance relationship. But you come for a couple of months to Romania. Exactly. And then you leave sometimes. Got it. Okay. No, that's so fair. That's so fair. All right. Come on. What do we think? What? What? What? What? Would marry this man?

[00:11:03] I mean, he does want to turn the earth into his personal meteorite to traverse the galaxy? Which is cool. On... Okay. I mean, that is pretty cool. Ambitious. That is pretty cool. He has ambitions. Shout out to his huge, huge long sword. so I don't know what that's a metaphor for but I mean we can just think about it he's compensating he's compensating the one winged angel is compensating William how do you feel about this man Sephiroth from Resident Evil 7

[00:11:32] depends the one that we're talking about is this before or after he does what he does with Aerith I'm gonna let you take that vibe and run with it if it's after I have to unalive him because I can't I'll look into his sweet eyes every time I think you actually dislike Aerith compared to Tifa if we're being real well if you're gonna compare to Tifa that's not fair got it

[00:12:02] that's fair I mean I'm definitely here's the thing he's a little I feel like I don't like sharing he's also a terrorist most of the people on here are probably walking the line of terrorism you know DHS has a problem at this point what are we like what kind of terrorism who is he terrorizing because like many people can be considered I'm gonna spoil like some terrible political leanings real quick I was like oh for real

[00:12:31] could you tell him I was trying to structure that so carefully what's really terrorism at the end of the day I have some apologizing how does the Friday Night Gamecast define terrorism like do you consider Poison Ivy a terrorist yeah I mean technically I was I've never played these games either but I will marry this man okay I mean that's so valid see the thing is is that the thing for me with Sephiroth is that you know I love him dearly and he's just a beautiful beautiful man and I'd let him do anything he wants to me but

[00:13:01] he has more he has more he has a lot more energy energy and like attention that he's wanting to give to Cloud and I'm I'm second to no man period like I want all of his attention that is gonna be a problem I want all of his attention can confirm seriously it's one of the things I do need to be special you know what I mean well I'm like we have to you have to be special I'm okay because honestly it's like you do what you need to do as long as I'm here and I can still have like

[00:13:30] my thing on the side like it could be an open marriage you know what I'm saying like me trying to bend all the rules but I'm feeling it you know no you're allowed to have an open marriage if you and Sephiroth agree to it what are you talking about he knows where his home is he knows where home is we're probably positive on date with us that's right we're so positive alright now this can be any any form of Bowser I like need to stand and applause for this hear me out

[00:13:59] it's so good so this I think these are a couple of the Mario movie versions of Bowser but they're basically they're like equivalent to the Mario Wonder Bowser I mean I'd be fine with an 8-bit Bowser however you feel about it you know I think I think he really wants to get married he already has a kid he already has a son so you know he's all about family I'm definitely gonna I have to marry him I my first impulse was court and then I thought more about it and I've been thinking

[00:14:29] about Will's like political marriages and I'm like this actually might be the political marriage for me I also think I'd be an incredible step parent and baby Bowser what a what a little what a little child to have bouncing around what a little scoundrel he needs a mama he needs a mama he definitely we can get into shenanigans you can foster his artistic creativity aww yeah it's perfect I agree I almost went court but then I was like oh but Bowser would be so like it would be one of those

[00:14:59] like open relationships where one person like really did not want it but was like trying to make it work yeah and so I would marry Bowser but yeah okay also like is I'm about to ask a crazy question is Bowser fucking I believe so I mean he's got a kid I mean yeah I mean I guess but like how much you know how often I mean how often anyway

[00:15:28] I'm just like you see him with the weapons we'll leave that up to the audience's interpretation and the harnesses like I feel like he's got a lot you know a lot to offer he probably has like a fet life account you know what I mean he has the arm bands with the spikes on them I'm like he's into he's into a little something he's into a little something now all right who's this this is this ridiculous this is this ridiculous from Metaphor e Fantasio and he's why did you just put nothing but I've never even heard of this game on this list you have exclusively

[00:15:58] terrorists and kings and queens I'm really surprised that we all decided that we wanted to that we wanted to kill Vaas Montenegro but Luis he he's kind of I don't know Will do you think he's a genocidal maniac I don't know it was genocidal you know from what I'm saying blonde hair I have this like unfortunate weakness where I do sometimes end up into blonde men and it is always terrible oh no I'm sorry for that that's awful I'm sorry Kanisha knows

[00:16:28] Kanisha knows see the thing the problem with Luis is that he's not wrong like about any of his oh I love that he's not wrong I can fix him and he like genuinely like he you know he had a really hard childhood you know he had to watch everyone around him get murdered this little this little one right here and I mean like he's super strong too he's smart charismatic he has a lot of like really cool people that like care about him

[00:16:57] and follow him so you so you immediately get a status bump right I gotta marry this man I gotta marry this man why are you hyping him up like that because he's like inarguably the best villain that we've got in years you see how he spun that he has a lot of people that care about him and follow him cult leader you could say this is the same thing about Jared Leto but exactly this man is significantly better than Jared Leto so I'm married Will where are you where are you I have to unalive this man I cannot

[00:17:27] I cannot that's tough who did he genocide oh he tried he didn't he didn't actually genocide everybody but his well I can't really for spoilers but he had he had some pretty bad plans to do stuff in the game we may have to just kill this man it might be painful but we may have to just kill him unalive through like honey trap type situation oh okay oh my god yes send him

[00:17:56] send him out sweetly send him out sweetly we love that honestly the way to go considering how strong he is that's probably the best way that's how it goes that's how we do it now oh my god body tea okay okay that's what I'm saying that's what I'm saying ladies and gentlemen on the screen is pyramid head from Silent Hill 2 my man's got the V that's insane I wouldn't think well he's like he's definitely like between 9 and 10% body fat you know I might marry him yeah

[00:18:26] I mean just keep him around just keep him around he would protect me he would also like what's under that skirt period you have to find out you're definitely gonna have to find out his legs must be amazing see the thing is about if his arms look like that yeah definitely I mean he can he can lift he can lift for sure the question is though if you're marrying him you know do you think him like navigating the household with his apparatus is gonna be a little tougher does the apparatus stay on all the time yes the apparatus stays on

[00:18:55] yeah that's a part of the rule it stays on yep yeah I have to sleep with this man I have to yeah I'm gonna give that a court we have to court we're courting we're courting yeah I guess if the apparatus never comes off we must court well the problem I don't think I could the problem is is that when the apparatus comes off the man beneath is um a complex multi-layered flawed human that did bad things so uh we'll just leave it at that without spoilers

[00:19:27] anyway we're it's in here okay so we're we got that done we're moving on now this is real this is this is this is is this Pokemon yeah Giovanni Giovanni kind of cut Giovanni I'm never seeing that top picture in my life I've never seen that top picture before you're telling me this man has a V2 yeah that's how it goes you know so this is the well he's the leader of Team Rocket he's like the founder of Team Rocket if I'm not mistaken and uh he's also wants to take over the world

[00:19:57] but like kind of sort of yeah does he want to enslave Pokemon I can't remember what he wants to do I forget or if he's just a generic baddie I feel like he's more generic baddie because Pokemon are already low-key enslaved so I mean what else is he trying to do you're not wrong I think he's just like he's he definitely is trying to do some type of you know exactly he wants to be like into real estate management he wants to he's a man with vision own Lavender Town that sort of thing yeah it's a man with vision it's giving unalive

[00:20:28] okay okay despite his vision he's a monster the problem is he doesn't have eyebrows and that's a huge no giving him he believes in trickle down economics that's why I wanna yeah he votes yeah Giovanni will tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps 100% oof yeah and I just don't think we should reward that we don't fuck with neoliberals on the Friday Night Games cast so unaliving immediately alright now here's here's where it gets serious that's difficult I don't know have either of you played Metal Gear Rising Revengeance possibly no

[00:20:58] of course not okay this is this is Steven Armstrong who's the president of the United States of America unfortunately he's also I don't know why I chose him but because it's funny more than anything else but he's this is the most mega option he literally has a line that says let's make America great again but this was before the rise of like Trump and MAGA so it was more written along the lines of like a Reagan-esque character honestly you said

[00:21:28] president and I was like I'm alive that's fine every president is a war criminal yeah I mean period that's what's up okay yeah he's someone significantly less problematic he's drippy he's got the he's got that shit on he's got that shit on Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 and he's and here's here's the best thing about this character ladies

[00:21:57] he doesn't talk he keeps his mouth closed all the time and he's big hey yo he does he does look like he could carry me around and I do like that yeah definitely lifting you up with one hand type energy he'll pick you up with one hand for sure I think I need that he looks like doing the rock Johnson a little bit and I like that yeah with the with the bald hair yeah and the square the square jaw yeah

[00:22:28] type a little bit like I'm feeling that I was like actually like that's my type that's what I thought yes we're getting close to the end we're getting close to the end yeah that's a word for me all right here we go Xemnas from Kingdom Hearts 2 you should have put this up here earlier hold on is it the better version yes it is 100% I don't know I mean what's that olive skin come on it's like it's like genocide light right because what does it mean

[00:22:57] what does it mean to like perpetuate darkness in the Kingdom of Hearts right or to own the Kingdom Hearts a little darkness this is we're about to get into like a lot of that's what I'm saying a little darkness is good the problem is is that this man Xemnas is like eight different people so I love it variety literally yeah kind of is he a clone whale I can't remember see we need to we need to do like a call phone a friend and like call Eric on here Eric from from the Unlockables to explain like

[00:23:27] who's in this but he's like a reincarnation of Xehanort who like started the war of the like the the Keyblade war but he's hot he's really hot he is hot he's really fun I do love a white haired character oh you can't go wrong with a white haired character can't go wrong I'm definitely gonna court this man and then just let Sora and Goofy and Donald do what they need to do do what they need they're gonna fight your mans yeah but no I've gotta wet him look he's up there

[00:23:56] once again royalty close enough to it I think he's top of the organization 13 big thing are they are they in Hollow Bastion where is he located I can't remember I don't remember what the actual like home world is yeah yeah no that's fair that's fair but yeah how are you ladies organization it's good I think I would go wed if go Claire okay oh I was gonna say which option lets me steal his clothes definitely court and wed both sure yeah

[00:24:26] cause I'm like depending on how villainous or like the personality vibe I maybe won't wed but I will be stealing both of these jackets he has a really deep voice like a super deep manly masculine voice can't recreate long term courtship long term courtship I'm stealing clothes I'm stealing clothes every time that's fair that's fair to be fair the one you put up here Nick this is the nobody version of Xemnas uh the one on the bottom or all of

[00:24:55] all of them oh I didn't know that this is the nobody oh very cool that's it for the court wed on a live game show ladies I think we learned a lot about every all of ourselves this is great this has been amazing thanks for playing with us this is great and that's that's kind of what date with us is like but we've actually played the games or but I've actually played the games that's perfect that's perfect well now that we've gotten that out of the way let's go ahead and review slay the spire guys it's been great

[00:25:25] wow a game with no romance no so depressing see but like are we not head canning a little bit of romance you know what if the silent and and the ironclad know each other you don't know and also slay the spire 2 has co-ops so sometimes they're playing together oh so we can just we can just think about it all right so slay the spire was developed by megacrit and it was co-published by megacrit in humble bundle the direction team was casey

[00:25:54] yano and anthony giovannetti this was initially released into early access on november 14th 2017 and then came out to a full release on january 23rd 2019 and it full released on pc switch ios android and ps4 and it had ports later i played it through game pass i'm pretty sure will you played it through game pass as well is that right yeah that's correct and uh claire kenisha where did you play this um i played it on my steam deck okay perfect all right this sounds like

[00:26:24] same this is incredible i bet you this is a great game game i haven't it was so nice yeah it was a great end of the night like winding down kind of game wind down for bed so it didn't make you too didn't like escalate your cortisol at all as you're trying to fall asleep okay no i love a little strategy like that must be nice yeah make my brain work before i go to sleep that's perfect i tried playing this game once before sleep and yeah cortisol spike in the bed because i played it on game pass mostly but i also had the chance to do the game pass cloud onto my phone so

[00:26:54] that was cool getting the chance to do that kind of on the move as well but yeah i tried playing that one night before bed laying there and yeah cortisol was spiking i'm like give me what i want i'm not getting the card that i need oh man well i i saw you posted a screenshot in our server um where you were playing it on mobile and i was like is this mobile um and clearly it was because you had the controller overlay did that is that the main way that you played it or did you play no i've i played it mostly on the tv but if i'm

[00:27:23] not access to the living room or it was too late at night or something then i would just pop it over do a the game pass mobile on your phone you can play it through your browser yeah and they sync everything right across so it was pretty sweet it was very easy and considering this is that more turn base with a card there's nothing kind of twitchy that i, need to do that would require me to not you know be able to use it on my phone so it was nice yeah that does sound nice i was a little annoyed at how like obviously this isn't an xbox first party game but it's not a play anywhere title where i

[00:27:53] can play it on my because and so i i have obviously game pass for pc you know that comes with game pass ultimate and i wanted to balance in between playing it on my pc and playing it on console for my series x and unfortunately when i did that i just had to start new saves um you all know that so it was one of those where i just i mean it's not the big of a deal because like the new save is just the new run and it's not it doesn't like change the core mechanics of this game you know consistently throughout you know while you're playing um but i did want to ask you all

[00:28:22] in terms of just playing this game um i had a lot of fun with it i but i was curious when we start here because this genre isn't like will and i's preferred genre like we play a lot of like a very like large variety of games um but i was i did kind of want to get our background like our shared background on how you know what we think about roguelites and how many deck builders have we played in the past and will is it okay to start with you yeah so i mean myself as far as deck builders not a

[00:28:51] ton and i honestly wouldn't even be able to name off the top of my head bellatro is technically a deck builder but you know you're more playing them out versus kind of hoarding them like that yeah um so that's really my most recent one that i played which i know that game definitely has some roots as far as the original slay the spire like being out and kind of popularizing a little bit more of that card gameplay but roguelites you know we've talked about hades in the past we did a little bit of ppr yeah with hades one which was great i know you're playing hades 2 and they just added hades 2 onto game pass so

[00:29:20] i am hyped to get into that a little bit if i can squeeze it into my time yeah i saw y'all did a episode on it and i was like let me wait before listening so i can get a little bit into it and then i'll get a little listen there well you should wait until the steam box steam frame comes out and then we can play together on pc no steam frame is that what it's called now is that i don't know i the game cube the game cube yeah yeah god but that's really my extent there like card games um you know

[00:29:50] dungeon crawlers i played a little bit of like darkest dungeon which is probably one of the things i would compare this to as far as how hardcore it is moving through the different levels and your health kind of slowly draining out and i'm just like please let me make it to the next bonfire like i'm i'm slowly dying yeah but yeah the stress is definitely there across all of those okay that's awesome claire how about yourself i as you were like i don't know how many i could name deck builders that i've played and i'm like

[00:30:20] yeah also me too but i feel like as far as games that feel similar to this i really liked um for the king and weirdly it has that it like gives me that component but it's more like for the king you're a little more like in it as far as like the role role playing goes you're not that in it it's not that deep but um but it was kind of reminding me of that i don't do a lot of deck builders um especially digitally every once in a while folks in my life will like talk me into trying some sort of

[00:30:48] new card game of sorts and i'm like down to do that it's definitely not the first thing that i pick up yeah um i do own darkest dungeon and do really want to play that i've watched other people play a lot of darkest dungeon but i still haven't played bellatro yeah uh which is i'm holding because i'm like as soon as i start that's just gone like i just know that how that's been for folks no for sure yeah i think i think not a lot not a lot no that totally makes sense yeah i

[00:31:17] but roguelikes yes like roguelikes i like yeah i definitely i feel like we've been there's been like a roguelike psyop in the games industry over the past like 10 years for the for like you know 20 percent of developers are like we're making nothing but roguelites enjoy and so i'm like all these cool games like hades and you know returnal sorrows like whatever the case may be all these games that like i really want to play because of like what's involved i'm like i guess i'm a roguelike fan now so and other games

[00:31:47] kind of incorporate it in themselves so yeah i'm not typically a roguelike person but i do love a good deck builder and i've played a lot of deck builder i played a lot of deck builder card games tabletop actual like deck builder games which is something that i'm definitely going to touch on with slay the spire because it's literally just a card game to the extent that they made a physical card game out of this game which is really really cool and interesting i would be curious to see how much it costs if i can get my hands on i think it would be fun um but no i definitely in terms

[00:32:17] of the deck builders i loved balatro balatro however you want to say it oh i'm too midwestern for balatro the emphasis is on the second a you know balatro come on we gotta we gotta do it that way uh i i know that cobalt core in monster train are similar um you know experiences that are out there like close to slay the spire 2 i own inscription i've heard everybody that i know that knows what i like say nick you're gonna love inscription so it's definitely on my list to play but i

[00:32:46] haven't necessarily got around to it yet but i will say for this being kind of like the like the trendsetter like the actual thing that created the roguelike deck builder genre this is a great game so i i really enjoy this and so i kind of been feeding for more kanisha have you had any other similar experiences you kind of like mirror where we've been at with this as well i i feel like i really like roguelikes like i find like that kind of gameplay that's really fun where it's not to like

[00:33:15] okay you're done you have to start from scratch like i love just like have but i do love having to like do things iteratively and like having to pick up like to grow gradually over that and the repetition helps keep me engaged like i get really um bored if i have to think too hard so i really enjoyed this i'd never played a deck builder before though so um i was like i just felt like i wasn't gonna like

[00:33:42] it um well spoilers on my opinion i felt like i wasn't gonna like it i never played a deck builder i was like this is gonna be boring i have to think about cards but then i was like wait it's so engaging it kept me it kept me like there's strategy and like how you play the cards and stuff like that but it's not like anything grid based or like it's not it didn't feel like too much and so yeah i i really enjoyed it but i

[00:34:11] don't think yeah i don't yeah no other like deck building experiences so it was really fun for this to be my first time yeah yeah that's awesome i also am a absolute sicko when it comes to gwent in queen's blood uh gwent is from the richard witcher three wild hunt a lot of romance in that game i don't know maybe we may need to play the witcher i don't let him skip one and two you can skip skip one and two but what's your

[00:34:40] three i mean okay there's there's a lot going on there there's a lot of the fourth one spicy content in the witcher three if i'll say so myself um that you you both might enjoy but uh yeah like gwent is from there and then queen's blood is the game that they actually uh square unix team built for final fantasy 7 rebirth and i'm assuming that they're actually gonna go on and carry it into the thing i just like that was one of the things that pulled me through the entire game whenever it came out in 2024 so that was a good one so yeah it's safe to say i think i uh like card

[00:35:10] games um and i like this game a lot um kanisha shared how she ended up like actually really enjoying you know in terms of top level thoughts for slay the spire claire are you on board with like just this did you enjoy this one was it a good one yeah i i did enjoy it i am legally obligated to reference that uh boyfriend dungeon is also a roguelike boyfriend dungeon is my favorite game of all time play boyfriend contract you haven't already i realized that i didn't say it and i was like everything must pause until i say the word i got shy i was

[00:35:39] like i really like boyfriend you got shy cult of the lamb is great yeah i'm playing the dlc right now for the first time ever for cult of the lamb and i am having the best time couch co-op it is delightful um but yes i enjoyed slay the spire also more than i thought i was going to do i expected there to be more narrative which is just a fault of my own from not just knowing a lot about the game but i had a really fun time just like playing it for what

[00:36:09] it was just vibing it out will are you on board with everybody oh sorry no it's all good i'm like yeah that's just the it's nice to have a game that is more vibe than like deep deep yeah thought yeah it's funny all the thinking comes from playing the cards and finding your stuff you don't have to sit here and like jump through hoops for the narrative which is a nice thing about it i will say i was very much there with you kinesha i was like card games and it's turn-based and while i have no issue with turn base one of my favorite games of last year geez it's already been a

[00:36:38] year yeah last year um you know kenny su 33 oh kenny su oh yeah yes kenny su is not turn-based i thought it was i didn't know no no what is that thing um i don't get off track but regardless turn-based is fine i was just like oh card game i don't know if i'm gonna get into it it's gonna be like slower paced and everything but i actually got in after uh the first time playing a few for this one i realized that i actually played this game back in 2023 and i think i did two

[00:37:07] runs and completely bounced off of it but i got pretty far in the the third run that i had from 23 and then this one i actually managed to beat it with two of the characters but it took a lot of thinking took a lot of working around ended up having a really good time with it overall it's still one of those things to where it's like i don't the addiction is there when i'm playing it but i treat this game like the gym i have to like work myself up to actually get to playing it yeah and then when i'm in it i'm like oh it's been three hours so yeah it's definitely there well you're like the

[00:37:37] feeling you get when you pull a card that you really need out of your deck in the middle of a fight when you're in a high stress situation yeah it's like the dopamine hit that gets you and like oh yes i really needed this right now to set my synergy up versus that cortisol i mentioned when you're sitting there stressing out and you're like oh i really need a good card yeah and then you pull you know a curse or something oh and it's like oh but this card is if it's in your hand at the end then you're gonna get weak i'm saying yeah please no i can't handle this yeah nothing nothing is worse in

[00:38:06] terms of playing this game than the feeling of when you're in like an elite fight or a boss battle and you're at like you get like they attack you and you're at 11 health and then you do the math on what their next attack would and you're like fuck i've quit yeah no seriously so it's been great uh but let's go ahead and like give our listeners a top level kind of overview of what slay the spire is so as we had mentioned previously this is a traditional uh

[00:38:36] roguelike deck builder card game where you are ascending this elusive ever-shifting spire full of monsters relics and cards trying to reach whatever is at the top we don't know maybe we'll find out who's to say um and there are four characters you can play as it's going to be the ironclad the silent the defect and the watcher um all of them have their own unique abilities and card decks that you have to learn while you're playing over the course of time uh there's no

[00:39:05] story in this game as claire and us uh had initially um you know discussed uh but the the spire itself in the heart which is you know at the top of the spire had there's like lower fragments that you kind of gather by going to those little question marks and you meet different characters that are recurring characters and you can kind of start putting pieces together of like what's going on here like the idea that i took away from it is that there's some type of overall ritual like the spire

[00:39:35] itself is like some kind of ritual and then there are beings and beasts and monsters that are within the spire that are like kind of supporting the ritual actually being fulfilled and you are somehow playing a part in that role which is fun i mean it's fine and it's literally just enough for us to get in there and play the game which is good yeah this game very much has that from soft kind of lore to where there's a little something something if you're actually playing through and maybe getting to like your bosses and then the very last boss of each act before you can get to the true

[00:40:04] ending yeah but very much so like you said you're hitting those question marks you're coming across someone who's asking you for things or you get three giant blobby mouths that want to curse you and give you something but they say oh this must be an agent of meow and i'm just like who are you talking about who is this yeah it's the kind of thing to where you see those names pop up and they try to give you that little bit of like this name is highlighted or you know this name is underlined so it's important yeah yeah it takes quite a few runs to really put it

[00:40:32] all together 100% let's go ahead and take a quick music break and when we come back we're going to get into the overall gameplay mechanics for Slay the Spire

[00:41:26] Slay the Spire gameplay mechanics it's very straightforward right so like every so there are three acts whenever you're playing this game and you get to choose obviously the you know the between the four different characters the ironclad is kind of like the tutorial character where you jump in and you want to start playing every act is kind of like a sheet like a scroll of paper that you kind of unravel and there are routes that are laid out and on the routes are just normal enemy fights elite boss like not boss but like

[00:41:56] elite fights so like heavy high damage enemies there are rest sites kind of like bonfires and dark souls there is a merchant just like from Resident Evil 4 that just travels the Spire with you to sell you things exactly when you need them and there are like mystery events that we had previously mentioned as well as a rotating cast of bosses on each of the different floors of the Spire as you play this game so yeah definitely so the cards that we play in here I

[00:42:26] don't I'm kind of thinking in my head like how deep into the weeds that I want to get I feel like it would be more worthwhile talking about like which characters we enjoyed and like which deck that we like used enough I will say me personally I was most successful with ironclad and I think it's just because he was so straightforward he would say it's you know you either go one of two routes you either try to do high damage as possible or you try to do the barricade route the infinite defense route and that's what I think I had the most success with where

[00:42:55] were you at with it Claire were you gonna be like where were you Claire because I was shaking my head dramatically while you were saying that you played the under the iron cloud I was just I was gonna say who was your favorite character did you end up using him a lot more than anybody else I did not use the iron cloud like at all I used the iron cloud like one one time and then I like full full I was I went back and forth between the silent and the defect oh yeah okay but ultimately spent a lot of time with the defect yeah

[00:43:21] I love magic and I want to be like a wizard or a sorcerer in life and it felt like the defect and the mechanics around that like were something that I really wanted to spend the time digging my teeth into and like figuring out how to make those like compounded like magical effects to make all the orbs and have them burning through and doing that stuff and like so I really fell for that I weirdly couldn't make the iron cloud work for me really which is hilarious to hear everyone talk about how that's like the easy

[00:43:51] one the straightforward one I was like couldn't be me I died twice with them and I was like I'm done I'm going to a different one right no that's so fair and I think like that's the thing about this game is that first of all not an easy game very difficult game in terms of like getting it right it's it's one of those games and I love that you had initially indicated like that Dark Souls comparison will because like you have to learn how to engage this game through failure right like you have to fail and like realize oh this is what I did wrong on this run or this is what I did

[00:44:20] and a lot of it at the end of the day comes to how you're building your deck and also at the very core of it keeping your deck as small as possible like you want to get rid like every time you see the merchant you want to get rid of you those normal base strikes right like you don't need those they're not helpful for your synergies you kind of just get rid of them unless you somehow build a deck around them I'm learning right now they're just what's that I'm learning right now yeah like oh is that what we were doing I think I think that's what I did I think it just it really

[00:44:50] does depend on like whatever works best for you I do know for a fact so like I had said initially the the ironclad was my most successful and it's true it's one I won twice with the ironclad but the silent was my favorite character and I've made it to the axe three boss twice with the silent and got flushed each time got it hard filtered out like and I think the the second time I had 12 HP left on the time eater with this fantastic deck with a silent and I just it hurt

[00:45:18] so bad I was just like this that was a moment where it's like with will cortisol spiking controller thrown across the couch I'm tired of this grandpa I'll be back tomorrow exactly so yeah it's it's definitely like one of those where relics are the name of the game and relics for for those who don't know are these items that you pick up either in special chambers like the the question mark chambers with you know special unknown events that happen or you pick

[00:45:47] them up in elite fights you also have opportunities to get like an additional relic or a special relic in the beginning of every run to that's beyond buy some from the merchant as well yeah yeah there's a couple of different spots you can get them yeah exactly will so I know that you did one one with the ironclad and you said that you did another one run with a defect where did you end up on terms of like which deck you liked more well I definitely prefer the defect you know Claire is the reason why I played through a defect run and you know I saw you beat one with that I was like

[00:46:17] you know what let me give this a shot because I was very intimidated I like read over the initial information about the defect and I was like I don't know I'm a little scared but I did one and it felt pretty good I didn't really get that far I think I beat the act one boss and got halfway through two before hitting a mini boss and dying but on my second run with the defect I got into a really good flow and Nick I think I agree with you to a degree with getting rid of some cards because I 100% started to get out some of my bigger cards that I

[00:46:46] didn't need but for anyone listening there and Claire yourself all that good stuff every time I won I had like 30 plus cards in my deck so it was yeah it was never a situation where I was like on a lean and mean you know 20 or less it was always me just sometimes not having the opportunity to get cards out but I picked up so many good cards that I was pulling more wins than losses so you know your mileage may vary as far as some of those the big thing for me especially with the defect and you know we may bounce around

[00:47:15] as far as hearing what some people's favorite cards were in their decks that they passed yeah but that capacitor where you could gain extra orb slots I got to the I think act three beginning of act three I ended up getting two of those cards and I had a card beforehand or a relic beforehand where any power cards I picked up were automatically upgraded so I got three orb slots yeah so I ended up with nine orb slots what towards the end of the game and then I also got a couple of cards where it was like oh

[00:47:45] give yourself two or three orbs you know whenever you play this card so I would get two of those back-to-back have nine orb slots and then do fusion or fission where I would evoke all of my orbs at the same time and I was just like big boy numbers I was just like oh so yeah that's the kind of stuff so good for number go up sounds good it sounds incredible that sounds like when you get situations like that that's when I'm sitting there cheering at the screen I'm like let's go boy yeah let's go and then you know I go to

[00:48:14] play my next round and get smoked out oh my god yeah so many of the defect cards too when you upgrade them go from one to zero yes in terms of cost and that was something that I found really good for me because the act like the action points were just always the thing that I was like I hate this I want to do more in my turn like and so being able to have those like zero cards and then getting getting a card that would like sift through your whole deck and pull everything that was zero yes all that one yes I loved that one I'm gonna have to go back and play the defect

[00:48:43] now I'm mad that I didn't get a chance to put a hand on it I am curious Kenesha I love magical girls did anybody or Kenesha did you play the watcher at all did you did you mess around that's okay no I didn't get the watcher but yeah I wish I had I am okay really into the silence honestly like I'm clad in the silent yeah so yeah definitely like the

[00:49:12] opposite of Claire like I like I like trying to do as much attack damage as I can and it's just so satisfying to me when I hit something really hard or like can just go like keep hitting like over and over like a deluge so I love I love some of the silence like her her kind of exotic or her rare card abilities there's one called die die die which is like has 13 damage that you can upgrade to like 16 damage to all enemies

[00:49:42] which is I love hitting that sometimes she also has a really cool finisher that's like it says do like anywhere if you depending on if you upgrade it like between six and eight damage the number equivalent to the number of attacks that you play this turn and she has a lot of like setup cards where you're like give you extra you know or so you throw nine turns so you can get exactly so it's like but yeah so it's like if you throw a bunch of shivs at her you can have like two shiv cards throw them and then it's like you know

[00:50:12] eight times ten damage which is it will melt enemies just completely so yeah really really good deck really really cool yeah and I again like that was another one where it's like for me I think a lot of the failures that I saw and something that I was thinking about as I'm playing the game and trying to go through it was the idea that when you're building your deck you kind of have to be very like you have to be both preparing for like

[00:50:41] what's happening in the moment and knowing okay these are the enemies when you get to act three like I've been flushed by the birds and act three multiple times oh yeah just because I didn't have enough cards that did like multi damage to multiple people like spamming that so that's been like a few things where it's like you have to like really really walk that balance between okay I need relics I need cards that can help me now but also cards that are going to help me in the future like it's all about that kind of like skill tool set that you build when you like add a card to the

[00:51:11] deck or remove it in that case too and now I get to talk about the RNG and like because of how ridiculous that was Claire do you have something you said all right well be honest when when did you stop blaming RNG and when did you own accountability I never stop blaming RNG I will never I will never ever ever either the game blessed me or the game cursed me and there's no in-between just like you mentioned when you have a port where the birds right I think the hardest thing about them or at least the annoying

[00:51:41] thing for them was a they would give themselves that feather move and then they would start gaining strength every round so the longer it takes you to ramp up yeah more damage they do to you and there are quite a few times where I'm playing a deck that either requires a specific card or at least maybe four turns to ramp up and then start wrecking things if I pull the birds like it's over like the the whole run is done because I'm gonna get knocked out in round three when they hit me with a move or you have some of those mini bosses where they'll set themselves up

[00:52:09] with a buff and then they'll hit you with what was it like 20 times four like anytime I saw multi hits come out from a mini boss yeah I just had to put the controller down and just like yeah hold my face for a couple of seconds I was like please you're gonna make me sit here and do math and compare it to my health to make sure that I don't die there's I did so much math in this game I've done more math in this game than I think I've done in maybe the past five years and I'm in Excel like every day it's

[00:52:39] great it's great we love that yeah so we talk about like the mini bosses and some of the some of the bosses that we actually fought I think the act one is relatively tame like once I kind of got the trick of this game I never really got like hard flushed out of act one unless I just really put together a stupid just a dummy deck like a deck that just was like working against itself or I didn't have any relics because I know like each time I've won I've had

[00:53:09] anywhere between like 10 and 15 relics just spamming all across the screen and I feel like I've gotten to the point now where it's like I'm same I'm the same way as Will like I don't own my any of my defeats I'm like oh the RNG is bad on this one it's not my fault it's not my fault but also at the same time I kind of feel like I try to always go towards the question marks because I feel like the question marks every time I'm assuming it's going to give me a relic and if I do that if I do that enough it'll make my deck super OP so I

[00:53:38] don't know if you do you all feel the same way I like to go for question marks because of I'm like a lore hound even when I know there's no freaking lore to be found I'm like question mark question mark tell me something usually it's like a refuge I'm like okay I'm like a mid help now let me just take a little break like hopefully they do me a solid and don't send me into another room or they give you a boss fight and one of the question marks yeah nothing makes me

[00:54:06] angrier but yeah no I did I feel like I was even willing to take like the relics that you know came with maybe even significant negatives I really liked the bell oh my gosh the bell was my favorite curse of the bell yeah or the Enchiridion like I I was willing to like do whatever to to get even more relics because they really do like come in

[00:54:35] clutch um there's one where I believe my health like if I if I got hit and I died like I would come back like there is just a bunch where it's just like okay I'm will I can like sit back on this one or like I know these are going to be stronger because this relic is helping me out um and I feel like sometimes like curating my relics felt even more important than curating my cards to a certain extent um yeah because I was like if I have

[00:55:04] enough like attacks or upgrading stuff like that that's okay but um you know like I'm like I really need this relic to like juice this one card or something like that yeah totally agree yeah I I would say that I couldn't agree with you more on that I think the the bell was probably my favorite because getting three relics in one go is like kind of undefeated uh even if it does give you a little curse card at the same time uh I I honestly I know this is this might be a controversial take but I really like the sneaker eye I really like that I

[00:55:34] usually went for that whenever that was like an option uh have you seen that one Claire wait which one was that it's the one where so there's actually a boss or a mini boss that you uh fight in maybe act three called the sneaker um and what they do is they give you confusion which means that every time you pull cards from your you know from your draw pile uh it has randomized uh values that you get and there have been plenty of times where I'll get this Nico eye and it it like gives you perpetual confusion but it means that like every time

[00:56:04] you can get like pull like an epic card and it has zero you know cost points on it and so you can do like a lot of like really but it's also like super chaotic evil because then like a simple block will cost you like three points so it's just yeah it's definitely kind of like a risk reward like the whale says at the beginning what's going on with this whale what do you what do you think about the what is going on with this whale that's meow that's the whale what do you think well do you think he's like orchestrating everything do you think meow is behind

[00:56:32] the spire uh I mean do you want like the true lord you want me to just like give it to us talk about it to us yeah I mean I want I want I'm so happy you know I need someone to tell me what is actually happening a lot of googling a lot of googling I did not pull it from the game itself because I was like I'm too busy stressing these cards I'm so right yeah so from what I understand uh this is not official if you're a slay the spire sicko and I'm wrong please come to the discord and tell me that I'm wrong because I love I love the content yeah be nice be nice um big thing is so now from

[00:57:02] what I understand is like the god of resurrection which is a part of why they have you here trying to attack the spire over and over and over from what I understand they were cast out and then thrown to the bottom of the spire and one of the things they're trying to have you do as one of those characters is to climb to the top of the spire and officially slay the heart and as the tower tower dies they can then resurrect the tower and have it under their control so looks like now is kind of craving power to that degree

[00:57:32] are the ritualists are they followers of meow I believe they're followers of like the heart okay is what I want to say not a hundred percent sure but like the the call like the yeah yeah and all that like the little bird members yeah I want to say they're potentially if like followers of the heart but each of your characters should be you know coming from a specific reason with the ironclad for example people there like gave their not known if it's their soul or they just made a pact with a demon for strength and power and then doing so either

[00:58:01] they were forced to kind of Kratos style or the demon like killed their entire clan so now they're out for revenge which is why they go to the tower the demon I believe was from the tower and then I want to say with the silent their village was wiped out by monsters from the tower and they're the the last of their village and that they went to the tower for that revenge there not a hundred percent sure with the watcher and then I know the defect is just a experiment actual tower yeah it's like a tower automaton that started to gain

[00:58:31] sentience and it was like I will now fight against the tower because it's you know been there for so long and it's getting busted up pieces and all that good stuff so really cool things really good lore as far as like kind of digging into it but like we talked about there you have to really google it or or pull teeth trying to get out of the game itself there's lots of cool like little secrets that you can glean from the achievements in this game too like there's one I think one of my favorite ones which of course like I didn't get but I think it's the ironclad one of their heavy like or their their epic

[00:58:59] cards is the feed which means that if you like kill an enemy with that card you get a permanent like max hp increase and there's like a an achievement for feeding on donu from the donu and deka fight in act three because he looks like a donu and I'm like oh that's perfect there's that there's also a crazy achievement where you have to beat this game with one relic and I'm just like how how do you even do that does that mean that you have some people who get

[00:59:29] given a relic like or you just you go for every in most cases you can decline them you can just find any relic you get so remember like it's the same thing too you talk about with the cards when you beat a boss or you beat a enemy encounter or whatever you know like most of us I'm sure just took everything that was available because I'm like give me yeah more but you can always just skip it so I think anytime you've been a fight or you go to the merchant or something you just have to skip yeah playing on the steam deck my biggest frustration was for whatever reason my

[00:59:59] little fingers I don't know if I've been playing the switch too much or what but I was freaking always accidentally skipping stuff I was like accidentally skipping my own turn accidentally skipping keeping stuff like it took me a while and then it would still happen every once in a while and it's just I'm like sitting there quietly playing like my home and then all of a sudden I'm like no I didn't do that the cat was flying across the room I was like I wanted that like to be fair it's not you it is literally the game because there are many times when uh you go to a question mark and they set you up with all the text

[01:00:29] you need to read through and I hit a while the text is going and in the game they already have up the options so then it was automatically okay you took it I was like no no no no I wanted to skip the words I didn't I'm reading too fast for you game I've done that too that was something that was super frustrating for me and I I blamed myself and it was another reason why I was like maybe I'll be more precise with the PC version uh but when I was playing on the Xbox I like I kept pressing why um I can't remember if why I was like accepting some things but like there were times where I was I was skipping it

[01:00:58] could be skipping but then also like in an actual fight um I would like misplace an attack on a different enemy that I didn't want to actually hit and it would end up like costing me the run and I was just like oh like I know it's on me right like you have to kind of like own that at the end of the day but still I feel like there's definitely a little bit of maybe UI configuration stuff that they might be able to work on the back end I don't know what do you think Anisha is there did you enjoy the UI as an expert as an expert UI UX designer yourself

[01:01:27] I don't know if I'm an expert but um I mean like for the most part it's straightforward but I definitely experienced like skipped uh skip turns and stuff like that um and yeah it would just be so so painful I think too like on Steam Deck sometimes I really struggled with um like choosing an enemy um because like the little arrow would just like get all wonky um so that could be frustrating sometimes

[01:01:57] but I think just switching to I would play like on my MacBook sometimes too if I like you know was doing something I was like but I could play a little Save the Spire and it definitely was a lot more straightforward yeah so yeah it wasn't horrible but it could have been it could have been better it took me a long time on the Steam Deck to figure out how to like read the facts about the the guys and

[01:02:26] so like that one um because I told you this Kanisha the the one like red boss oh god I'm frozen again I'm back again she's back hello I'm so sorry um the the like the red really strong boss guy or like um mini boss maybe I know she's talking about yeah yeah I don't remember what his name was but it took me losing so many fights before I finally realized that I could like read what was happening and making him stronger because I was like

[01:02:55] something is going on and I was playing with the defect and the defect has more of the types of cards that make that particular villain stronger and so like I really did not realize how much you actually need to read about the mini bosses and the bosses when you get to them 100% once I did that I was like oh this is a different game yeah like oops yeah no seriously and I get that every time I mean no matter how many times I've faced him I keep forgetting oh the more attacks that you use or no the more like blocks that you use the stronger

[01:03:25] that he gets yeah the skills cards he definitely like does that and the bosses too at the same time I started learning that as well where I'm like because they they'll do buffs and you're sometimes you're going that's really the thing about this game is that like you kind of have to be slow and deliberate as you're playing but I've played it so many times I'm like I know what I'm doing and I'll spam a attack attack block defense you know use the all of a sudden the you know boss has like two buffs in a row and they have a line that's like

[01:03:54] three different or four different buffs under them and I'm like wait a second and I have to like like push up on the d-pad to be like what the heck is going on with this this person right here and that's another reason why I genuinely think that this game is probably very much built for PC first and then ported to like consoles and other platforms because I can only imagine what it's like on mobile like you know doing that or like looking at the different characters well you have an eidetic memory so it's like one of those where I'm sure you're just like oh yeah that he clearly has

[01:04:22] thorns on or something like that but I had to know that like you said I had to recognize from what I played before and knew how to do it but as far as actually in game looking and searching for things even on my own side it was almost impossible like even got to a point the allows you to mess with your UI a little bit on the phone so you can kind of make things smaller and bigger yeah for depending what phone you have etc but I got stuck to a point where I couldn't even see the bottom of my cards like what they did like what the actual actions were I just had to know okay that's the

[01:04:52] picture I know what this does that's that was like how I scrape my way through as the the defect I think by the time I got to act two and a half or act three I was like okay I don't know what the cards do anymore off reading them I have to go by vibes so it was tough a little vibe check that is the thing like I found myself I mean I love to like read about what's going on so I found myself like hovering over every little thing the potions especially because I just

[01:05:21] could never remember what they did yeah so I got I did get into a good habit about reading like every little icon and figuring out what was going on but my toxic trait is that I would like read about the enemies and I'd be like don't care I'm gonna hit them on and like for half of them that worked really well but for some of them you know like I did have to kind of be like okay I guess I'll

[01:05:48] play the game if I have to but yeah there's just so many little icons I think that is something too it's just like you have to like hover over them just right I found like on Steam Deck my joystick like it's just a little too sensitive so you know I would just be all over the place cooking stuff yeah it's okay but yeah yeah okay that's fair on the Steam Deck did you ever touch

[01:06:16] to play me yeah whoever was on the Steam Deck Kanisha did you touch to play at all because when I was having issues with the with the sensitivity of the joystick I did just for a full run just touch touch like on the screen or on the screen of the Steam Deck yeah I'm too like I my vision's not very good I'd be touching anything yeah I'm just but I

[01:06:44] I did think about it that is like it worked better than I thought it would have I'm getting even more irritated now I know that the Steam Deck has like the little thumb pads that are supposed to be like the mouse analog did they at any point like did they try to like make it with mouse and keyboard setting where you like grab the card and then you drag the card to the person you want to use it for or is it just one of those where you can click over with a d-pad I think you can change okay mapping to allow you

[01:07:14] to do that if you wanted to I'm someone who loves those amount those little pads because they like have a really nice click I like them but I I wouldn't do that okay I wouldn't recommend it a little it's not you don't like click and drag when you click the setting is more like click and then it goes to the middle of the screen and then click again it's like move it to where you want the thing to be and then click again so it's not as clean as like a clicking and drag got it now that makes perfect

[01:07:43] sense yeah let's go ahead and jump into just the overall design philosophy and like what makes Slay the Spire work at the end of the day before we get into final thoughts I'll go ahead and start us off I genuinely just think that like playing this game we set it at the top and I think I'll say it again this has a really addictive loop I have spent Sundays where I'll like wake up in the morning give myself a little breakfast get some coffee going load up Slay the Spire and then

[01:08:12] I'll start playing and then I like blink and look over at the the time over in the kitchen and it says 6 p.m. and I'm like what the heck is going on I forgot to eat I've been too locked in on Slay the Spire just doing right because it's one of those for me especially like I got I let my ego get in the way I'm like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lose on this run we have to do it it's that perfect like one more run where it's like things just didn't work right for me this last time and I think the RNG and like the procedural

[01:08:41] generation of the different maps and everything and like like you were saying Claire that strategy of planning okay I'm gonna go here here and here in terms of the boss room the question mark the bonfire you know just to kind of get that run going and get that feeling going it's a certain it gives a sense of fluidity for the overall experience and it definitely like hacks that like fire emblem strategy brain that I have in the back of my brain are we fire emblem fans on this show you just play three pod you three houses

[01:09:09] didn't you okay the reason why I was on Dave's podcast listen to tales of the backlog I'll be on an episode about fire emblem three houses natural plug is that obviously fire emblem should be covered on our show because it's a dating that's right but one of us is not necessarily a 250 hour turn based sicko like the other of us hold strong hold strong it's time to it's time to play fire emblem no it's time

[01:09:37] to it's time to I own it all right now you have to play I own I own three houses I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm it's the thing is my friend I bought it for her I was like $60 for a game I'll do anything for you and I was not anything for you but I would do the same for but yeah I just got bored I'm sorry I hate grid based

[01:10:06] strategy it just like drives me crazy but I do want to play it because I'm like people just really love these like I want to lock into that and I will like fight through it too but yeah we'll see and the new one's gonna come out and I feel like I might you know you've heard it here first I might be like can you show what if we played what if we played it together what if we play portions weave forcing you to go back and do three houses as long as you do a

[01:10:35] little tandem situation as long as you don't lose anybody it's just a cool 80 hours you know what I mean like it's just as long as you don't like that's that's gamer time that's gamer time because this is what I learned yesterday Dave was like it takes 80 hours to the first never listen to Dave Jackson never was 160 hours what are you never listen to Dave Jackson about game times because this man will beat like dark souls 2 in 13 hours and just blink and I'm like okay and I had to tell this him on the podcast I was like dude

[01:11:04] you're like a capital G pro gamer all right some of us are mere mortals out here trying to play video games so we love Dave though shout out to shout out to the boy yet so will does that mean that you're gonna get a play fortunes weave I will absolutely never be caught dead playing a fire emblem game I'm sorry I feel like Kanisha loves Claire more than you love me and I don't know how I feel about that that's definitely true that's so fake

[01:11:32] me letting Kanisha finish her bite but ready to be like yeah no Kanisha loves me more than most anyone in my life loves me actually so wow I can't even say anything because I'm like I do really love Claire I throw my earpods that's perfect yeah I'll say the last thing on the fire emblem thing is Dimitri did nothing wrong he did nothing wrong and he's a good lad and neither did Claude my husband well Claude I don't even think Claude tried to do anything wrong Edelgard

[01:12:02] Edelgard definitely did something wrong yeah did he though he's so handsome he's so handsome Edelgard see Edelgard she just had a rough childhood all right she had a really rough childhood it's not her fault Nick we need you to stand up babe I feel like a pretty face and you're like you're not wrong that's all he's done I was telling you

[01:12:30] yeah we might have to take an extra moment for fire emblem after we actually finish this episode because I have so much to say all the time absolutely well okay so we'll go ahead and Will what did you think like in terms of just like the design philosophy of this game did you resonate with where I was going on with that though I mean yeah it definitely repeatability runs yeah it hits on all cylinders for that I mean the best thing even you and I talked about it when you came over and you watch me do a failed run I think once or twice something like that the whole hey you

[01:12:59] have all these different routes and it's not just pick a route and have fun whatever you know by each act one start the very first place you choose to start from sets that tone for the entire you know part of that tower that you're going up so if you work your way up three different lines and you say oh crap the way I'm set now I'm gonna run into a mini boss and you know there's a bunch of fights up in between there realistically you're gonna be half health or less by the time you come into that boss run might be over so like we talked about before where it's like question marks

[01:13:29] I would always plot out as many question marks as possible avoiding as many mini bosses as possible because I never felt comfortable like fighting a mini boss and getting 20 health down and then trying to go fight the the top of the tower boss like that just never felt like a winning strategy or winning situation for me so it's that kind of initial thinking even before pressing buttons but hey I'm plotting my path out yeah really sets the tone for how the game plays there and it's just as you're going through and you're hitting those

[01:13:57] question marks or the mini bosses the recurring ones that you come across can give you such a fun like sense of relief like there's the one guy who's like oh buddy can you can you give me some money or maybe a potion or something and I'll give you something yeah and you know you can give him a potion or you can give him some money or you can rob him if you rob him you're like oh I'm gonna get into a fight but he just calls you a dick and runs away and like shames you so then you get a curse card of shame so with fun stuff like that that keeps not only each round

[01:14:26] fresh but even the ones that you see repeatedly it still gives you some variability and some options when it comes to what you're picking there so at the end of the day it's stressing me out a lot I'm probably gonna beat it again with the silent if I can but I don't know if I'm gonna see like towards the very end of it because getting to actually fighting the heart and doing that act for and all the crazy stuff asks a lot of you like you have to go do another fresh run after beating it with the first three

[01:14:54] characters and then you have to do you have to collect all three gems in the same yeah so you have to collect the three gems in one run you have to take one of the keys from like one of the bonfires you go to you can't sleep and you can't upgrade a card you have to take a key so you kind of waste that bonfire and then you have to beat one of the what is it calls the mini bosses there's like a fiery mini boss yeah you'll see it on the map you have to make your way to it and get the gem off of that one so it's a mini boss with like plus 25 percent

[01:15:24] health or does plus 50 percent damage and this is after completing a run with all four characters with all three characters you don't have to do the watcher to do this the watcher is like an extra add-on character that she's like a DLC okay exactly and then after that one you have to I think it's one of the bosses either the act one boss or the act three boss has a key inside their chest so you have to do that one and then once you do all of those it unlocks the act four where it's only four slots so you first get a bonfire where you can heal or fix your card and

[01:15:53] then you get a merchant so you can buy something that you may need before fighting it then you have to fight a mini boss which is a dual mini boss I don't think they do this at all before getting up to this point but you have a shield and a spear and whichever one you have your back to because they're on either side of your character the attacking person behind you does 50% more damage so you have to really sit there and like figure out who you're going to be facing based off of using your cards to turn and attack them and

[01:16:22] then after that you fight the heart so it's ridiculous and I was like I don't think I'm gonna I'm gonna put that much time into doing it I'm okay I'm okay I mean I know I think that this game has that addictability where it's like when people learn with like just razor fine precision of like exactly how to build their decks and do it I think it's one of those where it gets really fun and that's where that additional layer of difficulty and complexity comes with the ascensions because the ascensions are something we haven't quite talked about

[01:16:52] yet but it's kind of one of the mechanics of the game is that after you beat a run it just escalates the difficulty ladder where it adds new modifiers more elite enemies weaker starting relics but debuffs at rest sites and so it just like adds that overall like punishing effect to the game over and over and over again so yeah again this shares a lot of you know souls born kind of similarities in terms of people who would like oh yeah let's let's have not a good time and all right play this game yeah it's giving the

[01:17:21] sickos deck builders like yeah exactly exactly the deck builder to end them all did either of you had anything else to share and like design philosophies for this one that really stood out to you honestly this is gonna sound so silly but grateful that not every playable character is a man oh yeah I wasn't sure what to what to expect when it's like you know sometimes the games that set the standard you never know what you're getting it's older too it's an older game so it could have easily been

[01:17:48] the case and I loved I love a lady who's throwing that yeah you know you just go wrong with it I just love it go wrong with it queen yeah I'm trying to I feel this is a very ADHD thing to say but the sound effects um when you like click things or like pick cards and things like that I don't know a lot of people don't really care for things like that but it just was very soothing to me and that was

[01:18:18] another reason why like I kept wanting to play it's just like the act of 100% generated an environment that I really found yeah it's that perfect soundtrack Bellaccio has this similar thing where it's the score underneath is like so vibey and so like just very much an experience where you're like I'm comfortable being here let me just like live in this space for a while and then I'll walk around my apartment like humming the theme song or the the main

[01:18:47] score in my head as I'm like going about doing chores and that sort of thing so a hundred percent agree with you on this out there are you of the same mind with the place when you're the bonfire like when you actually upgrade a card that little like hammer ding ding yeah oh man yes so satisfying it's really good it's really good let's go ahead and get into final thoughts and the verdict for slay the spire in this game so first thing that I want to ask you all is first

[01:19:17] of all you know I think we've kind of covered that we you know enjoyed this game to varying degrees I definitely had a good time with it it was it was a good experience but the question I want to ask you all is that would you recommend slay the spider slay the spire to a friend and on top of that are you going to play slay the spire to kanisha can we start with you here first I want to say I want to play whatever slay the spider

[01:19:46] oh my god I'm too scared to play ground up arachnophobia mode on I had a fantastic time it definitely makes me just want to keep like it's just so like sometimes not even about like I need to get to like the very like it's just like I just want to see how far I can get like it's just so satisfying not just like viscerally but

[01:20:16] like mentally too without being too taxing so I mean there's a lot of little math to do but it's not like yeah like you're plotting out a whole war plan or something like it's really fun and I definitely want to take place slay the spider to it's cool I am yeah I've been I've been watching some people in a discord server play and I'm like let me get through slay the spider one and then I'm coming so

[01:20:46] yeah I'm excited to like go experience that and play with other people I want to play with clay or just to see like how our place that would be hilarious so yeah but yeah very much enjoy that's fantastic well I feel like our play style and play the spider to play the play the spider what I don't know what game we're talking about anymore I feel like I can't tell if we would like absolutely crush it or if we

[01:21:15] would be completely just like butting heads and conflicting all the time is who's to say I mean the ultimately you know you're the best with the ironclad since you had to restart your run on PC and first run in beat it and I was like how in the hell did this man you know Claire how about yourself uh what's your final thoughts for the game yeah I think um just because of how life is I am not gonna be like in a rush to pick up

[01:21:44] slay the spider to full price right now when I have no time to play it well hold on now they have a they have a discount which means you can get slay the spider 2 and vampire crawlers for like they're not 25 they're not paying us why are you shilling out for this vampire crawlers yeah I can reach out to mega crit I can reach out we can we can ask for a review copy it's okay uh my my partner is playing vampire crawlers right now on game pass and I we have spent literally over a hundred

[01:22:13] hours in vampire survivors co-op uh so my biggest question would be like what is the slay the spider co-op is it couch co-op or is it only online co-op because if it's couch co-op my buying it sooner this the likelihood goes way up okay okay um but yeah I think like I would like to over a long time like I think I'll keep coming back to slay the spider and keep working my way through but like I did not get to really ascensions like I truly only got one victory by the time and I've been playing like I think I'm just not very

[01:22:42] good um yeah but I'm working on it so I think I think eventually I will get slay the spider too but like when that happens is very dependent on how quickly I actually get through slay the spider one for sure or if canisha forces me to play with her which I would anytime so I mean hey yes I'm gonna be horrible and also show because I did get one and two for like 24 bucks I got like together okay so the deals are out

[01:23:11] there y'all keep an eye out there the deals are out there that's perfect William final verdicts for slay the spider I mean I think if you have some of the patience and you enjoy these kind of deck building roguelite games where you get to come back a little bit stronger you learn some things as you unlock oh sorry as you go through even if you don't win your runs you get xp towards unlocking newer and better cards that should in theory help you beat it later on if you pull them I think it's a really good game it's great to try out

[01:23:41] especially if you you know have a game pass already or if it's a one of these great deals that we're talking about here you're able to pick it up on because it's an evergreen game you come back to it over and over from what I understand the first game especially had a lot of good support and through the early access up until its true release in like 2019 or so and even a little bit past they had a lot of really good updates quality of life adding on characters and they look to be doing the same thing for two as well should that be something that people want to jump into so I think it's just a high quality

[01:24:10] game that people enjoy for good reason and even if it will stress you out a little bit I think ultimately climbing that tower is worth it to see the view on the very top that's perfect oh man you said it you said it better than I ever could so I'll just we'll just leave it at that that's it and so did you did you say are you going to jump in it too I'll probably get I mean it's on game pass already right I think it is so is it or do you have to buy it straight up I don't know I'm 100% sure I think you have to buy it but if it's on game pass I'll definitely

[01:24:39] check it out because I was kind of waiting to get through this one and us talking about it and then I was going to pop it on to see some of the differences but even if it's not on game pass I think it's something that like you said if you're interested especially we could do a little bit co-op action I know we have a little bit of a co-op backlog already between us but still add another one onto the pile and just your birthday is my birthday is you never know what's gonna happen looking up here up to four players can play co-op and slay the spire too so I don't I don't know Kenisha and Claire we might have to do a little part two action

[01:25:08] a reunion an FNGC reunion I love it I love it okay but we're gonna demand that you make us another game you've set yourself an unfortunate sort of precedent that's so true incredible well yeah I would I can only echo everything all of you have said at this point had a great time with the game had a good time really did it wasn't super successful won't say that I'm like cracked at this game like it was tough it's hard but I had a good

[01:25:38] time while I was playing it and I I definitely would recommend people who are both into deck builders and into roguelites just give it a shot especially if you have game pass it's free on there you don't have to go full send I think like if you buy it on steam it's probably cheaper at this point than actually getting a game pass subscription if you don't so that's there's that always that option if you just kind of want to get your feet wet into deck builder roguelites I'm definitely gonna jump into two I want to check out vampire crawlers I think I have it on my fantasy critic well I can't remember

[01:26:06] if I do or not it I think it failed me it's got like a 81 or 82 it's not as good as vampire survivors but that's fine we gotta find out more about this fantasy critic situation also hearing people talking about and I'm like what is this what's going on so that's a later note but I'm in three I'm in three different leagues and Will and I have a league where we each have like 20 games it's crazy it's ridiculous there's a lot going on there's a lot going on it's a really good time though but that is gonna be it for tonight so I want to give a big

[01:26:35] thank you to all of our listeners for tuning into the show if you've enjoyed our content and you want to support us further please feel free to give us a rating review on your podcasting platform of choice whether that's Spotify Apple podcast or good pods we love hearing from our community so feel free to check us out I said in the last episode that our discord will be available online on our links and I didn't do that but it definitely will be available this time so we'll post it on our Instagram story it's gonna be on our link tree so please jump in we love having new community members

[01:27:05] jump in and hang out with us in the discord server ladies where can people enjoy Claire and Kenesha in the date with us podcast we we are available wherever you want to listen to your podcast you can also go straight to date with us that is our website over redirect you to our popping we are also on Instagram as

[01:27:32] see with us podcast on blues guy at date with us and then we also sometimes stream on Claire's twitch channel Claire after all so for May we'll be doing brindlewood may where we play a tabletop role-playing game where we pretend to be old ladies with Claire's mom and solve mysteries so we'll be doing that Mondays in May and then eventually we

[01:28:01] will resume streaming Doki Doki Literature Club in preparation for an episode coming soon so lots of fun things fun places to find us and hopefully on guests of other people's podcasts as well people who are wonderful like you and why are you laughing is that not a good thing to say it's just so funny I'm like you'll also find us random places

[01:28:35] with all of your favorite podcasters including Nick and Will and just you know everyone we've been so lucky to interact with I don't know that was good it was good I'm sorry I froze at the beginning and usually I'm the one who does this this is why I'll never get the spiel again you did so good don't say never because you will I have to at some point are you booing yourself I'm booing you why this is so great this is like it's like looking in a mirror by the way I have to keep this on like a

[01:29:02] mirror we love and support each other at the date with us podcast did you plug yourself you can find Kenisha on Instagram at dream normie no I didn't want to cut this Nick cut it out cut it out do not buy them it is not eligible do not contact them if you want to contact them email hosts at date with us thank you perfect perfect well I'm definitely going to show up for the doki-doki literature club and I'm also going to show up for the the grandma

[01:29:31] solving mystery stream Brendawood Bay baby Brendawood Bay sounds incredible but with that everyone please keep gaming take it easy and we'll see you next Friday was is did you say it well did you say deuces oh no am I frozen no okay you're back deuces deuces bye bye