Board Game Reviews Ep

[@CDawgVA]

Can confirm we played this for 4 hours, it's unbelievably fun. Getting one asap.

[@tominieminen66]

Did you win any games? When I played the modded digital multiplayer version people tended to rush and get killed which also made me lose 😂 A board game version might make people play more “rationally”

[@cloudsRniceC0M3]

Board gamers rise up!

[@BlindLeadnBlind]

I've played it solo, and with 3 players. It's so much fun!

[@prasannamaskey7]

we wanna video man

[@Teeshmoo]

heck yeah, tabletop gaming is so good! it’d be cool to see

[@disk3001]

"You have no max hand size" Every Slay the Spire player just got reeeeal excited

[@solanumtuberosa]

I thought people were more excited about trimming down decks

[@disk3001]

@@solanumtuberosa I meant the max hand size In the video game, you can draw a ridiculous amount of cards and very easily go infinite if you can just hold your deck in your hands (thus why a relic like Runic Pyramid, which skips your discard phase at the end of turn, can easily enable such combos) The 10 card hand limit is one of the only rules of the game that cannot be broken Removing/exhausting the deck so you draw all good cards is something different

[@solanumtuberosa]

@@disk3001 eh, in the videogame I prefer having small decks with card draws I can cycle easily and spam, but thats just me.

[@SubmitToTheBiomass]

@@solanumtuberosa I mean, you don't have the luxury of being able to choose your "preference" every run, so the strategies are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes you will get the opportunity to make a tiny mill deck; other times Runic Pyramid will show up.

[@matthewwells9366]

It just depends how consistent you can draw in this game, if it's like STS then it'll be way too op, but I don't think it'll be that easy just looking at the relics.

[@xhantechan5324]

Same here, as Slay The Spire being one of my favorite games I was very sceptical if it was possible to turn into a board game so I was amazed by how well they captured the spirit AND did their own thing. We played a whole run for like 6 hours but it felt like way less. Especially the fact that you don't necessarily have to wait too much on the other players keeps it from getting stale

[@naggl3s]

As someone who's introduced two new groups of 3 completely new players to the board game, I think this board game works great even if you've never played the genre. One thing I've noticed is that multiplayer can make deck-building mistakes a lot less harsh. This is all of my friends' first time, but I've been on ascension 20 so I've often been able to supplement damage during bosses and elites, others have been able to block others who didn't properly add block to their deck, and some can hit multi-target when you haven't built AoE. In this sense, StS the Board Game can be more forgiving. It also helps the numbers are simple, so its easy for people to follow along and StS's innate rulings are so good that the game is easy to pick up. Both this board game and the video game I feel have their own advantages. The video game can do things the board game can never do such as dead branch's card generation or a lot of the cards that create other cards are heavily altered to simplify the experience. The Board Game's co-op is super nice for getting casual people into StS and playing with friends provide a completely different experience, to the point where I could see 4 player deck building being different than how a single player would play it. If you are interested in card games, 100% recommend it.

[@KrakatonMain]

Little tip I quickly learned with the playmats: whichever side you tend to START rolling UP, tale that side and roll it inside out a little bit when UNrolling the full mat. It'll flatten the whole thing out perfectly just by doing that. Also, ever since I started playing regularly with multiple people, the sleeves on starter cards specifically have started wearing down FAST (specifically the corners). So very minimal shuffling when shuffling your deck. It's easy to overshuffle with a deck as small as 30 or even 40 cards, which is about the average size you'll see by the end of Act III. Just a quick, light shuffle when resetting your deck, and don't shuffle at the end of combat. Only shuffle at the start, when resetting your draw pile, and when events prompt you to. Thankfully, a pack of 100 sleeves will cover all starter decks twice and only costs like $11 or $13 USD. Hopefully this helps some people! I might try to put together a video myself at some point with storage and upkeep advice. Regardless of whether or not I do, please leave any other tips on the replies here so everyone (including myself) can take the best care of their copies of the game!

[@vanjagrigoriev1442]

I recommend contacting support if your sleeves are wearing out faster than expected, they replaced my sleeves for free

[@marcstender1567]

I second contacting support, just picture evidence and asking was all I need to get a full replacement set. Of course you are right about less shuffling, but some durability should be expected

[@KrakatonMain]

@@marcstender1567 in the game's defense, I played a LOT of solitaire for the first couple of months after getting the game. I've also been taking it to my LGS nearly every Saturday since the actual day it arrived. So I put a lot of strain on those sleeves very quickly. I think I had every check box for character unlocks, Act IV, and colorless within just a few weeks.

[@Linkdude74]

We've played mine a lot to the point that the sleeves were peeling apart, so we just got green dragonshields and I just keep the extra sleeves that came with the game as memorabilia. The sleeves breaking is a common problem with these kind of art sleeves so I knew I was going to need to replace them eventually. If the art doesn't matter too much, matte single color sleeves work very well.

[@happygilmore2137]

A game like this begs the question "when the video game is so good, why should I play the board game?" I think the co op aspect of it answers that question well. I'm impressed they pulled it off. Maybe something we could see as a feature in sts 2??

[@Alialun2]

Exactly! My bf got this game for me so he can play sts with me becuase he knows how much I love sts. And it's honestly so cool and comfy to just spend the weekend playing sts together.

[@noobestofdamall]

"Begs the question" doesn't mean what you think it means no matter how many times people misuse that phrase.

[@2LettersSho]

@@noobestofdamall "Begs for the question '...' to be asked" instead? Seems like a pretty normal phrase shortening over hundreds of years for ease of use to me.

[@faereman]

@@noobestofdamall Both meanings are correct.

[@joshaboi7467]

I would kill for even just local co-op in StS2

[@GearDiego23]

With the beta art you can create a 5th playable character as "The Prismatic"

[@JesseGood1]

What do you mean?

[@iphatbass]

@@JesseGood1Prismatic shard gives your hero ability to gain cards from different character decks. So, basically you can make fictional fifth "character" that uses cards from each character's deck.

[@kaos1109]

Only now I am learning about it.. I didn't get the beta art :/ Oh well, live and let go (I don't intend on investing more in this game as it stands now 😅)

[@GearDiego23]

@@kaos1109 it a house rule. Oficially there are only 4 character. But the beta art has ALL the plegable cards in it.

[@tykat12]

Thank you for reviewing my partner and I were looking forward to it!

[@Hanarchy23]

My parents were apart of the team who made the companion app!

[@SlightlyUnSalted]

Did you mean “a part”?

[@Hanarchy23]

@@SlightlyUnSalted yeah, it's like a single space and probably the least bad grammatical error I could make

[@SlightlyUnSalted]

@@Hanarchy23 just remember that there’s a big difference between “apart” and “a part”

[@GobaGNon]

@@SlightlyUnSalteddawg what is this he clearly knows why are you acting like this is some divine revelation you’ve granted him

[@_supersolar]

My partner is the top developer credit! She made the map tiles, shiv tokens, and double-sided card upgrades, among many other smaller elements. I watched the whole Contention team work so hard on this, and they turned out an amazing game (and companion app)!

[@Bleuchz]

This is my game of the year and I don't see that changing. Its a top 10 all time easy. We have started skipping Act 1 (its in the rules and done very cleverly) so that we can do acts 2&3 in a night. Hope this game is a huge success for them. It stands on its own apart from the video game. imo.

[@Mahler1988]

interesting that you skip act 1. Part of the fun (most of it?) is feeling that gradual surge in power, but for sure the playtime of the three acts is pretty long. I don't see myself skipping act 1 in my next games but maybe I'll wind up trying after a while.

[@Bleuchz]

@@Mahler1988 yeah it's purely a playtime thing. It's about 2 hours for us to do an act so timing wise if we want to finish a run we don't have much choice.

[@Roflpawnched]

Same. Also my game of the year. My favorite board game at the moment.

[@johnk6757]

as much as I love STS this looks like way too much fiddling/crunch for the amount of gameplay.. like they really tried hard to make it close to the PC game but so much mechanics to keep track of when you could just have the computer do it for you for like, the same experience?

[@Bleuchz]

@@johnk6757 No coop on the PC game. Huge difference for me.

[@The2Cat7Guy]

Wait it's actually a board game now?! I need that

[@healingvisioner1]

It's such a great adaptation of the videogame, so much fun to play coop with friends. If you enjoy the original, I can't recommend it enough!

[@la8ball]

I dont see why they couldnt do it. Didn't expect multiplayer though

[@SubmitToTheBiomass]

"wow this sounds amazing; I love the video game!" >it costs 156 canadian dollars and is also out of stock "well shit"

[@kappanova1302]

I´ve never considered the whale´s name actually be spoken aloud

[@knuckle-pie]

Neow I can never unhear it

[@Rendolf45]

As the video was starting it hit me just how many of the game's systems are perfect for being adapted to a board game, especially since it's deck-building already. The main thing I wasn't sure how they'd do was the enemy combat, but using the die for the random attacks is a great idea!

[@BlueShellshock]

I'm not sure how I feel about this, since normally the computer keeps track of everything for you, it seems odd to more to a physical version of the game. That being said, they did a great job simplifying a lot of mechanics -- I like how there's only one die that determines enemy incoming attacks, whether relics are active, or whether a card effect is relevant that turn, you don't just roll a bunch of dice constantly. And... Multiplayer Coop? That's pretty awesome.

[@solidjames5704]

I will say the long setup plus keeping track of everything manually does take some of the fun out of it for me, but still cool to own a physical version of such a great game nontheless.

[@tamado2148]

"There is no max hand size" Scrawl gonna go crazy with that

[@VangaurdTDS]

Woah as a big fan of the game, this looks amazing, thank you for showcasing this!

[@yumithehunter6292]

Ah a new prozd vi- FINALLY HES PLAYING SLAY THE SPIRE

[@4tan730]

The companion app has some cool features like randomizing your character and an hp calculator. Though, using a regular calculator might still be easier in case you make a mistake when doing the math on elites and bosses.

[@gjallahorn4086]

Just got my copy.. My niece is already unpacking it and getting the family ready:D

[@docholiday4129]

Slay the spire has been an addiction of mine for a few months now. So the fact they turned it into a board game is amazing to see

[@Ridiculous77]

I fucking love Slay the Spire, and the board game is just as good, pledging to the kickstarter for it was the best choice I made that year

[@xTonicWaterx]

For some reason it's funny to me they included progression in a board game but a really neat idea

[@aidenlal916]

Got the game for christmas because of this review. Thank you for the recomendation

[@somethingcool2500]

was just looking for videos on the board game and found this gem

[@Rincewindl]

an absolutely fantastic conversion of the game from video game to board game + adding seamless co-op is AMAZING this is a 10/10 boardgame!

[@AtomicWaffle14]

I'm glad this exists, as I love Slay the Spire, but I can't justify the price tag or the labor it would take to set up, teach and play it with anybody. It's so similar to the game that I could just go back and play the game and probably have more fun.

[@Mr.Brothybear]

Your Name looks awfully familiar

[@suulix4065]

Ooo I love the regular game so this looks fantastic!!

[@FiscalFiasco]

After around 20 games the sleeves on the starter decks are starting to separate, which is kind of big - there are around 800 cards I think, so replacing all sleeves with better quality ones will cost a lot of extra money. Apart from that, this is one of my fav games I've ever played! Not surprising since StS is by far my most played video game.

[@acemind1]

The block and energy don't have individual spaces, so you can easily adjust them. They'll change multiple times within a turn so it's easier to slide them. I think it's a smart tradeoff

[@Jonathan_Guan]

My guess for the energy and block squares not having notches is because energy and block gets adjusted more often, changing multiple times per turn, whereas health is a bit more constant over the course of the run. Therefore being able to slide it around might make it easier to adjust. Haven't tried the game though so not sure how useful or true this is in practice.

[@mitchelljulius5875]

This f-cking game is hard.

[@GearDiego23]

Playing in it with 4 players felt super easy. Maybe there was something in the rules I skipped... it truly felt way too easy.

[@rawravioli4380]

how many players because I've been playing 2 player and at ascension 6 and only had 2 losses both on act 1 had a lot of close calls

[@tominieminen66]

@@GearDiego23Time to create houserules then 😂

[@4tan730]

3 players here and after ascension bane was put in our deck, it felt quite a bit harder. But maybe we just aren’t taking optimal pathing/deckbuilding and greeding too many elites.

[@cameronschyuder9034]

@@4tan730having a curse definitely makes things much harder

[@garrettvandenberg2031]

To people who can’t wait for this to come to retail, another very good deck builder rogue-like in the same vein (yet still very unique) is Paperback Adventures. It’s very similar to slay the spire, but it revolves around building words to deal damage and block incoming damage. It’s fantastic and there a solid “ascension” system to work through once you’ve mastered the main game too. You need both the core box and a character box to play, but that’ll still come to quite a bit less than STS costs, though, by all means get that too, but paperback may be just the thing to bold you over until it comes to your local boardgame store. I personally love that game.

[@PrincessFelicie]

My one annoyance with this game is the card sleeves, they have already started fraying for me :( Be warned that the art at the back is just glued on and prone to falling off.

[@0OH_NO0]

Wow that's disappointing to hear.

[@sfglim5341]

They have a few extra ones, just be careful with the sleeves and it should be fine, u can glue it back on also

[@psychabscond]

Same for me! I contacted the company and they said they are already making upgraded sleeves and are sending me a set. I doubt they'll just offer them to everyone, you should email Contention Games!

[@psunemi192]

Get oversleeves. Best thing ever invented for these sort of sleeves.

[@Ealstrom]

if you contact support they replace your sleeves for free!

[@bangonia4116]

Such a great review This review convinced me to fund the korean version of the game at the time.

[@BlazeBluetm35]

I have ordered the game, thanks for the awesome review!

[@Silverpicker]

I love the video game and it looks like they did a really good job with this

[@jeppejuul7620]

Just played my first game. It took 7 hours but we completed in first try. I had never played the video game before but my friend i played it with had played it for 2000 hours. I immediately went home and bought the video game and now im obsessed

[@d13da14b]

This has become my favorite board game ever. I already loved the indie game, but the board game is so good!

[@AegixDrakan]

0_0 Wow. They really managed to recreate the whole entire game experience as a board game.

[@vustvaleo8068]

overall seamless transition from the video game into the board game.

[@vladkalinovych934]

The official companion app offers a life dial tool.

[@marcstender1567]

i really love the game also. It is kinda a hard game to just spring on people, but definitely fun to get a group of people together. The game is beatifully build and I would say definitely worth the somewhat high price. Playing with a full group, you get to both see different builds and cover each other for the pros and cons of those builds. One medium scale problem right now is that the card sleeves, which are a rather core part of the game, in only 3-4 full games the back begins to peel off for me and some others. They have issued a full replacemnt set of sleeves though and are looking into it, so fingers crossed that we were unlucky or the problem gets resolved.

[@LapraiLoL]

Got this recommended to me after seeing Conner's latest slay the spire video

[@BasilLecher]

I’ve been having so much fun. I’ve unlocked all the cards and at some point I’ll need to start climbing ascensions.

[@karu6653]

8:55 It actually isn't an insta-game over if a player dies. The rules specifically state the game is won for multiplayer after Act 2 is beat, and players can still resolve the fight even if one player dies. This means if someone dies on the Act 2+ boss and the battle is still won in the end, that act is still counted as won, important for the unlock system specifically, as well as overall moral if one player in particular gets screwed.

[@TyrantNomad]

That's listed as an optional additional rule - by default rules, any 1 death is game over for everyone.

[@samueltrusik3251]

Does not matter what form it takes, Slay the spire will always give you the time eater when you have infinites.

[@andrewstillman9229]

This game is so damn fun, and the board game makes it coop and so much more fun!

[@AuraSparks]

I really hope to play this some day, after thousands of hours of slay the spire

[@tuvillo]

The only complaints I've heard are that you need a good reason to play this over the boardgame, and that co-op can be a bit detached sometimes. I think this game has a perfect balance of sometimes just not needing to communicate much more than your basic numbers, and sometimes needing detailed communication throughout entire turns.

[@ArceusZer035]

This is awesome, I love Slay the Spire and is waiting for the sequel too. 💚

[@therainbowyoshi817]

I am so mad I missed the Kickstarter, love the video game and now I desperately want this board game, looks great!

[@Dyriuz]

The Board Game and the video game are so good. But i love the Coop in the Board game so much. Its so much fun grinding ascensions with friends.

[@exeledusprince9165]

Absolutely amazing Board Game. There is a terriffic mod of this on Tabletop Simulator too.

[@Squidwidge]

THIS GAME IS SO AWESOME, thanks for reviewing it!

[@RevvyHere]

Dials would be pretty simple to implement if people have them on hand, but if not just replace the HP for the boss with some D10s and it should be easier to follow.

[@SumRndmPenguin]

Just looking at this I can tell this will be very expensive and very fun. Seems like a fun game to get 3 people to pool money for and play with.

[@ToyKeeper]

Just hours ago, someone asked what video games I thought needed a board game version... and the first one which game to mind was Slay the Spire. Then later I loaded up youtube and discovered it actually exists and just finished shipping to backers a few days ago.

[@JohnSmith-dz6rw]

probably the best video game to board game adaptation I have ever seen - just as fun and just as addicting

[@blackdaz3]

This s a hefty one.. nice video

[@Rbum4]

Loved the game, but I would've preferred a digital coop slay the spire, lol. We spent hours fidgeting with the cubes and calculating, while a digital run would've taken way less time. It's too much micromanaging for me...

[@lucasamorimramires4394]

God i want to play the board game (I played the original for 100+ hours already)

[@CptVein]

I've done 3 runs with a friend. The game is great. Surprisingly well balanced. The one thing I'll say is that it's definitely easier with more players, but it's also more fun. I recommend it.

[@Alialun2]

I've got the Neow's Edition (Highest tier of Collector's Edition) from my boyfriend for Christmas. It was literally the perfect gift, I have over 4000 hours in the PC game and the board game makes my boyfriend be able to play with me. It's super fun and captures the feel of the game perfectly!

[@Quoise_]

i neeeeeed this i need my defect boy

[@Guessyyyy6270]

Can’t believe you got it early and for free as well

[@adamlam9600]

Since when did you get 70K+ views on your board game videos?? Congrats on your enthusiasm for your hobby being rewarded, Sungwon

[@lisalisa3635]

Had a 4 player run that took like 9 hours. 10/10

[@shana2765]

Ooooh gonna get this for my partner who loves the videogame version

[@yanied9646]

I was wondering why the name was so familiar. It's cool to see differences between ttrpgs and their vg versoons

[@odie4495]

I played it on tabletop simulator and can confirm it’s super fun!!

[@kirrb-dot-exe]

I don’t usually watch board game reviews but then i saw slay the spire

[@theelectricant98]

Asking for this when my next birthday comes around lol

[@llnnin]

lol my group ended up using a MTG life counting app for the boss HP after trying to track 200+HP on the tracker that came with the game

[@Melthedarthmel]

Omg didn’t know there is a board game version of Slay the Spire. Omg must buy immediately 🫠🫠🫠🫠

[@SlightlyUnSalted]

There it is

[@robbieharris8758]

Still waiting to get my friends to want to play with me 😅 Im glad to hear its as fun as the original!

[@sablestew]

Didn't know that they made a board game. Looks too similar to the video game that I wasn't so interested THEN YOU SAID CO OP HOLY GOOD GRACIOUS. Instantly made it sound so much more fun

[@djdegracia02]

THANK YOU FOR THIS REVIEW! My boyfriend and I love STS (it was the first co-op game (shoutout mods) we played as a couple during the pandemic 💕). Like you, we were super skeptical when a board game was announced. Honestly so so glad it's worth it. Definitely getting this for him for Christmas or our anniversary. Thank you, Sung Won!

[@smadaoeht]

For me the main issue is the price. Slay the Spire right now is $8.50 on Steam, and the board game sold on Kickstarter for $100 and at retail for $115. I get that it's a reasonable price considering the cost of the components, but paying more than 10x more for a worse version of a game just to play it physically with co-op is not really worth it to me, I'd rather spend that money on board games that don't have a better solo digital version

[@lazaruscomplexofficial]

I need to look into this because of my like 300hrs in the game🤣

[@iridescenz]

I gotta try this out! I loved the video game!

[@Waffletigercat]

Printerbombed! lmao

[@megasparklegoomba6807]

she slay on my spire till i "Devastation... went the wrong way."

[@aaronstark5060]

How are your sleeves holding up? There’s been a lot of complaints about them peeling and I’m trying to decide, when I get my pre-order to give them a try or say screw it and just use Katanas. I’d rather not spend the extra money on other sleeves if I don’t have to, but I also don’t want to have to re-sleeve everything in 2 months.

[@adams3627]

Slay the Spire makes for an interesting board game, because most of its mechanics feel like they would easily make the leap from digital to physical, but others REALLY don’t.

[@taylorjohnson5148]

Rip everywhere is out of stock

[@inbracedefeat]

Honestly there is just too many things to manually keep track of here. The video game is simply amazing in part bc it does all the calculations for you.

[@rintaroou]

i watched this video thinking it was incredibly old and im being late to everything like always (I got the game 2 weeks ago) only to realise it was posted yesterday 💀

[@MrAlanCristhian]

This is also one of my favorite games ever.

[@thisissostupidqsdfva]

Ironclad has been my discord profile image for years😅

[@SilentCardGamesITA]

Slay the Spire lover hereee!!

[@LidlRaccoon]

Playing this game in Co-op is not possible on the PC version so this one seems like a really fun "offline edition." Also a bit different.

[@tzera_rhuon]

I need something like this for Monster Train.

[@LivingGuy484]

I tried the phone app, not thinking much of it. ... Then I ended up playing it non-stop for 3 days in a row

[@CptToast_]

If only it didn’t cost half a kidney, I’d immediately get it. The production value looks worth it, but it’s a bit too pricey for me

[@iphatbass]

I finally got my copy this Monday, but they sent me Spanish version, so I'll have to wait another month...

[@PuchuKt]

How is the randomness implemented? Like when they say upgrade a random card for example

[@ProZD]

just take the top random card of your rewards deck, not choose from three

[@ProZD]

or for upgrades, just shuffle your deck and draw one at random

[@vincentj.9057]

I’d love to get this looks so much fun! I’m a little bummed that it’s over $100, but that seems to be becoming the norm for board games in this day and age so I just have to make more money! Haha

[@Ojibwa_Islandboi]

Dude thats badass. I loved the mobile game