Wildfrost +9

Played the demo, enjoyed it and can tell it’s a high quality game that invested in and took pride, it’s obvious in the artwork/visuals, the descriptions, and the storytelling. This is what separates it from other Slay the Spire - like games I’ve played. One that comes to mind is Indies’ Lies, which while it was somewhat enjoyable, the lack of quality in the descriptions, information, typos/bad translating, etc ruined it for me. This game does not have these issues.

That said, I couldn’t bring myself to purchase the full version. While it was just a demo, Just didn’t seem to have enough variability in the gameplay/strategies to justify spending $7 for the full version. At a lower price point, maybe $3-4, I probably would’ve been convinced.

What I love about this game is the replay value. Not only are leader cards procedurally generated, there is around 100 cards in total that you can add to your deck and each card can be modified by up to three different charms which enables you to create a vast amount of customization, and ensures that no two play through are the same. Additionally each time you defeat the game, the final boss changes in a way that requires you to adapt your play style. There are also storm bells which increase the challenge level of the play through. An additional aspect that encourages replays is unlocking new items through completing quests.

It is hard not to compare this game to Slay the Spire, so I will say how I feel they are different. StS punishes risk taking behavior because you need to save your health for the final boss, in Wild Frost as long as your leader survives till the end of the battle you regain all your health for the next fight. WF is also far more fast paced, a play through can take 20 minutes where I have spent an hour+ on StS only to lose on the last boss. StS has a lot more random events than WF. Lastly I feel that WF enables greater deck synergies to be created and includes more gimmicks and game mechanics than StS.

As far as tactical deck building rouguelikes, this one is up there with the goats like Monster Train, and personally I actually like it it better than slay the spire. There’s so much polish, and while it is challenging, I think those that are particularly struggling are bringing old habits from other similar games… after I put in about 40 hours, I started to pick up the nuances of this games strategy, and personally I think the difficulty is super balanced and fair. It may seem a bit simplistic on the surface but trust me, there are some absolutely wild, game breaking synergies that can make you unstoppable on a run. I keep finding new ones too. Super rewarding and addicting game, thank you to the developers for this gem <3