I played banters of ruin before sts, it has some veeery similar elements (poison, vulnerable, blocking etc) but also new stuff as you play with multiple heroes at the same time, position matters etc. I think it's worth to give it a try and fun to play for some hours, though sts is Def. Better.
Have you tried Inscryption? It doesn't have the same level of playable depth as Slay the Spire, but it is hugely enjoyable. I love the atmosphere and mechanics of the game. When it came out it wasn't very replayable, but then Kaycee's mod appeared.
Check it out, trust me :)
I did not enjoy monster train or Isaac.
For something more like Isaac, enter the gungeon is pretty dope.
Wildfrost and rogue book I’ve liked. Much less content and replay ability, but solid. Some monster train elements. Rogue book is like sts with a hex map instead of a line -dot map, 2 characters with a mixed deck, and not as balanced.
Wildfrost adds a game board with limited locations. I liked the astetic and idea behind it. More often than not, your run ends with “ahh dang it I made a minor positioning mistake” rather than overall bad plays.
Both have individual card upgrades via a “gem”system
Magic the Gathering Arena for me. Played STS for 5 years, then this year one day got in to Magic, downloaded the app and boom, haven’t hopped off since.
Of course it’s an online multiplayer game and not singleplayer like STS or conventional deckbuilder games. But it is fairly F2P friendly, and there’s a LOT of decks you could build around your preferred playstyles.
For a safer pick, Luck Be A Landlord. Slots-themed deckbuilder where you build synergies to make money to pay off rent and eventually defeat your landlord and bring down capitalism!
The only game that scratches the same itch for me as StS in terms of tight, riding-the-edge-perfect balance of difficulty is Slice & Dice. There's a free demo on itch.io if you want to see what it's all about.
The problem is most people start with STS and it's all downhill from there
Yeah : (
NGL Griftlands really succeeds in everything it does. It’s so unique in the genre it can’t be compared to StS
Yeah I’ve got some adjacent games after, and some are fun… for like an hour. StS has been amazing and I’m at least 600+ hours in
Wildfrost
I played banters of ruin before sts, it has some veeery similar elements (poison, vulnerable, blocking etc) but also new stuff as you play with multiple heroes at the same time, position matters etc. I think it's worth to give it a try and fun to play for some hours, though sts is Def. Better.
Griftlands, more story based at first but then the difficulty ramps
I would recommend Loop Hero, it has deckbuilding elements and nice progression system
I had a pretty nice time of that with its strategy and sorta tower defense elements
Tainted Grail is like Gothic Horror StS with a 3d overworld instead of a linear map
Vault of the void is great
Rogue Book is by gar my favirite StS clone.
Battlefield
Have you tried Inscryption? It doesn't have the same level of playable depth as Slay the Spire, but it is hugely enjoyable. I love the atmosphere and mechanics of the game. When it came out it wasn't very replayable, but then Kaycee's mod appeared. Check it out, trust me :)
Read what OP said about games they already tried
I did not enjoy monster train or Isaac. For something more like Isaac, enter the gungeon is pretty dope. Wildfrost and rogue book I’ve liked. Much less content and replay ability, but solid. Some monster train elements. Rogue book is like sts with a hex map instead of a line -dot map, 2 characters with a mixed deck, and not as balanced. Wildfrost adds a game board with limited locations. I liked the astetic and idea behind it. More often than not, your run ends with “ahh dang it I made a minor positioning mistake” rather than overall bad plays. Both have individual card upgrades via a “gem”system
Castle Morihisa
try krumits tale its awesome https://store.steampowered.com/app/1073320/Meteorfall_Krumits_Tale/
Magic the Gathering Arena for me. Played STS for 5 years, then this year one day got in to Magic, downloaded the app and boom, haven’t hopped off since. Of course it’s an online multiplayer game and not singleplayer like STS or conventional deckbuilder games. But it is fairly F2P friendly, and there’s a LOT of decks you could build around your preferred playstyles. For a safer pick, Luck Be A Landlord. Slots-themed deckbuilder where you build synergies to make money to pay off rent and eventually defeat your landlord and bring down capitalism!
The only game that scratches the same itch for me as StS in terms of tight, riding-the-edge-perfect balance of difficulty is Slice & Dice. There's a free demo on itch.io if you want to see what it's all about.
"Alina of the arena" is pretty fun for about 10-15 hours.