And while there are plenty of games that apply the roguelike formula to all kinds of overlapping genres - from the fast-paced hack-and-slash / bullet hell / action-RPG genre pastiche of 2020’s universally accoladed Hades, to the methodical, tactical, every-decision-counts turn-based gameplay of old-school titles like the one that gave the genre its name - as you might imagine, this approach meshes extremely well with card-based gameplay. Pretty much all of this should sound familiar to players of more traditional collectible card games like Magic, where millions have long been acquainted with the intoxicating potential of limitless possibility within a reassuring range of constraints.

This perpetual tightrope walk between familiarity and novelty can, and often does, offer near-limitless replay value as you strive over and over and over and over to either get farther than you’ve ever gotten before, or to get to the end of a game’s (or game mode’s) predetermined number of levels with a climactic finish. On the odd chance that there are still any gaming enthsuiasts out there who remain unfamiliar with the sometimes contentiously specific “roguelike” premise, suffice to say the term has become a catch-all for games where you grind your way through randomized or semi-randomized dungeons or levels, each time encountering a cyclical variety of threats and rewards drawn from upward-scaling pools, resulting in highly varied and excitingly unpredictable scenarios and character builds. Of the games I’ve played of this kind, SLAY THE SPIRE is by far the deepest, at times feeling like a nascent but full-fledged CCG - though it isn’t safe from the typical pitfalls of its increasingly common genre hybrid. Deckbuilder games seem to have collectively realized, at some point over the years since I first played Ascension on my phone, that they’re at their true potential in a roguelike format.

Games like slay the spire