Suggestions to keep gameplay interesting long-term

[Not Legato]

Been enjoying the game for a bit now, and I'm realising a couple things that roguelites tend to rely on could be improved slightly here:

1. The player must not understand the game too well: if you know what happens after every click and event, you might as well throw a dice for "do I win or not?" For this, you could introduce random events such as...

• Quests: "play at least 3 straights in the next ante to unlock a special shop."
  
• Higher-stakes gambling opportunities: "here's a fruit machine or whatever, win, and we'll upgrade your most valuable joker. Lose, and you'll have to play a more difficult round."

Point being that knowing too well what comes after each round is no good. There should be some chance, that you suddenly get lucky with some incredible secret path or so, and the player should have some, but not full, control over that chance.

2. I haven't yet unlocked all the decks, but the variety is clearly very carefully managed so as to not ruin the balance of the game. Runs can feel pretty similar, regardless of which deck you play. I don't dare suggest anything specific for that, but mention it anyway.

Of course the game just released and the devs have mentioned wanting to keep adding stuff to it, so all of this might've been considered already. Anyway, some thoughts.

[malogoss]

About 1.
IDK. When I beat a boss, visit the shop and can't even see what the next ante's boss is, personally, I don't feel like I want to know less. I want to know MORE. Same for many other details that I won't list. But maybe I'm alone to think that way, no idea.

About 2.
You answered yourself. Unlock all the 15 decks first. Especially the last 2.

[Not Legato]

Originally posted by malogoss:

...

Maybe I should phrase it better. I agree with a possible "map" functionality like Slay The Spire or something, I mean in more of a meta-sense. I think a roguelite is all about managing RNG for your own benefit, I just look to other titles like STS or Isaac and think that the main thing that keeps me playing those is that there's a lot that can happen at any moment. I fear that if I know it's just small-large-boss with the same shops between each time, I'll not get to the final deck unlocks in the first place.

As for the decks, you're right. I only have what, six or seven decks? But I do hope there's something vastly different. You know, "hearts count twice, spades don't count at all", "each hand, a given poker hand counts 3x," something really fundamentally different.