Can this game be beaten?

[Sawtaytoes]

I own Dicey Dungeons and love the fact that there's a campaign so to speak, a story behind it all, and a way to beat the game. For instance, you play each "door" with each character, unlock more characters and doors, and finish the game.

Does Slay the Spire have the same ability to be beaten, or is it like Binding of Issac where you just play it forever, but there's no real end?

[Zu]

Boi had a fairly definitive ending since Afterbirth though. 🤔

Now, if you happen to easily wrap your head around this game, you might get the 7 required wins, see the endings for all 4 characters in like 40 hours, and then feel let down because there was no grandiose culmination in place of the more tame "Oh, so that's what they do in the end."

TL,DR:
Yes, there are true endings. No, they don't straightforwardly tell you what comes after the spire.

PS:
In terms of story or lore complexity, I have no idea about dicey dungeons. I'll say about sts that it has tidbits, but in the end it's like "Ok, we've come full circle. I get it. Cool, we did it."

PPS:
Beware though. You might end up playing this game forever regardless.

[Sawtaytoes]

Haha, thanks for your response.

So it looks like there is an end goal. Beat 7 bosses or beat the game with all 4 characters?

[jagholin]

the existence of a true ending in this game is actually a bit of a surprise/spoiler. And yes, the first part of it involves beating the game with all characters.

[DJDiceZ]

I don't see how one would think that Dicey Dungeon has any more of a campaign than other roguelikes. They are just runs with slightly different modifiers, and the bare ammount of new dialogues.

[Sawtaytoes]

The goal in Dicey Dungeons is to finish all 6 campaigns with all 6 characters.

From what it sounds like, Slay the Spire is similar: beat the game with each character once, then there's something else that happens, but you've essentially beaten the game.

Roguelikes are often repetitive experiences, and I dislike that repetition unless there's an end-goal. If there's something for me to achieve, I can do that and feel confident I'm done experiencing the game.

[Ghaleon]

I thought isaac's ending was defeating super lucifer or whatever he's called. pre-expansion. I don't have the expansions. I got isaac on the cheap cuz of a sale and I have the expansion on my wishlist but it never shows up as on sale, and I can't stomach paying 4x more for the expansion than the base game!

[DJDiceZ]

Originally posted by Ghaleon:

I thought isaac's ending was defeating super lucifer or whatever he's called. pre-expansion. I don't have the expansions. I got isaac on the cheap cuz of a sale and I have the expansion on my wishlist but it never shows up as on sale, and I can't stomach paying 4x more for the expansion than the base game!

It does show up on sale sometimes. It adds a lot of content too and is worth the price for the most part, though the latter dlcs caused more and more mixed feedbacks, especially afterbirth+ which i havn't tried.

And yeah indeed, you gotta kill the final boss just like in any other roguelike, including dicey dungeons, rewarding tidbits of cutscene and story. If anything Isaac is much more lore heavy (especially with bumbo out now, not a terrible game i'll say, though it was released before being ready to be).

The goal can be to beat the "hell" and "heaven" levels on Isaac. Or on every characters. Or 100%ing the game. Isaac, StS and Dicey Dungeon all have similar goals and level of story, but mere run modifiers disguised as episodes of a campaign fooled the OP (i'm not looking down on them, saying that's wrong, a bad thing, or a mistake on their part, at the contrary, if a game managed to pull you in like that, all the better, it's proof of a job well made by the devs). But it didn't for me so it's hard to tell if what made them feel like they were playing a campaign is in StS or not, so i can't really make a recommendation, as StS is as beatable as both Isaac and DD are.

[JekyllandHyde]

Much like Dicey dungeon has 6 episodes per character, StS has 20 levels of ascension that make the game progressively more difficult by increasing enemy difficulty and removing potion slots etc. Beating ascension 20 is quite the challenge

[bastardmessiah]

I bought Dicey Dungeons on its release day, played it for 5 hours over 2 or 3 days and haven't gone back to it.

I bought Slay the Spire back in January, have nearly 500 hours between the Steam and Switch versions, and still play frequently.

My problem with Dicey Dungeons is that some of the characters aren't very fun to play. (Its humor is also rather flat, despite the art direction seeming to promise a few solid laughs.)

I do appreciate DD's innovation and art, but the character mechanic variations are a mixed bag.

Slay the Spire's three (soon four) characters have varied play styles due to their unique individual decks, but share the same mechanics (attacks, skills, powers, relics). These are solid and satisfying mechanics (in my opinion), and being grounded in these mechanics makes all of the characters equally enjoyable.

I realize you didn't ask about that, though.

Slay the Spire's story doesn't really exist in any significant way. There's a spire which is surrounded by (and filled with) monsters, and your goal is to destroy it. That's all.

Each of StS's characters have backstories that can be summed up in a single sentence. None of the backstories are explored during gameplay. You're free to dream up your own lore.

As others have noted, your initial StS goal is to win with each of the three characters. From there, your path to "true victory" (with a final boss) is open.

Other StS options include: climbing the "Ascension Mode" difficulty ladder, daily challenge runs (with leaderboards), and custom runs with dozens of modifiers.

So there is a real end - but there's a lot of endlessness too, somehow.