Darkest Dungeon vs Deep Sky Derelicts vs Slay the Spire

[MyIndieWishlist]

Title.

[ThatTimGuy]

I've not played or even previously heard of Slay the Spire, so my piece holds no bearing on that game, only DD and DSD.

Both games are a form of roguelike where you send your team of characters into hostile territory to kill things, get loot, and complete a mission. DD's most original feature is Stress, the toll taken on the minds and bodies of the "heroes" braving otherworldly monstrosities and mortal danger. Equipment upgrades are an investment of an incremental improvement in a single character, not some treasure looted from an ancient hoard. The only transferrable equipment are trinkets, which occupy a very limited number of slots and are preset in effect instead of randomly rolled.

Where DD has you sending expeditions into your Lovecraftian estate from your stable of adventurers, DSD follows your team as you scour old space hulks for loot and clues to a mythical ship. DSD has a more traditional setup: single party, gain experience by winning combats and completing certain tasks, equip yourself with whatever you can loot or afford to buy. The longer your party spends in a derelict, the more power you consume staying alive; it's hard to breathe when your life support gives out.

Comparison between the two games about anything more than setting or defining features is unfair and pointless. DD is a finely polished finished product with a comic art style. DSD is currently on version 0.4 and has numerous bugs to work out and a lot more content to include to make a decent game (with a comic art style). DSD has more playtesting to go through before it can be released:
-It's not difficult to build all your team with >90% evasion, making them practically untouchable (which currently may only be fair, considering warsisters/red hoods and their 75% ranged evasion). If evasion gets nerfed, then characters simply will not survive later missions.
-Support classes are nearly pointless, especially if your team members are evasion pros. A tracker that doesn't get hit doesn't need healing; in lieu of a medic/technician, better to have someone able to do some damage. Dodged enemies don't hurt you, dead ones don't even try.
-Bruisers will never be as good as other classes since they lack three slots (core + 2 mods) where others would get more mods/stats for damage or survivability.
Snowhound has their work cut out for them to flesh out this title.

Personally, I love DD. Everything about it reflects the world it inhabits. So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed DSD (understanding that it is still in early access) and I look forward to the game having more content and polish.

[WingMan]

Insightful description of the differences between DD and DSD. I would add that the world is different, a more traditional midevil fantasy with good vs evil, to a cyberpunk dystopia. I do enjoy the scraps of details left on datapads in the DSD world. It may be the fan of Huxley speaking, but I find the environment and storyline to be intriguing in DSD.

They are similar on turn based action and artwork. Both have gloomy overtones. DSD seems slightly more forgiving on character disabling, with revival, rather than death. I do agree that the stress is unique in DD, and adds a new mechanic that was both entertaining and frustrating. I do like that the games autosave, making decisions more permanent. It is a good point that the game is still in development. The mechanics and difficulty of DSD may have some adjustment.

I think a useful comparison may be on difficulty. I think you point that out in your post. Being new at DD, I had to learn how to win, and suffered losses that were extensive. It was fun, and finally getting strategies down was an accomplishment. DD also went through mechanic alterations as some classes would crush dungeons. I also enjoy both games, I suspect that the fanbase of both games overlap.

Both DSD and DD are fun. I may be biased in wanting DSD to be similar to DD in having permanent marks for failure. The difference in storyline and era are what make each game uniquely engaging for me. Keep up the good work, developers, I'll keep playing to try and help you out.

Good luck scavengers!

[Asmosis]

had never heard of slay the spire, will look it up. Great posts on the main two games.

It sounds like DD would be the better one to pick up now, and DSD may hopefully be complete by the time finishing DD.

[Adnan]

I havent played deep sky derelicts but I can say that there are no similarities between DD an StS.
Both DD and StS are great games but one is deck based (StS) and the other one is turn based combat.

[Guy]

Maybe some with DD but not StS.

[SimplyGnome]

Slay the Spire is a Deck Building roguelike and is not like DD, but is like DSD in the card accumilation aspect. It is also still in early access.

StS does not have:
- Engaging story
- Character Dialoge
- Quest based rpg gameplay

It does have:
- More card customization
- More card game play interactions (Think Magic the Gathering over RPG gameplay)
- Large combo capability in equipment (relics) and cards
- Comparable map route layout in each level

Its overall a better "deck builder" in the types of combos, interactions, and customization you can do, but it is NOT an rpg.

Both StS and DSD seem different enough to be in seperate genres and both seems like awesome games.

[Larc1n]

i play all 3, all 3 are awesome

now to give you my take on DSD as it's the last game i discovered recently, i love the item customisation, it making me scratch my head pretty hard for i would say relatively all right results at max haha ;D

what you get of customisation with abilities choices and team comp in DD you get it with the item you decide to put on your membres in DSD, and i love it, can't stress enough how much i love this item customisation

it's a fair question from OP as i think DSD is well spotted kinda as a middle ground between StS and DD, if we look at it with a large mindset

[lx]

the list can go on, if you are interested, in comparing the same game.