You know, when I first started monster train Back in 2020, I rolled my eyes. “Oh, a Slay the Spire clone, huh?” I chided. But within about 10 minutes, Monster Train completely sheds those pithy little putdowns that were gestating in my head. In less than half an hour, it printed my ticket and everything went smoothly. This isn’t just a clone of Mega Crit’s 2019 deck-building title, no. This is a proven competitor; a powerful rethinking of the genre, and a serious competitor that legitimizes roguelike deckbuilders as a genre. I fell in love with it.
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The game combines Slay the Spire’s creative genius with its own unique style. Rather than getting to the heart of all that is evil in Slay the Spire, Monster Train flips the script a bit – having you defend yourself from waves of angelic enemies hell-bent on annihilating you in Slay the Spire Guarded by the fire of hell.
Well, it has more of a tower defense vibe; pitting you and your team of demons against other teams of villains. This game is less solitary than Slay the Spire, where your lone warrior/thief/robot charged into a hostile world.
But the differences don’t stop there. Because the train is so small, each room you’re in only has a certain “capacity,” which means that each car can only summon a certain number of demons. You have to think ahead; for example, how do you expand your summon group to defend from angles where you can kill with one hit? How do you ensure that your defense and attack build up so that you can go head-to-head with God’s armies?
I’ve been playing a lot of balatero lately (please help me, please God, help me), and Monster Train has a similar central conceit once you cook off all the flavor and trimmings. It’s a numbers game at its core, and your job is to manage your deck so you draw the right cards at the right time. Your enemy is luck, like everything else. Often, you’ll find that your own greed or complacency actually weakens you – I can’t count the number of times I’ve been stoned by myself in these games. They’re smarter than you, and they love reminding you of it.
But that’s the beauty of Monster Train. This is a game where complete and appropriate mechanics can be achieved by just “trying again.” Unlocking new decks, new cards, and learning how to synergize in the most effective way is all part of the game – and I actually found Monster Train to be more generous in this regard than Slay the Spire. In just a few runs, you can move from “basic deck” techniques to advanced math techniques. This is catnip. After playing it for a few hours I couldn’t put it down.
And I’m not the only one who loves it. A cursory glance at the internet will reveal that people all over the world are fascinated by Monster Train’s unique blend of luck-based strategy and skill-based tactics. GoG rating is 4.6 and above. It debuted on Steam on October 10 with nearly 18,000 reviews. It has a 4.9 rating on the App Store. People legitimately love this game.
Now that it’s coming to PlayStation, we can probably predict that the game, published by Good Shepard, will also receive rave reviews on another storefront. it’s time. The game has been running on PC, Switch, and Xbox for some time (it launched as part of Xbox Game Pass and found a loyal and enthusiastic audience early on), attracting more than 1.5 million players since 2020. Available on PlayStation – priced at a very reasonable $24.99 – I finally have an excuse to go full circle: play the damn game. If you don’t, you will pay a heavy price.
Monster Train launches today on PS5. It’s also available on mobile, PC, Switch, and Xbox.
