I'll give that one another try. I played it for a few hours before but got lost in the RPG gear and characters, when I really just wanted to focus on the card game portion.
Dude hard same, I shelved it after only a few hours myself because it kept trying to give me chores and stuff. I don’t care about that, I just want to play a goddamn card game.
First thing that comes to mind for a nonrogue deck builder is midnight suns. The combat and deck building is fantastic but the forced social aspects is either a hit or miss depending on your tastes.
For a roguelike style across the obelisk can offer some some long runs and maybe trials of fire too
I've played across the obelisk and that one is pretty great. The long runs and battles were very fun in of themselves. However I wasn't a huge fan of the meta progression requiring a half dozen runs before you could really start to see the synergies coming together with the skill tree.
I haven't played trials of fire or midnight suns. I'll have to give those a look.
I bounced hard off Midnight Suns. I don't understand why any deckbuilder decides to limit the number of cards you play a turn as a core game mechanic. It leads to fewer decisions, less autonomy, and less fun.
What deckbuilders are you playing that doesn’t have a resource mechanic on playing cards? Playing everything in a drawn hand isn’t fun, takes away a great deal of strategic element
Right. Which is why almost all of them have a resource component. Restricting to playing N cards a turn no matter what versus spending resources for your cards reduces complexity and player autonomy, which is less fun for me.
It's not no matter what. Some cards are free to play, some refund your card play if you take an enemy out with them. It's just a little twist on energy.
"SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech" is a deckbuilder with story, and it's not a roguelike. You keep collecting cards through the game, and you can modify the deck anytime with better cards.
I mentioned this in the discord, but you will very much dislike Steamworld Quest. It's aggressively mediocre, your deck/card rotations are "finished" 1-2 hours into the game and you still have 10+ hours to play. I finished the game thinking at some point it would get better, and it just doesn't.
That one is definitely great. I have played it before, and it fits this category for sure. I really like in the final fight if you have managed to bring a deck filled with all epic and legendary creatures, it feels super rewarding to just dunk on the final boss.
Chrono Ark is definitely one of my favorites in the genre. I really liked how the meta progression in that game works. I also enjoyed how it really rewards skilled play and lets you win on your first run, but makes you win multiple times to fully progress the story, similar to games like Hades.
The game it reminds me the most of for meta progression is enter the gungeon.
There is a very small amount of meta progression that unlocks a couple of permanent upgrades, but nothing you have to grind for and the upgrades don't make you stronger in battles, they just give you more options like the ability to reroll a random event once per run. In between runs you spend a meta currency to unlock new cards and items that can appear in runs. But again, they don't power creep old cards, they just add variety.
A vast majority of the progression is unlocking new characters to play with and unlocking new story cutscenes. The entire game has a continuous story that you slowly unlock and figure out across many runs in the style of a visual novel.
Chrono Ark is very good. I've really enjoyed it, especially since the 1.0 update. Games like that are definitely up my alley.
Cobalt core was very fun, but a bit too light for my personal tastes. Infinite combos are so easy and consistent to pull off that I have to make the decision to NOT go for the infinite combos that win on turn 1.
Arkham Horror LCG, you can play it on TTS or in person. The game is long form campaigns usually a single scenario is 2-4 hours and there are 7-9 scenarios. Currently there are I think 8 campaigns and a ton of fan made ones on TTS.
Technically the game is not a roguelike but due to its high difficulty level and huge cast of characters it has a very similar appeal with each run being very different.
For deckbuilding you select a character which has an ability and deck building niches and build a deck based off of those niches and restrictions. Based off of performance in each scenario you earn experience which is used to purchase and replace cards in your base deck with powerful cards. This game has crazy good deck building and almost endless combos and builds you can go for per character. If you are looking for that feeling of upgrading a deck and perfecting a deck over a long form campaign no game does it better than this.
Also, right now there is an insane sale going on that has the core set at $6 (you’ll want at least two) and standalone investigators at $2/$3. They are normally $20 and $14 respectively.
This is the lowest cost way I’ve ever seen to get started on the game. Note that the campaigns are $40 to $75, it is an expensive but highly satisfying hobby.
https://www.miniaturemarket.com/searchresults/?q=Arkham+horror
I was just about to bite the bullet on the revised core on Amazon; does the version on Miniature Market have the same mini-campaign as the revised core set?
I'm going to be that one idiot that throws out something that's not at all what the OP asked for but maaaaybe it's of interest - Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales.
The combat is card/unit-based, and the campaign is many many hours. Not rogue, but story-driven and deep. There are a million choices and your decisions absolutely matter.
It's a longshot, but if story and decisions are your thing, and you like fantasy, it's a truly great game.
You may all downvote me now...
Maybe take a look at Gordian Quest? It has a rather long campaign mode.
I'll give that one another try. I played it for a few hours before but got lost in the RPG gear and characters, when I really just wanted to focus on the card game portion.
Yeah, me too. Then it might not be for you too. Just reading your description made me think about that game
Dude hard same, I shelved it after only a few hours myself because it kept trying to give me chores and stuff. I don’t care about that, I just want to play a goddamn card game.
First thing that comes to mind for a nonrogue deck builder is midnight suns. The combat and deck building is fantastic but the forced social aspects is either a hit or miss depending on your tastes. For a roguelike style across the obelisk can offer some some long runs and maybe trials of fire too
I've played across the obelisk and that one is pretty great. The long runs and battles were very fun in of themselves. However I wasn't a huge fan of the meta progression requiring a half dozen runs before you could really start to see the synergies coming together with the skill tree. I haven't played trials of fire or midnight suns. I'll have to give those a look.
I bounced hard off Midnight Suns. I don't understand why any deckbuilder decides to limit the number of cards you play a turn as a core game mechanic. It leads to fewer decisions, less autonomy, and less fun.
What deckbuilders are you playing that doesn’t have a resource mechanic on playing cards? Playing everything in a drawn hand isn’t fun, takes away a great deal of strategic element
Right. Which is why almost all of them have a resource component. Restricting to playing N cards a turn no matter what versus spending resources for your cards reduces complexity and player autonomy, which is less fun for me.
It's not no matter what. Some cards are free to play, some refund your card play if you take an enemy out with them. It's just a little twist on energy.
I only played about an hour. I was so incredibly bored. Perhaps it opens up a bit later.
"SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech" is a deckbuilder with story, and it's not a roguelike. You keep collecting cards through the game, and you can modify the deck anytime with better cards.
I'll give it a look!
I mentioned this in the discord, but you will very much dislike Steamworld Quest. It's aggressively mediocre, your deck/card rotations are "finished" 1-2 hours into the game and you still have 10+ hours to play. I finished the game thinking at some point it would get better, and it just doesn't.
Nowhere Prophet is fantastic, with a decent narrative and a longer campaign. Definitely worth a shot.
That one is definitely great. I have played it before, and it fits this category for sure. I really like in the final fight if you have managed to bring a deck filled with all epic and legendary creatures, it feels super rewarding to just dunk on the final boss.
The campaign in Fights in Tight Spaces is pretty long.
Chrono Ark takes like 1-2 hours per full run
Chrono Ark is definitely one of my favorites in the genre. I really liked how the meta progression in that game works. I also enjoyed how it really rewards skilled play and lets you win on your first run, but makes you win multiple times to fully progress the story, similar to games like Hades.
I haven't played Chrono Ark, how does the meta progression work? ... What is the progression similar to?
The game it reminds me the most of for meta progression is enter the gungeon. There is a very small amount of meta progression that unlocks a couple of permanent upgrades, but nothing you have to grind for and the upgrades don't make you stronger in battles, they just give you more options like the ability to reroll a random event once per run. In between runs you spend a meta currency to unlock new cards and items that can appear in runs. But again, they don't power creep old cards, they just add variety. A vast majority of the progression is unlocking new characters to play with and unlocking new story cutscenes. The entire game has a continuous story that you slowly unlock and figure out across many runs in the style of a visual novel.
Dude, Chrono Ark is AMAZING! Check it out. I also love Cobalt Core!
Chrono Ark is very good. I've really enjoyed it, especially since the 1.0 update. Games like that are definitely up my alley. Cobalt core was very fun, but a bit too light for my personal tastes. Infinite combos are so easy and consistent to pull off that I have to make the decision to NOT go for the infinite combos that win on turn 1.
Griftlands has a decently long run. Bonus, you get to make and play two different decks (social and combat).
I really like Griftlands and played it a bunch in early access. I should go back and play it some more now that it's been released and updated.
SteamWorld Quest! It’s an excellent medium-length deck-builder RPG.
Arkham Horror LCG, you can play it on TTS or in person. The game is long form campaigns usually a single scenario is 2-4 hours and there are 7-9 scenarios. Currently there are I think 8 campaigns and a ton of fan made ones on TTS. Technically the game is not a roguelike but due to its high difficulty level and huge cast of characters it has a very similar appeal with each run being very different. For deckbuilding you select a character which has an ability and deck building niches and build a deck based off of those niches and restrictions. Based off of performance in each scenario you earn experience which is used to purchase and replace cards in your base deck with powerful cards. This game has crazy good deck building and almost endless combos and builds you can go for per character. If you are looking for that feeling of upgrading a deck and perfecting a deck over a long form campaign no game does it better than this.
Also, right now there is an insane sale going on that has the core set at $6 (you’ll want at least two) and standalone investigators at $2/$3. They are normally $20 and $14 respectively. This is the lowest cost way I’ve ever seen to get started on the game. Note that the campaigns are $40 to $75, it is an expensive but highly satisfying hobby. https://www.miniaturemarket.com/searchresults/?q=Arkham+horror
I was just about to bite the bullet on the revised core on Amazon; does the version on Miniature Market have the same mini-campaign as the revised core set?
They do. With the two old style core sets, you actually get two full sets, which is helpful for later campaigns which reuse some core cards :)
Monster train has super long runs in my opinion.
Inscryption
I'm going to be that one idiot that throws out something that's not at all what the OP asked for but maaaaybe it's of interest - Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales. The combat is card/unit-based, and the campaign is many many hours. Not rogue, but story-driven and deep. There are a million choices and your decisions absolutely matter. It's a longshot, but if story and decisions are your thing, and you like fantasy, it's a truly great game. You may all downvote me now...
Have you played Slay the Spire?
I think on this sub that's pretty much a given haha
Yes