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I adore Slay the Spire and Slay the Spire 2, but have also become a fan of Holder of Place and Beneath Oresa. Stuff like Balatro doesn’t work for me; I need more FLAVOR. (And the aesthetic is just hard on my blind-ass eyes.)
What are your favorite flavorful spirelike games?
Critical PSA to Balatro or Mahjong or general Roguelike Deckbuilder Lovers for the amazing looking upcoming game ULTIMAHJONG!
ULTIMAHJONG is in the exact spirit of the likes of Balatro, Bingle Bingle & other casino/gambling-based roguelikes/deckbuilders that have been inundating the indie gaming scene recently and which I’ve personally been happily drowning in! In this case the base game is Mahjong & it’s straight up Riichi Mahjong based thankfully rather than the deluge of puzzle solitaire tile matching games that overwhelm Steam
Riichi Mahjong Roguelike. Race an ever-accelerating score counter. Take full advantage of upgrades and usable items to force hands you've on
Currently has playable demo on top of being Wishlistable. The dev predicts a release this year & I’m absolutely purchasing it on day one if for nothing else than to reward a halfway legitimate Mahjong game!
Speaking of the dev, they themselves ran through a few rounds of the early game to show it off:
Don’t know how many this post will reach but I’m happy to do my part to raise the population of Mahjong Enthusiasts out here on top of supporting innovative indie devs & their projects!
EDIT:
My luck finding out about these types of personally niche games seems to remain at an all time high because I’m obliged to update this post with a 2nd Roguelike Mahjong Deckbuilder on the horizon: AOTENJO
Similar to ULTIMAHJONG in intent but with its own distinct style & also has a free demo on Steam to try out.
One of AOTENJO’s major features is the inclusion of multiple regional mahjong variants to enrich the variety of the play experience!
Unlike in the case of ULTIMAHJONG, AOTENJO’s developer XO Cat’s YT channel (under the moniker NonToxicEel), lacks a similar in-depth breakdown of the game’s demo but does have a few videos attempting speedruns of the demo and are still a recommended watch to get the game flow & feel they’re aiming for:
Once again, I happily embrace the Mahjong renaissance we seem to be getting in our post-Mahjong Soul & Balatro indie gaming landscape!
AND UPDATE EDIT!!
Genuinely never expected this post to do so many numbers here on Tumblr but I’m truly glad to see it. Especially since AOTENJO has launched into Early Access as AOTENJO: Infinite Hands!
The Mahjong Roguelike. Aotenjo: Infinite Hands is an deckbuilder where you will use Mahjong styles all over the world to beat innate threats
It’s got a 12% discount from its $9.99 price for these first 2 weeks of its Early Access launch on Steam! Already bought it myself in a hurry & have money set aside for when ULTIMAHJONG decides to finally join us.
Monster Train 2 is a good game
StarVaders is Truly Stellar
Games being created by independent teams have exploded since the days of the mid 2000s, and frankly I think this is nothing but a blessing. One of my favorite games that I have played in 2025 (as of the time of me writing this) is StarVaders. I was introduced to this game through a video by NorthernLion who streamed the title a few times to a somewhat middling reception by chat. As a viewer, however, I was locked in to the gameplay and loved the art direction.
StarVaders is a 2025 game made by a small studio in Montreal called Pengonauts. Pengonauts is made up of just 3 developers being lead designer Eddie Cai (pseudonym: Axolotl), lead programmer Hansen Liu (pseudonym: Crabdog), and the art director known as Text Settings (according to their website).
Now that you know of the main folks behind this game I’ll talk about why this is one of my favorite games of 2025. StarVaders is tagged on steam as a roguelike deckbuilder which is a fair assessment of the game. People currently joke a little about this genre in the wake of 2024’s massive indie success, Balatro. Heck, I would be lying if I said I didn’t at least participate in some jokes about the perceived oversaturation of the genre myself. But StarVaders seems to take some inspiration straight from the source, if you will. The parallels between this game's core gameplay aspects and that of 2019’s Slay the Spire are quite clear upon first glance to anyone familiar with the latter. This, however, is not in any way a critique or negative aspect to me. Where StarVaders adds its charm is through its combining the roguelike deckbuilder formula with grid-based tactics. This gameplay style brings to mind one of my childhood favorite series, Mega Man Battle Network.
The main gameplay loop of StarVaders is simple to grasp, but as deep as the ocean. It starts off quite simple. You start off with the Gunner mech and its first pilot, Roxy. The Gunner is pretty straight forward. The cards in its deck all have an assigned Heat value and the robot has a Heat sink gauge that maxes out at a value of 4. Where the fun comes in is the Gunner’s main mechanic, Overheat. Overheat is what happens when you play cards and go over the Heat value of 4. This results in you burning the final card that you played which makes the card no longer playable. All of the pilot characters have a starting artifact (think relics from Slay the Spire) and Roxy starts with artifact Fire Starter. Fire Starter grants the player +2 cards and +2 Heat sink upon your first overheat. You might be able to see how this alone allows for a lot of satisfying moments of gameplay where you squeeze in one more attack or movement that puts you in a better position for the next turn. There is a whole wealth of gameplay modifying artifacts as well as a treasure trove of cards to add to your deck. On top of this there are 2 more pilots for the Gunner mech who both have totally different play styles!
An in-game guide explaining Gunner specific mechanics, abilities, play style, etc
Noel’s gameplay style revolves around freezing and removing the burn status on your rightmost card. Zeke, the final Gunner pilot, has one of the most complex gameplay styles I’ve ever come across in my time with countless roguelikes. Zeke’s starting card pool has cards with “components” added to them, and his starting Artifact revolves around burning these component cards which will purge the burned card (removing it for the rest of the encounter), but adds a copy of the burned card along with 1 of 3 cards with a cost of 0 heat to your next hand.
A screenshot of a basic first encounter as Roxy in the Gunner mech.
All of this might sound complex when written out (especially by an amateur writer such as myself). I promise though that this game is nothing but pure strategic joy. This might be some of the most fun I have ever had in my life learning a game. I never felt frustrated during encounters; I would just focus on what I could have done better instead. There’s a rewind mechanic that actually has a large multitude of uses for those who might find themselves stuck. Accidental misplay? Bad hand of cards? Nothing in the shop to your liking? These are all use cases for the rewind feature. It really feels like the dev team thought of everything to make this game feel as comfortable as possible to play. I won’t keep you here forever discussing every single intricate piece of gameplay; I think it's best for you to discover the fun for yourself after all. Just know that all that depth only applies to one mech you pilot and there are 3 unique robots in total all with 3 different pilots each that totally change how you play the game (4 pilots actually in the case of the final unlockable mech).
The final mech select screen
Next I would like to discuss some other aspects of the game. The art direction really brings a smile to my face. It's clearly inspired by things like anime, cartoons, and comics, but it all comes together into something that’s really pleasing and original yet familiar. The soundtrack in this game is also composed by plasterbrain. Admittedly I am not familiar with their work outside of this game’s soundtrack, but with how good this soundtrack is I now will be listening to their other work! So many of the tracks from this game have been stuck in my head for a few months even when I’ve taken extended breaks from playing.
I really wanted to just put a spotlight on StarVaders because frankly I just think its a great little indie gem with a small dev team that clearly love and care about this game a lot (it receives pretty regular updates with things such as gameplay tweaks, bug fixes, and there has been some statements about future content to come). It’s sitting at a 98% positive rating on steam with just about 2,100 reviews. Since my purchase in early May I have sunk in about 20 full hours into this game, and I still haven’t unlocked or seen everything! StarVaders is one of those games that feels truly infinitely replayable like last year’s previously mentioned indie darling Balatro. In a time where AAA games are reaching nearly 100 dollar prices I believe its games like StarVaders made by people like the folks at Pengonauts that remind some of us (like me) what made us fall in love with games in the first place. (To be clear I don’t mean this as a dig at AAA games nor the people who make them, but just that rather it’s important in times like these to support smaller devs and indie projects).
StarVaders is currently on sale during the Steam Summer Sale for 10% off ($22.49) until July 10th, and I cannot recommend this game enough. Shout out to the devs at Pengonauts, plasterbrain, and the publishers Joystick Ventures and Playworks for the great game.
Roxy's intro cutscene when you play as her for the first time.
LINKS:
Pilot a powerful mech to fight off the alien invasion in this ULTIMATE fusion of deckbuilding and grid-based tactics. Discover game-breaking
A fusion of Slay the Spire, Into the Breach, and Space Invaders (?!), Star★Vaders is a thrilling turn-based strategy game in which you pilot
The indie game studio on a cosmic journey
Music artist & composer who is also very cute and likes goldfish
Wildfrost Sleet Storm | Mapletail plays
Gave a shot to Cobalt Core Demo. Really enjoyed what it had to offer. Cannot wait to play as funky crew of this fellas once it'll fully come out
Hello friends, I have a new game to play. I'm assured it contains cute woodlands friends, like a frog and an owl.
The name isn't very cute though.
Join me for Ring of Pain...
Put some hours into Chaos Zero Nightmare & I’m hooked. With the regrettable death of Tribe Nine, CZN & Limbus Company remain as the only Gatcha Games that I’m earnestly invested in putting time into. Though I don’t think that there’s a major connection on the production side, CZN in both its Dark SciFi/Science Fantasy Anime elements and aesthetics as well as its deckbuilding gameplay remind me a lot of the truly excellent roguelike deckbuilder Chrono Ark. The game is snappy & the cosmic horror + space opera story has been genuinely intriguing so far.
My only real gripe at the moment is that the game didn’t take a cue from gatcha games like Limbus Company & Umamusume Pretty Derby and launch on Steam. Instead playing on PC and Steam Deck in turn requires using the STOVE client, one more launcher to juggle just to play a single game. Thankfully, the Moraroy Non-Steam Launcher tool has given me a route to install STOVE and ultimately CZN on my Steam Deck. The handheld experience in game is terrific and worth the hurdles gratefully.
As an aside, whenever I start up a new gatcha game I always feel out of step with the rest of the game’s fanbase/fan communities because I never do rerolls & take what I get from pulls. Some people have the patience for all the rerolling & banner stat calculation stuff but I never really have and despite my limited gatcha game experience, not getting top tier pulls has never been a major barrier to entry nor progression roadblock.
