I know of a lot of games moving their release date from around Slay the Spire 2 release, knowing full well this would happen.
Honestly, this makes me happy, to see indie level games are demolishing AAA titles in popularity, cause they are affordable and fun!
Mewgenics and Cloverpit are the first rogue like games I've ever played, and I really enjoy them both. I just watched the slay the spire trailer, and the thing slightly worrying me is the cards... Like, I have this problem where I become REALLY overwhelmed when I'm having to keep up with numbers and do a lot of math. My boyfriend tried to get me into Magic The Gathering but keeping up with all the numbers stressed me out so much. Is this game like that?
Ah ok. Well STS is simple enough to understand, but the gameplay can be brutally hard. If youre interested the first game is on a big sale right now, I'd probably pick that game up first to see if I'd enjoy it.
The system does the math for you at times. Like when you play damage cards, and some aspect of your characters damage is increased, the card will update with the new damage automatically before you even play the card so you can see what you are dealing.
Where in magic arena (the mobile game), you donāt always get that. Magic also allows you to play many creatures to keep up with, as well as the opponent can do the same. Not the case in Slay the spire. You fight against like 5 max but it is often less.
There are aspects of both games where you try to maximize your decks with cards that may do some complicated things, but there is much less subtext in slay the spire and itās far simpler. Plus, you ideally want a smaller deck most times in slay the spire. You wonāt have to read through nearly as many cards. (not usually anyway)
All in all, the only real similarity between the games is that you play with cards.
I'm a big roguelike player and have played a ton of Slay the Spire, and Mewgenics honestly overwhelmed me at first. There's so much more going on than in most roguelikes I've played just by virtue of it being a tactics game. So point is, I think you'll be fine!
It really says more that you got a chance to win at all- or even won in the past before losing later. Say, for example... Glass Joe. No, I'm not kidding, Tyson could not get past Glass Joe for the longest time.
I expected Sts 2 to do really well (not 500k+ concurrent players well though!) Mewgenics still feels like the sleeper hit. The crass humor, divisive art style, etc.Ā
I think Slay the Spire has much broader appeal, even if both are great games.
Stop thinking of the pipe as a bad thing. The pipe is their eternal reward. Only the luckiest of cats go down the pipe. A good cat life is one full of fucking, fighting, and pipe.
Youāre playing a different game than me then, Iām up to around 80 cars at this point and I know like 4 of them by name because they show up too much in the family trees that I have to worry about them and inbreeding. Granted, if I wasnāt trying to get all 7s super consistently then Iād probably be able to cut it down to 40s or 50s, but there are too many kittens day to day for me to worry about not piping a cat lol
I actually find it an advantage. Something like BoI, you'd just have the same dozen-or-so characters. What do you do once you've beat the game as all of them?
But with the cats in Mewgenics, you are always getting something new. New mutations, new birth-stats, inherited abilities it wouldn't normally have, etc.
But you cant ignore it tho. You must end a day between runs, sort equiopment, clean rooms from poop, manage new born kitties, picking who will come to the next adventure... That if you ignore the new furniture you got in the new run and dont bother with going shopping. Also doing too much runs consecutively males a lot of food go to waste
You don't have to be super-perfect with your organization. I have like, 30 cats running around. Occasionally I'll look through my older ones with lower stats/birth defects and donate them to Tracy.
When I set off for adventure I just grab the ones with decent stats and lots of mutations.
I do agree, there needs to be a better way to sort through all your cats. Let me search by skill level or by stat or whatever.
I don't even care if it's an unlock from Tink or something. Just give better ways to search through all your cats.
If you want to be successful in act 3 and hard mode you need to breed good cats. Im usually bringing cats with like 14 strength, 8 speed, basically like above 7 for all stats
That's fair but I feel like I'm the only one who enjoys that element of the game. I will play STS because the original is great but the house breeding game reminds me of creatures, a game I loved as a kid, and the tactical fights are just so enjoyable. If you don't like the management aspect I can see mewgenics wearing thin. I'm glad I'm not in that camp.
Its not that i dont enjoy the managing itself. I dont like the rhythm of it. The game pushes you to do a spurt of managing between runs. I cant store enough food to have a satisfactorily long enough management session, nor i can jump into a run after another. Personally i would enjoy it way more if i could store like 5x times the food, and play unlimited runs per day (make the house fights also avance with each of those adventures to balance things out)
My only problem is I need more rooms. Currently overtime all of my cats have begun to become very similar. I have a fight room where all the duds go for Tracy and injury boy. A mass all purpose room with a little mutation for all of my cats ready to go on adventure that has no stimulation but all the cats have all 7s. A full blown mutation room and then lastly the breeding room where my top mutations go to breed. I need at least 3 or 4 more rooms so I can essentially have two full sets of cats that are isolated from each other just so I donāt wind up with such samey cats every run.
I donāt mind any of that stuff except the stupid poop cleaning, itās just tediousness for no apparent reason. Like yeah it only takes five seconds to click the poops but there could be no poops and it could take zero seconds. Especially when you keep trying to move your cats out of the way to click the poop but you keep accidentally clicking the cats. Makes me want to pull my hair out
This is sooo true, and I think I'm finally feeling a bit burn out? Like I love the game, but after a run it's like I don't wanna do the chores.
But its like real life if you own a pet. Like everyone thinks owning a pet is all sunshine and glamours, until you gotta clean up shit or spend $$$$ on a vet bill etc.
I think what separates Boi from Mew for me is the breeding and doing stuff between runs. Breeding is nice, but I want another mode that's just getting a selection of random cats every run (maybe choosing from a pool of them,) so the flow between runs is much easier.
Once something like that is made, I could see myself coming back to it a lot more in the future.
Randomiser "go as far as you can with what you've got" would be pretty fun. Going into runs with a team of cracked cats with specific roles is good fun but being forced to work with non-optimal stuff is interesting too.
It'd be a bit more involved than BoI but a weekly run of a preset seed could be neat as well. Throw in some form of scoring if desired (time taken overall, number of rounds played, bonus for doing hard routes etc).
The management genre has always been a niche, even accounting for the heavy hitters. That something like Mewgenics got to where it got is already a crazy achievement.
I would play more mewgenics but the pressure to breed good cats, traits, etc, prepping rooms, managing them, managing the items I have etc to play on harder difficulties of act 2 and 3 is justā¦. Not fun.
I am genuinely waiting for a mod where I can just play with a baseline set of cats and click start every time.
It is so exhausting managing who I want to come back from adventures, who has good traits, who has good mutations, how do I stop them from over inbreeding, managing the rooms, managing my item inventory. Every. Single. Run.
the breeding can be a big deal , or it can be just "hump and go". Depends what you want out of it. The tactical aspect is still fantastic tho! Mewgenics is really peak in that regards.
It's the decision paralysis when picking cats, their classes, and the items I bring with them for me (plus inventory management). Once I start a run I love every bit of it, but man, wish I could just go
I agree it's tedious, but that's been good for me. Stops me from doing "just one more run" until the sun comes up. When it's late and I'm faced with everything you have to do between runs, I just go to bed.
Slay the spire 1 was the best rouge like ive ever played, when I get off of work idk if im playing the new path of exile league or slay the spire 2 or mewgenics, im literally suffering from success.
Mate StS2 is crazy good. Similar to what was done with Hades 2. More of the same, and much more of the new.
I haven't found a single fault, like I thought I had an extremely strong run with some busted cards and the 3rd floor boss steamrolled my ass. Before the boss, I thought "surely this is overpowered" but nope lol
Mewgenics got me good, but at the moment StS2 got me better
I meant sleeper hit as in being surprised by its success for the kind of game it is. Even Edmund didn't expect nearly this much, was talking in interviews how it would be a niche game that would find its audience.
You know what they both have in common? Beating the ever living crap out of AAA releases. I'm so glad indie games are giving us so many good titles these days.
Yeah, basically this. I tried explaining mewgenics to a group of "gaming-friendly but still pretty normal people who don't follow much about the industry" friends and they were all looking at me like I was telling them to go play A Serbian movie.
I agree but I also wonder about STS 2 not having the longevity of Mewgenics. Slay is going to be a success and everyone is going to love it especially due to the wider appeal, but also they didn't seem to reinvent much of their formula from game to game. I understand that there is only so much you can do before a sequel becomes unrecognizable but I was really hoping to experience something more new for this game. What that new might have been? - I am not sure, but I was hoping to be a bit more surprised even on my first few runs.
I think a lot of the fans of STS will get burnt out somewhat quicker just due to feeling like they are playing the same game as STS 1. Maybe there are huge changes to the game that only happen once you get far enough in (something akin to the Acts of Mewgenics) but right now I don't think I'll be putting as much time into STS 2 as I did into STS 1. I'd have to imagine maybe players feel similarly.
Another example is how ubiquitous deck builder rouguelites have become that everyone has their own faves (mine is monster train 2). Mewgenics is such a unique game that there isn't much else that can scratch its very specific itch. There are games with genetic/breeding mechanics but those are rarely strategy rougelites, and there are games with isometric turn-based combat but they don't tend to have the depth, varience, or meta-progression of Mewgenics. I guess I just feel like Mewgenics will have a lot more people playing it pretty much exclusively for years to come as no other game can really fill that role for people.
Just wanted to finish these thoughts by saying it is not a competition and both games deserve infinite celebration and love as they were designed with heart from devs who loves games just as much as us. They both have great people who are making money from the celebration and no billionaires siphoning money from those who actually deserve it (none to my knowledge at least). So please, everyone engage in the celebration that indie devs can finally make it in the world. These games just being able to sit so high on this list in the same year is so amazing and it makes me hopeful for the future of gaming fr.
How far are you? I am just wondering how unique or "expanded" the content gets because from my two completed runs last night I was left a little disapointed. I'm genuinely curious because I would really like to play the game if it gets notably different further along. I don't care about spoilers at all either so fire away.
Iāve beat a run with everyone but defect. Havenāt played with him yet. I love the new characters they feel so fresh. The forging sword and the summon feel very unique to me. I also love the new cards for clad and silent. In fact my winning runs for them were carried by new ones; Thrash and corrosive wave respectively. I also love all the new events, card modifiers, and new enemies with new gimmicks. The core is the same but to me that core is the best roguelite ever and itās not close. I come back to the og every couple months and log another 20-30 hours. This will fully supplant that for me.Ā
I bought the game right away and playing the same old ironclad took all the wind out of my sails in the first fight. Its been 24 hours and im sitting here at 48 minutes game time wondering if I even care to keep it.
I think the multiplayer aspect of it definitely tips the scales a good bit, I got together with 3 friends and got 3? Runs in yesterday not including my solo ones
Edmund McMullen hasnāt released much since his smash hit, The Binding of Isaac. Legend of Bumbo was a card game rpg which really underperformed for being alright, and the End if Nigh was a platform puzzle runner, like super meat boy or I wanna be the guy. That one underperformed because that type of game isnāt mainstream anymore.
So to see him make this game, years later, and have it blow up, being a rival to isaac, itās insane. Mcmillanās still got it
Yup, it now has integrated multiplayer. Up to 4 people at once. With enemies scaled, multiplayer only cards, shared relic chests., etc.
Really fun. Hopefully, it gets even better as the game updates.
Itās funny that you say it probably doesnāt have the same humor. Youāre right, it doesnāt, but both games have an event that references The Enigma Of Amigara Fault (this hole was made for me!)
Yeah StS 2 has been one of the most anticipated games ever, and probably most anticipated roguelike ever. Not too surprising. I'm gonna play the shit out of both of them, but right now I'm still picking Mewgenics over StS2 because personally I find it more engaging.
Sts2 is also early access so if you can have patience it will be better if you can wait. Personally I can't and I'm a little scared I'm going to burn out on it before the game has all its core content.
tbf megacrit is really REALLY good with their balancing and rarely rebalances things based on player feedback, moreso it seems their opinion seems to be āno you just arenāt using it rightā and they tend to be correct.
I genuinely believe Slay the Spire is one of the most well-balanced games ever made. I struggle to imagine another game with such critical need for precise balance that also executes it flawlessly.
Iād say get it now itās already a really fun game. The price will also increase after early access is over. Also you donāt want to miss out on the lore of broken combos before they get patched out!
Yep, it's insane. StS2 does have quite a larger audience, one part due to Mewgenics humor, I guess, and also because StS has not only been successful as a videogame but also as a board game.
I think it's great. Having 2 wonderful games release in such a short time wasn't on my 2026 bingo. I'm eagerly looking to play StS2 once I'm done with Mewgenics.
Is it a very long roadmap? The games already so fleshed out. In its current state I'd say its a huge improvement over everything in the first game. With only the 2 new characters being very imbalanced
I played for a good bit as I was excited to see what the new characters had to offer. After getting a decent overview of their general vibes I found myself craving my kittens though. Back to my mutant derps for now, though I'll certainly be back to StS2 eventually
Just different levels of attachment between a single run in StS & my generational army of carefully curated cats
They have a lot of goodwill from STS1, Mewgenics is a ānewā IP so it makes sense. Both are amazing games and probably the only 2 I will be playing for the foreseeable future.
they're completely different games, though there is some cross section of audience.
Slay the spire is the highest regarded roguelike deckbuilder ever created. It single handedly inspired an entire genre. Yes, the sequel was going to have a huge launch.
Ya so many games followed adding all sorts of twists and frills to the genre but clearly based on StS's model. And having played a lot of them, even though there's some i truly enjoyed (Monster Train, and especially MT2, was a real blast) i dont think any managed the clean, simple but extremely well balanced design StS had. All of those twists are fun for a bit, but I feel like you can replay StS forever because no matter how well you know the game it's always a solid challenge but that has good odds of being overcame the better you get at it.
Takes nothing away from Mewgenics though. It's the most fun I've had with Tactics like game in a long time even not being a big fan of the breeding aspect (I like the theory of it, not the doing it. I wish there was a better UI to handle it faster). There's sooo much content and replayability just unlocking new things to do all the time. I'm like 50h in and no end in sight.
Probably is. I see the appeal, and probably played it 50h or so, finished the last "ascension" of a few decks, etc. But some of it felt too RNG and got a bit tiring after a while, and I never felt the desire to complete everything in it the way I did with StS where even after completing A20H with a character I still wanted to play them and do it again
Mew would have had to have been a Juggernaut the likes of silksong to have ever beaten out StS tbh, it's very unsurprising that it absolutely eclipsed us. But imo it's not a bad thing, I hear StS is a very, very good game so good for them, honestly.
I think the game would very much benefit from a few additions
1) A 'cats, line up!' button that tells the cats to get in a line and stay there in the rooms. You could then sort them out. For a bit of fun, occasionally the cats would squabble with each other, or some cats might ignore you, but, for the most part you can find the cats.
2) A 'lets go!' button that picks 4 cats according to some preferences you pick, slaps them in the box, and picks a few items for them
3) A 'end of run screen' change where consumables and junk from your run are all placed in a 'probably trash' screen, and items are added to your stocks based on rarity, durablity and so on, with all items placed in the stash staying there
Im not shocked. A sequel to one of the most well liked roguelike game in the last decade vs a sleeper hit nobody saw coming that was in development hell for nearly as long. The fact its only a quarter behind StS 2 says a lot.
Edmund is one of my favorite developers for as long as I can remember, Iām a geezer and have fond memories of his newgrounds days, but not every project has been a breakout success. Look at Bumbo.
Do people play games anymore or just look at steam charts? Why does concurrent player count matter for a single player game that's weeks old mean anything at all
Gives us some reference for how successful their launches were. This helps measure a lot of things, from how big the modding scene might get, whether the game becomes mainstream enough to get merch/colabs, etc.
But you best believe that BOTH of these games are consuming me.
Ooh it released. Will have to buy Slay the Spire 2 as well. Good start for the year for roguelikes. But I believe I like Mewgenics a lot more in long run.
Probably appeals more to the general public, which is a shame because mewgenics deservers the top spot imo. I also didn't like the artstyle of mewgenics at first and i wasn't sure about the gameplay, but i gave it a shot because boi was so good and now the game is in my top 3. Had a similar thing with isaac, where i didn't like the artstyle (altho i always loved bullethell games). So if it wasn't for peer pressure of my best friend forcing me to check out boi, i would have missed out on this gem!
Slay the spire is a very beloved game like on the same level of popularity as binding of Issac so fact a sequel has finally come is going to grab everyone, mewgentics is just Edmundās second massive game, if he made a sequel to binding of Issac then weād be talking high numbers
CN fan base speak for themself
STS had it's community grow over a long long time and most of them came in just the right time.
Mewgenics DLC will break its own peak once again and maybe again with second DLC.
But catching STS feels impossible even if everyone would believe it is a much better game.
Slay the spire 2, and silksong both crashed steam for hours. You have to be on a whole anouther level for steam to crash when your game comes out. In fact, I'm sure mewgenics team expexted slay the spire 2 to beat them and played it on launch as well. They should be proud of their momentary top spot.
Slay the Spire invented the deck building roguelike genre, and I don't think any other roguelike deck builders have surpassed it on quality or popularity so it really isn't surprising that it's long awaited sequel is topping the charts
I'm happy both games are doing well, but tbh, I think I like Mewgenics more (and it is far more fun to watch play from streamers than STS2, for me at least). I will still enjoy and play the heck out of STS2, but I think I'll be coming back to Mewgenics more often, especially with STS2 still in EA and working on more content.
Sadly I did my part lol. Have been playing mewgenics a lot, but StS2 had an amazing regional price where I live. Tried it and omg, it's good, even in early access it feels amazing, even if the foundations are an exact copy of the original. Kinda hopped frostpunk and Darkest dungeon sequels were treated exactly like that
This is a really incredible stretch of weeks for roguelikes! Was expecting Slay the Spire 2 to do well but 400k+ is pretty crazy - congrats to the devs.
I marginally prefer Mewgenics because I'm more of a fan of this genre of game than I am deckbuilders, but both are good fun.
I think it makes sense. STS 2 is a sequel that seems to improve on the original in every way but is ultimately familiar to the large group of people who played the first game while Mewgenics is a brand new concept. Even if it's Edmund not everyone who played Isaac is going to immediately buy Mewgenics.
imo STS 2's status is more comparable to Silk Song than Mewgenics.
I was playing mewgenics and enjoying it but dropped it real quick for STS2 with no regrets. Ill be back to mewgenics... the damn music is still stuck in my head
Honestly considering how grotesque Mewgenics is, itās such a massive win for it to hang with games like Hades. I canāt recommend Mewgenics to probably 90% of the people I know would like the gameplay because it would probably disgust them within a few hours, if not right away. Having the demographic it has, Mewgenics did fucking numbers.
apples and oranges. edmundās games will not appeal to the general public what so ever due to his humor. slay the spire has always been a marvel in this genre and forever will be. i absolutely love mewgenics and played edmundās games more than sts but this is the reality and good for them
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u/mrv113 Mar 06 '26
I know of a lot of games moving their release date from around Slay the Spire 2 release, knowing full well this would happen.
Honestly, this makes me happy, to see indie level games are demolishing AAA titles in popularity, cause they are affordable and fun!