Monster Train 2

[h1]Amazing Sequel That Invalidates The First Game.[/h1] This is not a joke. Monster Train 2 completely overshadows its predecessor. The game is still the same fast-paced, snowballing, deck-building roguelike, except it has tons of new content. It receives vast improvements and many quality-of-life features. Even the original six clans are available to you should you meet the requirements. Suffice to say, if you want to experience the unique fanatic scaling combat that is Monster Train, just get the sequel! [h2]Things I Like About Monster Train 2:[/h2] [list] [*][b]Core Gameplay:[/b] It is a very satisfying and addicting gameplay. There are three floors on your train. You must first draft your units on your preferred floors. Then waves and waves of enemies enter the first floor for battle. Your job is to defeat all the minions and the boss before they reach and destroy your Pyre Heart. Before clashing you can play cards to constantly strengthen your units or weaken the enemies, aka snowballing. Since there are a limited number of turns before the big guy shows up, you need to be crafty with the spells to make the most out of them. Monster Train 2 also introduces some new variety, such as equipment, room cards, and different types of Pyre Hearts for more scaling shenanigans. These are easily one of the best additions the sequel has to further specialize your ideal snowballing methods. [*][b]Clans And Their Powers:[/b] And how exactly do you "snowball"? This is where the clans come in. Before each run begins, you need to choose one clan as your primary and the other as your secondary. Every clan comes with two champions and their related starting spells, with each one offering different ways to out-scale your enemies. There are a total of 11 clans (excluding DLC) and 22 champions to choose from in Monster Train 2. The build variety is wild. My favorite combination is definitely The Underlegion and The Lazarus League. The free tanking units every turn and the strong Decay debuff are nothing to scoff at. Adding more ways to buff and easy access to equipment are just the cherry on top. [*][b]Speedy And Easy Upgrades:[/b] One thing I believe that makes Monster Train 2 stand out from all the deck-building roguelikes/lites is just how easy it is to upgrade your units or cards. After every battle you can choose between two different shops and other methods to tweak your deck down the respective lines. The upgrades in the shop are always beneficial to your build, and if you are lucky, you might get something to help you breeze through half of the run. Even if the shop doesn't provide your ideal upgrades, it is still worth grabbing something to help ease up your energy economy or make your units survive longer. [*][b]Restart Battles & Undo Turns:[/b] I know these two features basically go against the nature of a roguelike, but I still welcome them with open arms. I am only human. I make mistakes, a lot, embarrassingly. Being able to immediately rectify my misclicks is a godsend in these types of deck-building games. Restarting a battle can also be a good way to rethink your strategy. Sometimes, a losing battle doesn't necessarily mean your deck has awful cards. You just need to readjust your approach, and the result may be different. [*][b]Story And Other Minor Cutscenes:[/b] One of the key features I absolutely adore in recent roguelike/lite is finding a way to implement the story. The design can be as detailed as Hades 2 with its rich dialogues and deep character designs, or it can be as simple as Slay The Spire 2 with its Timeline unlockables. Intriguing story progression is just as incentivizing as the addicting gameplay. I am glad that Monster Train 2 has the same design philosophy as the two examples above. The visual-novel-style presentation is a decent way to introduce the main plot without much hassle. There are also smaller cutscenes that shed some lights on how the clans interact with each other, which is quite light-hearted to read. [/list] [h2]Things I Dislike About Monster Train 2:[/h2] [list] [*][b]The Crowded First Floor:[/b] Now for the elephant in the room. Monster Train 2 hardly deviates from its predecessor. The problem happened in the first game and carries on to the sequel as well. The most effective strategy to win the battles is to just cram as many units as possible into the first floor. Why spread your resources thin over three floors when you can just super buff the units on the first floor to instantly kill anyone who enters? The score system even favors this method since it's the fastest way to end the battles, which gives you more points. [*][b]Traditional RPG Team Comp:[/b] Even though the methods to snowball the fight may be endless, the formation of your units remains unchanged. The traditional "Tank-Support-DPS" seems to be the best way to deal with everything the game throws at you. No matter how hard your main damage units hit, they still need someone to soak up the incoming damage; no matter how tanky your frontline units are, they still need someone in the backline to support them. As a result, clans without diverse units struggle a lot. I do find some other ways to circumvent this team requirement via applying Stealth or resurrecting units, but at the end of the day, none are as effective as the traditional team comp. [*][b]Other Complaints: [/b] [olist] [*]Enemies with "Incant" as passives are way too oppressive to deal with compared to all the others. [*]For some reason, I always end up fighting the Dominion version of Seraph, who I absolutely hate with a burning passion. [/olist] [/list] [b]中文小簡評[/b] 認真，如果你想體驗《怪物列車》有趣的牌組構築與獨特的守塔要素，直接買二代就好了！《怪物列車 2》玩法沒啥變化，但是內容更多，全新氏族一個比一個有趣，同時也加入了許多新要素讓你的卡牌構築更加多樣，甚至是一代既有的六個氏族都能透過流程解鎖，基本上已經到了完全取代前作的地步。 [b]喜歡的點[/b] [list] [*]核心玩法依舊爽快，將你的角色分別於部署於三個樓層，抵禦一波又一波的敵人防止對方摧毀你的列車薪火。角色對戰之前你可以用卡牌增強己方單位或削弱對手，如何在Boss出來前的幾個回合內以滾雪球的方式不斷增加戰力是關鍵，二代也加入新的裝備卡(數值增加或新被動)、房間卡(變相的永久法術卡)及不同類型的薪火來讓你的卡牌選擇與滾雪球更加多元。 [*]至於如何滾雪球就得看你的氏族選擇囉！每一輪都需要選兩個氏族作為主副戰力(決定卡牌類型)，每個部族都有專屬的兩位英雄，每個英雄又自帶獨特的法術與堆疊數值的方式，而本作總共有11個氏族22位英雄可選，光是研究氏族兼容性、互補性、甚至是法術組合就夠你玩很久了。 [*]順帶一提我最喜歡的組合莫過於地下軍團(免費坦以及超強衰敗)跟拉薩路聯盟(藥劑強化與實驗體兼具肉盾及製造裝備的功能)。 [*]我知道「回合回溯」與「重製戰鬥」與roguelike的本質相斥，但不可否認這兩項設計無疑是最人性化的功能。我承認我不年輕了，專注力明顯比以前差，常常犯一些尷尬的錯誤，能讓我立馬回溯更正真的是太棒了。不過往另一個方面想，重製戰鬥其實也是重新模擬策略的機會，有時候會輸並不是因為你的牌組不好，也許稍微調整一下出牌順序結果就會不一樣。 [*]近期有很多roguelik/lite開始把遊戲劇情當作流程解鎖的主軸之一，我認為這是個非常好的現象，有趣的世界觀和劇情發展就與沉癮性極高的玩法一樣具有吸引力。《怪物列車 2》雖然是以簡單的視覺小說方式呈現，但也成功讓我想多打幾輪，好看看後續劇情如何發展，更別提還有許多氏族間有趣的小互動，看來十分逗趣。 [/list] [b]不喜歡的點[/b] [list] [*]主軸玩法不變的下場就是一代有的問題二代也有。最有效率的打法依舊是完全忽略另外兩層樓，想辦法把第一層樓塞得滿滿的，把所有資源集中在一樓的所有單位，讓敵人進來的瞬間直接滅團。當然三層樓有三層樓的打法，但效率絕對比專注在一層樓來得差。 [*]角色部署也受到傳統RPG隊伍組合所限制，滾雪球的方式雖然多樣，但角色組合似乎永遠離不開「坦克-輔助-輸出」，沒坦輸出扛不久，沒輸出或輔助坦克再會扛也沒用，這點讓一些缺乏角色多樣性的氏族難以發揮。雖然有其他像是隱身或原地復活的方式可以稍微改變組合，但仍然沒有比坦補打來的有效率。 [*]有「當玩家施法時觸發」當被動的敵人比所有敵人都來得難搞。 [*]不知為何，不管我怎麼選氏族怎麼玩，最後尾王幾乎都是統治者.... 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Monster Train 1 was a very good game - but one that never reached close to Slay the Spire in regards to roguelike deckbuilders. Monster Train 2 however is improved in every conceivable way - and whilst Slay the Spire 2 may still take the biscuit for GOAT franchise in this genre, I have nothing but praise for the developers, this is a genuinely fantastic game chocked full of replicability.

I highly appreciate many of the gameplay improvements in the sequel. You can now position your units during the deployment phase before the battle starts, while the addition of equipment and rooms offers a wider variety of ways to build your power. The Covenant Rank system has been successfully reworked into 10 tiers with more reasonable difficulty scaling. Numerous balance adjustments to events, shops, and other elements force you to think much harder about your choices every round. Overall, Part 2 does a great job of addressing the lingering issues from the first game However, from my perspective, the sequel still has some rather poor aspects. The power balance between allies and enemies feels off, and the game leans heavily toward economy management and early snowballing rather than in-battle tactics. Notably, the 'break the game' meta is carried over into this installment. Builds are far more demanding than in Part 1 if you want to win, and luck remains a crucial factor-without it, the enemy will easily crush your lineup