Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire

PVZ Dave
Mod Review
Hi!

I just finished my first run with Crazy Dave and I want to congratulate you for conceiving this mod.

I will give you my first thoughts. I have a lot of experience with the game (more than 830 hours of play), so I will speak as a hardcore fan of the game, and as a great fan of PvZ.



POSITIVE

1. The PvZ theme is there, you nailed it! Some cards are just amazingly perfect, the Marigold comes to mind. The choice of gathering sunlight to activate extra abilities of the plants is really well thought.

2. Graphics are nice and do not clash with the vanilla game.

3. It is a great character for player who like a more casual type of game play (see comment on negative section to know why)

4. I love cards that gives Gold and the watering cans that removes buffs on the enemies or debuffs on you.



NEGATIVE

Since it is a great character for casual game play, it is not very interesting for a hardcore one (at least in the very first run, with no Ascension) I will edit this review whenever I reach higher levels and see if this changes)

The cards are too powerful, so when you create combos, it becomes completely overpowered and you can kill an elite or even a boss without even come close to dying. This, for a hardcore player who likes the challenge of very hard runs is not the most interesting character to use.



SUGGESTIONS TO BALANCE CARDS

These are my ideas based on my experience (If you intend eventually to rebalance) I'll give you a few example of cards, the you could use this similarly to other cards.
Your mod, your rules. You did it first to please yourself!


We start with 50 suns, then we receive 25 suns minimum per turn. The basic relic should ----------give a Big Sunlight card every 2 turns instead of each turn / or give a lesser amount / or remove the starting 50 suns

Sun is a free and easily accessible resource. It is a form of energy reserve than can be kept between turn, similarly to the Ice Cream Cone relic.
Sunlight cards cost 0 energy to play.
-----Sunflower card should provide 1 Big Sunlight instead of 2 / or give 2 Small Sunlight

A basic Peashooter can deal 16 damage on the first turn, for 1 energy and 25 suns... and 20 damage if you have the upgraded Peashooter. There is not a single card in the vanilla game that can deal that much damage on turn 1 (Clash deals 14 (21 if upgraded) but you can't play it unless you only have attack cards in your hand).
And if your Peas are Ignited, they deal even more damage... this is raised to very high level of damage for a common card.
-----Should make the base damage 6 like a Strike, and then sun effect half that, for 3, for a total of 9 damage / or 5 base damage + 5 sun effect damage

The Squash give you +3 Strength for 1 energy + 75 suns (but at least is exhausted)
----Should make it on 25 suns for +1 strength

The Flower Pot gives 3 Blocks and upgrades all your cards in hand for 0 energy + 50 suns. Upgraded Armaments does the same effect, but for 1 energy. I would suggest you raise the cost to 1 energy

Fume-shroom and Gloom-Shroom are insanely powerful, has they deal damage through block.
----- All their damage should be at least halved.

Gloom shroom deals 3 damage to all enemies each time you play a 0 Cost card.... which you play many many times per combat.
-------Should raise card cost to 3 instead of 2 / or make it deal only 1 damage instead of 3.

The Pumpkin is too strong in my opinion. Combined with Spikerock ... this raise out of proportion haha! You gain +1 plated armor each time a Big Sunlight is exhausted
----- Maybe instead make the +1 gain when a sunlight effect is paid instead

The Spikerock doubles Thorns / Plated Armor / Metallicize
------ Should do only for thorns, thematically speaking, but also for balance, similarly like Break Limit doubles Strength

Tangle Kelp is good, but to simplify the text : Gain 1 Thorns for each Unplayable cards in your hand. This would make it even more effective

Well, that is all I have to say for the first run. I will edit from time to time to add more ideas. I hope this comment will be useful to both author and players alike.

Happy Playing!