Bertie: It’s the monsters that do it for me. They are manifestations of phobias, and even though I am lucky enough to not have any phobias (that I know of), they unsettle me. Take the Tokophobia monster: it’s based around a fear of childbirth, and here it’s depicted by a silhouetted pregnant woman on her knees, whose bulging stomach morphs into an angry child when it attacks. That’s freaky, right?
Neurodeck previewDeveloper: TavroxGamesPublisher: GoblinzPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Releases 18th March on Nintendo Switch and Steam, for £11/€12/$14
Or there’s the Haptophobia monster, which I think ought to be Haphephobia because it’s based around a phobia of touching. Here, it’s a creature made of many hands that all reach out and grab at you when it attacks, and it’s grotesque.
There are others but I don’t want to spoil them. But it’s the way they’re brought to life, the way they look and behave, moving as if made for a vintage cartoon, in a kind of flick-book animated way, which speaks to a kind of quality in Neurodeck which elevates it. That, hand-in-hand with the game’s focus on mental health, and cards themed around ways to deal with phobias, and keeping a mind calm and positive, are what makes Neurodeck more than another game moulded around a Slay the Spire frame. They’re its difference. And they manage a kind of relevance and connection with, certainly, me, that other games have to work much harder for.
There are ways in which it differs from Slay the Spire too: it’s not a straight copy. You have two kinds of health pools, for instance: Sanity and Stamina. Sanity is the most precious, because if it falls to zero, you faint and your run is over; but Stamina is what you use to play your cards, as well as a three-point action pool. If Stamina runs out, you can’t do anything, so enemies attack both pools and you need to find ways to replenish them, while also attacking, in each round.