I generally find genre mash-ups to be a fun way of breaking up the monotony that is sure to come from a genre getting a hit game. Even in the past few years, the amount of Slay the Spire clones I’ve just reviewed is high, not to mention how many are sent to me for review that I can’t get to because time is a thing. So when Demon’s Mirror crossed my desk and boasted a mix between Slay the Spire and, Grindstone, I was excited to try it out. Deck building and chaining together combos on a 6×6 grid, what could be better? So, does this work? Does mixing deck building with combo chaining on a grid work?
Demon’s Mirror
Developer: Be-Rad Entertainment
Price: TBA
Platforms: PC (reviewed)
MonsterVine was provided with a PC code for review.
I love building powerful decks in deck builders, finding a theme, and sticking with it to make it as powerful as possible. Often finding items and equipment that complement the deck I’ve built to bring me over the finish line is super satisfying. Likewise, chaining together combos and finding ways to destroy pieces on the grid to make my chains even bigger gives me an unmatched dopamine hit. But there’s something fundamentally missing when you put the two of them together and I have to say, Demon’s Mirror left me deeply unsatisfied in both areas.
Demon’s Mirror can be best described as a Slay the Spire clone. You have one of three characters to choose from and you navigate a map getting into battles, finding uninspired events that can help/hurt your character, and treasure chests to give you a relic that permanently affects your run. At the end of each act is a boss. Battles are where the game tries to find a niche for itself, giving a 6×6 grid of Swords, Shields, Willpower Crystals, and Essence. Chain together a combo each time to deal damage, shield your character, activate your special, or power up certain cards. This is where it all falls apart.
The primary friction between player and power in a deck builder is energy. Be it land, cost, energy, or whatever, it’s one of the mitigating factors in just letting you spend your entire hand right out the gate. Now, we’ve got this 6×6 grid of combos that you absolutely must use to advance through Demon’s Mirror. There’s no getting around it, you can’t use just cards or just the grid, you have to use them in tandem with each other. Which is great, that’s precisely how this game should be designed, it just falls flat. Having to balance my energy with cards AND the grid was just frustrating. It wasn’t just a balance, it felt like BOTH options were bad options.
Be-Rad Entertainment, Demon’s Mirror’s developers, try to strike a balance by keeping card energy costs low. Some cards can become extremely powerful with essence. For example, Finishing Strike is a one energy card that deals six damage, which is pretty low. Add twelve essence, and the card deals an extra fourteen damage on top of the initial six. That’s a spicy meatball! However, while twelve essence might not seem like a lot, essence decays at a 33% rate per turn, meaning even with stacks and stacks of essence, you’re unlikely to have enough when you pull that card. Demon’s Mirror drives home the fact that, unless you’re really lucky, most of the cards aren’t going to do you any favors.
And I think that’s where Demon’s Mirror really fails. There’s no significant power creep. I would find myself fumbling through boss fights and struggling to craft a cohesive deck. Likewise, your deck needs to include cards that modify the grid, which just adds more glut to a deck that should be trim. Now my cards are even less effective since I’m carrying around so many of them, I’m not getting the pulls I want because I need cards that affect the grid, it’s frustrating. You’ll pull a card that costs two energy and requires X amount of essence but the only way to get that essence is by spending two turns on the board which will end up costing you around 3 energy, so even if you get the essence required you still won’t have enough energy for the card.
Enemies can also place tiles on your grid that have a time limit on them. It’ll have two numbers, the amount of damage it’ll deal to you when time runs out and how many turns you have to destroy the tile. Destroying a tile is easy enough, you can include it in your chain and it’ll deal damage based on how long the chain is. Some enemy tiles require you chain them with specific elements and others are a free-for-all. And while juggling multiple things isn’t out of my purview, I realize now I’m spending even more energy on the grid and less on what I want to be spending energy on.
It’s not all bad though, as there are some design choices Demon’s Mirror has that improve the overall experience. For example, modifiers. Most games have modifiers but Demon’s Mirror boasts a couple of modifiers that make the game easier. Sunny adds an extra energy per turn, Booming adds an extra 50% gold from enemies, Skinny Enemies reduces enemy hit points by 30%. Pairing these with other modifiers can really fine-tune the game to your specific needs. Like it or not, these modifiers are accessibility options and I very much appreciated seeing them.
While I love genre-bending and mash-ups, I was pretty disappointed with Demon’s Mirror. What should have been a mix of two great genres ended up becoming a tedious and frustrating chore. The art style is mimicking Slay the Spire and is uninspired. I found myself immediately put-off from most of what should have made Demon’s Mirror great.
The Final Word
Demon’s Mirror didn’t vibe with me, and while I appreciate the effort to mix up these two gameplay styles, the friction between the two left me annoyed and drained.
MonsterVine Rating: 2.5 out of 5 – Mediocre
