Knock on the Coffin Lid

This is one of the few roguelikes where the story really matters. The repeated runs are justified by the plot, which is awesome. Some small annoyances, like missing shops, but overall it is a. good game. Especially if you want to think and not just run throught cards.

TL:DR FUN BUT TEDIOUS CARD GAME

This review is relatively spoiler free but seeing as my major gripes with the game is in the final stages I will be hiding it below. Proceed with caution.


I have a hard time recommending this game to players who aren't familiar with other card games. My overall time with the game has been positive with the unique interactions with events and different layers of information you learn over multiple loops. The characters are interesting and relatively fleshed out but some of the inital decisions at unknown hubs can be annoying on earlier playthroughs. The deckbuilding/inventory management feels very luck based unless you are specifically going to certain events/outcomes which feels intentional but does make the early stages so tedious especially if you failed a run at a frustrating moment.

None the less it has been fun to play through and each of the characters feel unique. The classes do add a bit of spice to the variety but some of them play much nicer than others. The Knight class for Percivhal in particular annoys me greatly with how his rings mercy mechanic works. I have also had a couple of weird interactions or bugs that have either cost me runs immediately or had negative long term consequences down the line.

Here are my major gripes with the game in order of most annoying to least annoying. This is spoiler territory.

1. The "secret" final boss. Every character has their own version with different ways to overcome them. A cool idea in concept to find ways to circumvent the final boss but the ways to do strip down a potential/optimal path to the boss for every character by design. Furthermore some of these methods require you to progress to a certain point IN A PREVIOUS LOOP. This means that in order to effectively play the game and take another crack at the final boss you will be repeating the same events the same way and hoping to get the necessary combination of items/cards for your class in order to defeat them. Or to take the easiest path via a "quest reward" that can easily bring you all the way to the end game and an easy victory against the final boss.

2. Some of the quests have hidden triggers attached to different nodes. The previous "Quest reward" was very buggy and disjointed where looking up results for how to complete it could result in multiple attempts at the same event hoping for it to change to the correct stage of the event. After rechecking the whole method I eventually just happened to have everything required for said "Quest Reward" when I visited that node in the future. A node that could tank a whole loop of setting up and remove possible "Distance Rewards" granted to you by Mortis at the start of a new run. The event log is helpful but can be misleading/inconcistent with its goals especially if you haven't played in awhile or are trying to recall events at a node several loops back (which could also be on another character.

3. Bugs and Weird Interactions. I wish I had some off the top of my head but I have had weird interactions between status effects and items not working correctly or as worded. It can be frustrating and run ending if misinterpreted or just not working as intended. I have walked away from the game a couple of times when I've drafted a dead card or misunderstood how an item would work. Could be user error but some of the wording does feel off at times.

That said the game is fun. I do still want to play around with it more I just wish the end game didn't make it feel so constraint even if the whole looping mechanic is the point of the game.

The game is gorgeous, but it's not without problems. Balance is sometimes broken, especially in DLC - there are a lot of bugs and instabilities. But the developers are actively correcting, and you can see that the game is being cared for. I believe in the game project and wish it success!

This game is well worth the price, as you will get hours upon hours of fun with it. Not only is the card builder very interesting, the plot is also entertaining, and there's waaaay too many branches to mention on how you can handle things.
The balance problems present at launch are also gone (looking at you Bjorn).
One of the key points for recommending this over other similar games is the fact that you can make almost every run work once you understand the mechanics. RNG can make it harder, but not impossible, with only one exception in the DLC tarot cards. I'd say it is a very good result, if only one out of 20+ cards in the DLC has balance issues!

It's just really buggy, not everything works, not everything is reliable.

Sometimes you just lose all your gold for taking an option you haven't before. So you're encouraged to just farm easy until you know what every option is which is sort of lame.

Like many others, I started with Hard. The game really makes you think, not just click on cards. Bjorn seemed angular and weird. Don't try to run, try to explore the guys put a lot of content and stories into the game.
The game is cool. Good story, stylish presentation. One of the best story driven card battlers I've played

The game as a whole is cool, but the balance sags in the finale. Without the right cards, the final boss is almost impossible to pass.

Within in an hour, it's crashed four times, broke my taskbar and forced me to restart my computer entirely, takes a thousand years to actually load up and just generally isn't functioning properly at all. In all that time, I've had literally only about 5-10 mins of genuinely playing. Serious performance issues and does not work. I advise avoiding this game entirely.

do not buy crashes to much.iwas enjoying the game but it crashes alot not a problem really due to it putting you back to where you were pre crash but today i got to past sigismond for the first time and was fighting the boss after and it crashed mircosoft c++ error or something. reopened the game and it was on the sigismond fight with and my cards were not in the same order so i lost. this ruined the whole experience of the game working for hours figuring out what path does what what gear i wanted to do and such. it was like reading a book and getting to the last page then it disappearing right infront of ur eyes.

The DLC definitely expanded the content. But also introduced a lot of bugs and instability, I played a lot of hours. But with DLC it feels different now - the balance, the pace of the game. And only the visuals are as perfect as usual.

The base game is fun but since you don't get an actual ending unless you buy the DLC. I have to thumbs down, if you only care about a rogue like experience than this is for you. If you buy a game and expect an ending this is not for you. Feels kinda weird to release a game then finish it with DLC.

good idea but really, just kind of boring, you will finish the main plot within an hour or so then spend hours repeating and repeating for no joy at all

This isn't the first deckbuilder to attempt to combine an immersive story with deckbuilding, however the animations and initial story are the most engaging of all the narrative deckbuilders. That said, after a few runs path's become obvious and predictable, and though I typically love challenging deckbuilders the end boss on this one can come across a cheap and forcing replays, as in you literally can't beat it unless you've gone through the main quest enough times to unlock ways to defeat it. Again this wouldn't be a problem if the runs didn't start to feel repetitive so quickly. There is only so many cards and so much equipment you can build with, but you must keep grinding like this to unlock more secrets to unlock more ways to win, hidden resources and hidden allies. ]

I don't mean to make this review sound too negative, because it does achieve so much. In fact my initial 10 plays I would've likely scored a perfect 10. That said the grind, and lack of variety after the first 10-20 plays takes it down to more like a 7.
I do think it's worth a purchase because you will get your money's worth of enjoyment from this. Just be prepared for some grinding following that initial rush!

If you like Roguelike deckbuilders, just stop reading reviews and go buy the game. It is so very fun, with a ton of replayability. It's basically everything you want.

This is an enjoyable take on the slay the spire style game. The different classes for each of the three heroes allows you to try different play styles.

Incredibly polished rogue-like.

Great characters, great premise for a looping story, mostly fair and manageable gameplay.

It feels like fantasy Griftlands, given the characterization of the three protagonists.

Recommended!

At first the game pleased me with the visuals and well thought out battles. Then I got involved in the story, started to collect equipment and build decks. Ktcl has quality videos and good voice acting. So far I like everything, I continue. It's worth it +++++

A good representative of card-based roguelikes with a cool class system and a novella-style story. Now the game has a failed update, with the developers uploading updates and fixes. Respect

I saw the game on the stream and thought it was just an advertisement. But already on the streamer, I liked the visuals and decided to buy it. It’s a gorgeous game with incredible worldbuilding and character design. The dark, eerie vibes are spot-on, and the storytelling is engaging. On the other hand, the gameplay doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. If you’re here for the story and atmosphere, you’ll love it.

Enjoyable "Slay of the Spire" type game. Nice story, great character kits.
Overall if you enjoy this type of game I recommend it

Amazing game. This is one of the very few TRUE story driven roguelite card games out there. Its extremely obvious within the first couple of hours of playing that the devs poured their heart and soul into this game and the result is absolutely impeccable.

The soundtrack has no business being THIS FREAKING GOOD. It just throws bangers at you non-stop.

The art is cutesy but very well done. There are environmental and background effects you will notice if you pay attention. The world feels very lively and your actions shape and change the events and outcomes of the world. The game also tracks the outcomes of your actions and lists them in the introduction to the events which is a gamechanger. No longer do you have to sit and be anxious that you misclicked a wrong option and bombed your run.

On top of all this the game has 3 playable characters so far with each character having 4 different archetypes that play completely differently. Each character also has multiple different ways of approaching each event and its a very nice surprise to see it all pan out.

Serious contender for a lot of game awards imo.

The game excels in its art and storytelling, but the gameplay can feel sluggish, especially if you’re used to fast-paced autobattlers. The tooltips and ui could use some work, and the equipment system, while varieted, feels a bit clunky. Despite these flaws, the game’s atmosphere and depth make it a unique experience for those willing to dive in.

Very delicately detailed backgrounds that are not the expectation of indie 2d. KOTCL is a visually stunning game and a dark, captivating storyline. It borrows heavily from sts in terms of gameplay, so it doesn’t feel entirely fresh, but it’s still engaging. The worldbuilding and character design are phenomenal, especially if you’re into medieval fantasy vibes.

Great narrative structure, tons of content and good production values. There are some bugs and the balance is a bit off in some places, but not enough to deterr from a great experience. Highly recommended if you like card based roguelikes.

If you enjoy Slay the Spire - you will enjoy this game. Its really fun and hooks you in!

Knock on the Coffin Lid (KCL hereafter) is a very mixed bag and in general I would like to recommend it; it has solid mechanics, nice artwork, a solid narrative, plenty of quests, items & play-styles, solid music, the list goes on.
Unfortunately, for me at least, the game suffers a few major flaws that i'm struggling to overcome and make it hard for me to truly enjoy.
First of all, despite it starting out as fun, quickly the battles start to feel very repetitive. The good news is there are 3 characters with 4 classes...which unfortunately doesn't help as the battles still feel samey and some of the classes are an absolute chore to play which is a shame because i see what they are going for with trying to front-load a 'build' leads you having to mitigate the flaws of that build and you still need the right cards/gear to get it running which rolls back to making it a chore.
Additionally, the developers seem to have had a problem streamlining the game. I would guess they they've never heard the phrase 'less is more' because honestly the game could have done with it's core being developed more and made to feel fun rather than filling it full to bursting. Is this in its self a bad thing, no of course not, but it's a definite problem when it muddles the core experience so much.
Also, and this may be just me but the final boss is awful, it feels like you have to do one or two certain things to win and generally makes getting to the end of the game a waste if you're not specifically building for her which makes the rest of the game pointless. The 'true' final boss should be a test of your build and your strategy not a gimmick where you're limited to doing things one way. It's annoyed me more than it should.
Honestly, I'll be playing more of KCL and trying to get through it for the story if nothing else but I'm still disappointed with the experience overall because it could be a top 10 game that just falls so very short and disappoints me so very much.

Slay The Spire clone that is unfortunately marred by very slow progression and systems that conflict with each other. Big maps with a bunch of different ways to go...but you need to go to one of a few specific locations to get an item you need to beat the game. A variety of classes and builds...but only a few are really viable, and some actively punish you for using their systems. Neat gear and powerful set bonuses...that you'll never see the top end of, because runs just aren't long enough for you to have a chance to get more than 3 pieces.

Decent game.
Not as deep as other similar titles, but a lot of different mechanics.
Unfortunetly there are things in place, like auto turn end, to prevent the game loop from breaking, if for example one creates a deck from drawn cards and 0 energy cost.
But well one can spend a few fun hours with it.

Surprisingly, it's a super interesting and non-annoying card roguelike game. The more you go through, the more the plot unfolds. The plot is amazing, the developers have managed to maintain a balance between the plot and the randomness of the passage. I advise beginners to start with the trials, and then move on to the plot (this is how it was originally intended, but it is not clear from the very beginning).

Now, without DLC, there are 3 characters in the game, each with 4 classes. Replayability is high. The design is very nice. The voice acting is in English only (the speaker is well chosen, although Darkest Dungeon is still far away).

Game made with a lot of love and good polish. I do detect that the art and voice acting was made with AI so that's kind of a letdown, but everything else fits perfectly in this Game of Thrones on steroids card deckbuilding RPG. Knock on the Spire is the newborn we all love and deserve.

Very fun game and good story. I hope they come out with an expansion. I enjoyed the (Choose Your Own Adventure). I want more.

Promising roguelike deckbuilder sabotaged by technical issues.

The game is competently made, but lacks something to keep me interested, so I don't think I can recommend it.

It also has three important flaws:
- It's heavy on storytelling, but the story itself isn't particularly great and its ovepresence conflicts with the fast pace of roguelike deckbuilders, to the point where I skip the story to focus on the gameplay, thinking I'll pay attention to the story on another run.
- You can unlock several characters to play with, each with several classes with their own playstyle, but I found most classes a bit dull, where only two actually caught my interest.
- There's an overarching quest you are supposed to complete, but the conditions to achieve it are a bit complicated if not tedious, so I don't really care.

Perhaps the experience needs a bit of streamlining so that the story can mesh better with the gameplay.

A Very Addicting game, with what starts as a simple card combat goes to a complex dance of equipment and combos. It has great Graphics and the story is well done with the rogue like nature of the game made part of the story.

It has multiple difficulties which keeps the game fresh and challenging with 3 fascinating meta progression trees.

The one complain I have had is in regarding this meta progression though in that while two of them are explained in game the third i found only by accident. As you can attempt challenge runs as a seperate save that effect your main game run if you complete them by giving you bonuses. This was not explained or even mentioned.

Over than that this game is excellent and I would recommend anyone give this game a try

one of the very few games out there that actually scratch the slay the spire itch

i think i like this even more than slay the spire. the worldbuilding is pretty good too. im looking forward to playing the dlc when it comes out!

It took me almost 40 hours, 24 in the past few months, but I finally FINALLY beat the game with ONE of the 3 available characters ONCE. Wow. This has honestly felt like a journey. Normally when it comes to these kinds of games, the story is very minimal and plays very little to no role whatsoever.

But in this game, you are basically Playing an Eastern Europe/Slavic/Russian Folklore roguelike deckbuilder version of Tom Cruise's "The Day After Tomorrow" or whatever the original title was. The more knowledge you and the character you are playing has, the more it will affect their ending once you are able to obtain it.

There are very few guides for this game and the very long playtime I have to just beat the game once is because I was being very stubborn and didn't look up any information on the puzzles because I wanted to try and figure them out for myself. The in game "notes" system proves somewhat useful because it automatically records information about a lot of encounters on the maps. There are challenge modes that kind of work like Binding of Isaac where if you beat a challenge, you will gain some sort of impactful benefit for your main story runs for that character.

2 more characters to go before I can say I've truly beaten the game I think.

For some negatives, the game has some bugs wh en it comes to the interface sometimes. But otherwise it is very polished compared to 8 months ago or so which was the last time I played it I think... The game still has other bugs and sometimes the game lags late into the game's run or doesn't allow you to skip cutscenes however short.

Other than that, I can't help but feel that other than the details about the nodes on the map that you can change depending on your decisions, I wonder if there are actually alternate endings to achieve for the character I played. I'll find out later. For now, onto the other two characters.

Edit, I would just like to add, Major props to the artists and sound designers that did all the artwork, animations, voices, and music. There is ALOT for an indie effort with art that is several tiers higher than the original slay the spi re and animation that is noticeably better than another great roguelike deckbuilder game called Across the Obelisk.

Immediate refund. For me, the first thing a card game requires is no ambiguity in it's cards. Enemy says "gains strength when you cast a skill". The assumption is 1 strength. The reality is 15 strength. Not what I'm looking for in a card game.

good gaem

I've played for 124 hours, and I'm not stopping. Living for the April 4th DLC

Wow, I've really mixed feelings about this one. From one side, story is great, and the way it's presented is pretty interesting. From another, as a deck builder it is just decent and more annoying than fun. I'd say that if you're looking for time sink rogue-deckbuilder game I'd not recommend it. tho if you just wanna win once or twice, it's fine. I'm putting "recommend" since I enjoyed the game in general, but it's not a typical game for this genre.

Still early, but it currently feels like "Slay the Spire with a story".
I also like the game's Rogue-Lite features.

This game is equal parts Slay the Spire and Hades, with a dash of Dragon Age. It's a solid deckbuilder with roguelike/ run-based elements, and a slowly unfolding, very twisty story.

There's a big, hefty progression system, tons of unlockables, and a ton of variety in character builds. There's solid voice acting and world building, and a narrative that adds cool context to the gameplay.

The trailers only gave me the broadest strokes of what to expect, so I understand why people may have passed this one by, but after a solid ten hours, I'm having a blast. The only knock I have is that sometimes this game doesn't explain it's various systems as well as it could-- but if you've played other deckbuilders you'll figure it out pretty quick.

A solid 8/10.

"f you want to play a deckbuilder for the story, this is it. If you don't care about stories in games at all, this is not the game for you."

Pretty much sums it up. 3/10.

I loved the game when I first bought it, but now it no longer loads when I start it. :(

Beat the first time through, game play feels like a slay the spire clone and story was pretty much unintelligible. Regret the purchase.

Very fun gameplay with plenty of meta progression (the challenge rewards are permanent character upgrades).

Predetermined routes and a storyline. If you want to play a deckbuilder for the story, this is it. If you don't care about stories in games at all, this is not the game for you.

Personally, a story should exist and give my character motivation but beyond that I don't really care about it.

fun mechanics to scratch the rouge-like brain itch and fun story to boot

Excellent card-based roguelike. You might think it's a Slay the Spire clone, but in my opinion this game is much better because it has an actual story. Events on the map do repeat, but they repeat with new variations that stem from your character being revived in the story and testing other options in this situation or coming at it with more information. It would be very hard on a completionist, though, because you can try at most one additional option on every run, and there are a lot of events with a lot of options there -- the game has over 150 achievements! Thankfully, I'm not a completionist so I beat the game with Vanadis and that was that for me. Still, great game, highly recommended.