Monster Tavern

So fun and creative! You play as a bartender in a tavern, serving monsters who stumble in after getting beaten up by video game heroes. Instead of fighting them, you serve drinks that lower their health—once it hits zero, they simply leave. It’s a super clever twist on the genre and really stands out. This was my first time playing a game like this and I had an absolute blast! The sprites are incredibly unique and full of personality. Absolutely love them! The humor is great throughout, and the whole concept just feels fresh and charming. The music is awesome too and really adds to the vibe. As a bonus, game has hilariously charismatic rats! I loved it and would definitely recommend!

Summary: Magic plus Slay the Spire Multiplayer: No Completion: Several hours Cards: No| Cloud: No Monster Tavern is a deckbuilding game somewhat similar to Magic the Gathering and Slay the Spire. You play as a nameless bartender (with more to be unlocked eventually) as you serve up drinks to pacify unruly monsters bent on destroying the tavern. There is no real story as of the time of this writing, just dive in and go. Gameplay involves drawing five cards every turn, and you are given 3 energy per turn to play them. Ringing the bell passes the turn, discards your hand, monsters arrive, and you must deal with the threats. Serving drinks to a monster inflicts damage to each other simultaneously, and when the health of either side reaches 0 it is removed. Continue until the monsters run out and the day is done. Somewhat unusual, unused energy is carried between turns, allowing you to play larger drinks next turn if you so choose, but you can only stock up to 7 energy. The game takes place over 3 weeks with each week comprised of 4 days each, with a boss showing up every 4th day. Each day you are given some cards to add to your deck as well as some useful deck tools. Occasionally you will find trinkets which add useful permanent effects. As you play the game you may also unlock new starter trinkets by completing tasks. I appreciate the variety of ways to increase your power, and the card selection is reasonably large. Boss battles are suitably mean, and will trip you up if you do not read their abilities. If card battlers are your jam, this should be right up your alley. The aesthetics of the game are pleasant. I enjoy the title theme and the card and monster art is great. The UI is clean and most elements have handy tooltips when you mouse over them. Much as I want to say there's no crashes or bugs, they do occur, and the dev's been hard at work patching them out as soon as they're found, so good job on that front. Full disclosure, I had a hand in playtesting the game, offering feedback, and creating a few assets, hence my high playtime before release. I won't be offering a review score, but I will give my recommendation that this is a good game. New features are still being added, and each week something changes, so it's hard to tell what the game will look like a month or a year from now. The demo only covers the first week (4 days), but the full game is quite a ways bigger and better than that.

A fun little deckbuilder with cute art and humor that straddles the line perfectly between being complicated enough to strategize and get the braincells rubbing together so you feel smart when you get synergies going, but still simple enough to be a quick, snappy, and satisfying experience that's easy to pick up for a round or two at any time, or to lose your day playing for 4 hours straight.

Very addicting, tactical combat, lovely art style and music. As an experienced card game player you'll get at least 5-6 hours of fun out of it. I'm looking forward to more content and to see how the game will improve over time <3

Monster Tavern is a PvE deckbuilding game which is a bit of a smash-up of Hearthstone and Slay the spire. You're tasked with serving drinks to monsters throughout a week, punctuated by a boss fight every fourth day. After three weeks, you've completed your run. Sound and Visuals: The artwork is fantastic. The monsters ooze with personality, among other things, and it's fun to see new ones show up. Bosses in particular are a treat. Music is a bit limited, but what's there is fun and fits the game well. The sound effects are simple but fun and fit the tone perfectly. Story: As of early access there's not one. You're manning a bar that serves monsters. That's about the extent of it. The main focus is on the gameplay. Gameplay: At its heart, Monster Tavern is a deckbuilder. Cards are split between drinks and actions. To use Magic the Gathering terminology: drinks are your creatures and are played to the bar, taking up one of five spots, and actions are your spells, which will either buff your drinks, damage/debuff an enemy, or perform some utility such as drawing more cards. You start with a deck of basic drinks and are given a 1-of-3 choice of both a more powerful drink and action card. Then the day begins. In the first round you're given a turn alone to set up. Play a couple drinks and prepare. Hit the bell and the next round starts: monsters start piling in and show you what they're planning to do. From there you decide who to serve and in what order; do you try to maximize potential clearing or focus on getting rid of a particularly annoying attack? Each turn you'll get one to three enemies randomly selected from the monsters available that day, so each run gives you a different challenge. Between rounds you're given the chance to upgrade your deck. First you get to choose one from among three new cards to add to your deck. Next, you get to buy trinkets, new cards, or upgrades to existing cards using gold that you earn from completing a day. Once you're done, hit the bell and the next day begins. A run is twelve days, taking around thirty minutes or so. As far as deckbuilding goes, there are ~fifty cards available for the main deck, plus a handful of neutral cards. Alongside trinkets, you have a lot of ways to customize your deck, and there are a number of winning strategies depending on what you're able to draft. Recently I found a card which would deal damage to random monsters whenever a drink was played, so I'd play that alongside a bunch of cheap drinks to nuke enemies down passively. Completely different to how I normally play; you'll get a new experience each run just from what luck sends your way. Difficulty: I had quite a bit of card game experience going into the game, so picking it up was pretty easy. Got to the final boss on my first run, and won on my third. After beating a run, the second difficulty is unlocked. There are a total of four difficulties, called mugs, and the challenge ramps up pretty smoothly when you go up a mug. Within a run the monsters you encounter will get stronger as days go on, so you see a gradual increase in difficulty as time goes on. While the game starts fairly easy for an experienced card gamer, the later mugs are not. Three and four in particular can get pretty brutal. But even when I've been frustrated after a loss, I've found the game drawing me back to try another run after a half hour or so. Overall: Monster Tavern hits the sweet spot between difficult and accessible which makes for an addictive roguelike. The sounds and visuals are fun, and the monster's have interesting designs both aesthetically and mechanically. Most importantly, the game is just fun to play. I've always said that you should only buy early access if the game as it currently exists is worth the asking price, and Monster Tavern very much is. From what we have available right now, I'd happily give it an 8+/10. Edit: Full disclosure: several weeks after posting this review I was asked to help test the red deck, which was coming out shortly. I'm now credited as a QA tester. While I am technically now loosely affiliated with the game, that happened after this review was posted, and my review is based on my experience as a regular player.

Game is fun how different cards can stack to make new strategies. I like how a major strategy is paying attention to a monster's intent when they walk in. The artwork is is good, really like the rats holding their tail. The music is also good and doesnt call attention to itself while you're playing but also helps keep it feel fresh. Still havent beaten the 1st boss but I keep getting closer, and unlike some games you dont feel like its because its unfair. Dev is active and on top of chasing down bugs. A+

Fun game, I haven't won yet, but I've done several games and found some strong builds. Plenty of strategy behind putting a deck together, and there's a good amount of stuff to unlock. Also really like the art for the monsters and cards.

New to the card genre. Played slay the spire 2 and now this. Game is challenging but not in a rage inducing way. Just makes you plan your turns. Art is fun and nice to look at. Music is good. The plot is a unique spin on the card game genre and the theme works and is implemented well in the deck builds. Overall a very good game by a single developer studio. Support your small devs that show they have good ideas.

Not my usual rodeo, but for babys first roguelite deckbuilder I had a great time, the game increases in difficulty at a pace I was able to handle, the art is very cute and whimsical, the main song and it's leitmotifs are enjoyable. The selection of cards (only green deck available at the time of this review) are great and you're able to go through different builds that accomodate to your playstyle.

It good.