Knock on the Coffin Lid Review Summary

An engaging narrative and excellent deckbuilder gameplay with beautiful graphics are marred by an unfair final boss, poor balance, and unclear mechanics.

Engaging narrative with choices: Players love the story, noting it is engaging, has branching decisions with consequences, and offers multiple paths and endings. The narrative depth adds significant replay value.

Excellent deckbuilder game: The game is considered one of the best in its genre, with strong deckbuilding mechanics, good value, and a solid rogue-lite structure. It stands out as a high-quality deckbuilder.

Superior to Slay the Spire: Players frequently state that the gameplay is more interesting, more engaging, or better than Slay the Spire. They appreciate the enhanced mechanics, story elements, and unique twists on the classic formula.

Beautiful graphics and animations: The game's visuals, including graphics, animations, and art style, are repeatedly praised as pleasant, magnificent, expressive, and beautiful. The presentation is a standout feature for many players.

Overall high quality game: Many reviews simply state the game is fun, good, a banger, or high quality. This general but strong positive sentiment is widespread across the feedback.

Final boss is unfair: The final boss has mechanics that are considered excessively difficult, often requiring specific builds or hidden progression, which leads to a frustrating experience even on the easiest mode. Many players report it as nearly impossible and ruining viable builds.

Poor balance issues: Cards, enemies, and classes are poorly balanced, with some cards being useless while others are overpowered. This extends to class balance, where some classes feel unplayable, and difficulty scaling is inconsistent.

Unclear mechanics and progression: Game mechanics are poorly explained, with confusing card wording and hidden meta-progression that is locked behind a challenge mode. This makes it hard for players to understand systems or feel rewarding progress.

Poor localization and translation: The game suffers from incomplete or inaccurate translations in Chinese and Portuguese, as well as missing Russian voice acting despite developer promises, harming accessibility and the experience.

Grindy and unsatisfying progression: Character and class progression is slow, with runs feeling like wasted time because all progress is lost on death, and the ending is vague, even with DLC, leading to dissatisfaction.

Turn-based card roguelike game: The game is primarily described as a turn-based card roguelike, often compared to Slay the Spire. It combines deck-building mechanics with roguelike progression and RPG elements.

Story-driven with branching choices: Players emphasize the strong narrative focus, with branching events and choices that affect the story and outcomes across multiple runs. This is a key differentiator from other deckbuilders.

Deck-building mechanics core: Deck-building is a fundamental mechanic, with players describing the game as a deckbuilder or card-based roguelike. Some mention it improves upon or is similar to Slay the Spire.

Roguelike progression with runs: The game follows roguelike conventions: permadeath, progression through repeated runs, and restarting. Story elements and unlocks persist across runs, enhancing the loop.

Comparisons to Slay the Spire: Frequent comparisons to Slay the Spire are made, often labeling the game a 'spiritual successor' or 'clone'. The core gameplay loop is seen as similar but with added story and content.

General crash and optimization: The game suffers from crashes, lag, and poor optimization across platforms, including high-end PCs like RTX 4090 and AMD 6700. Late-game lag and interface bugs are also reported.

Steam Deck launch issues: Multiple users report the game failing to start, crashing on launch, or experiencing lock-ups on Steam Deck, despite it being marked as verified. Some users fixed it by verifying files or reinstalling.

Steam Deck performance drop: Some players experience performance drops, frame drops, or minor loading issues on Steam Deck, though one user reported it runs extremely well. Display issues like small fonts and poor contrast also noted.

DLC loading and lag: DLC mini-dungeon screens fail to load 15% of the time. There is also 5-10 second lag when opening event history and returning to the map.

Cannot skip cutscenes: Players report that cutscenes cannot be skipped and take several seconds to load, which may frustrate those replaying or in a hurry.

Excellent for STS fans: Strongly recommended for fans of Slay the Spire who want a deeper narrative and non-linear story. Players who enjoy Hades, Monster Train, or similar deckbuilders will also find this game engaging.

Great for roguelike fans: Highly recommended for fans of roguelikes, roguelike deckbuilders, CCGs, and strategy games. This game appeals to a broad audience within the genre.

Recommends the game broadly: Players generally recommend the game to everyone without any conditions. The sentiment is positive and straightforward.

Worth full price: The game is considered well worth its full price and a great value. Buyers feel it justifies the cost completely.

Genre expansion praised: Recommended for anyone interested in how roguelike deckbuilding can branch out and grow, especially with narrative depth. This game offers a fresh take on the genre.

Community fair range: $12.50 - $20.00.

Session length: 1.3h.

The game requires significant time investment to overcome its steep learning curve and slow progression, but eventually rewards players with a compelling narrative and deep meta-progression, leading to enjoyment after many hours of play. Some players never find it clicking.

Friction: steep learning curve even at easy difficulty; slow progression with tedious unlock requirements; repetitive runs that become boring quickly; unclear tutorial and tooltip explanations; unbalanced combat with overpowered bosses.

Unlock drivers: rewarding progression system; compelling story that provides motivation; variety and discovery-driven design; cool upgrade options for basic attacks and defense; narrative decisions connected to mechanics.

Story and Worldbuilding Enthusiast: Explores dialogue, reads all events, takes multiple characters to see full story, values atmosphere over pure efficiency. Motivation: Immersive narrative and world discovery across multiple runs. Stance: buy.

Deckbuilding Strategist: Experiments with different classes, item sets, and talent combinations; seeks optimal builds and efficient routes; theorycrafts. Motivation: Strategic depth and build optimization. Stance: sale.

Completionist Grinder: Systematically re-runs with all characters following efficient routes; focuses on objectives rather than emergent fun; experiences burnout. Motivation: Completing all endings, achievements, and unlocks. Stance: no buy.

Steam Deck: The game suffers from unreadably small text on the Steam Deck, causing eye strain and making it unplayable for some. Additionally, despite being listed as Verified, it exhibits glitches, leading to a frustrating experience. Stability is inconsistent, with occasional crashes.

Linux and Proton: The game generally runs on Steam Deck (Linux/Proton) with minor issues. Most users report smooth performance after occasional fixes like verifying files. However, one user strongly claims the game is a glitchy mess despite its Verified status, indicating inconsistent experiences. Overall, the game works but may require light troubleshooting.

Monetization: The game features traditional DLC that extends the story. A few reviews highlight that the base game ends without a conclusion, which some perceive as pushing the DLC purchase. However, there is no evidence of microtransactions, pay-to-win mechanics, or predatory monetization. The overall monetization model is standard for a single-player game with paid downloadable content.