Come and join us to chat all things Cobalt Core in today's RPS Game Club liveblog

Hope everyone's warming up their discussion chords to the sound of some Self-Defense. We'll be kicking things off in five minutes.

So, here we are folks. Welcome to the RPS Game Club liveblog for Cobalt Core. To kick things off, I'm going to start with a controversial question. Favourite Cobalt Core characters: GO.

(the answer is obviously Soggins)

caff says: Hello all, happy "almost end of the week" :) I will be playing the game alongside being on the liveblog.

Welcome Caff! I approve of this very good use of multi-tasking. How is the run going?

Hello everybody! I am here to Core some Cobalts, and I'm all out of, erm, sorry, what was the question again?

Based on your comments from last week's post, it seems there's also a lot of love for Books, Isaac, Drake and Riggs (not necessarily in that order).

caff says: Favourite character so far (as I haven't unlocked them all): Riggs. Cutest nose, plus also has the best dialogue.

Very sound reasoning.

bagheera says: I tried out the demo, wasn't too impressed, than later saw that RPS is hyping the game, gave it another go and NOW I LITERALLY can't get myself to do anything other than playing CC :0 thanks RPS <3

Our work here is done... *flips down shades*

I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze says: I almost completed my first run yesterday before being demolished by the Core which had two bars of health left. It was my first time reaching that point. That was dispiriting, but I can still count it as a win, right? Anyone? That brought me back to beating Hades to within an inch of his life before he sent me back into the underworld. Humbling. I never defeated him either.

Oooo, so close, I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze! I've also had several moments like this. Always gutting, but I think there's still a good sense of accomplishment to be gained from it at the same time.

Greetings, fellow Cobaltians! I hope everyone's cat.exes are online and ready!

I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze says: I almost completed my first run yesterday before being demolished by the Core which had two bars of health left. It was my first time reaching that point. That was dispiriting, but I can still count it as a win, right? Anyone? That brought me back to beating Hades to within an inch of his life before he sent me back into the underworld. Humbling. I never defeated him either.

I wonder who would win in a fight... Hades or the Core?

Speaking of Cat.Exe, I think she might be my favourite character (who isn't also Soggins). She's got some good quips, that Cat.

Also, she's a cat. That definitely earns her a few points in the RPS Treehouse.

Also very true.

Here's a thing to interrogate: does your favourite character also correspond with you liking their specific deck of cards? I quite like engineer and drone expert Isaac as a presence, for example, but I sometimes struggle to use him effectively in battle.

Yeah, so far I've found Isaac pretty hard to use well. But when it goes right, ah, it's wonderful. Such a feeling of power to just sit back and let your army of drones and missiles tear everything apart.

I do feel I've gotten better at knowing how to use Isaac over time, but as in Pokemon, I'm mostly a 'hit things with the highest attack power possible' kind of person, so the decks I like most tend to be Peri or Drake.

I think Isaac probably works best with you've got Riggs in there as well to help with manoeuvring. Without that extra mobility, lining up lots of attack drones can be tricky, I find.

I've enjoyed being able to do a high-manouevrability run or a tank run or a kind of whacky, unpredictable blend of the two. Not really experimented with different crew yet.

Lazersaurus says: Riggs is my favorite character, but her cards are in that "necessary-but-kinda-dull" category. Movement is absolutely key, but it's not nearly as exciting to me as watching Big Number Explosions like I get with, say, Drake.

Yeah, I think it was my first run without Riggs that I realised just how vital she can be to surviving those later stages. I missed her a lot in those moments!

Something I've only just picked up on is the nice little designs of the cards themselves. Lookit:

That middle one is really great. And not too distracting either, which is a tough balance to find.

They are very pretty, I do agree! Subtle, but a lovely bit of detail.

caff says: I love everything about the graphics, but I've lost so many runs due to me missing some small detail -like a flashing icon on the enemy. I hanker for an undo button, but acknowledge that is probably cheating.

I was actually just about to bring up that point, caff! I wish an undo button did exist.

caff says: I love everything about the graphics, but I've lost so many runs due to me missing some small detail -like a flashing icon on the enemy. I hanker for an undo button, but acknowledge that is probably cheating.

I have definitely mis-clicked/pressed the wrong button when playing on Steam Deck a few times. Undo buttons are an interesting dilemma. I like them, but I do also like having to simply commit to an action and seeing what happens. In this case, though, I think it stings a bit more as actions happen immediately, rather than all at the end of a turn. Perhaps it needs a 'Confirm' option to doubly make sure that's the card you want to play?

The only cards I struggle with are the ones where they use X-marks to indicate that you're emptying your shield reservoir and turning it all into evasion juice, or something to that effect. Otherwise the design is wonderfully readable.

YES, Edwin. This gets me every time.

Yeah. I like their approach, but I do think there ought to maybe be a plain-text option in the settings for people who want it, where it just tells you what it does in words.

I think it does a good job with the mouse-over text in this respect. It's very generous in telling you what all the icons do right there on the battle screen.

Lazersaurus says: Into the Breach handled undos pretty elegantly, where you could try out infinite combinations of positioning but you had to commit to the move once you started doing damage. Something like that might work here.

Very true! I feel Into The Breach needed this as there were so many more strategic possibilities you could commit to there. Cobalt Core is a bit simpler in this respect, as you're limited by what cards you have, but yeah, a 'Confirm' button would be a nice option all the same, I think.

Apart from accidental mis-clicks, how did folks find the game's overall difficulty? Incident Electron wrote last week:

"What I loved most about this game is the perfectly pitched difficulty. Even on the harder modes it's quite manageable if you know what you're doing. I've always found Slay the Spire oppressively difficult after the first Act, and there's none of that here.

I actually somehow beat the Core on my very first run. No idea how that happened.

I did, too! Unlike Balatro, which I still have not won.

I guess it disappointed me a little? Even though that's not exactly fair, because I probably just got very lucky with my cards and artifacts, and I rather dislike when roguelites are just impossible to win without pumping some points into the metaprogression system first. I guess I just like feeling like a game has a challenge that I can slowly overcome over several runs. A bit like a soulslike boss, in a way.

Lazersaurus says: Cobalt Core skews easy for me, a person who is generally very bad at these types of games, but that's really really not a bad thing, here. The difficulty meshes well with the art style and music to create a pretty relaxing reoguelike cardbattling experience, which is a feat I think should be celebrated.

Hear hear.

Jonny Crawley-Page says: I often saw Cobalt Core described as Slay the Spire meets FTL, but I think it's far more similar to Into the Breach. Seeing what the enemy's about to do turns every turn into a puzzle to solve, which is great. Though it equally has the same problem of meaning you have to see the your doom spelled out in front of you before you hit end turn

Yeah, it's definitely the bones of Into The Breach hidden inside an FTL trench coat. Which is great! I love FTL (possibly more than ITB), but I think Into The Breach's genius (seeing what the enemy's about to do) is easier to successfully replicate in other games.

I was surprised I got to the end on the first go, but I've also lost several more runs since as I've experimented with different crew combos. I think that's where the difficulty and longevity of a game like Cobalt Core comes from for me - while the game itself fundamentally remains the same, it's what you throw at it that gives it its sense of challenge.

pete says: One day I will be on time for these, sorry

You are welcome any time, pete!

Jonny Crawley-Page says: I found the difficulty pretty well balanced - I'm awful at deck builders but this seems approachable on Normal, and a good challenge on Hard. I haven't been brave enough to try anything above that though I wouldn't normally dare experimenting with risky builds, but Normal seems forgiving enough that you can afford a few mistakes

I'm with you on this. I've tried a couple of Hard runs, but failed them every time. Definitely need to up my game at this level!

Has anyone got to the end credits of Cobalt Core? Eulrich said last week:

I have to say it's a charming game, but I'm not sure I'll finish the narrative at any point.

Personally, I think this is a totally acceptable stance. I'm not sure I'll ever be good enough to finish it completely and do all the character combos, but there's still a lot of enjoyment to be had from doing those different runs in the mean time, I think.

Yeah, I seriously doubt I'll ever 100% finish it, despite it being a very lovely game. Hm. I wonder which of the major roguelites has the highest ratio of 100% achievements...

I will say though, the soundtrack will stay with me.

The soundtrack is indeed amazing.

Lazersaurus says: Winning 18 times in a row admittedly eventually became kind of a slog, especially having to win win, say, Isaac, who is hugely RNG-based. But by that time, I was too invested in the story to not keep going.

Big congrats! I, too, hope to achieve this level of mastery one day...

Word of warning: it is nearly RPS home time, so we'll be wrapping up this liveblog shortly. Now's the time for any final thoughts or comments! (or best character nominations!). Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Cat.exe. By dint of being cat.exe.

caff says: Have Katherine or any of the team or commenters played Sunshine Heavy Industries? Myself and others were interested in knowing what it's like.

I have! I wrote about it for supporters earlier in the month.

It's a much more straightforward puzzle game - building spaceships to specific specs - but it's good fun and has a very similar vibe!

That's two counts for Cat, one for Riggs... Any more for any more? Get 'em in quick!

I'm calling it. I think Cat takes it!

As should always be the case.

And with that, I will bring this Game Club liveblog to a close. Thanks to everyone who joined us for it! Really hope you enjoyed playing Cobalt Core this month, and it's been great seeing so many you get into it and enjoy it. I'll leave the comments open for the next little while just in case folks want to chat further, but otherwise, do look forward to a new Game Club pick starting tomorrow!

Lovely stuff! Have good evenings all, and thanks for dropping by!

caff says: Oh yeah so you did, I need to go and re-read your thoughts! Memory of a sieve...

Haha, no worries!