History VideoGame / MonsterTrain

''Monster Train'' is a {{Roguelike}} DeckbuildingGame developed by Shiny Shoe and published by Creator/GoodShepherdEntertainment. It was released for PC on May 21, 2020, on UsefulNotes/XboxOne on December 17, 2020, on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch on August 19, 2021, and on iOS on October 27, 2022. Its DLC, ''The Last Divinity'', was first released on March 25th, 2021.

* BadassNormal: The first hordes that get thrown your way are all human warriors and mages, entirely normal and entirely willing to serve the Light and throw their lives at the demons... and they do quite well. Daedalus is the epitome, being the first boss and a man who can storm a train full of demons and beat many of them into submission with only a {{wrench|Whack}}.

* CerebusRetcon: While the game was never all sunshine and roses, the plot wasn't really complicated and success meant a happy ending. When the ''The Last Divinity'' DLC was released, [[spoiler:the backstory of the world became a straight-up CosmicHorrorStory, with [[JerkassGods Divinities uncaring about anything in the world]] [[EldritchAbomination and possessing enough power to make and unmake new worlds on a whim]], while all the struggle in the game is made futile by a GroundhogDayLoop, created by the Last Divinity, which is implied to be going insane]].

* ContractualBossImmunity: Bosses are immune to instant kills but not other effects such as being dazed or silenced. Silence in particular can permanently disable some very dangerous reaction skills such as Seraph the Patient's ability to buff his stats every time you play a unit or spell on his floor, which would normally make him hard counter magic-heavy builds.

* CowardlyMooks: Collectors, tiny cherubic angels hauling sacks of money ([[BanditMook implied to be from looting Hell]]), will sometimes show up on a random floor. If you let them live a turn they'll escape, if you manage to kill them you net a nice little profit.
* DamageOverTime: The Stygian Guard's specialty via Frostbite. Gets better if you can combine it the Cuttlebeard relic, which stops it from decaying; stack it on the boss hard enough and early enough and YouAreAlreadyDead.

** Blight cards are given to you from certain events and unlike Scourge cards, they stay in your deck between battles, and some of them can't be removed at all. One particular event has you hold onto three of Dante's Candles, which are Unpurgeable and deal damage to your Pyre while holding them at end of turn, but later you get to put Dante the Deceptive into your deck, a powerful unit who gains extra attacks per Blight card in your deck.

* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler:The Last Divinity is a borderline example. While its shape is humanoid, it's as tall as the Boneshaker, its body is formed from numerous rainbow crystals that seem to be coneccted by light/fire looking energy. It has complete control over [[TimeMaster time]] and [[SpaceMaster space]], enough to trap the Boneshaker in a GroundhogDayLoop and [[TimeAbyss it has existed before the world was created]]. Still, it has an understandable thought process, judging from its battle dialogue, though a piece of flavour text implies it's going insane.]]

** The Awoken and Umbra are Powerhouse. Their units are resilient with good stats, plentiful healing, and a tendency to grow stronger over time. However, individually they have their own weaknesses — Awoken are very tanky without much in the way of offense, and thus require some kind of assistance on that front lest they be eventually overrun. The Umbra, meanwhile, are a GatheringSteam faction, and thus rely heavily on setting up their Morsels to buff up their stats.

* TheGhost: Herzal, of the titular Hoard that leaves Artifacts scattered all over, who built the Train and forged Hell's half of the Covenant, and who writes every note in the Logbook. [[spoiler:One of the Cavern events is implied to take place at his frozen corpse.]] ''The Last Divinity'' contains more info about his past: [[spoiler:before he came to Hell, he was one of the Judges, beings tasked with creating laws for the world — he specifically wrote down morality. It is implied he got fed up with the Divinities' [[JerkassGods total apathy regarding life of mortals]] and orchestrated an attack against them. However, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he came to regret his actions so much]] that [[LaserGuidedAmnesia he had his memories of that time removed]]]].

* HeroAntagonist: Downplayed. Your opponents are angels who invaded Hell and brought "order" by freezing the place. [[LightIsNotGood Which also killed all the native life]].
* JerkassGods: [[spoiler:The Divinities originally created the world solely as a toy for their Child. According to one of the flavour texts, entire civilizations were raised and later cast aside when the Child got bored with them. Now the last of them [[GroundhogDayLoop trapped the Boneshaker in an eternal time loop]] and it's implied it's going insane.]]

** The Umbra clan's dynamic is the production of Morsels, weak allies that give benefits when the [[DevourTheDragon larger demons eat them.]]

* MotiveMisidentification: Hinted at. [[spoiler:Several of Fel and Seraph's comments suggest they didn't betray the Convent and invade Hell solely out of ambition, but because someone close to them (or Heaven itself) would die if they didn't. Seraph even says that Herzal betrayed ''them'', and lore from the ''The Last Divinity'' DLC does indicate that Herzal orchestrated an attack after tiring of their apathy towards mortal lives.]]
* {{Necromancer}}: The Melting Remnant. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with them actually, as they don't actually die. Instead, they are people made of wax who are constantly melting and then reforming. Played straight when you use their cards to reform other units, despite them not being made of wax.

** The [[TheGoomba Train Stewards]] are a general-purpose one, being the cheapest, most basic unit available to the player, regardless of build. They have lousy stats and no special traits, and largely exist to be space-fillers and meat shields until you can replace them with something better... unless you have the [[EliteMook Advanced Prototype relic.]]

* VillainProtagonist: Downplayed. Your main goal is to deliver your train's Pyre to the heart of Hell and reignite the flames that angels have snuffed out. Said process also restores the native life the angels' [[EvilIsDeathlyCold chill]] has destroyed, and restoring the BalanceOfGoodAndEvil. Many battle quotes show the demons showing genuine rage and pain over how the Winged have destroyed their homes.

** Umbra technically has their Morsels who can be used this way in a pinch, but it's not the most optimal use of them.

* ResurrectionDeathLoop: The Melting Remnant's mechanic. If the angels don't get them many of their units 'burn out' after a set number of turns anyway (since they're candle people). But they have any number of ways of being reborn, [[CameBackStrong usually coming back even stronger.]] In essence they have a bunch of [[GlassCannon glass cannons]] that keep mending themselves.

* SquishyWizard: The Stygian Guard specialize in very powerful magic abilities, but generally have very low health. Embodied by their champion Tethys, who takes up next-to-no room and augments magic, but can literally be {{One Hit Kill}}ed by the very first angels that hit your train. To help compensate for this, they have a line of StoneWall units that get beefier as more spells are cast - get a spammy enough build going and they can become virtually invincible.

** Demon Fiend is a Hellhorned unit that costs 4 Ember (more than the default max of 3), but has a hefty stat of 50/50.

** Averted for the other clans. The game's basic rules make it so that spells will constantly reshuffle per normal for a deckbuilding game, but killed units are gone for the rest of the Battle.

** The Melting Remnant give as good as they get in this department. Rector Flicker's default card isn't the usual spell, but instead a 0 Ember, 1 space monster that he can be specced to return them to your hand (and with some upgrades, the returned version will be buffed ) after they die.

''Monster Train'' is a {{Roguelike}} DeckbuildingGame developed by Shiny Shoe and published by Creator/GoodShepherdEntertainment. It was released for PC on May 21, 2020, on UsefulNotes/XboxOne on December 17, 2020, on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch on August 19, 2021, and on iOS on October 27, 2022. Its DLC, ''The Last Divinity'', was first released on March 25th 2021.

* CerebusRetcon: While the game was never all sunshine and roses, the plot wasn't really complicated and success meant a happy ending. When the ''The Last Divinity'' DLC was released, [[spoiler:the backstory of the world became a straight-up CosmicHorrorStory, with [[JerkassGods Divinities uncaring about anything in the world]] [[EldritchAbomination and possessing enough power to make and unmake new worlds on a whim]], while all the struggle in the game is made futile by GroundhogDayLoop, created by the Last Divinity, which is implied to be going insane]]

* DisabilitySuperpower: Wurmkin are eyeless and cannot talk. However their claws are strong enough to etch sign language into crystal, and they evidently have no difficulty locating their enemies.
* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler:The Last Divinity is a borderline example. While its shape is humanoid, it's as tall as the Boneshaker, its body is formed from numerous rainbow crystals that seem to be coneccted by light/fire looking energy. It has complete control over [[TimeMaster time]] and [[SpaceMaster space]], enough to trap the Boneshaker in a GroundhogDayLoop and [[TimeAbyss it has existed before the world was created.]] Still, it has an understandable thought process, judging from its battle dialogue, though a piece of flavour text implies it's going insane]]

** The Awoken and Umbra are Powerhouse. Their units are resilient with good stats, plentiful healing, and a tendency to grow stronger over time. However, individually they have their own weaknesses- Awoken are very tanky without much in the way of offense, and thus require some kind of assistance on that front or be eventually overrun. The Umbra, meanwhile, are a GatheringSteam faction, and thus rely heavily on setting up their Morsels to buff up their stats.

* TheGhost: Herzal, of the titular Hoard that leaves Artifacts scattered all over, who built the Train and forged Hell's half of the Covenant, and who writes every note in the Logbook. [[spoiler:One of the Cavern events is implied to take place at his frozen corpse.]] ''The Last Divinity'' contains more info about his past: [[spoiler:before he came to Hell, he was one of the Judges, beings tasked with creating laws for the world - he specifically wrote down morality. It is implied he got fed up with the Divinities' [[JerkassGods total apathy regarding life of mortals]] and orchestrated an attack against them. However, he came to regret his actions so much that [[LaserGuidedAmnesia he had his memories of that time removed]].]]