PinstripedBarbarian

FYI beating the Merchant??? rewarded me with 300 gold and a bunch of the offbrand relics (presumably all they had but I didn't check beforehand)

Slay the Spire 2 dev compared it to unexciting 'chicken noodle soup' before its extraordinary launch, but it turns out people really, really like their soup "It's not exciting, but I hope people like our soup," said Mega Crit co-founder Casey Yano.

PEOPLE LIKE THE SOUP.

www.pcgamer.com/games/card-g...

Slay the Spire II introduced a "Foul Potion" which you can throw at the merchant to gain 100 gold.

It also introduced the "Merchant???" who sells offbrand relics.

...who also doesn't want to buy those potions apparently.

For perspective, Silksong hit a peak of 587,150, and that game's release broke Steam, Nintendo eShop, and more.

a group of cartoon characters are standing next to each other in a cave Alt: Chibi Slay the Spire heroes bobbing their heads

Slay the Spire II broke the record for peak concurrent players for a roguelite on Steam.

By 5 times the previous amount.

Until last week, Don't Starve Together held the record with 115,925.

Then StS2 hit 574,639.

It's the 20th highest peak player count in Steam's history.

It's GOOD.

Also IT'S BEEN OUT 1 WEEK. The central gameplay is the same, but you have NO idea what all will come about as this EARLY ACCESS game develops. Give it some damn time.

Changing up the StS formula would really be a 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' situation. More change for the sake of change isn't a virtue.

StS has 2 new characters, a bunch of new mechanics, dozens of new cards / relics / items / events, and a whole new co-op mode. That's already a lot.

I saw people complain that Slay the Spire II is too similar to the first game. Saying it feels like dlc not a sequel, or it's just the same thing with better graphics.

Being similar to StS1 is GOOD.

StS1 is the platonic ideal of roguelite deckbuilders. Others in the genre are measured against it.

You're welcome / I'm sorry

I thought it was Zenos for a second.

Quote still kinda works.

...and now I want to see Sailor Zenos adventures.

The light fades.

Will you save it?

MY turn to make a conspiracy theory: Tahk0 put out a theory video he knows will be seen as absurd, just so his next real one will be taken less seriously, only to have an even BIGGER gotcha moment when it turns out to be true!

IT'S GENIUS

But yeah neat theory! Never knew about the Peach obsession.

This is exactly the reason I haven't even downloaded Balatro after someone gifted it to me a few months back. I'm neck-deep in the Spire and I KNOW Balatro would finish the job.

Bowser with cannons on his shoulder similar to Blastoise, seen in a Mario × Pokemon crossover panel

Characters from the Pokemon Adventures manga wearing masks.

Mario Bros. 2 screen with Luigi next to a key. Three masks hang in the background, one of which is a Phanto enemy that will chase you if you take the key.

There's also this. It's a long shot, but still

Blastoise

Bowser

Of the three original trainers, she's the one with the big turtle, too. Just saying.

Over all, week 1 has been very positive. For "early access" it's pretty solid and closer to a full game that remains open to balance changes. Very much looking forward to more stuff in future updates.

Bosses and Elites feel fine, maybe a touch on the easy side compared to StS1 but I'm still on low Ascension so maybe that's all.
Normal enemies on the other hand can feel like they're on par with Elites sometimes. Some are super dangerous or overly punishing.

HP feels wild. Some characters start super low, but there are a bunch of ways to increase max HP. I think starting a little bit higher and making increases a little less common would be more balanced, but as is it does feel more impactful at least.

The lack of Energy relics feels like they want to shift away from 'requiring' an energy relic after an Act Boss. I like the idea of more variety, and it makes energy cards more valuable, but... I dunno some runs still feel stifled at 3 energy. Maybe some unlocks I don't have yet will help this.

New relics and cards and potions and Ancient blessings feel very good. Not many seem blatantly weak or fall into the never-take-this category. Some are surprisingly strong compared to StS1.
Character-specific cards that are colorless now are neat.
Not a fan of some rarity changes though. RIP Defrag.

Necrobinder has fantastic ludonarrative built in. Discard pile empowerment plus draw-pile sacrifice is great life-and-death theming. The focus on Ethereal is cool too.
Osty is wonderful, but unless you focus on him, he's just sorta... there. His cards are fine. I just wish he did more by default.

Regent is WEIRD but good. Probably the widest range of "WOW" to "meh" right now.
I think Stars as a mech lacks... something, but there's some good stuff already. The Sword looked ridiculously strong at first, but it requires dedicated cards so not really. The colorless card focus is a bit strange.

Defect is very strong. New lightning and frost stuff is fun. Glass is interesting and helps with D's AoE. Power-decks are still absurd, especially with the new energy-refund power.
Temp Focus over permanent Focus is... okay. It works fine. I still don't think Defrag should be rare.

Silent is fantastic. She has a ton of Block support so she can get tanky fast, and Sly makes discard-builds a ton of fun. I like the emphasis on card draw she has now.
Shivs seem plenty strong still, but I haven't found as much poison stuff yet? Again, maybe it's just locked still.

I like Ironclad having more HP-based mechanics. Minor updates like powers triggering on lost HP rather than just costing HP makes them feel very strong.
I feel like there's a lack of Exhaust synergy, but I might just not have it all unlocked yet. Still a lot of fun.

Slay the Spire II week 1 observations:
Events are way more interesting and fun than in StS1
Co-op is a blast
Having explicit lore to discover is great
New characters have fun mechanics that interact in really neat ways
Old characters feel better while remaining faithful to their original versions

PinstripedBarbarian - Twitch Hey new Spire just dropped

Slay the Spire II is still out!
www.twitch.tv/pinstripedba...

A shot from "Digital Circus Ep 8 Trailer." Kinger stands center frame with a concerned or confused look. For a split second, a figure with a floating hand and robe identical to Kinger's (except for the robe being red) can be seen on the left side of the screen.

Close up from the last shot with the red robe and floating hand.

Queenie's door picture

"Oh there's a trailer for the Amazing Digital Circus episode that's coming out soon. It'll probably have a bunch of cool looking shots that are nearly impossible to actually WAIT IS THAT QUEENIE WALKING IN FROM THE LEFT"