Slay The Spire 1.0 out now, with a higher price - and new content planned
Don't delay, slay
Yes, I'm trying to retroactively validate playing Slay The Spire for almost 200 hours - and all too often while I was supposed to be working on other games - by continually posting about it now. Here's my Slay The Spire review, here are some delightful Slay The Spire character mods and here is the best mod of all time, for anything ever. And this post, right here, is the one-day-belated news that Spire hit version 1.0 yesterday.
If you're an early access-averse sort, you need no longer get this particular Satan behind thee: this jim-dandy deck-builder/roguelite is now wearing its big boy shoes. Unfortunately, that also means it's a fair whack pricier.
Spire now costs £19.49/$25/€21, which is a big leap from the £11.99/$15.99/€15.99 it's been for the past year-and-a-bit. Given that you will play it for dozens of hours minimum, it's still a bargain as far as I'm concerned.
Oh look, here's a neat-o launch trailer too:
The release version sadly doesn't include any notable new treats that the most recent early access builds didn't have. The 1.0 patch notes are all about optimisation, minor bug-splatting and slightly speeding up a few things. For we long-term players, the overwhelmingly good news is - finally - the removal of the damnable "EARLY_ACCESS" and version number text overlay that's been mangling all our screenshots for the past 14 months.
A key stat to demonstrate how much Spire has grown since its Nov 2017 release: total cards have leapt from 189 to 283. Each of those cards had to be meticulously balanced with all other cards, and with all 64 enemy types and even all 161 relics. In my Slay The Spire review, I called it "a miracle of design", and that is precisely why - they've made all that work, without anything ever feeling over-powered or out-and-out unfair. It's a helluva thing.
Devs Mega Crit promise they won't be resting on their laurels now their baby's shed its work-in-progress skin, however:
"Yep, more content is coming to Slay the Spire! There are a few more PC-specific features we couldn't squeeze in but that will come as an update later on. Also, more 'content' will be coming... No spoilers today."
Please please be a new player-character. Or make the amazing Slimebound mod official. And add 'googly eyes' to the options menu, yeah?
Also: maybe add a campfire before the Heart? Pleeeeeeeeeease?