A lot of people have said Slay the Spire 2 is "like the first one but better" and that's very true, but I'd like to go deeper on why it's better. Because it's not just better animations and more content, there's better game design too.
There is a lot of new content in StS 2, but all of it revolves around a central theme that permeates throughout the entire game design : Give the player more meaningful and interesting choices.
StS 1 already did that a lot, but the sequel goes even further on this concept.
There are a lot more choices for the player to make in general, and all of them feel a lot more fun and interesting than they did previously.
Be it Neow's Blessing, the Ancients, the ? events, or even the card design itself, the game feels a lot looser with what it allows itself to be.
There were important and game-changing choices in the 1st game, but they often felt too drastic. A Snecko Eye? Too risky, I'd rather take the good old Sozu. A random boss relic? Nah, I'll take the +7 max HP.
Here, the choices give a lot more ways for the player to go in synergistic directions, with balanced drawbacks, and without changing fundamental mechanics too much.
I really like the card enchantments, too, which are such a clever addition.
Here, it's not just the game giving you a random reward, it's YOU who is choosing what card to put the reward on. A lot of agency is given to the player to create their deck of choice, while still giving them challenges.
Another neat choice, I absolutely adore the "starter pack" blessing at the start of a run, where you give all your gold to pick one of two packs of 3 cards. And you can see the cards before picking!
What a wonderful way to get a semi-random bonus while giving agency.
And the list goes on and on.
There are so many of these game design decisions everywhere, that seek to give the player more interesting decisions while keeping the game balanced.
I also love the changes to the card pools of returning characters. I can't speak a lot about Ironclad or Silent, but I can speak about my beloved Defect, which I played almost exclusively in StS 1.
I love the way that they shifted the design to allow pivots and cross-synergies between the archetypes :
- The 0-cost block card gives statuses instead of decreasing, like Steam Barrier did.
- There's a power that draws 2 when you draw a status.
- There's a power that gives energy when playing powers.
- There's a 0-cost card that gives Focus.
- There's a 0-cost card that triggers Lightning.
- There's a power that draws 2 when you draw a status.
- There's a power that gives energy when playing powers.
- There's a 0-cost card that gives Focus.
- There's a 0-cost card that triggers Lightning.
The character feels a lot more loose with how it can be played, and with the way it can pivot between archetypes.
Beyond those, there's also a clear intent to focus more on the synergies and the fun parts of each character, and to get to the core of what makes them fun to play.
The new enemies also fit into this intent of giving choices :
- One of the most infamous elites, the Entomancer, gives you a Dazed if you hit it. Do you try to kill it fast, or do you try to win another way?
- The biting scrolls aren't difficult to beat, but they reduce your max HP if they hit you, so you need to choose between going slow and keeping your max HP, or going fast and maybe taking a hit or two.
- The Phrog Parasite isn't much of a threat until it splits, but until then it's giving you really bad statuses. Do you spend time to get ready for the split, at the cost of more garbage in your deck?
- The Knights elite have either really powerful debuffs, or hit really hard, which one do you focus first? If you focus the one making your cards Ethereal, you might just die to the one bashing you on the head with big damage.
- The biting scrolls aren't difficult to beat, but they reduce your max HP if they hit you, so you need to choose between going slow and keeping your max HP, or going fast and maybe taking a hit or two.
- The Phrog Parasite isn't much of a threat until it splits, but until then it's giving you really bad statuses. Do you spend time to get ready for the split, at the cost of more garbage in your deck?
- The Knights elite have either really powerful debuffs, or hit really hard, which one do you focus first? If you focus the one making your cards Ethereal, you might just die to the one bashing you on the head with big damage.
I could go on and on, but you get the point. Choices, choices, choices.
Another change : the Epochs. I've heard that some players dislike the Epoch system, but I personally find it great. Previously, the unlock system felt like an obstacle to access the content of the game. Now, it feels like a proper reward.
Learning about the characters and the world gives them a lot more flesh, and helps a lot with the Dark Souls style of storytelling that almost no one bothered to follow in StS 1.
Seeing the unlock conditions also gives a meta goal to the runs beyond climbing the ascensions, which was sorely needed.
Anyway, I could continue, but I'll stop here. I hope that I've conveyed at least in part why exactly StS 2 feels a lot better to play than the first, beyond just polish.