I guess in the year Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming out, there are worse days for Slay the Spire 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 2019 deckbuilding roguelike, to enter Early Access. But dang, Mega Crit sure picked a packed day to release this early build. The studio announced that Slay the Spire 2 will come to Steam on March 5, the same day Marathon and Pokémon Pokopia are launching. For a lot of folks, those games might not overlap, but if you’re interested in more than one of them, you’ll have to make some choices about how you spend your day.
The announcement comes with a pretty slick animated trailer showing its various class characters kicking ass, but there’s also a bit of gross fantasy violence in there, so viewer discretion is advised if you’re squeamish.
Check out the trailer below:
Slay the Spire 2 was originally supposed to come to Early Access last year before being delayed into March late last year. The team at Mega Crit said this was due to a combination of personal life disruptions and just a desire to add more to the sequel before it got into player’s hands., though they were also clear that it was not part of the spree of delays that came about as a result of Hollow Knight: Silksong finally getting a release date.
“There’s no single dramatic reason,” the announcement read. “Some personal life stuff hit the team (everyone’s okay!), we kept saying ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’ one too many times, and honestly, the game just needs more polish to meet our standards.” Thus another six months development before the game reaches players.”
But the wait is nearly over now. The original Slay the Spire launched in 2019 after its own Early Access period, and is considered one of the progenitors of the deckbuilding roguelike genre and a major player in its popularity in the years that followed.