Making a sequel like Slay the Spire 2 is a difficult thing. Being a roguelike deckbuilder, there are a lot of mechanical considerations, such as what should change and be expanded versus what should stay the same. Casey Yano, co-creator of the first game and co-founder of studio Mega Crit Games, actually valued an approach closer to FromSoftware's, until playtesters told him otherwise.
"We did mess around with, like, what percentage of the card pool should be different for returning characters. At first, it was less," he explains in an interview with Edge magazine. This logic stems from the Dark Souls series, where you can replicate particular builds – two-handed axe, long-range, and such – across the sequels, with the key differences stemming from the kind of encounters you'll face.
