Should I Buy Afterbirth+ and Repentance?

[Ensemble]

Hey everyone! I saw that the repentance DLC dropped and I want to give it a shot but I have some reservations. I heard that there's been some controversy about the design changes (I follow one person on social media who is an Isaac fanatic and made a huge post about how it was "reducing the fun" a lot for the game, which is how I got word of a new dlc in the first place). What do y'all think?

I've beaten Hush, Mega Satan, Greed, ???, the Lamb,but not Delirium with normal characters. I am not good enough yet to get wins with the lost. if that says anything about my skill level. (I own base game and normal afterbirth). Should I chill and get simply Afterbirth+? Is repentance worth the buy?

Thanks everyone!

[Galetozin]

No. repetance is simply not fun. don't do that.

[Jevmen]

YES, Dont be influenced, play it and take your conclusions.
is 190% worth it, have fun

[orian34]

Yes, it is worth it

[Sirius]

It's a very polarising DLC(Repentance, I mean). People either seem to adore it or hate it. The only way to find out if you'll like it is to play it yourself. As for Afterbirth+, you'll be perfectly fine going in from Afterbirth as it's not that much different difficulty wise and it contains a lot of cool new content. I recommend getting Afterbirth+, but not sure what else to tell you regarding Repentance.

[mehmet]

You should 100% Afterbirth first. Then Afterbirth+.

[K1]

id wait a bit on the repentance as the mod support isnt up to date yet.
afterbirth+ has mod support so its a must have

[NaityWan]

just do it

[dwinters62]

Honestly, just wait for someone to make an afterbirth + mod that adds everything. There are so many bad game design choices in the newest dlc that it's borderline not even worth buying.

[Galetozin]

Originally posted by dwinters62:

Honestly, just wait for someone to make an afterbirth + mod that adds everything. There are so many bad game design choices in the newest dlc that it's borderline not even worth buying.

yeah, i really regreat spending money in this dlc just to turn the game tedious. but AB+ is totally worth

[Blue Hair]

It depends on you're opinion on difficulty. If you like harder games, Get it with repentance. Like easier games, maybe start with just AB+. Also if you're brand new to the game with no previous knowledge, Jumping right into repentance might be better because it includes a lot of changes to old items and features, which would be easier to learn instead of learning, getting repentance, and then relearning all of it again.

[prozac //]

If you enjoy this game, go ahead and get both of the DLCs.

[noname]

I think the opinions on Afterbirth+ vs. Repentance are kind of funny, considering that for the longest time people were saying not to buy Afterbirth+ because it made the game arbitrarily difficult, and now people are saying Repentance does that while Afterbirth+ is totally fine.

I mention this, OP, because I think you should take the opinions on Repentance's difficulty with a grain of salt. Afterbirth+ changed a number of things that players had to adjust to; they couldn't simply steamroll the game with their familiar broken combos and thus the game was suddenly "too hard." But people adjusted to the game, and now the once-begrudged Afterbirth+ is put on a pedestal compared to Repentance. I think people will come around to Repentance in the same way that people came around to Afterbirth+.

For what it's worth, I personally really like Repentance, even more so than Afterbirth+. I think some of the new items are some of the most fun and interesting yet (Dark Arts, TMTRAINER, etc.) and it rebalances a lot of items that used to be considered useless. It also adds a whole new set of levels and a TON of hidden characters. I would really just recommend getting both to give yourself the full experience; if you can get through most of the game right now, you shouldn't have much trouble with both DLCs.

[Daegon]

First play AB+ and try to unlock achievements as much as you can, once you're done with AB+ you can consider to buy Repentance.

[Dutczar]

Starting next update mods will be back anyways, and people will probably make mods to revert the "bad" changes anyway. Once that happens, I see no reason not to buy Repentance besides being short on money or disliking the game.

Personally I do love Repentance, even if I disagree with some of the design choices, it's a bit different but ultimately not that harder than usual for me, however I was able to 100% the game in AB+. More importantly a ton of the new content and buffs to some garbage items, even if it's only some. It's probably harder for a completionist, but not going for extra content just because you wouldn't be able to get all of it is quite silly. The new characters are absolutely worth it just on their own. And like I said, even if you can't get to them yourself, mods or using the debug console in the game for unlocks should do the trick, though I'd say that's a last resort if you feel like you just can't unlock them no matter how hard you try. Still better than not trying them I'd say.

[Striped]

To put it as delicately as I can, after spending many hours with Repentance, I feel as though I can safely say that most of the complaints levied at Repentance and its "anti-fun nerfs and difficulty" are extreme overreactions. Judging at your current progress in the game, nothing should stop you from jumping straight into Repentance, as it's a fantastic DLC overall and it feels dramatically more polished than Afterbirth+ ever was, and you shouldn't have a problem tackling it. The vast ocean of new content it adds should NOT be missed out on, it's the best DLC the game has ever received by a mile. I wouldn't even say it's dramatically harder than AB+ at this point, the meta's just shifted slightly and a bunch of instant-win items were toned down so you actually have to engage with the game more often instead of shutting your brain off and steamrolling it (which, news flash, a vast majority of the nerfed items are still immensely powerful and not "ruined." Yes, even Dark Bum. Yes, even Maw of the Void), and there are even a LOT of buffed items and countless new combos too that people don't mention as often. You might not even notice anything dramatically different if you don't read patch notes or listen to cherrypicked complaints. No matter what, the game is still fun and engaging, and not made anywhere near impossibly hard by any of the changes. Try not to let the comments discourage you, Repentance is the best the game has ever been.

And, honestly, at the point you're at, most of the changes won't impact you. A lot of changes seem deliberately aimed at late-game powergamers who were finding consistent yet repetitive ways to steamroll the game (mostly specific Devil Room items or breaking Shops, or just holding R until they got specific items) and ended up optimizing the fun out of the game (though I know plenty enjoyed that). If anything, the game designers finally put their foot down for once to restore some order to the game, which seems mostly encouraged by Kilburn instead of Edmund, let's be honest. The focus is more on item combos, instead of single items... though run-winning items still exist, even the nerfed ones.

I don't actually understand where some people are coming from when they say the new DLC is "tedious" or anything similar, like... Surely this is a criticism at Isaac as a whole, not just this DLC? How are you playing the game to make it feel this way? Is it because people can't kill a boss in under 20 seconds? Or they lost a few runs in a row? Spending too long on floors? I'm trying to wrap my head around what makes Repentance specifically tedious and unfun compared to previous DLCs, besides some growing pains about specific changes, and I just can't see it. It really just feels like people are criticizing Isaac in general, same goes for difficulty now that powergamers are forced to actually engage with the game design. Can someone explain this to me?