What happened
Slay the Spire 2 is still one of the clearest Steam review-volatility stories on April 20, 2026 because the backlash did not stop when Major Update #1 landed. The main branch update, version 0.103.2, went live on April 16, 2026 and pulled in "all of the content, changes, and fixes from the beta branch over the past month," according to Mega Crit's Steam announcement.
As of April 20, 2026, the Steam store page lists the game's recent reviews as Mixed, with 51 percent of 58,161 recent reviews positive. The same storefront also shows English reviews as Very Positive, with 94 percent of 47,565 English-language reviews positive. Those are not identical time windows, so they should not be treated as a clean apples-to-apples comparison. They still matter together because they show how far the current storefront warning signal has drifted from the game's stronger long-term English-language reputation.
That is why this remains newly relevant today instead of just being an April 16 patch story. The key development on April 20 is not the existence of a negative spike by itself. It is that four days after the patch, the recent score is still sitting at a weak 51 percent across more than 58,000 reviews. For the stable tracking destination, compare the Slay the Spire 2 game page with the wider Steam review analytics hub.
Why it matters
The important point is not that players dislike every balance pass. Early Access deckbuilders need constant tuning. The important point is that Slay the Spire 2 now has a measurable storefront trust problem around balance direction.
Mega Crit's own announcement said version 0.103.2 moved the previous beta cycle into main because the team felt the beta branch was stable enough for main-branch players. Reporting around the update then tied the backlash to the same themes that drove the earlier beta dispute: harder infinites, more expensive card removal at higher ascensions, and frustration around difficulty and boss pacing. That makes this a repeat patch-backlash case, not a one-day complaint burst.
The storefront split also needs careful interpretation. Steam publicly exposes the recent all-language score and the lifetime English-language score, but it does not prove why each review was written. The safest conclusion is narrower: update 0.103.2 has left the current public buying signal much weaker than the game's longer-term English-language reputation would suggest. That is enough to affect conversion, trust, and how new players read the patch discourse.
What happens next
Mega Crit probably should not stop making large balance changes. That would be the wrong lesson for a roguelike deckbuilder in Early Access. If dominant loops, easy infinites, or warped boss matchups stay untouched, the long-term game gets worse.
The bigger lesson is that balance communication now carries storefront risk. When a game is this visible on Steam, patch notes need to do more than list changes. They need to explain what play pattern is being protected, what pattern is being reduced, and what evidence would make the team reverse course. Mega Crit already emphasized that changes moving from beta to main are not final. The next test is whether players believe that promise after seeing the recent score stay depressed for several days.
For players, the practical takeaway is straightforward. A Mixed recent score does not mean Slay the Spire 2 suddenly became a bad game. It means the live version is currently contentious, especially if you care about combo freedom and meta stability. Players who enjoy active iteration may still want in now. Players who dislike balance churn may want to wait for another patch cycle.
ReviewBomb verdict
Slay the Spire 2 is no longer just dealing with a short-lived patch backlash. It is now dealing with a sustained storefront warning signal after update 0.103.2 pushed beta balance changes live. The recent Steam score, not the launch reputation, is the metric that matters most right now.