Digital Media Concepts/The Binding of Isaac Repentance

The Binding of Isaac Repentance

Created By	Edmund McMillen and Nicalis
Release Date	March 31, 2021 - Present
Country of origin	United States of America
Genre	Rougue-Like, Action, Adventure, Indie
Game Store	Steam Store

Introduction

The Binding of Isaac Repentance is a massive DLC to the game The Binding of Isaac Rebirth, created by Edmund McMillen and published and developed by company Nicalis. The game’s DLC, Repentance, was released on March 2021. Repentance DLC adds more bosses, endings, and items to the previous DLC Afterbirth+. Major reworks in graphics and co-op mode have been fixed adding more smoother gameplay.

Gameplay

The Binding of Isaac is a 2D dungeon shooter. With procedurally generated levels. Each level has a multitude of rooms and has at least one boss battle that allows the player to go to the next stage. Each level has an item room that contains a random collectible item passive or active item that is used to increase the player's stats. Shops are also on every stage until the mom boss fight. Shops need a key to be opened as well as Item rooms. The Repentance DLC also contains 17 new alternative unlockable characters, called tainted characters. Each character has a unique playstyle and starting items. With the Repentance DLC players now can have user-created content or mods to change the gameplay. Along with daily challenges, leaderboards, and custom challenges. There are different game modes to choose from. The main are Greed, Normal, and Hard mode. Changing the difficulty from normal to hard allows players to unlock items they can not get in the normal difficulty. Players can also activate co-op mode by inviting the other player through a third-party software such as Steam, or by adding an extra controller to the system they are playing on.

New Bosses in Repentance

With Repentance, there are 25 new bosses and 2 final bosses added. Most of the new bosses are accessible through the new paths or alternative levels. The Beast and Mother are new endgame bosses. Both are the final bosses of this DLC and have unique endings and item unlocks. This also adds new chapters or stages to the game. The Beast has 4 sub-bosses before it and another main boss called Dogma which is fought on a level called Home. After beating Dogma Isaac enters the next part of the level and fight the 4 horsemen. Ultra-Famine, Ultra-War, Ultra-Death, and Ultra-Pestilence fight Isaac whilst The Beast is in the background. After Isaac beats the 4 horsemen the final sequence triggers. The Beast chases Isaac while Isaac is doing the structures in the background. After this fight is over a new ending is unlocked and depending on the character you playing as a new item is also unlocked.

New Chapters(Levels)

Along with the new bosses, there are the associated chapters or levels that come with the DLC. There are 8 in total and each has there unique enemies and obstacles.

 Chapter 1.5 (Alternative Path)
   -Downpour
   -Dross
 Chapter 2.5 (Alternative Path)
   -Mines
   -Ashpit
 Chapter 3.5 (Alternative Path)
   -Mausoleum
   -Gehenna
 Chapter 4.5 (Path is optional)
   -Corpse
 Endgame (Path is optional)
   -Home

New Item/Trinkets List

With the addition of Repentance 172, new items and 61 trinkets are added. These items vary from item pools in the game. Trinkets however can be dropped from any room and after clearing rooms with enemies. Shops, Treasure Rooms, Angel Rooms, Devil Rooms and the Planetarium. Some of these new items have to be unlocked by completing a certain challenge or beating the game with a certain character. For example, to unlock the passive item rock-bottom, the player must beat the mode Boss-Rush as Jacob and Esau.

New Characters

Another major add-on that came with Repentance. 17 more unlockable characters who are alternate versions of the normal characters. Isaac and many other normal characters have their "tainted" counterparts called Tainted Characters. Each of them has different stats and has a very unique playstyle compared to normal characters. For example, Tainted Azazel has the full range on his Brimstone attack and has a quick sneeze attack that has powerful knockback abilities. This is very good especially when you progress deeper into each run, however, every tainted character has there drawbacks. For Tainted Azazel not being able to fly really makes it difficult to avoid taking damage and his damage stat is lower than his normal form. To unlock all the Tainted Characters you must first reach the new final chapter Home as any character. To unlock the Tainted form of that character first sleep in moms bed.

References

1. The Binding of Isaac: Repentance Wiki

2. Platinumgod

3. Steam Store