The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has been dropping little bits of knowledge here and there the past few months. Yesterday, we got some specifics from creator Ed McMillen himself. For those unaware, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a 16 bit reimagining of the breakout indie hit The Binding of Isaac. Both games are Legend of Zelda-inspired dungeon crawlers about Isaac, a young boy whose super religious mother believes God has instructed her to sacrifice him. He escapes into her basement of horrors and must fight his way down and out. It features procedurally-generated levels and a roguelike style to make each playthrough a unique experience.
Yesterday, McMillen explained just how much bigger The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is than the original. The original game and expansion featured 198 items in total. Rebirth has over 450 items. The new game also features 50 new kinds of enemies, 15 new boss fights, and a new double boss fight in an expanded room. He provided an animated gif that explains what that devious feature can look like.
Rebirth goes beyond just expanding the original game with more items. There is a great focus on the rarity of elements in the game. In the original, there were 150 possible rooms on each level to build the winding maze from. Now there will be over 500 on each level. McMillen can also adjust just how random the rooms are. Certain rooms will pop up much more often than other rooms.
The original game features a room called the Error Room, designed to look like the game completely glitched out. You don't get to see it very often at all. The new game is going to be able to have a whole lot more than one room that almost exists as a legend within the game itself.
The rarity slider doesn't just apply to rooms. McMillen is inserting variable elements within certain layouts to make it even harder to get certain desirable items. You can always blow up a rock if you have a bomb in the original game. The new game might just make it so that the guaranteed item is completely inaccessible unless the random elements line up to give you any way to grab them at all.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth does not have a release date yet. The standard response is the game will come out when it's ready. I'm in no hurry to play the new version. Let Ed McMillen build the game right so that people are still obsessing over Rebirth three years later like the original.
Via Ed McMillen's Tumblr.