Slay the Spire 2
Verdict: Slay the Spire 2 is still a deckbuilder about climbing a monster tower, now in early access with five characters and co-op. The new climbers are a man and a woman, in Mega Crit’s own words. What changes the score is the credits. Anita Sarkeesian is listed as a consultant. Her public service is inclusive-design review: gender, race, sexuality, “eliminating problematic dialogue,” and “modernizing historically problematic content.” Mega Crit has not said she did something else on this game. That credit is the score. We did not find a queer romance, a they/them climber, or a political card to add on top of it.
Woke Score: 70/100. The floor for a confirmed inclusion consultancy, and nothing else.
Woke Score graphic
This is the standing page for Slay the Spire 2 (Mega Crit). Steam Early Access opened on 5 March 2026 for PC, Mac and Linux. There is no 1.0 date yet. The first game is Slay the Spire. New cards and characters during early access get merged here; the URL stays fixed.
How the score breaks down
Scored against our How we score rules:
- Inclusion consultancy (rule A), +70. Anita Sarkeesian is in the game’s credits under Consultants. MobyGames lists that role for Slay the Spire II (2026, Windows). TheGamer (Rhiannon Bevan, May 2026) reports the name was in the credits beside two other consultants, and that Mega Crit had not commented. Her own site, “Inclusive Video Game Design Support Services,” says she and her team examine art, scripts and gameplay for “gender, race, sexuality, ability, class, and more,” and lists the work as eliminating problematic dialogue, removing problematic player actions, and modernizing historically problematic content. Tim Schafer’s quote on that page says she helped Psychonauts 2 “avoid saying things” the studio “wouldn’t want to say” and “did less harm.” That is a sensitivity practice, not a history check. Rule A sets a floor of about 70 for that kind of consultancy once the credit is confirmed, whatever the advice was. The other two names reported beside her, David Von Derau and Tony Moore, are not that practice. Von Derau was a playtester on the first game. They are not scored.
- Characters and pronouns: 0. Mega Crit’s Neowsletter (October 2025) calls the Necrobinder “she” and “a sassy lich,” with a skeletal hand named Osty as “he.” The December 2025 issue calls the Regent “he,” an heir who left his homeworld, and “His Majesty.” The wiki notes the game’s code uses “his Majesty” as the subject pronoun. That is a royal style, not a they/them identity. Ironclad, Silent, Watcher and Defect return on the same terms as the first game. No queer romance and no identity speech turned up in the new text.
- Politics in the cards: 0. The pitch is new relics, a co-op mode and the same tower. We found no anti-capitalist moral, no white-supremacist joke, and no caricature of a living politician. Fandom Pulse (Sam Gray, 13 May 2026), no friend of the credit, still describes the shipped game as mechanics-first and “scant of any feminist themes.” That absence is why this line is zero. It does not cancel the credit.
- Women (rule E): 0. The Silent, the Watcher and the Necrobinder are a fantasy assassin, a monk and a lich. Not girlboss writing.
- Track record (rule B): not added. The first game has no consultancy and no DEI record. Charging Mega Crit again for the same Sarkeesian credit would count it twice.
- Sequel rule (rule C): 0. Returning characters are reworked for new cards. We found no report that anyone was covered up, declawed or rewritten for representation.
- Press (rule D): not applied. The May 2026 review wave that names Sarkeesian is players on Steam, which does not count. TheGamer’s piece defends the game and scolds the reviews. A defence is not an attack on the work, so it is not a discount. A green flag would not erase this credit anyway.
- Regions: 0. Simplified Chinese is a large share of Steam reviews. The angry Chinese reviews tracked by Fandom Pulse are about balance (nerfed infinites, the Act 3 boss Doormaker), not a censored text. We found no China or Japan content cut.
Total: 70 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 70.
Confirmed findings
- Early access, 5 March 2026. Mega Crit’s own post. Five characters: Ironclad, Silent, Defect, plus Necrobinder and Regent. Co-op for up to four. More acts were promised during early access, not a representation roadmap.
- The consultancy is her business. The site is public. The credit is public. What she marked up in this script is not public. The floor does not wait on that memo.
- Mega Crit has not explained the credit. TheGamer, 10 May 2026: the studio was yet to comment.
Checked and not confirmed (or ruled out)
| Talking point | Finding |
|---|---|
| The Regent is non-binary because the text says “his Majesty” | No. Mega Crit uses he/him. “His Majesty” is how the character is addressed. |
| The Necrobinder is a they/them or a queer romance | Not found. She is written as a woman with a companion named Osty. |
| Sarkeesian rewrote specific cards | Not shown. No named change has been tied to her. The credit still scores. |
| Her name was patched in after the refund window | Unverified. A comment under a Fandom Pulse piece says that. TheGamer says the name was already in the credits. We do not treat the comment as fact. |
| Sweet Baby Inc. | Not found. |
| The Chinese review bomb is about politics | No. It tracks balance patches. |
| Von Derau or Moore are sensitivity readers | Not supported. They are the other two consultant names. Von Derau playtested the first game. |
Cleanest version and regional notes
The Steam Early Access build is the game. There is no console edition yet, and no alternate cut that removes the credit or a political scene, because the political scene was not found. Buying or not buying it does not change the text.
DEI Detector scorecard
| Signal | Present? |
|---|---|
| Inclusion / sensitivity consultancy (rule A) | Yes, Sarkeesian (+70) |
| Queer, bisexual or trans writing on screen | Not found |
| They/them identity for a climber | Not found |
| Anti-capitalist or anti-politician moral | Not found |
| Girlboss writing (rule E) | Not found |
| Woke changes to returning characters (rule C) | Not found |
| Progressive-press attack (rule D) | Not found (player reviews only) |
| Regional censorship | Not found |
Open to update
This page will be revisited if:
- Mega Crit or Sarkeesian says what the consultancy actually covered, and that account is narrower than the service she advertises.
- A patch or new character adds identity writing, a queer relationship, or a political moral.
- The credit is shown to have been a different person, or a non-writing role with a primary source.
Sources: Mega Crit, early-access announcement (5 March 2026) and Neowsletters (October 2025, Necrobinder; December 2025, Regent); Slay the Spire 2 wiki on the Regent’s in-code pronouns; MobyGames credit for Anita Sarkeesian as Consultants on Slay the Spire II (2026, Windows); TheGamer, Rhiannon Bevan, “Slay The Spire 2 Review Bombed After Anita Sarkeesian Spotted In Credits” (updated 10 May 2026); Anita Sarkeesian, “Inclusive Video Game Design Support Services” (anitasarkeesian.com/consulting), including the Schafer quote; Fandom Pulse, Sam Gray (13 May 2026), for the Chinese balance complaints and the other two consultant names; Steam for the early-access state. The floor is the credit plus the nature of the practice. Lines marked “not found” were searched and not shown.