The Vampire Survivors DLC is exactly what I want: more Vampire Survivors

Two months after leaving early access, Vampire Survivors yesterday launched its first paid expansion. Its name is Legacy Of The Moonspell, and it adds a new map along with new characters and enemies and weapons, all inspired by Japanese folkore (including a variety of yokai and oni). For a mere £1.50, it is perfect. Do you like Vampire Survivors and want more? Buddy, it's right here.

It feels like damning with vagueness to say that Legacy Of The Moonspell is more Vampire Survivors, but that's what it is, and that's great. I do just want more Vampire Survivors, and this is some decent Vampire Survivors. The new map is the prettiest and most interesting yet, an open mountain landscape with snowy forest, icy crevasses and treacherous winding paths, a giant abandoned castle, temperate lowlands with fields, temples with cherry trees and labyrinths, and other pretty bits. It feels so much more like a place than other levels, which are very much video game levels. The new monsters are fun, especially the eight-headed dragon boss. And while I've not unlocked all the new characters and weapons yet, I am enjoying the ones I've seen. It's nice. This is what I want.

For me, Vampire Survivors never outstayed its welcome (unlike Matt Cox, who in our Vampire Survivors review had given up on the endgame). I fully completed it several times over the course of its year in early access, always popping back after every content update to unlock, do, and earn achievements for the new stuff. Then I'd go play other games until the next update hit. This expansion feels like a few months of early access updates hitting at once, and that's great, and certainly at a price of £1.43.

It's wild that I paid £2 for this game in early access. Even its finished and full price of £4 feels cheap. I'm more than happy to pay £1.43 for more. In the DLC launch announcement, developers Poncle even repeat a question I've seen many earnestly ask of a game they'd happily pay more for: "Why only $1.99?" Why indeed.

"While I'm very grateful for the sentiment, just like for the main game, the DLC has a price that 'feels right' to me and that reflects the production value of it," Poncle explain.

"For the past few months and for the DLC, we had amazing artists like Glauber Kotaki and Pitavant for the new graphics, Daniele Zandara and his new bangers with live recordings, that little surprise in the DLC trailer, a whole company to sustain to be able to launch on all current platforms, and yet Poncle still needs time (and key people!) to be able to provide a higher production value. For the DLC I still had to fill some gaps by using asset packs for example, so a low price, and frequent discounts, simply seem fair."

Poncle do plan to keep releasing new bits in free updates too. While future paid DLC packs might add extra levels, characters, weapons, monsters, and such, any new "items, power-ups, game mechanics and more will continue to be added to the base game" for free. They also plan to keep releasing free updates "like the Tiny Bridge one."

At some point, Poncle might make bigger add-ons which cost more. They say, "We'll charge more for new stuff when we'll have something even better to offer, don't worry and thank you once again!" For now, great, lovely, very happy with this.

Legacy Of The Moonspell is out now on Steam with a 10% launch discount bringing it down to £1.43/€1.79/$1.79 for the next week. It's also on the Microsoft Store, where it isn't included with Game Pass (the base game is) but subscribers do get a 20% discount.