Over the course of its nearly decade-long history, The Binding of Isaac has had various patches that either caused some terrible items to be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap or become outright Game-Breaker material. Said patches also occasionally come with highly requested quality-of-life changes that make the game much more fun to play in general.
- Edmund admitted
that The Lost was infamously too hard to play, and he has received a major buff in Afterbirth: he now has spectral tears, letting him fire through obstacles, and he starts with the D4, allowing him to reroll all his items in the hopes of getting better ones. A later patch buffed him even further: Holy Mantle is now an unlockable starting item for him, which many players consider to be THE most valuable item to get as the Lost, as it turns him into a two-hit wonder rather than one-hit. Although this clashes with the D4 if you have both, since starting with one of the most powerful items for the Lost means there are very few rolls you could get that would overall improve your loadout; so the Repentance update replaced the D4 with the Eternal D6, which doesn't reroll your own items, and also made the Holy Mantle effect intrinsic to The Lost so that it can't ever be rerolled. Additionally, the Missing Poster Trinket now turns your character into The Lost if you die while it's equipped (after unlocking The Lost). This basically means you don't have to start a game as The Lost in order to unlock his stuff. - After some rather major internet outrage accusing Edmund of not caring about the fanbase and "throwing a temper tantrum" due to a patch adding extra items in that were promised to be put in the game in the first place, Edmund made this post, elaborating that the items weren't originally in the game due to an unexpected glitch, and he meant no ill-will towards anyone in the community.
- The Afterbirth Alternate Reality Game was an example of this. In Rebirth, Edmund wanted the community to work together to unlock something in the game, but in the end, it was data-mined. In Afterbirth, the unlockable content wasn't even patched in until the game was finished.
- After some backlash concerning nerfing the Stopwatch, Edmund tweeted asking the community what items they would like to see buffed. As of December 6th, 2015, a patch buffed several bad items (for example, the Scissors are now a two room charge, the Friendly Ball is now a three room charge, and the most important of all, the Stopwatch is no longer a Special Item, and activates when the Holy Mantle is triggered), fixed several bugs, and finally reworked sacrifice rooms.
- As stated in Broken Base, Afterbirth+ as a whole was initially released to mixed reactions, particularly due to the difficulty spikes that bordered on just plain unfair at times. However, Edmund listened very closely to fan feedback over the next two months and tweaked the game accordingly, removing much of the Fake Difficulty, nerfing bosses considered to be unfair, and buffing underwhelming items. These tweaks have been very well-received by the community, and now Afterbirth+ is largely considered a good follow-up to Afterbirth.
- The second Booster Pack for Afterbirth+ buffs Angel Rooms, with them now giving items more frequently and being able to spawn with multiple items which you would choose between.
- The fifth and final Booster Pack was originally planned for release in late 2017, but was subject to a long Schedule Slip that delayed it until April 30, 2018. In addition to a new character and new items, the final Booster Pack included a large amount of quality of life fixes to improve the game, the sheer amount of which easily justified the Booster Pack's long delay, and as such it is widely considered by the community to be the best yet.
- The Keeper was near-universally considered the worst character in the game by a wide margin, even more than The Lost!, due to his two hit point cap and the fact that two-heart devil deals were mostly off limits to him. Repentance gives him a third hit point if he's beaten Hush, allows him to pay money instead of hearts for devil deals, and gives him a slight speed upgrade. Additionally, Health Down pills will never spawn while playing as the Keeper, making it far less likely for your max HP to get cut.
- Repentance made some changes to the Dark Room route in order to make it an equally appealing choice compared to the Chest. The four red chests in the starting room, considered underwhelming in comparison to the Chest's item-filled gold ones, have been changed to offer four devil deals, giving the player a chance at some powerful items to prepare them for the Brutal Bonus Level ahead in exchange for heart containers. The Negative was also buffed to give a damage up in addition to its original effect.
- Achievements and unlocks that require the player to collect a set of items on the same run have long been seen as a frustrating Luck-Based Mission, as the game's massive item pool means the chances of all the necessary items showing up in the same run is extremely slim. The introduction of Tainted Cain and his Item Crafting mechanic in Repentance takes a lot of the luck out of it, as if you know the recipes for the items you need, then you can gather the pickups to make them yourself. This is also really helpful in finding that last lousy item you need to finish your collection.
- The final floor and boss of Afterbirth+ were both considered large letdowns, the Void for simply being a mash of other floors, and Delirium for both telefragging issues and boiling down to being a mash of other bosses. Many fans saw it as unoriginal and tedious for what was supposed to be the Grand Finale of Isaac at the time. The finale of Repentance has much more original content, is more cinematic, and has less run-ending glitches, overall being seen near-universally as a better endgame.
