We are nearly a month into 2024 and still this game is in early access, how early is early, no more early access games for for me in the future, will always wait for the release.

It's pretty good as-is I'd say. Doesn't feel like an early access game, and the devs communicate updates regularly and clearly. Not much of a risk IMO, but up to you. I'm having fun with it.

I suspect it depends on how long before they're happy with the state of the Wiz1 remake and any additional features they want to add on. I've seen games spend many months more than that in EA before they felt comfortable enough with the state to fully release.

From everything I've seen, you could buy this remake right this minute, grind yourself a party as high as you want, get the requisite plot McGuffins--like the blue ribbon--that bar your path to floor 10, and go run your face down to W E R D N A's lair and give him what-for, and get your Chevron to prove completion, just like in any other release; it's just early access because it is in need of polish, and a horde of fans willing to chip in some cash tend to find bugs that even well-paid QA tester teams miss (or bring attention to bugs the team found as being more important to fix than the higher ups felt like it was)