Just "one more" New Game+...

After Dead Cells, Hades, and Spelunky 2, it's tough to name an all-time favorite roguelite. Rogue Legacy 2, a flashy new castl?e-storming sequel, only complicates that conversation.

I briefly checked in with Rogue Legacy 2 a few times during its Early Access period �most notably at launch in 2018, then again last year when ??the sequel surpassed the original game in terms of raw stuff. It's no??t just "more content," though. It's a fantastic evolution.

I've had a blast with this game every step of the way, and that counts for a lot. Other popular roguelites, many of which I adore, can still have dicey moments of despair. But I never felt like any of my lost progress was in vain. As expensive as perma-upgrades eventually get, you're always earning in Rogue Legacy 2, and the game isn't afraid to hand out stepping ??stones to let you focus on your next milestone. There's always hope.

Rogue Legacy 2 has left the Early Access zone, and I'm? happy to say t?he wait was worth it.

[caption id="attachment_319114" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{The home base is convenient and cozy.}[/caption]

Rogue Legacy 2 (PC [reviewed], Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: Cellar Door Games
Publisher: Cellar Door Games
Released: April 28, 2022
MSRP: $24.99

Circling back around to the first Rogue Legacy for a quick 2022 spot-check, it's wild how much of an upgrade Rogue Legacy 2 is. The first game cemented the appeal of the roguelite action-platformer genre for a lot of players. People loved it; many still do!

Running through randomized floors as a s?ometimes lucky, sometimes laughably doo?med lineage of heroes was novel back then, and the permanent stat-boosting Manor unlocks accumulated in a satisfying way. You know the oft-spouted saying: "one more run."

It's pretty incredible, then, that Rogue Legacy 2 manages to bottle up those fond memories while presenting fresh-looking, snappy-feeling, far more refined gameplay. It's essentially Rogue Legacy, again, but more ambitious and confident than ever. Talk about a glo??w??-up.

It's worth stressing, though: you can jump right in without any prior experience. And one of the best aspects �a House Rules toggle for granular accessibility options if and when you need them �will open up Rogue Legacy 2 to a wider audience. It's a challenging game, for sure. A run can go sour in an instant. But through a combination of enemy and boss pattern recognition, gradual chara??cter boosting back at base, and sheer skill, you can reach the end. I know you can. And then you can climb the steep New Game+ ladder.

[caption id="attachment_319110" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Heirs come in many shapes and sizes.}[/caption]

On just a base level, without even considering the longer-term progression hooks that provide extra back-of-your-mind motivation in Rogue Legacy 2, I can't get enough of this combat and platforming. It??'s this fluid fusion of speed, reflexes, patience, and wits??.

Early on, I felt like I could show up to slice skeletons, dash past spike and arrow traps, and crack open (most) treasure chests with stringent don't-get-hit-in-this-room criteria. At the same time, I'd still take chip damage here and there. I'd make stupid slip-ups like s?queezing in one too many greedy swings at a charging knight or fire-blinking eyeball.

I would consistently reach the first boss, a spellsword? named Lamech who dashes and flips like a madman, but my current hero �whether it was a B??arbarian, a Mage, a Valkyrie, a Gunslinger, or even a Chef �couldn't quite outlast his beefy HP bar.

There's a tinge of?? disappointment at first, sure. "Damn, I thought t??hat was the run..."

But you shake it off, roll a new heir, spend whatever gold you just hoarded to buy a persistent upgrade or better gear, and hop back into the ever-shifting castle. Eventually, through good old practice, gradual know-how, lucky random mid-run Relics, and some brute-forced stat increases, this run becomes The Run. It went that way for me in all six biomes against all six bosses, as well as the final tricky fights. They were all memorable.

[caption id="attachment_319116" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Bosses are fun to learn and tough to master.}[/caption]

Whereas some roguelite games just keep going and going in a way that wears me out, Rogue Legacy 2 can be broken down into sm??aller chunks, each with its own lifecycle.

With that in mind, you don't need to complete Rogue Legacy 2 "all in one go," which I think some people might be mistakenly expecting. The main goal is to keep your character alive long enough to find and dispatch the area's Estuary, at which point they're done and dusted �you won't fight the boss again (well, not until New Game+). Back at the castle entrance, their portrait will be filled in, a??nd?? it's onto the next biome on your list. Of course, you can revisit any "old" zone you want, when you want, but it's not forced on you.

The format works! It really suits what Rogue Legacy 2 is going for as a tough-but-fair roguelite game. Being able to break away from a brick-wall boss so you can grind elsewhere or just aimlessly explor?e for a while can make all the difference. Sometimes, tha??t was what it took for me to return with renewed confidence. Finally, a breakthrough.

As long as you plan ahead, it's trivial to unlock teleporters that will send you to all of the different biome entrances within seconds of starting a new run �each warp is a one-time, across-all-runs purchase from a pizza-loving character. (This game has some fun NPCs.) Now, actually reaching those biome entrances to buy their specific teleporter is another matter. There are a handful of metroidvania-ish traversal abilities in Rogue Legacy 2 that are useful in combat and also nece??ssary to reach later areas. So, while you can poke around the wider world to get a lay of the land, there's a preferred order to this stuff.

Those abilities, Heirlooms, are unlocked in scattered "beat it once and you're good to go" challenge zones that spice up the usual proceedings and also serve as a puzzle/tutorial. Moves like air dashes, double jumps, and bouncing spin kicks might not be groundbreaking on their own, but when you're fully kitted out in Rogue Legacy 2's? home stretch, it feels amazing to whip them out mid-combat. Zipping around this wor??ld is a pleasure.

[caption id="attachment_319108" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Rogue Legacy 2's Astromancer class can summon black holes �and their center is a critical attack.}[/caption]

Much of what I'm saying about Rogue Legacy 2 can be applied to the first game. What makes i??t so much better? For me, it comes to the biomes, the bo??sses, and the classes.

I may not be able to remember every biome by name, but I can absolutely visualize them all as distinct entities that require different approaches. Some are long, some are tall, some are dark, and all of them have their own flair. Even though the room-by-room layout changes on every run, you can still get a sense of what's ahead, which lessens the chance you'll be caught off-guard. It's not just a matter of various visual themes �the biomes are actually built differently from one another. I love that! And the same can be said of the bosses in Rogue Legacy 2, whic?h are some of my favorite fights in a roguelite action game, period. Learning their moves (and not forgetting them in the heat of battle) is a blast.

With lore books to find and read (or totally skip over), Rogue Legacy 2 does a good job of introducing bosses b?efore you ever face them so that they'll feel like a threat when the time comes. It's a lighter storytelling touch that I appreciated. For me, it's more about the raw action gameplay and overall mood; I don't need to know every tiny detail, or strike up lots of conversations, to become invested in the world. It just naturally pulled m?e in.

The completely overhauled art direction �from quaint pixel art to a hand-drawn-meets-2.5D style �also makes a splash, of course. But it's the way the sequel refined Rogue Legacy's gam??eplay concepts that kept me coming back wi??thout ever getting bored.

[caption id="attachment_319115" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Some trap rooms are too tempting to skip.}[/caption]

As for classes, Rogue Legacy 2 is still running with the concept of randomly-pulled characters who may or may not have funny traits. Those quirks come with a significant gold-earning boost, so there are clear moments when it's ideal to just grind, or it's time to t??ake another serious stab at a boss. Every chance I got, I went with the Ronin, a fragile hero with a far-reaching katana whose tip results in a guaranteed critical attack. My other favorite was the nimble Boxer, who can combo foes and tr?igger a KO. It's also fun to switch things up with ranged classes like the Mage or oddball picks like the Bard.

More than just statistical shakeups, the classes all play distinctly from one another and have varying pros?? and cons. Some of the skill ceilings are really high; others feel low.

The fact that I can be amazing at one class and god-awful at another is just the way I like it. While players will latch onto their favorites, it's worth it to make the rounds �classes gain their own XP that funnels into Mastery levels, which are another? way to bump up your capabilities across the board. Extra vitality, armor, and equip weight can pay off.

There's also a Resolve system that lets characters pick up Relics �powerful items with sometimes risky effects that you can find mid-run. Relics can be g??ame-changers and help you get through a gauntlet in one piece, especially items like the Gnawed Bone (a 25% chance to survive a fatal blow) and Lachesis' Measure (killing enemies with a crit restores 6% of your max health). In exchange for these boons, though, you might need to shave off some of your HP bar if you're running low on Resolve. It's often a thoughtful trade-off.

[caption id="attachment_319117" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{The Gravity Beam is one of the flashier spells in Rogue Legacy 2.}[/caption]

If I have complaints about the sense of progression, it's that the (branching) Manor upgrades can be a little bewildering at first before you've acclimated to Rogue Legacy 2. I also feel like the prices for any incremental multi-tier purchase can really skyrocket later on. That's kind of the idea, though. It feels like a great feat to topple the final boss, but you're really meant to loop back around for numerous New Game+ playthroughs.

"Threads" take cues from Hades in that you can flip on gameplay modifiers to spice up each NG+ cycle, and yes, that means ushering in new content, too. But unlike the Pact of Punishment, the "burdens" in Rogue Legacy 2 are locked in plac??e for your whole New ?Game+ playthrough, not for an individual character's run. (You can reset the world state if needed, so don't be afraid to experiment.) The higher the pain, the better the rewards.

At the time of this review, I've invested 20 hours into Rogue Legacy 2, and I'm partway into New Game+. My motivation for continuing is partially to see those numbers go up �who wouldn't want to max out their bonuses ??and dominate once-great threats? �but also to find whatever else is still out there. One of my favorite parts so far has been Scars.

There are well-hidden secrets throughout the main dungeons that unlock Scars, which are one-off challenges you can face from the comfort of your home base. One challenge is a target-breaking drill, and plenty of others are dual-boss skirmishes. You'll get a rank for each Scar you clear �one for every class' best attempt �and if you earn enough points collectively, you'll earn a rare currency that feeds into another upgrade tree with fun unlocks like alternate classes. Again, New Game+ is a big focus for Rogue Legacy 2.

[caption id="attachment_319112" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Fabled Weapons like the Enkindled Gauntlets can be high risk, high reward.}[/caption]

It took a lot of effort for me to reach the end, and I felt like the game a??dequately tested me every step of the way. For some players, the balance �especially in relation to their desire to grind �might be out of whack from time to time. For that reason, it's worth giving the House Rules another shout-out. These options can be flipped on or off mid-run, and you can alter enemy health or damage (from 50% up to 200%), disable "contact" damage with foes, enable flight, and slow time while aiming, among other settings.

All in all, I found this game to be super satisfying. Some character classes are so enjoyable, I could play a whole separate game (not necessarily even a roguelite!) with only their base mechanics �all of the other assorted archetypes that I don't typically choose are just icing on top. For me, the classic Rogue Legacy roguelite hooks are still potent in the sequel, and the agile combat and platform?ing feel fantastic. Once you're in, it's hard to walk away.

I knew from my limited time with the Early Access version that Rogue Legacy 2 would be great, but I didn't necessarily think it would go on to become one of the best games of 2022 and one of my favorite roguelite games. The competition is fierce, b??ut it's ready.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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The sequel has been bulking up in Early Access since August 2020, and the time has come

Knowing full well that many of you aren't into the whole Early Access thing (even for a sequel as tempting as Rogue Legacy 2), I'm stoked to share that the 1.0 launch is happening soon. Cellar Door Games will fully launch Rogue Legacy 2 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on April 28, 2022. Did you even know there was a sequel on the way?

Having checked in with the work-in-progress version here and there, I've played enough Rogue Legacy 2 to get a good feel for its metroidvania-style abilities, wacky classes, and the gorgeous new ??art direction that still has?n't lost its luster even a smidge. It's a looker.

Like the original game, so much of the appeal is action-platforming your way through a randomized castle while slowly accumulating permanent upgrades to improve your odds of reaching your next milestone �and eventually the end. It's fun to slash baddies, explore branching rooms, solve environmental puzzles, and bring down big bosses in Rogue Legacy 2. It's also fun to watch your numbers go up back at base. This ??formula works well, and I'm excited to pop back into the sequel without any content gaps.

[caption id="attachment_315765" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Choosing an heir in Rogue Legacy 2, quirks and all.}[/caption]

Since I last checked in, the developers have been finishing up?? the final boss, a full conclu?sion, "Biome-altering Burdens," optimization work, and more.

??The prospect of New Game+ is intriguing and scary, all at once. It's the kind of hard-to-put-down roguelite experience that people like me tend to go all-in on. I know I will.

What about other platforms?

As for potential Nintendo Switch, PS4, or PS5 versions, my expectation is "probably someday!" But for now, Rogue Legacy 2 is just launching on PC and Xbox this month.

"We're a small team, so we're taking everything one step at a time," said Cellar Door.

Worth mentioning, though: Rogue Legacy 2 is Steam Deck Verified.

If you missed the original, it's worth getting a vibe check while it's free on PC since it has so much in common with its sequel. The Epic Games Store is giving out Rogue Legacy (and also The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, another easy recommendation) for free until April 14.

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Sword or whip?

I'd like to use a time machine to, among other deeds, dissuade Brett from using the headline "Xbox One inherits Rogue Legacy" so that I might use it right now in this post. Hate coming up with these things. But, really, saving it for May 27, 2015 would have been more appropriate -- that's when Rogue Legacy launches on the console. ??Abstraction Games is handling the port.

If you haven't played this action-platformer on Steam or PlayStation yet, you may enjoy it. Lots of people?? do. I didn't stick with the game, and that bums me out. Maybe I would have seen it through to the end had I played in my living room instead. Anywhere but this office, really.

Rogue Legacy coming to Xbox One on May 27th! [ID@Xbox]

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And that's all we know

Xbox One owners can plan on plundering many a castle with their extended lineage sometime in the future. Cellar Door Games has confirmed via Twitter that indie treasure Rogue Legacy will eventually release on Xbox One.

The 2D platformer that features procedurally-generated levels and an unending cast of ancestors with ever-changing traits was originally released on PC in 2013. However, this isn't Rogue Legacy's first foray outside the PC space. Last year, P?laySta??tion 4 and PS Vita were graced with its presence.

Although Cellar Door was willing to out the port's existence, those are all the known details right now. When we prompted them for additional details, the developers co??uld only divulge that "the Xbox One port is definitely coming this year."

@CellarDoorGames [Twitter]

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Its next game will probably be in a different genre

Cellar Door Games didn't get its start with the "rogue-lite" Rogue Legacy -- it previously found success in making browser-based games -- but that's likely going to be the title we associate with the studio for years to come. Speaking to Edge, co-creator and lead programmer Kenny Lee hinted at what's next. Development o??n a new game started?? earlier this month.

"Some people might consider it a bad habit, but we don’t work in the same genre twice," he said. "It’s bad because we're running out of genres to play with -- we've made text adventures, full adventure games, tower defense and a bullet hell shooter. Rogue Legacy was our platforming game, so the next game, if we follow that trend, will not be in the spirit of Rogue Legacy."

That's not to say Cellar Door won't do a sequel, eventually. "We do want to make it, we just didn't want to jump on it straight away," explained Lee. "We'll most likely hire another programmer when we do. It took us about a year and a half to make the first game, so we could get Rogue Legacy 2 in development in the next two years."

Knowing how many times some of you have started a new game plus, there's surely demand for at least one more Rogue Legacy. I'd love to see the team revisit the concept with more experience. And, in the mean time, there's the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita ports to consider.

Cellar Door on Rogue Legacy's console port, its sequel and never working in the same ??genre twice [Edge]

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Streamlining, bug fixes and new content

Cellar Door games recently announced an update to Rogue Legacy, the procedurally generated platform game in which players explore an ever-changing castle, one familial generation at a time. It's a really great game, easy to los??e hours to, and the new con?tent sounds like it's going to add quite a bit to the experience.

In total,?? 28 new rooms have been added, which should be a nice bit of additional variety and spice things up for returning players, while also removing the "Diary" rooms which fill in the plot once said plot is fully revealed so that they're no longer a waste of time to travel through. The update also seems to make a lot of things easier, improving the "Haggle" ability to reduce prices more efficiently, reducing the attack capability of some enemies and making some abilities function better in "New Game +" playthroughs. And, finally, it reduced the chances that a character with irritable bowel syndrome will fart whenever they jump, which I'm sure will be a ??black mark for many.

The patch notes also state that Cellar Door is currently testing Steam Cloud func?tio?nality and expects it to be included in a future update .

This is the only game in my Steam library for which I ha?d earned all of the achievements, which should say something for how much I enjoyed playing it. I say, "had," because there are?? now six more achievements in the Steam version I'll have to earn. Oh, darn.

Patch Notes 1.2.0 – Content Patch [Cellar Door Games]

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Gotta love those free content updates

An excuse to pump more hours into Rogue Legacy will present itself soon enough. Cellar Door Ga?mes has teased what's to come in p??atch 1.2, which should be going live any day now:

• Five new boss remixes. "These battles will be true tests of skills, and should be available to people at all parts of the game. These are not casual battles, and only the best will succeed."
• Another class
• Three new traits
• The pool of possible maps has been increased by 10 percent
• Extra achievements
• Balance tweaks and improvements to the game logic.
• "Also the Haggle skill will now actually be useful."

A little something for everyone, then. If you've yet to try Rogue Legacy, you should -- tho??ugh I have a feeling it'll end up being discounted in a holiday sale before long here.

Patch 1.2 Preview [Cellar Door Games]

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Free update for Steam owners

The promised Linux and Mac versions of Cellar Door Games' 2D action-platformer Rogue Legacy are out now and, if you bought the game on Steam already -- you ?should have! It's good fun! -- they're accessible at no additional cost. Got to love that Steam Play support.

There's also an update that notably int??roduces a profile-select feature (with support for up to three separate saves), and the jukebox now remains persistent up until the point at which you enter a new area or a boss room. Make sense. Beyond those big changes, it's a bunch of minor fixes.

I'm still only one boss in because the cute character designs always seem to lull me into a false sense of security, causing? me to play aggressively, take a bunch of hits here and there, and ?then kick it almost immediately after starting the next major encounter. Stop doing that, self!

Patch Notes v1.1.0 [Cellar Door Games]

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Patch also in the works

Right before it released on Steam, I was mostly hopeful -- but still somewhat worried -- about whether or not Rogue Legacy would catch on, which I believed the game fully deserved. It has. And gosh, that makes me happy. Cellar Door Games tells Joystiq "It's actually done well enough that we can start up our next project without worrying about finances so much?, which is pretty amazing!" It is a wonderful thing to see a single title fuel a studio's future work.

In the short term, we have the Mac and Linux versions of Rogue Legacy to look forward to. Cellar Door's Teddy Lee says those are "very close" to completion, but might be pushed back -- there's a patch in th?e works for PC "with extra content" and if it's included at launch f?or Mac/Linux, those versions will need to release a little later. There's also still the PS Vita and PS4 versions, too!

Rogue Legacy for Mac and Linux 'very close', upcom??ing patch adds m?ore content [Joystiq]

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Console exclusivity, too

Cellar Door Games' much-loved roguelike Rogue Legacy is coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita next year. The game released earlier this year on PC, but Sony is getting the console exclusivity. People keep pitching the game to me in a variety of ways, like saying it's the best of Castlevania.

I've been down for a while, maybe this is my in. I don't know about you, but I think the Vita is the absolute perfect platform for such a game. I've been playing Dragon's Crown compulsively on the thing.

No word yet on if it's cross buy.

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You might have heard of some of these games already

One of my favorite parts about PAX Prime since 2008 has been the PAX 10 indie game showcase. Over 100 games were submitted to be judged upon by a panel of experts, and the f??ollowing ten games have been declared the best of the be?st.

• Avalanche 2: Super Avalanche by Beast Games (PC)
• BADLAND by Frogmind (iOS)
• Escape Goat 2 by MagicalTimeBean (PC)
• Gunpoint by Suspicious Developments (PC)
• Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime by Asteroid Base (PC, Mac)
• Owlboy by D-Pad Studio (PC)
• Ridiculous Fishing by Vlambeer (iOS)
• Rogue Legacy by Cellar Door Games (PC)
• Sokobond by Alan Hazelden, Harry Lee, and Ryan Roth (PC, Mac, Linux)
• Towerfall by Matt Makes Games (Ouya, PC)

Some of these are pretty well-known around the indie game community, while others are a bit more obscure. While I already know that Gunpoint, Ridiculous Fishing, and Rogue Legacy are all great, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on all of these. Sokobond looks particularly interesting, but mostly be??cause I may have an unfair advantage in a game about chemistry.

The post PAX Prime 2013’s PAX 10 games have been announced appeared first on Destructoid.

En Rogue

Okay, I can do this. I simply need to gather up all my strength and do it. I have plenty of willpower. I just need to sit here long enough to write this review and not start up Rogue Legacy and start playing. Deep br?eaths. Exhale. Alright, let's do this.

Rogue Legacy is one of the most addictive games I have played in quite some time. As an action-platformer wit??h roguelike elements, the idea of "one more run" is simply too strong to easily quit at any given time. It also helps that each run will provide a tangible amount of progress, making each run important in the grand scheme of things.

If you lost track of the days playing games like The Binding of Isaac or FTL, clear your schedule for Rogue Legacy.

Rogue Legacy (PC)
Developer: Cellar Door Games
Publisher: Cellar Door Games
Release Date: June 27, 2013
MSRP: $15 

Each runthrough of Rogue Legacy's randomized dungeon begins with picking one of three randomized characters. Every character has a random class, magic spell, an??d traits. Classes range from the classic Mage and Barbarian to more nontraditional variations like the Miner, who collects more gold, and the Lich, who gains maximum health with each ??kill, but starts with very little. Since there is such a limited selection to enter the dungeon, it is crucial for the player to adapt their playstyle to each class; for example, playing a Mage as if it were a Barbarian will result in a swift death.

Each character will also have a spell associated with it. All spells have their pros and cons, and occasionally a specific spell matched with a particular class will create a highly sought after combination or perhaps it will create an abomination that should be avoided at all costs. Only through experimentation will these become obvious, so never write off a combination until you try it for yourself! Traits are small details about the character that, more often than not, have little impact on gameplay. Things like I.B.S. will make the character poot when they jump, and Stereoblindness will cause a Paper Mario-esque flipping animation when turning (since they ?can't see in 3D).

These are more like cute quirks than anything gameplay shattering. Some traits, however, can have a much larger impact on gameplay. Dwarfism makes the character about half the size of a normal one, which allows you to get into some secret areas, but reduces the reach of the sword at the same time. Dementia is one of the worst offenders, creating ?false images of enemies in the dungeon, leaving you to pick out what is real and what is not.

The main objective of Rogue Legacy is to explore the dungeon, slay the four bosses, and eventually, defeat the final boss. The dungeon's layout is split up into individual rooms and randomized each time, though after a chunk of playtime players will begin to see repeated rooms over? and over again. It's something that comes with the territory; there are only so many rooms to draw from and everyone is bound to see some repeats. It's a bit distracting when two identical rooms are back-to-back, but this ?is far from game breaking.

The dungeon is divided into four different sections, each containing a unique environment and a boss fight that can be tackled at any time. There is a definite series of progression between these four, but they can be accessed and tackled whenever you want, as they all branch off from the main Castle area. The game does a great job of directing the player in the correct sequence --? through both journal entries found throughout the dungeon as well as ensuring that if a player goes into the incorrect area, they will get their butts kicked. I suppose it is technically possible to beat the entire game with the very first character, though I don't see that happening any time soon. I would say "never," but I've underestimated people on the internet before.

While these four areas are all very distinct from each other visually, the enemy variation could definitely be better. There are a couple new enemy types introduced in each area, but generally the enemies are just bigger and more powerful versions of previous enemies with slightly different attacks, which comes off as a bit uninspired. Likewise, the boss fights (with the exception of the final boss) are just really big versions of ?previous enemies but with slight variations to behavior, which is also a bit of a letdown.

There are heaps of secrets to discover within the dungeon walls, and it's pretty exciting to stumble across them. It really pays to explore as many rooms as poss??ible, but at the same time it i?s important to have a singular goal based off of the current character. For instance, maybe you'll develop one of your best/favorite classes with great traits, or maybe you'll go straight for the boss room and hope you find it quickly. Have a really nimble ability set? Set out to complete Fairy Chest rooms, which provide a piece of equipment or a new ability for completing certain objectives like not taking damage within that room or reaching the chest quickly. It's important to make goals!

Exploring the dungeon will consist of running, jumping, slashing, and magicking in order to kill enemies and find gold. I should mention that, like with many games of this nature, it's best to play with a controller. Playing with the keyboard isn't as bad as it would be for say, Super Meat Boy, but due to the difficulty and platforming elements, a controller is simply better suited for it. Rogue Legacy is a game that is all about control, especially mid-air. Double jumping and air-dashing through various obstacles is not only sometimes ne?cessary to save your life, but also feels super satisfying to pull off.

Death is permanent in Rogue Legacy, which means that each character will have to start from the very beginning in a fresh dungeon. However, despite death being permanent, there is a very sensible sense of progress. While running through the dungeon, players will collect gold by killing enemies, opening chests, and destroying each and every little piece of furniture imaginable. Gold is then used, after dying, to purchase upgrades, equipment, and abilities. Purchasing upgrades via the tech-tree-esque system can improve each character's base s??tats like health and strength, unlock new classes, upgrade existing classes with new abilities, and way more.

After finding various pieces of equipment and ability runes in the dungeon, they are then available for purchase. Equipment is rather standard: find, buy, and equip diff?erent categories of armor to increase stats. Some of the pieces have extra abilities (like life leech) attached to them, but usually come with a stat penalty to compensate. Abilities consist of things like adding another jump, dashing, returning damage after being hit, or straight up flying for a brief period of time. Five runes can be equipped at once, and equipping multiple of the same rune stacks the effect. In other words, equipping five jump runes will allow the character to jump five times in the air.

Not only does all of this create a wonderful sense of personalization, but the fact that these purchases are permanent is what really sets Rogue Legacy apart from other games with roguelike elements. Normally, any sense of progression comes from simply learning the game's mechanics and mastering them. While that aspect is still here in spades, there's also a very obvious and visible sense of progression through all of these upgrades. This allows even the worst of runs to accomplish something, making them feel as if it was all worth it.

Unless you die?? in the third room. Which I've done.

It's also in the player's best interest to spend as much money as possible before entering the castle, since a character named Charon sits outside the entrance and will take all your money before you enter. This encourages the playe??r to spend wisely and waste as little as possible, since any money not spent on upgrades will be gone forever. It is seriously one of the most brilliant and simple mechanics I've come across. It fits so perfectly within ?the game, and I just love it.

The pixelated look of the game looks great, and although I wish there were more enemy types, the ones that are there were bett??er designed?. Some enemies that would otherwise border on generic are given a personality of their own through look and animation that makes them feel fresh and different.

While there aren't many music tracks, the ones ??that the player will hear the most (The Castle music and menu music) are too catchy for their own good. I found myself humming them at all times of the day to myself without even noticing. The sound effects, however, are the b?est part of the presentation. It's always a good sign when you can hear something and know exactly what types of enemies are in the room, even before seeing them.

There were a few visual glitches throughout the game that I came across however. Occasionally, room corners will have an extra tile in them that?? juts out, enemies have spawned in walls, and certain enemy spells have remained on screen after they should have, evidenced by the fact that they no longer did damage when touched. These are all minor issues and, with the exception of the last one, hardly an issue.

Rogue Legacy has built a nest in my brain and will likely live there for quite some time. Even after completing the game once, I feel the need to go back and play through the New Game+ mode. And after that, I will likely go through the New Game+2 mode. This is,? to put it simply, an absolute blast to play. The sense of progression, both tangible and intangible, is a very strong driving factor that is layered on top of satisfying gameplay and a whole lot of random.

The visual glitches and lack of enemy variety do little to take away from what is a lovingly crafted game unlike any other I've played before. This is a game that won't just eat up your time, but devour it. If you somehow manage to stop playing after one or two runs, then you are? a stronger-willed person than myself. I still feel as if I have a lot to master and can't wait to do so for months and months to come.

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