Back in 2013, the initial Rogue Legacy included an advanced twist to the basic roguelike formula: Instead of losing whatever upon death, you have the ability to invest your currency on long-term upgrades that make each succeeding run simply a bit much easier. This started a whole subgenre called roguelites, which now consists of such amazing video games as Hades, Returnal, Dead Cells, and a lot more. That’s a challenging landscape to go back to 9 years later on, however Rogue Legacy 2 is a follow up that carefully does not try to transform the wheel. Instead it effectively improves its appearance, facility, and mechanics to fulfill the increased contemporary- day requirements of the category, and sharpens the style to razor sharpness.
Rogue Legacy 2 seems like a reimagined variation of what that initially video game might have been with the advantage of more time, cash, and hindsight of how the category has actually developed because 2009. The fundamental facility is still the exact same and still simply as strong as ever: You play as a hero with a randomized name, class, and eccentric quality; check out an enormous, procedurally created castle; gather loot; and effort to beat employers. When you pass away, you lose all the development you made on that specific run (conserve for beat employers or opened websites), however you have the ability to invest the loot you got to acquire a wide array of long-term, yet incremental upgrades that get given to your near relative.
So it’s quite the exact same plan, however practically every specific element of that facility has actually been changed for the much better. For one, each class has their own unique weapon, skill, passive capability, and statistics, making them play exceptionally in a different way from one another from the dive. As an example, my preferred class, the Valkyrie, is incredibly well- rounded. She includes a big polearm that can be utilized to swipe in 4 instructions, Hollow Knight design, and likewise has an unique skill that lets her spin her weapon and deflect little projectiles, with every bullet deflected renewing her mana. Compare that to the Barbarian, who utilizes a sluggish however effective axe that can just assault left or ideal while on the ground, however when it’s utilized in the air it sends him into a continuous spinning attack that can do big damage in proficient hands.
What’s particularly cool about these 13 classes is that they each have an unique method of dependably doing crucial hit damage if you have the ability to utilize their weapons masterfully. These are properly called ability crits, and for lots of characters, it can be as easy as simply assaulting while rushing towards an opponent, however for others, it might be making certain you land with the pointer of your sword, or nailing the 3rd hit of a 3- struck flurry, or landing an attack right after an incredibly elusive roll, and so on. It’s not just an excellent method to separate the classes even further, however likewise reward those that truly take the effort to discover how to efficiently utilize each of them.
While I constantly sprang at the possibility to utilize the Valkyrie when they appeared in the randomized option of 3 heroes at the start of every brand-new run, I never ever regreted needing to utilize a class that I wasn’t as acquainted with. Each class provides its own advantages and disadvantages, and it was constantly enjoyable to play to their strengths and effort to work around their weak points.
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And there’s a lot of variety to that because your class isn’t the only thing that’s randomly assigned to your hero: each character also has the potential to be saddled with a random trait that can either be a blessing or a curse. These traits are usually based off of real-life conditions, so you might roll a character with colorblindness and have to play that whole life in monochrome; or a character might be prone to panic attacks, which causes the screen to darken every time they get hit; or maybe they’ll be a vegan, which causes you to take damage from eating meat as opposed to being healed by it. Many of these return from the original Rogue Legacy, but there are still plenty of new ones that add interesting new wrinkles to each run, or at the very least will probably elicit a chuckle.
The first couple times you see them, traits can be fun ways to provide some variety to each run, and some are even required to find certain secrets, but eventually some of their gimmicks do start to wear thin. The most debilitating ones, like for example, the pacifism quirk which takes away your ability to deal any damage, come with incentives that can dramatically increase the amount of gold you collect while being afflicted with them, but I never found the trade-off worth the degree to which they hindered my playstyle. Thankfully, every new run of Rogue Legacy allows you to choose between three randomly rolled characters, and very rarely did I ever find myself having to pick a character that had a trait that was miserable to play with.
Never A Wasted Run
The expanded class system is fantastic, but what truly makes Rogue Legacy feel exponentially bigger and bolder than its predecessor is its enormous and diverse interconnected world. There are six unique locations in Rogue Legacy 2, and unlike the original’s four – which largely felt very similar outside of having different enemies, a few different room layouts, and a distinct backdrop – the areas in Rogue Legacy 2 all present unique challenges. One stretches out horizontally and requires you to island hop as you try to avoid deviously placed arrow traps and fight off enemies in very tight quarters; another takes the opposite approach and demands that you climb upwards with pinpoint-precise platforming sections. A third is like a labyrinth and has low visibility along with requiring you to use landmarks to find the general direction of the areas of interest that you must explore before you can reach the boss.
Progression is gated by powerful bosses as well as special artifacts, called heirlooms, that grant permanent upgrades that add a new facet to both exploration and combat, whether that’s the ability to double jump, dash while in the air, or bounce off of special types of projectiles or hazards. Each heirloom is also preceded by a quick tutorial section that does a wonderful job of teaching you the practical applications of each new ability so you’ll never be surprised or be left confused at some of the clever tricks that are used both in platforming challenges, and in hiding various secrets. It was always exciting to get a new heirloom, not only because they almost always unlocked a new part of the map, but also because they almost always provided me with a way to avoid getting hit by certain enemy attacks. Whether by dashing through void energy, bouncing off of electricity, or just by simply having an extra dash to get out of a bad spot, the extra mobility is a huge defensive boost that helps to extend each life significantly.
Heirlooms aren’t the only items of interest to find as you’re exploring Rogue Legacy 2’s exceptionally dangerous rooms. There are a large number of relics to discover, which can provide game-changing buffs, highly risky trade-offs, and sometimes both thanks to a Resolve stat that reduces your max health if you try to equip too many of them at once. You can also pick up weapons and spells outside of the one your class starts with, blueprints that can be used to purchase new gear on subsequent runs, and runes that can also be purchased and equipped to further bolster your preferred playstyle by doing things like, adding lifesteal to your attacks, giving you an extra jump or dash, or increasing the amount of damage you deal on critical hits.
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And this all adds up to the one thing that I love most about Rogue Legacy 2: Every run feels meaningful. Even if you don’t beat a boss, unlock an heirloom, open up a shortcut, or do something that gives you sense of significant permanent progression, chances are you found a new blueprint, collected enough gold to buy a new upgrade or two at the castle, experimented with a new character class, learned what a new trait does, found a new piece of lore, or did something that taught you a lesson about dealing with a specific type of enemy or trap. And if you didn’t do any of those things, well then… chances are it was a super-short run and you likely didn’t get too invested in that character anyway.
Coming Back Stronger
There are so many decisions to make when it comes to improving your character in between runs that it can get a little overwhelming, and the unfortunate reality is that it’s very possible to make bad decisions about which permanent upgrades and unlocks to spend your gold on and leave your save file in a rough spot. In part that’s because once buy 15 upgrades, every new one increases the amount of gold required to buy any subsequent upgrade. That isn’t a big deal at first, but by the time you hit level 50 or so it makes even low-level upgrades prohibitively expensive.
This caused me to hit a significant roadblock in my first playthrough, because I made the poor decision of trying to spread my points around and expand my manor so I could see what all of the upgrades were. The upside was that I got to unlock and experiment with a bunch of different classes, but the downside though was that my stats were underleveled to appropriately handle the increased difficulty of later areas, and it was exceptionally difficult to survive long enough and gather enough loot to be able to upgrade those stats more than just one or two points at a time. As a result, I had to grind. My first playthrough slowed to a crawl in the last two areas, and the exciting feeling of progression that made the first half so exciting became a painfully slow IV drip. It was a mess of my own doing, but I wish there was some sort of option to reset the manor upgrades that would’ve allowed me to dig myself out of the hole I fell into. The good news for you is that now that you’ve read this, you won’t make the same mistake.
One really nice addition that Rogue Legacy 2 brings to the table are a set of options called “House Rules.” These are worths and sliders that can be utilized to tailor the trouble to your preference, whether that’s by making it much easier and denying the opponent damage or health, making it harder by cranking those worths up, or more available by switching on things like limitless flight, shutting off damage from opponent contact, or switching on time downturn while intending. While I personally decided to leave these settings alone and play as the designers planned, it’s fantastic that Cellar Door Games consisted of trouble and ease of access settings that exceed simply the basic simple, typical, and difficult levels, enabling everybody to modify settings to their own requirements.
However you finish the campaign (my very first run took about 16 hours) reaching completion of Rogue Legacy 2 will be simply the start, as its post- video game material is extensive. When you beat the last employer, you get to a brand-new NPC that provides a list of modifiers called Burdens that are added to your next playthrough and do things like boost the damage of opponents, include more difficult variations of specific opponents, or include a completely brand-new variation of an existing employer battle. At every level of New Game+, you require to include 2 more concerns; so at NG +1, there are 2 concerns; NG+2, 4 concerns, and so on. It’s a truly clever method to keep the difficulty fresh while likewise providing us control of the kind of trouble we had actually like to deal with in our next run through.
