For a lot of, Rogue Legacy’s extra tangible sense of development elevated it above different titles within the rogue-like indie growth. Pioneering the rogue-lite some 10 years in the past, the primary recreation was a really stern problem, however one that you just’d finally overcome because of significant, everlasting upgrades. The loop of operating via the sport, utilizing the gold you earned to turn into extra highly effective, then doing all of it once more is undeniably sensible, and the added layer of every character having distinctive traits made every try memorable. Rogue Legacy 2 recaptures all of that, however builds on that straightforward design with an unfathomable quantity of variables, delivering a greater than worthy sequel.
As talked about, you do not play as only one character, however a complete lineage of heroes aiming to storm a mysterious, ever-shifting fortress and the opposite realms it results in. After a tutorial, you may start your first run via the fortress — which has a randomly generated structure, although the rooms themselves are designed — and inevitably die. With the run over, you select an inheritor to hold on the mission, and every of those characters are additionally randomly generated. A part of the attraction on this recreation is discovering all of the doable traits and skills, which might be useful, detrimental, or simply plain foolish. And that is how the entire recreation goes.
Earlier than you set out on a run together with your newly chosen champion, nonetheless, you utilize the gold you’ve got gathered to construct your individual manor from the bottom up. That is basically a ability tree, and it begins small with easy well being boosts, however grows to be huge. The speed at which it expands relies on how a lot gold it’s important to spend, however the quantity of choices introduced to you on this tree is outrageous. What’s extra, it grants entry to new character lessons, which tremendously expands the number of heirs you may select from when a run ends.
To date, so Rogue Legacy. Nevertheless, the sequel’s character lessons are a lot extra various. Each class has a novel weapon, strikes, stats, and skills that make all of them very enjoyable (and really totally different) to make use of. The knight is a protected all-rounder, however it’s also possible to play as an archer, which forces you to hold again and struggle from a distance. The valkyrie can assault up and down in addition to to the facet, whereas the gunslinger makes use of a rapid-fire revolver however cannot transfer whereas attacking. There are 15 lessons, they usually all have their execs and cons, however what’s outstanding is that all of them really feel attention-grabbing and, extra importantly, viable.
On prime of your character, the sport shortly layers on a number of different components that may severely impression your possibilities. The blacksmith can outfit you with higher gear as soon as you discover the suitable blueprints, and there are all types of concerns right here to make alone. Then there’s the enchantress, who sells gameplay-altering runes you may equip. Ultimately you may unlock the soul home, which opens up an entire host of challenges in addition to but extra game-changing upgrades. You’ll be able to even stage up every class, and doing so completely buffs your general stats.
While you first begin out, it is a lot to soak up. You are unlikely to grasp every part till you’ve got put in just a few hours and wrapped your head round what impacts what. Whereas this data overload might be intimidating, the excellent news is that every part feeds into every part else brilliantly. Regardless of the way you play Rogue Legacy 2, you are making progress, or unlocking methods that will help you try this. It is a advanced, layered recreation pretending to be a captivating, cartoonish motion platformer.
However it is usually that. As talked about, each class feels actually enjoyable to make use of, and a part of that comes right down to simplistic controls. Although they’ve totally different strikes and skills, all of your actions are the identical whatever the character, and all of it feels responsive. Every room is filled with obstacles and challenges to check your expertise. Enemy layouts might be devilish, and mixed with hazards, are surprisingly robust to take care of. Ultimately you may see the identical rooms popping up so you may be taught the layouts, however when you attain one other biome, it is an entire new story.
Not like the unique, biomes are very totally different from each other. The second is a sequence of lengthy, horizontal ranges as an alternative of the Metroidvania structure of the fortress. The third is a snowy panorama with its personal distinctive hazards. Oh, and every space introduces new mechanics, like an air sprint and a double soar — fundamentals that you will surprise the way you managed with out. Capping off every world is a boss, and once more, these are way more superior than within the first recreation (though might be fairly spongy). They’re visually very distinct and tremendous robust, with plenty of assault selection to maintain you guessing.
Whereas they’re mechanically enjoyable fights, we are going to say that we weren’t very enamoured by the narrative. There is a story permeating Rogue Legacy 2 that is largely advised via diary entries. Whereas we’re certain it might be an attention-grabbing story should you lay all of it out, in-game, whenever you’re flitting round gathering gold and dodging hearth traps, it simply would not really feel crucial. The sport, fortunately, is greater than compelling sufficient with out a plot to drag you thru it. We admire that it is there, however it would not actually do a lot for us.
As we mentioned, the sport is doing greater than it must so as to preserve you coming again. The sheer quantity of selection by way of character construct, plus the modifiers you may apply, plus the tight controls, makes for an expertise that is extremely addictive. Until you are stupidly good, runs hardly ever last more than 20 or half-hour, and these bitesize chunks of motion solely add to the overwhelming “yet one more go” attraction.
There’s loads we have barely talked about right here. This model of the sport contains all of the updates it is obtained through the years, which implies that, whenever you’re executed with the vanilla marketing campaign, there are additional modes to get pleasure from. The Home Guidelines operate is a wonderful accessibility characteristic that permits you to tune the issue in minute methods. The visuals are nice; it has an excellent detailed cartoon-like high quality that is rather more interesting than the chunky pixels of its predecessor. There’s loads to love about this recreation.
