Unfinished: Rogue Legacy 2 (08/26/20)

:3

:3

:3

:3

:3 (I have succumbed to peer pressure)

:three

:3

I've played a few difficult roguelikes in my time, including Rogue Legacy 1, and this one just feels... wrong. I don't want it to be easy, since the whole point is to play over and over and get incrementally farther, but those increments feel small in a way that tells me there are problems with the level design, class design, and/or the overall design philosophy. It gets to the point where you're dying before you're earning enough money for upgrades, so your progress feels stagnant. After playing for a couple of hours, I've already decided to wait several more patches until trying again.

Also, I counted at least nine different traits that change the way the game looks, which is too many. It got to the point where it felt unusual to play the game the way it's supposed to look by default. There are two different traits that put you in the same spotlight in a black field! Do you really need black-and-white, sepia tone, and Game Boy pallet?

:3

I've been playing a TON of rogue-lik/tes lately. Prefer a top down over 2d side scrolling.

:3

Okay, that intro was pretty good :3

when is Breaking Brad

:3

"Don't do it in the Venn Diagram." - Ben Pack

Also, this so far seems like a natural refinement of the first Rogue Legacy...but I agree that the sense of humor seems five years out-of-date and a little tone-deaf.

@norm9: Have you been playing any Hades? For me, that's the best the genre has to offer right now. Everything about that game is amazing in typical Supergiant fashion.

If you own the previous game on steam, you get a discount.

I remember the first one being tough as nails, but this one looks harder. I really enjoyed the first game, and have faith in this one. I like the art style. Will buy it now in support of the developers, but definitely gonna wait until it's finished... maybe even a bit longer. Perhaps I'll get to play it on my full-size 4-player arcade cabinet that should be done... soonish???

:3

:3

I feel like the talk of difficulty is a bit overblown. I have played for 4 hours and only have like 2 things in the shop I haven't maxed out. I did the 2 major challenge rooms. I haven't unlocked all of the equipment but I have 7-8 pieces I think? Still struggling with a couple of the rune rooms, but yeah it's supposed to be hard. Also have not beaten the first boss, but my recollection of RL1 is that the bosses were extremely difficul.

I agree. The "challenges" to get the dash and the ability to hear those whispers I beat on the first run. It took me a couple hours but I now get to the boss room every time. I think Rogue Legacy is a game that rewards patience. When Jan says things like "I try to dash through people" as a carry over from Dead Cells (a game that I did not enjoy) I realize he plays this game very differently from me.

There is no wrong way to play a game. The criticism is valid. I do think the play habits of Ben and Jan do make the game more difficult for them. I very rarely even get hit in this game in the first biome unless it is a boss fight.

:3

:3

:3

:3

As someone that liked the first game, but has liked other games like it more since then, this Unfinished kind of quashed a bit of the excitement I had for it. It looks like more of the same, and as someone that didn't *love* the way the original controlled (especially in high pressure, bullet hell situations), this seemingly controlling the same way just with more shit going on didn't exactly hype me up. I'm sure I'll still get it because I did really love the original, but I am a little worried that this one won't grow enough. But who knows, still probably quite a while to go.

@c_toc: I'm watching the brad lockdown2020 eae Hades video. Excited to see it come to the Switch.

:3

We trying to summon :3ildcat?

Looks pretty tough. Didn't really like the first one all that much and this seems to be more of that so not really getting on board either. This is mostly because I prefer a Hollow Knight with linear progression than a run-based game like Dead Cells. I saw Dan enjoy this well enough on his Twitch streams so I'm sure it will find an audience but I do share the sentiment of everyone else that a lot of similar games have cropped up in this style and they did things better. Rogue Legacy 2 is still in active development and it already seems to be kind of outdated.

:3

Jeez hearing the word Dead Cells is just making me hover my mouse over the Play button but also next to that Play button is that I played it for 107 hours in April and May. I could never beat BC 3 and above though so would just stick to running BC 2.

I think they really nailed it though why this game doesn't seem as exciting in a post Dead Cells world and also the fact that it has always just been punishingly difficult. I like the idea of the upgrades and grinding it out but the first game was pretty ruthless and this seems like maybe they doubled down on the difficulty. Although I never really got into Rogue Galaxy that much beyond a dozen or so hours I am sure maybe it gets easier with upgrades, but once again would rather play Dead Cells due to the way the game just flows and is a blistering pace. Thanks for the video though I may actually check this out at some point although reading the reviews on steam it seems like a general consensus is the first Rogue Galaxy was better.

At least we are g etting new video games now that it is August.

This looks very good. Definitely gonna pick it up once it hits a console.

I agree entirely with Ben, if 2 is anything like 1, that the level design presumes tight controls in a game that actually has just about the floppiest controls of all time. It might be Stockholm syndrome, since from my vague memory 1 came out amid very few similar games, but I'd actually say I liked 1 well enough - and with that said, it controls like they coded it in Klik & Play. The fact that they're releasing 2 in this ultra piecemeal fashion when the main selling point of 1 was that it was a long slog of number-increasing attrition is hard to understand.

:3

Never been a fan of Rogue Legacy, in part because of the core design being that you attrition as you go further in your run and will ultimately fail so that you can then use the money to become stronger. Other Roguelites are about repeated attempts to beat the game, becoming better at it, unlocking more variety and options but not becoming strictly stronger or permanently beating some aspect of the game. They're the modern arcade games, ultimately about bashing your head against them until you become good enough to overcome them except unlike arcade games they aren't the exact same on every attempt.

I've put about 10 hours into this and I'm way into it. Haven't been able to beat the boss yet, but I've done all the available upgrades. But dammit, those fairy chest rooms - I'm so bad at them.

Mean comment.

You upgrade your stuff and then you start beating the first biome on every run. Think it's as simple as that.

:3

Bright was a good movie and I don't care what anyone thinks

:3

:3

One of the most annoying things in metroid-vanias is getting knocked into another screen while fighting and the thing you are fighting resets.

This has solved that and when you get hit by an enemy it prevents you from flying into the next room. I love it.

:3

Call me crazy, but I like that this game has a slightly more old fashioned control scheme than dead cells. We already have that game, and after about 5 hours I think RL2 has a lot of potential. Obviously it's very early, but coming off playing RL1 earlier this year I immediately noticed and appreciated a lot of the smaller changes. The different weapon types are interesting and feel distinct, and the controls themselves do feel a lot more fluid and natural than the first game.

It comes down to taste but I think I'm more hopeful for this over time than Dead Cells, which I had enough of after about ten hours. Hades is still the rogue lite I'm most excited for though, that's out soon hopefully.

:3

"Also available on Steam"
How novel.