Rogue Legacy

I don't remember the last time I've had the feeling of being an addict, the feeling of getting sucked into a game vent on beating it that Rogue Legacy gave to me. It's a difficult game for sure and it's one where I repeatedly told myself "one last try" only to be struck down again. The gratification of finally triumphing over the game was worth it though and I definitely was quick to overlooking the statistics of how many "children" I sacrificed as the game credits rolled.

Rogue Legacy is a roguelite (not a roguelike) as you still retain your character's attributes, skill points and most importantly gold into your next playthrough even going so far as to giving an option into retaining the castle's map layout from your previous character's run at the price of a large gold penalty. Gold is the only currency in Rogue Legacy and as such governs just about everything such as how you develop your character's attributes, buying gear and the ability to unlock other classes once you die (which you will) and can only be spent before you re-enter the castle. As you would expect, it's a game that definitely encourages you to grind even dedicating a class cleverly named the "Spelunker" towards accumulating gold but thankfully you're not required to grind for too long to complete the game.

What doesn't carry over as I mentioned before are your characters because death is permanent and as your characters die you'll have the decision to choose between 3 randomized heroes. Characters usually come with several traits that can have both beneficial and negative traits that can range from being negligible like being unable to read text properly to borderline infuriating like flipping the entire screen upside down or distorting it. Negative character traits whether intentional or not hinders you in such a way that it isn't even remotely fun playing with such a heavy handicap and usually forces you to suicide so you can have a new hero which is an annoyance. Another downside to the game is that it occasionally forces you into doing precise move sets such as jumping while attacking directly down or specific platforming sequences which feels out of place considering the game is never as fluid or precise as other 2D platformers out there.

There are 4 layouts to the castle from the castle interiors, a forest setting, a dark portion of the castle attic and a dark cave that represents the progression the character is recommended to take though you're not forced to beat the areas in a consecutive order. Even though the aesthetic is inspired from retro SNES-esque graphics, the art of the game could have used a bit more work such as some sprites that feels rather unpolished. It's never to the point to where it's unpleasant to look at but as of late indie titles have been raising the bar higher in terms of visual presentation and I felt a little let down here in terms of that. Rogue Legacy isn't a game that takes itself seriously however and there's even a dev diary included in the game which in its own right is pretty damn awesome.

Playtime varies on the use of the architect and sometimes the luck of the draw, I personally clocked in at around 14 hours to completion even though the game can definitely be beaten in a much shorter time. As you would expect from its genre there's a new game plus mode that places several end games enemies right into the beginning giving the game some much appreciated replay value.

Rogue Legacy does what it sets out to do really well though in making sure that the game despite being unforgiving (just like how a roguelite ought to be) never feels out of reach and rarely ever feels like a chore. The game can definitely be infuriating at several points but despite several glaring flaws I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with Rogue Legacy the whole way through and if you don't mind a little bit of a grind plus the idea of a 2D RPG "roguelite" sounds appealing than I'm confident you would too.