The thing about the future is that, all evidence to the contrary, it’s supposed to be better than the present. Parents want a better world for their children, and a better world is generally considered to be one without the threat of a looming dark castle hanging over the land. There comes a point of diminishing returns, however, when generation after generation loses its fighters to the creatures and traps inside, but whether it be determination or obsession, the descendants of the original warrior who first explored the fortress are determined to conquer it and learn the secret behind the sealed golden door. It’s a family tradition, after all.
While the overall setup is identical tothe original, Rogue Legacy 2 is what happens when the ideas of the first game are expanded upon beyond all reason. The core setup was already an incredibly playable combination of roguelike and Metroidvania gameplay, with each new run earning gold to spend on permanent upgrades for the next poor doomed descendant’s attempt at finally defeating every boss, trap and monster the castle could generate. Rogue Legacy 2 takes everything from the first game and builds out from there, plus adds more than a few all-new features and expansions to create a lineage of heroes that slowly, relentlessly grows in power until they might even be strong enough to go adventuring in some of the later biomes.
The complexity of powering up grows organically, with the very first warrior to test his skills in the castle being as basic as it gets. The fighter is your standard sword-swinging hero, with the attack covering a ninety-degree arc in front. Each character class has a few wrinkles to its basic attack, and in the case of the fighter it can move while swinging rather than being rooted to the spot like some other classes, plus hitting an enemy while using the useful dash move that all characters have access to guarantees a critical hit. Each class also comes with a special ability, usable as often as you’d like although with a cooldown period, plus a magic spell that works off the mana gauge. Every skill is meant to be used regularly rather than hoarded, and while it’s easy to fall back on the basic attack, making real progress is dependent on giving all of a character’s abilities a thorough workout.
The poor starting fighter probably won’t make it into the castle too far before getting overwhelmed, but on death you can spend the collected gold on the first room of an ancestral home. Each room comes with a perk, staring with increased health and working out to more complicated and obscure abilities from there. The blacksmith and enchantress make their return from the first game, selling physical and more mystical upgrades built from the blueprints found in the castle, while the combat dummy gives tips on the special quirks of each character class and Charon ferries you to back to the castle at the expense of all unspent gold. As the adventure progresses new stations open up, like the challenge rooms that reward soul points to spend yet another avenue of upgrades.
Once you’ve made a few runs into the castle the upgrade options start to fully spring to life, offering more ways to expand the descendant’s abilities than you’ll probably ever have gold to afford. New armor and weapons, for example, can only be equipped if the descendants are strong enough to carry their weight, so it’s worth buying a few points to increase Encumbrance. Enchantress abilities, like earning a few HP from defeated enemies (scaled on either strength or intelligence, user’s choice and best tailored to the specific class' attributes) or attracting gold from a distance, have a different stat governing how many runes can be equipped at once. Meanwhile relics in the dungeon cost Resolve to equip, and while that particular stat can be abused by going over its limit, the cost is reduced HP. Best spend a pile of cash on increasing Resolve as well. Except maybe it’s better to get at least a single level in all rooms so that the entire castle is revealed and you’re able to get access to all the character classes as well.
While Rogue Legacy 2 is a roguelike, with the layout changing each run, it’s constructed from pre-built rooms and a specific set of enemies for each of its biomes. What makes each run truly different, though, is the character you choose to attack it with. At the start of a new run you’re presented with three descendants, each with its own character class and usually with a unique trait. Some traits are helpful, like starting off with a powerful accessory, others give a debuff with a bonus to all dropped gold to offset it and some are just fun or weird. What use is methemoglobinemia? None whatsoever, but it is entertaining to play as a bright blue character. Clownomancy, on the other hand, is weird, but being able to use the spin-kick on the ground, rather than designated objects, can come in handy for the extra air-time. The skills and traits can make a strong difference in how you’ll approach the combat in a run, but the real variety comes from the character classes.
Each class plays differently from the others, some more than others. The barbarian seems superficially similar to the fighter but the axe swing is both slower and more powerful, and when attacking in the air the power of the hit is lessened, but they go into a spin that can quickly land several attacks. Archers and mages both work best fighting from a distance, but archers have a much farther range plus the recoil of the bow can give extra air-time when used during a jump, while the mage casts fireballs that travel through walls. After that things get weird, with powerful classes that take real technique to wring the most from, like the Astromancer’s black hole attack or the bard’s musical notes. Even if you have a good idea of what the next run will hold within its randomized layout, the method of dealing with it can be very different depending on the choice of character.
Once you’ve chosen a character and decided what to spend the last run’s gold on, it’s finally time to get to the next run and see what new dangers the castle has in store. The initial area is similar to the original Rogue Legacy layout, featuring a series of castle rooms linked together in a sprawling map that slowly gets revealed as you explore it. Usually each room has a number of creatures and a few traps like spikes or flame throwers in it, but there are also hidden breakable walls, challenge areas for platforming or combat, mini-bosses, relic rooms and a good number of other surprises to keep the exploration flowing. The new biomes beyond the castle, though, are different in their layout, featuring much larger areas and different challenges to get past them. The second area is a series of buildings over a poisoned lake, requiring more platforming skills than used in the castle to get past the longer gaps and also find some of the more challenging treasure chests. Each biome is large enough that it’s meant to be conquered in a single run, rather than chaining several together into what would be a multi-hour gaming session, with the castle entrance holding a transporter that can take you to any area you’ve unlocked.
Closing Comments:
Rogue Legacy 2 is an enormous beast of an adventure, packed with fast combat, great platforming and endless replayability. It’s the kind of game that can be actively difficult to stop playing, with the spoils from one run opening up new opportunities in the next that can be difficult to resist checking out. While progress can be slow it rarely turns into a grind, with most hits and the inevitable death of the current hero feeling fair and avoidable if only you’d been just a bit more skilled. The generations come and go with each one sacrificing a member to castle and lands beyond, but the family obsession burns through the ages and makes it easier for the next descendant to go further and become stronger. It may take countless millennia to learn all the castle’s secrets, but seeing as it’s almost impossible to walk away from the quest, they’re bound to be unraveled some day.
