Rogue Legacy 2 | Xbox Review
I was a bit late to the party when I first played the original Rogue Legacy. Truth be told, it was the first roguelike I played, and it’s solely responsible for my love of the genre. I absolutely loved its tight controls and how each death never felt like a punishment. Starting each run stronger than the last is a formula that I never realized I wanted. As soon as Cellar Door Games announced Rogue Legacy 2, it was no surprise to anybody that I was anticipating it greatly. Unfortunately, being a console player, I wasn’t able to play the Early Access version. Now that the game is available on Xbox, I can say that my expectations were more than surpassed. The sequel manages to keep the spirit of the original game while simultaneously adding new elements to keep it feeling fresh.
Who’s Your Daddy?
If you’re not familiar with the Rogue Legacy formula, let me give you the basics first. You enter a two-dimensional, procedurally generated castle in an attempt to work your way to each of the bosses. Once the bosses are defeated, it opens the door to the final boss. Sounds simple enough, right? The catch here is that at the beginning, your character will be nowhere strong enough to make it. Eventually, you’ll die. And you’ll die a lot. Yes, you’ll have to start a new run with a new castle, but instead of starting from scratch, you start as one of your heirs. This descendant carries all of your previously acquired abilities, but will have his/her own specific characteristics that makes each run very unique. For example, your new heir might have high HP, be very small in stature, or only be able to see in black and white. Some characteristics are good, others not so much. But this clever approach to a tried-and-true formula keeps the gameplay from getting stale on your pursuit to thwart your enemies.
Rogue Legacy 2, thankfully, follows that exact formula while throwing in a few bonus mechanics to keep things interesting. For starters, you now start each run as one of thirteen specific classes. These classes include archers, wizards, bards, and even cooks. Each has its own move set that adds to the incredibly diverse gameplay style of each run. Much like my time switching characters in Children of Morta, I never felt like I was wasting my time trying a new class. Each offered a new way to play with their own particular strength and weaknesses. Sure, I had my favorites, but even if I got stuck playing with one I didn’t quite appreciate as much, I still grew in stats and my own ability with that class by the end of the run. Nothing makes me more happy inside than a game that doesn’t waste my time. And every second of Rogue Legacy 2 was more than worth it.
Family Is Everything
That’s only scratching the surface of what this game has to offer in terms of upgrades. Your character now has a “resolve” percentage in addition to your hit/mana points. Each time you equip a new item on a run, it lowers the percentage slightly. If you fall below 100%, your maximum HP drops depending on how far low you get. This offers a risk vs. reward system that forces you to think through a strategy when it comes to finding items. You might equip something that makes your run much easier, but it could come at the risk of a lower amount of damage you can take. It takes a couple runs to wrap your head around how this mechanic works, but it’s a brilliant approach to the roguelike formula that will surprise me if we don’t see something similar in future titles.
One of my favorite additions to Rogue Legacy 2 is its “House Rules”, which is something I didn’t even discover until late in the game. You have the ability to change almost any aspect of the game’s difficulty. This includes the amount of damage you are able to take/deliver and the strength of your enemies. You can even make your character fly if you truly want as little challenge as possible. This ability to tailor-make your experience to meet your personal level of comfort is something I expect to see in future games. Using house rules doesn’t even affect your achievements, which was a pleasant surprise.
With all that said, the game can be as punishing as you’d like it to be. Even after I finished it (it took me over twenty-five hours), there was an incredibly high amount of things to do. After taking out the final boss, a new NPC arrives allowing you to continue your quest with modifiers to offer more of a challenge. Couple that with an incredibly high amount of unlockable items and challenges, and completionists could easily spend well over 100 hours here.
Rogue Legacy 2 Final Verdict
Rogue Legacy 2 is an easy frontrunner for my Game of the Year. It’s expanded on almost every detail of the original in a positive way, and I couldn’t be happier. Even the graphics have a nice overhaul with more vibrant characters and backgrounds. The only downside is that the game becomes a bit of a grind once you reach a certain point. Leveling definitely starts to take longer and longer as you go. But this is easily mitigated with the game’s house rules if you’re short on time. For people like me, that often feels like a cheat, so I get it. But it’s still nice you have the option without facing punishment.
Rogue Legacy is the series I point people towards when they want to attempt the genre. I’m so glad I jumped into this type of game, as Rogue Legacy 2 set aside any fears I had for a sequel. It’s truly something special that I hope many newcomers will give a shot. It put more smiles on my face this year than any other title, and has become my “comfort food” in my gaming library.
To hear me talk more about Rogue Legacy 2, be sure to listen to Episode 394 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 44:13 time stamp.
This review is based on an Xbox copy of Rogue Legacy 2 provided by Vicarious PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.
Rogue Legacy 2
$24.99
Pros
- Fun, Addicting Gameplay
- All Changes Are Positive Ones
- Tons to Do, Even After Main Quest
- Tight, Responsive Controls
- "House Rules" Offers Comfort of Difficulty
Cons
- Late Game Grind
