EPTPlatform : PC
Price : 15$
There isn’t much of a story in Rogue Legacy and at the end of the day you’re here to collect loot, grind and kill numerous bosses throughout the game. It has the aesthetics of a SNES-era 2D platformer and a healthy amount of easter-eggs such as a dev diary that includes the previous work of the developers if you care for that sort of stuff that gives you a wink and a nod at what kind of game the studio of Cellar Door Games are aiming for. Rogue Legacy never feels quite as fluid or concise as other games in the genre but it makes up for it’s with charm and a pretty deep RPG element that surrounds it.
Even though the never restricts you in which order you opt to kill the bosses with the sole exception of the final boss, it nudges you to start at the castle, forest, a dark attic portion of the castle and finally the cave basement. The game’s a rogue-lite (this isn’t a rogue-like) as you still retain character gear, rune enhancements and most importantly gold which you can turn in for important character stats, unlocking new classes and more. There’s even an option to use the Architect to keep the castle’s map layout from your previous run while penalizing a percentage of gold your character can gain. The importance of gold makes grinding a necessity even though the game thankfully doesn’t force you to do it for too long if you’re good at making each run count.
The only thing that does not carry over (if you don’t count the castle map layout) is your actual heroes as character death is permanent. Heroes in Rogue Legacy distinguishes themselves from each other by both class and traits, where a Barbarian King can be seen as a tank almost doubling the amount of other classes, the Spelunker (“wink”) can gain an accumulate 30% more gold and is able to see the layout of where the treasures are located. The trait system is a big part of the game that can range from being beneficial such as extra character speed to being negative such as literally flipping the game screen upside down or distorting it. There are also several rooms that can only allow certain specific classes or traits to gain access to such as an entryway that can only fit a midget. One of my biggest issues with Rogue Legacy is that several negative traits handicaps you to such a degree where it’s just a better option committing suicide in exchange for a character that doesn’t have those them.
Game length varies on the use of the Architect and the luck of the draw in terms of whether good loot is available to you in your layout of the castle. I personally spent around 13 hours in completing my first run through Rogue Legacy even though I’m aware the game can be completed in a much shorter length and there’s a new game plus mode which drops several end game enemies and front loads them into the starter zone. The game isn’t ever challenging to the point where it’s impossible as you can grind your character’s stats to the point where you can simply clear the end-game with ease. Rogue Legacy is not without its flaws and the game certainly isn’t for everyone as you need patience to persevere through the game’s grind but I thoroughly enjoyed the game for almost the whole way through and if the idea of a 2D RPG platformer with several rogue-lite elements added to it appeals to you than I’m sure you would too.
Score : 4/5
