Rogue Legacy 2 is one of the most satisfying sequels I have played in a long time. It is a genealogical rogue-LITE game with the usual rogue-like elements, such as randomized runs, changing characters, etc., but with a twist. It is a platform game that combines elements of role-playing, adventure, shooter video games, and combat.

Rogue Legacy 2 comes with continuous upgrades and deaths with heirs, and the Legacy part of the game is what defines you. It was developed by Cellar Door Games and runs on the Unity engine. Originally released in 2013 and re-released in 2020, the sequel retains some of the original’s best features with an improved graphics experience. It comes with so many great additions too.

Rogue Legacy 2 is available on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows.

Legacy Defines The Gameplay

Rogue Legacy 2 continues with the gameplay of its predecessor, following the story of a brave adventurer sent to explore a mysterious castle. His goal is to find and defeat the unique bosses so he can open a great door leading to the final area. He has to kill the demigods who have collective lifeblood powered by the magical door at the heart of Fort Agartha. Your character can get killed in several ways: slashing, burning, crushing, or spiking.

Before commencing on a run, you get to select three randomized potential heirs from a variety of classes, including favorites like the Knight, Archer, and Barbarian. You also get to choose new characters like the fast-firing Gunslinger, Dragon Lancer, who impales his enemy from a great distance, and the spear-wielding Valkyrie, whose polearm can attack vertically and horizontally. You can also opt for the humble Chef who possesses the ability to prepare healing potions for themselves and battles with a frying-pan attack, which deflects enemy projectiles. Your characters come with stats, weapons, talents, and passive abilities that enable you to tell them apart.

You can rest assured that every single run in Rogue Legacy 2 will bring something meaningful: you’ll beat a boss, collect enough gold for an upgrade, learn about the quirky trait of your character, etc. Each run feels fresh and authentic and not like a waste of time. Although the castles are teeming with challenging enemies, you can come out with gold or an understanding of how to defeat specific enemies.

Powerful Upgrades Purchased By Golden Coins

In playing through treacherous areas, you will gain golden coins, which will come in handy. You get these coins when you open chests or defeat enemies, and you can unlock powerful upgrades like increased health, strength, intellect, etc. 

When your character dies in a campaign, you lose most of the progress you made. You then respawn as the offspring of your recently dead character and inherit the gold and upgrades you previously accrued. I find this very cool because it is a fresh take on respawning in games.

You also gain access to new areas using family heirlooms, and some special equipment gives you new trans-generational abilities. These include the Ananke’s Shawl, which lets you dash into midair, or the Echo’s Boots, which allows you to rebound off some objects when you time a spin kick. You also have specific sections of the game built around platforming challenges.

Heirs Based On Real-life Phenomena

As I said earlier, the characters you play are randomized, and they sometimes come with traits that can be either advantageous or disadvantageous. All these traits are based on real-life phenomena, as I remember playing with a color-blind character which made the screen black and white and a clumsy heir who broke anything they touched. Another heir suffers from a functional neurological disorder, meaning she could not attack a few seconds after sustaining damage. One heir could die from a single hit.

Not all traits have a negative impact on the game; some are funny and harmless. One heir had irritable bowel syndrome, which made her fart a lot. You only discover the true implications of the character’s trait after you start playing. You are also incentivized to use them because your gold modifiers increase when you use a non-ideal heir.

Large And Sometimes Directionless Maps 

I feel like in trying to give the game scale, the developers may have made the maps too big. You might spend multiple runs and much time but never run into the boss, which means you have to backtrack and return to already cleared areas to complete the objectives. While this forces you to explore the world, it never leaves you feeling like you may have wasted time going in the wrong direction. On the other hand, you may have acquired more heirlooms and gold, but this plays into this genre’s somewhat annoying cash grind.

Crisp And Improved Graphics

With an upgrade comes an improvement in graphics. The pixelated graphics of the original Rogue Legacy have been replaced by the crisp hand-drawn style of graphics rendering in this sequel. This crispness shows the game’s world in great detail. You can recognize the family antiques and heirlooms and other great features.

The graphics are razor-sharp and meet modern-day standards. You can even call it a cartoonish style, where the 2D labyrinths of traps, monsters, and treasure now look convincing and exciting.

Conclusion

In Conclusion, Rogue Legacy 2 stands out as one of the best in the genre by being unique while maintaining the core characters of the original. Thankfully, the developers did not try to reinvent the wheel; instead, they modernized it and successfully attracted new game lovers after almost a decade. I found it enjoyable to play, which made it quite addictive. You can sit for a single run and find yourself still playing 2 hours later.

The gameplay is demanding, but it never gets so harsh that you want to give up. With the unpredictable nature and thorough character options, you can rest assured of long hours of gameplay where no two characters are the same.