Rogue Legacy

 
Developer: Cellar Door Games
Steam Release: June 2013
Hours Played: 10.7
Similar To: 20XX / Dead Cells / Fury Unleashed / Pharaoh Rebirth+ / Rogue Stormers
Rating: 4/5 Parsnips




GAMEPLAY
For the first 30 minutes, like Half-Minute Hero, this quirky little game will have you wondering what's going on but before long you'll realise that repeating the same thing over and over again ain't so bad after all. Rogue Legacy is a 2D screen-scroller that gradually unravels into an old-school style run and gun platform brawler (or shooter) with curve-balls thrown in. After you've upgraded outside the castle and had the rest of your gold taken off you by a mean old man, in you go! You hack away at a few candelabras and pick up the odd bit of gold in a kind of atrium and then it's off to get your feet wet. You'll then be confronted by a series of rooms that house a variety of traps, obstacles and downright nasty villains out to kill you. You run, jump, hack, slash and shoot your way onward, upward and beyond in Mega Man style to get ever deeper into the game.
 

BALANCE & PACE
The game is difficult. You die, then you die again and then you die some more. In this process though, in true Metroidvania fashion, you get a tantalising glimpse of other areas that you won't be able to fully encounter but know you can deal with later. To get there, you continue with your hack and slash routine; collecting that gold, dying, upgrading those items, dying again and becoming stronger and stronger in the process. Eight hours and 123 deaths later and although you still haven't killed that first boss yet, you're at Level 43 and gained hit-points and strength that'll bring you ever closer to success. Is it a grind-fest? Well, yes it is, but it is glorified and done in a way that Rogue Legacy will make you want to come back again.


 
PRESENTATION & DESIGN
The title page lets you view a card of unimportant stats for your last hero, change a few options, view credits or gets you straight into the game. This is done by first choosing an heir. Doing that takes you to a screen of your dead heroes (a long horizontal line of them) and three possible heirs you'll use to take into the next run. You scroll vertically through a picture of the three heroes and study their attributes before clicking on one to take into battle. Choice should probably coincide with the type of skills and attributes that you’ve been buying with your gold. Next, you'll be taken to two areas where you'll use your gold from the last run to upgrade weapons, armour and health etc. All is rendered in that 16-bit, pixel-styled artwork. 
 


PROGRESS SYSTEM
Your manor is a screen that you'll be presented with before entering the castle. From here, although some are obvious, you'll get a general or cryptic idea of what many of the other upgrades are. As mentioned, you upgrade by spending the gold that you collected in the last run. There is also a screen just outside the castle that features a blacksmith, princess and a locksmith. From these characters you can also further upgrade weapons and armour along with spells. The locksmith, for quite a large fee, is able to lock the castle which means all rooms from last time remain the same. Getting to grips with the stats while upgrading is a baffling puzzle at first with decision-making being a bit hit and miss. Nevertheless with no map, score or level-select screen, the game is really about digging deeper into the dungeon while conquering the five bosses. 
 

CONCLUSION
There are plenty of other reasons why the game makes you return for more death and punishment. For a start, rooms are randomly generated which makes each run different every time. It is not always about killing and fighting either. Sometimes you'll be set a little objective as you enter a room in order to win the contents of a special chest. OK, so it usually involves an incredibly difficult, if not impossible, jumping task but it's good for variety. Additionally, you may get a little mini-game where you're challenged to hit a certain amount of targets or you'll enter a room where difficult jumping manoeuvres are called for. In every case, you never feel disheartened after a failure or a death because (usually) you know that each death makes you stronger and there’ll be more goodness just around the corner.