Review - ROGUE LEGACY - The most addictive roguelite ever made?

"oh, another bullet hell game, right?"... NOPE. It's just Rogue Legacy, a roguelite game which does become a bit hardcore when you reach NG+... and wait until you reach NG+10... lol

The past few years have been fabulous in the indie scene, with the resurrection of the old roguelike genre, adopting a simpler real-time action-oriented form called by hardcore fans "roguelite".

Rogue Legacy is the epitome of this new genre, combining old-school platformer and Metroidvania elements, and became an instant classic which will be passed down many generations.

WHAT IS IT - A DROGUELITE 

(drogue is the French word for drugs)

An addictive roguelite-action-platformer in glorious 16-bit 2D.
You'll have to keep in mind that it was inspired a bit by Dark Souls.
That'll give you an idea of how hardcore it can get eventually. 
Although it plays more like Spelunky.(this is the link to the superior HD version.)

Yes you are, it's landing in a place called Steam Greenlight.(hey not my joke! Blame "Seed Vault Pilgrim" on Steam! ha ha)

Surprisingly, for a "little" roguelite game, the story is very confusing and exaggeratedly detailed, but I'm going to try to explain it in a few lines only.

The game starts right away with a tutorial making you play Johannes, your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-*sigh*-father, a legendary knight!
Johannes is in search of a cure to heal his father(the King) of a deadly illness. 
At least that's what he's pretending... Ahem...
His quest will lead him to Castle Hamson, but unfortunately, he'll disappear shortly after entering it, and never give any signs of life anymore. 
(but did he die though? he he... I'll let you find out.)
And this is where your addiction-I mean, the story begins.  🤣
 

This is where your story begins. Okay, not at level 54 though. 😄 Oh yeah, and don't forget to break EVERYTHING, including these chandeliers. Sometimes they give you mana potions or chickens which give you HP.

Your first character(right after the tutorial), is the first child of Johannes, and your goal is to find out what happened to Johannes, and more importantly, to complete his quest.

Time for you to explore that gigantic shape-shifting castle(it uses procedural generation) and collect as much gold as possible, unlock new abilities, find special items, improve your gear, until you reach the top of the tower! 

TIP!

Once you beat a boss, you'll unlock their "remixed" version, which is MUCH harder. Once you defeat all all of the remixed bosses, you'll have the possibility to face the secret version of the final boss, and once beaten, unlock the secret "Traitor" class, based on the first form of the final boss.

Also, you'll collect on your way diary pages(SPOILERS) whose unique goal is to give you a better comprehension of the misleading story.

One of the greatest things about Rogue Legacy is that, each time you die, a brand new "child" is created. 
Unlike the vast majority of roguelikes in which you're the same person(with better abilities or not), you play a different character each run!
You don't play as a character but as a whole family tree!
Of course you'll have a different name, but also different classes, abilities, magical attacks, and the funniest part, different flaws too!

I'm a lesbian barbarian(or lesbarian, if you prefer... Or barbabian?), I throw axes at my enemies, while cursing at them. Who am I? You got it, a regular "lady" customer at Whalemart!

Now where does the addiction come from?

Something that divide some players, actually, but fascinate others like me.

😍PERMANENT UPGRADES😍

I love roguelikes, but the ones with permanent upgrades are the best, in my opinion.
Basically, every time you die, all the gold you've collected can be used to upgrade your castle, which will give you permanent bonuses in attack and defense, or it could also unlock some much more powerful character like the Hokage!(improved version of the Shinobi)

Trust me, the most intelligent choice at first is to increase the "Gold Gain Up" bonus. The game can become quite grindy so you want to be able to "level up" as fast as possible.

Thanks to the increasing amounts of gold you collect, you'll be able to unlock the blacksmith, the enchantress and the architect! 

- The blacksmith will use blueprints you found in the castle to create new armor and equipment, with better stats and special abilities!

- The enchantress will allow you to use runes found in fairy chests, and give you special abilities such as double jumping and dashing. (get these two as EARLY as possible in the game!!!)

- And the architect, which I NEVER found useful, can "lock down" the layout of a previously played castle (so that you won't play a newly generated one).

TIP!

Wondering when you're supposed to be ready to face a boss? Generally, when you can slay any monster of an area in 1-2 hits, you should be good enough to face its boss.

GAMEPLAY - JUST...ONE...MORE...RUN...

The game is pretty simple.
Your goal is to explore the castle and neighboring areas, defeat four bosses in each of these four unique areas, and then the final boss in the King's room. 
Controls are simplified to jumping and slashing with your sword, but you do get a secondary magic attack.

Controls are nice and fluid, and each playthrough feels unique enough to keep you entertained, thanks to the nicely done procedural generation of the castle.
 

This is just one example of a map completely explored, so you can see the four different areas. Every new run, this layout will be completely different, but the position of the areas will be always the same. Castle West, Dungeon South, Forest East, and finally, Tower North.

You want to try to complete the areas in this order. =>

AREA 1 - THE CASTLE Homing turrets, knights and "balls and chains", haunted portraits and skeletons, this level has it all!	AREA 2 - THE FOREST This is where you'll encounter more wild animals like wolves, headless horses, carnivore plants, but also bigger fire mages, and the very strong shielded knights!
AREA 3 - THE TOWER Shuriken-throwing devils, crazy red eyes spitting at you, huge shielded knights... The hardest area for me. Maybe Because of the constant fog.	AREA 4 - THE DUNGEON The final area(before heading back to the castle), which feels like being in hell. Almost every previous enemy you encountered is present here. And everything is MUCH bigger and deals massive amounts of damage, whatever level your character is.

The gameplay is made even richer thanks to the various characters gameplay styles already mentioned before.

Your first character will be a regular swordsman, but you'll eventually get to play a lich king who can only see in black and white, a barbarian tall like a basketball player, or a Shinobi dwarf, so little and fast that enemies will have difficulties hitting you!
(on the other hand, your sword will be so little you'll also have difficulties hitting them...)
Yep, every new generated character also has various realistic physical traits, which is not something you see in that many roguelite games.

And yep, as you can imagine every of these physical traits I mentioned also have their drawbacks. Here, having the "gigantism" trait makes me so tall I can't reach that chest. And nope, you can't crawl. 😝

There's one thing I often complain about in such games.
Sometimes, they feel unbalanced in that you don't necessarily progress each run.
So, when you die, you feel like it was for nothing. 
I complained about that recently in my review of Heroes of Hammerwatch, a VERY grindy roguelite in which not every run will give you enough gold to progress.

This is NOT the case in Rogue Legacy.
EVERY time I died and went back to my castle, I had enough money to level up 1 or 2 bonuses, and/or get better gear.
EVERY run rewards you, this is important enough to be mentioned.
Bravo, developers! 😉👍

The death screen, which you will see MANY times, shows you all the monsters you slayed during your run.

So, to sum it up...

- Randomly generated world made of 4 very distinct areas
- LOTS of different characters, each having their own gameplay style
- LOTS of randomly generated funny traits which make every run unique
- Different magic attacks
- COUNTLESS enemy types, who level up with you (you might like this or not)
- Permanent upgrades
- Fast-paced runs which motivate you to keep playing "one more run"...

This is the perfect recipe for game addiction. Thanks, developer!
Now what, do I have to join a video game addiction treatment program? 😅

Yes, one of the traits is called "Vertigo" and makes everything on the screen mirrored vertically. Challenge: try to play like this 10 minutes without dying, and more difficult, without vomiting.

BOSSES TIPS!

• Khidr (The Eye) - If possible, choose a dwarf character before attacking this boss, because it'll make the dodging easier. You don't have to jump around that much compared to other bosses. Also, if you can, use the Blade Wall spell, the one which summons a big sword and deals damage constantly to him. (he's not moving, so it's too easy...)

---

• Alexander (The Skull) - MUCH harder.  Try to equip vampire runes or blood equipment so that you can get lots of health from the countless skulls he spawns.

---

• Ponce De Leon (The Fireball) - Pick a barbarian. His "Fah-ro-dus"(lol) shout will cause his flames to dissipate right away. Keep an eye on your mana though!

---

• Herodotus (The Slime) - Focus on heavy damage and equip vampire runes if available.

GRAPHICS - SIMPLE AND FUNCTIONAL

Again, I know I repeat myself lately, but it sure looks like a Super Nintendo game, or even Megadrive game from the early 90s.😁
(with better resolution, obviously)

A ghost, two knights, a starburst, some haunted portraits(some of them attack you)... One simply doesn't enter Castle Hansom and enjoy a relaxing time...

Each area has a very distinctive style, and surprisingly for a simple roguelite, some atmosphere. The Forest area especially is delightfully eerie yet cute.
Actually, "cute" isn't an exaggeration to describe the overall style of this game, and even the monsters almost look "friendly", and remind me of 80s cartoons mixed slightly with a Chibi style.

Animations are also nicely done, like the headless horse running in the forest!

 

Don't bring a tiny bow to a big-ass sword fight...😁

Here's a tip about how to beat the axe throwing minigame (I know you've been suffering because of it, don't deny it!🤣), from Sullla Youtube Channel!

 

MUSIC & SOUNDS - CHIPTUNE AND REAL INSTRUMENTS DON'T MIX

Unpopular opinion: the music sounds a bit weird to me.😥
Except the Forest track, which I LOVE because it sounds totally like it belongs in a 80s horror movie, most of the tracks are a weird mix of chiptune instruments and "real" instruments.

For example =>

Some people have been comparing it to Spelunky...
Well, as a matter of fact, I tried to play Rogue Legacy with Spelunky HD OST in the background, and it felt much better, actually!
Using FM synthesis (like the Sega Megadrive) simply fits the 16-bit graphic style better.
(By the way, anybody can show me where to get a Japanese Megadrive model 1? All I find is an American Genesis version)

What do you think?
Do you have a favorite OST to listen to while playing Rogue Legacy?

RATING BOX

	(VERSION TESTED: 1.2.0b) Publisher: Cellar Door Games Developer: Cellar Door Games Release Date: 27 June, 2013 Genre: Roguelite, Platformer 1 PLAYER  Difficulty: Average/Hard/Impossible when you reach NG+
GRAPHICS: 91%
A perfect case of "less is more". The pixel art is simple but extremely "clean", and every character, enemy, and item perfectly stands out from the backgrounds. The uniqueness of every area makes them unforgettable.
MUSIC: 73%
An unlikely mix of chiptune tones with sometimes realistic instruments. Not for everybody. Melodies do have soul though, and are easily remembered.
SOUNDS: 77%
A decent job. Nothing extraordinary, but the sounds mix well with the music to make a coherent ensemble.
GAMEPLAY: 94%
Easy to pickup thanks to the simple and responsive controls, but challenging thanks to the numerous monsters all having unique attack patterns, countless traps which have been viciously designed just to kill you, and the funny traits/handicaps which you have to adjust your gameplay style to.
OVERALL RATING: 95%
The best 2D platformer-roguelite game ever made. It has everything to make you addicted. If you haven't played it already, do it NOW. Despite being released in 2013, NO game has managed to dethrone it. But let's wait until Dead Cells finally reaches v1.0... he he😋

HOME

REVIEWS