Rogue Legacy 2 (2022)

Rogue-lite gameplay, not too hard but just hard enough (once you turn off contact damage), flash game-style upgrade system—it's basically heroin for me. That makes it hard to say for sure that it's a good game, but it's definitely an addictive game.

At first glance it's also basically a Dead Cells ripoff? Except the first Rogue Legacy came out in 2013 and Dead Cells came out in 2018, so...it's probably more like a Horizon / Legend of Zelda thing, where Dead Cells was iterating on what RL was doing and then RL2 iterated on what Dead Cells was doing.

And it did iterate, beefing up the story elements a bit and introducing a lot of QOL stuff, both in settings (various accessibility/difficulty mitigation options including the aforementioned turning off contact damage) and as optional upgrades, like locking in a randomized build (i.e. so you can always pick a randomized build) and locking in a favorite build. And being able to teleport between regions, and being able to permanently unlock those teleporters so you don't need to find them every time. It all makes for a very low-friction experience which, again, is kind of addictive.

So yeah, if you want Dead Cells but easier then this is the game for you.

getting back to grouvee and cleaning up my collections. limited review.

I played this a lot and enjoyed my time with this.

It took a game I very much enjoyed in the original and layered in (successfully) several new classes and upgrades.

If I had one complaint about this, it would be that it was almost TOO much game. I ended up soaking probably 80 hours into this, and I still didn't complete everything that there is to see in this title.

~David.

I recently completed Rogue Legacy 2 and loved every second of it. In my opinion, this is as close to perfection as you can get with a game like this. A beautiful story, amazing control, a fun gameplay loop. Simply amazing

In today's market, it feels like there's a Rogue-like or Rogue-lite for every other game. It's probably the most saturated genre in existence. And yet, Rogue Legacy somehow manages to feel incredibly fresh. Everything from the original rogue legacy is back, and better than ever: The classes all play different from each other, there's more and better items, and the map oh my god the way this generates the map is amazing.

Rogue Legacy 2 makes something I've never seen any other roguelite game do: It makes exploring the world feel interesting instead of tedious. The game not only makes every area feel distinct from each other, but also gives them a hand-crafted feeling, even if they're randomly generated. There's always a set of landmarks that generate in every run, so getting lost is almost impossible.

The writing is very hit or miss when it comes to its humor. While some of the enemies' names did get a chuckle out of me, some character's only personality trait is being annoying and the game expects you to find that funny. But when the game tries to get serious, it does so extremely well. Rogue legacy manages to deliver an expertly crafted and intriguing story for its characters and world, which is amazing because you wouldn't expect to find a story as complex as this in a game you're supposed to just breeze through over and over again.

Presentation-wise the game is simply impecable. It has a great and unique style and it absolutely rocks the look it's going for. It's so good at its own thing, in fact, that none of my friends even realized the game was 3D when they first saw it. The character design is also fantastic, even when it comes to the simplest characters like Jonah or the chthonic gods.

I do have a problem with this game however, and it's not a problem with the game per se, but with how it could've been better. See, the game's a rogue-lite, right? So it expects you to replay it over and over again. However, the heir variations (you know, the main draw of this game) feel like they start to slow down towards the end of the game. While the classes and map randomization are great to make every run feel different, I still wish there were more items or traits to make every run perfectly unique.

In conclusion: I absolutely loved this game. It's a must play if you're a fan of rogue-likes or even metroidvanias in general. The game is an absolute improvement over the first one, and even that was already a great game. And while sometimes the game feels a bit repetitive, the feeling always disappeared after a while. 9/10

Completed version 1.0 of Rogue Legacy 2 on PC. No House Rules.

Uhm, Im not really sure if RL2 is better than 1. The sequel adds new movement options and the game feels more dynamic, but this also forces you to focus more on your controller inputs, which makes keeping track of enemy attacks more difficult.

Not sure how to explain it, but to me it feels like RL2 just "added more stuff" and that isnt always for the best. I missed the simplicity of RL1 more than a few times.

For the most part I played low-level runs, trying to buy as few upgrades as possible. I stayed LVL 12 up to boss 5. After reaching Estuary Tubal I had to farm for a while, as this boss summons 3 timed-indestructible minions that can really screw you up. Aside from Tubal, all the other bosses are a lot more reasonable. I was LVL 57 when I got to the end credits.

All and all, I recommend RL2. I also recommend checking a guide to know the upgrade path for the castle to get what you want instead of buying blindingly, as the prices get just a tad bit ridiculous later on.

what i liked:

• loved the combat and how it evolves over the course of each run. it's accessible and deep at the same time. there are so many different classes, weapons, special skills and relics to provide unique runs and interesting combat strats. i've found some shoes which made my jumps explode on landing - 10/10

• fluid and responsive controls making maneuvering through the game a real pleasure.

• steep learning curve. the game feels insanely hard at first, but the difficulty will adjust itself with upgrades, in traditional rogue lite manner.

• interesting and deep meta progression, although somewhat grindy. i'm giving out some extra points for the visually appealing castle progression.

• huge and diverse hero roster. can't say much about the balancing tho since i don't have enough playtime to master all of 'em yet. some feel definitely easier and accordingly stronger.

• the heirloom challenges are excellent in terms of platforming with some minor combat parts. great stuff and plays out very well.

• the platforming is excellent with a lot of moves and abilities to extend your jumps.

• well designed and difficult boss fights.

• totally fell in love with the artstyle. the game provides wonderful aesthetics and well drawn graphics.

• different biomes with unique themes and enemies.

• cute, little hub area, which is constantly evolving.

what felt debatable to me:

~ little lore drops all over the place providing a decent world building experience, although the quality is kinda lackluster

~ the controls for some of the (mostly range) classes are odd. might be myself simply struggling with "harder" classes like the mage, i don't know, but it feels very unintuitive to play with.

what i disliked:

• a majority of the npc dialogues are imo pretty bad and with an awful sense of humor. especially the hub npcs were terribly in terms of character development since they have dialogue indicators all the time, but mostly talking some random nonsense. can't really connect to any of the npcs.

• the lack of dash iframes is kinda unpleasant to play if you're used to.

i'll update this review after progressing further into the game.