‘Rogue Legacy 2’ – A Stunning Improvement on an Already-Great Roguelite

With new classes, traits, and other additions, Rogue Legacy 2 improves on everything the original did well while slipping in some other great elements.

Rogue Legacy was all about succession. Well, that and mastering a balance of a lumpy bloodlines against odds worsened by some procedural generation and eased by some persisting unlocks. Rogue Legacy 2 takes that award-winning roguelite formula and builds on it by… well, adding a bunch more of everything.

The first Rogue Legacy was easily one of my favourite games of 2013. That said, I don’t actually really remember too much about 2013, but I do remember feeding a lot of time into the game, restarting over and over to try and find a way to optimise my way through the various unlock trees. You see, in Rogue Legacy, your character inevitably dies. and when they do you can spend their earnings on ‘building’ unlocks, unlocking recipes and assorted other things. The ‘building’ unlocks are essentially a structured tech tree which can see you massively increasing your carry weight, your starting health, how much money you retain between runs, and also things like unlocking new classes, which each have their own playstyle and tie into the next generation of heroes that you pick from. Rogue Legacy 2 still has all of this, and, much like Rogue Legacy before it, you will die a lot.

Of course, death is where this series comes alive. You get to choose between three heirs (in Rogue Legacy 2 you can pick from more after gaining a certain unlock) who already have some character traits. These traits include their class, their class weapon, and their class ability, as well as a semi-random spell. They can also have relics (new to the series) and have personality traits. These traits can range from Diva (where you’re in a bright spotlight, enemies are in a smaller one, and roses litter the screen when you clear the room of enemies) to Endomorph (where you don’t get nudged when enemies hit you), and vary from positive to negative to just plain peculiar. The negative ones often give you a gold bonus, which is massively beneficial because gold is what powers your upgrades once your run has finished.

Now, you might be wondering how much can persisting unlocks actually help you in a 2D platforming roguelite. That’s a fair thing to wonder. Things like Histrionic, where all numbers are massively exaggerated, won’t change things up too much for you, but some traits, especially combined with relics and certain classes, can create real powerhouse heroes. High Jumpers can jump very high (no. way.) and if you combine that with the lancer class, who can jet around the level almost indefinitely if you’re clever. There’s also the gunner whose weapon will suspend you even when it’s empty, and the fragile trait which rewards 200% gold but you die in a single hit. You’ll have a short run, but you can raid enough chests to score multiple upgrades after your run. There’s also a relic out there that lets you just fly. It’s probably not one to use in sequence with high jump, but it means that you can get into areas that you’re simply not meant to be able to get to yet. And if you’re careful then you can reap the rewards.

If you played the first game then Rogue Legacy 2 will feel incredibly familiar. While some classes have changed and there are new traits, a lot of the underlying mechanics — which were not broken in any way — are still in there. If you’ve not played the first game, well, you probably don’t need to. Rogue Legacy 2 is one of the rare cases where the sequel entirely crushes the first underfoot.

I don’t know if there’s much else to say. It does suck a bit when you draw a string of bad characters, and some of the bosses are hard as nails, but it is a game all about persistence. But if you can’t quite persist with it, as a pleasant surprise, there is a whole bunch of accessibility and customisation options in there which allow you to refine the game to your liking. I know I’ve slid that in as a footnote, and almost as a counterpoint, but it’s actually really impressive and important that things like this make their way into games so that more people can enjoy and experience them.

Rogue Legacy 2 is available now on the Microsoft Store, Epic Games Store, and Steam.

About The Author

Dann Sullivan

After almost a decade of selling games, Dann decided to try his hand at writing about them instead. A few years in and he is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Big Boss Battle, where he and his team cover games of all shapes and sizes. When not in the role, he can often be found seeking out small, memorable game experiences.

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