Originally published August 2015

Now that roguelike games have infected my preferences in the past couple of years after becoming thoroughly involved in games like Spelunky, I tried my hands at another game in the genre. Rogue Legacy came out a couple of years ago and only just recently I decided to play it. I actually played and beat it months ago and am only now publishing the review Why now? Time mostly.

Time is something of an advantage when it comes to roguelike games. They don’t demand an enormous amount of your time, at least not upfront. You enter them knowing you’re going to die again and again but the time in between those deaths is usually pretty minuscule. Of course, as you get better that time window expands and soon it’s demanding just as much time as anything else, but by this point that is less of a concern. Regardless, Rogue Legacy started very much the same way. I died over and over barely making it past the opening screens until I finally got a grip on the controls and started to finally progress. After exactly 11 hours according to the timer when I slayed the final boss, I can say Rogue Legacy is a damn good game.

Chances are, if you had any interest in the game already, you already knew that based on the numerous reviews out there. From what I’ve seen, people either seem to know all they need to know about Rogue Legacy, or some have been aware of its existence and forgotten about it. For those who have forgotten, if you were looking for an alternative stepping stone into the realm of roguelikes besides Spelunky, this might be your slice of cake, though there are various quirks about it that should be mentioned upfront.

Rogue Blasphemy

Alright, I alluded to it being a rogue game and it even has the word “rouge” in the title, but there are some distinct changes to that formula that Rogue Legacy makes which may cause the loyal die-hards of roguelikes to sneer. I've heard it referred to as "RogueLite" like it's a cheap watered-down form of an already crappy beer, but don't count it out yet. There is a lot more depth here than you might expect. For one thing, there is a leveling system.

One of the defining characteristics of the genre is that every time you die in the game, it’s game over; back to start. You don’t have any character progression because you are completely starting over without any gear or buffs you may have unlocked in your progression thus far. While Rogue Legacy goes rogue on this concept (hehe), it manages to do so without compromising the punishing nature of the genre.

Leveling your character is restricted to how much gold/experience points you can gather from slaying enemies and finding treasure before your next inevitable death. When you die, you go back to the beginning with your gold from your last run and you spend it on unlocks and improvements. You can improve the damage you deal, health capacity, carrying weight for armor, etc. The tech tree involved in unlocking all these buffs grows and changes the more you spend on different areas, some of which lead to unlocking potential classes for your character, which leads me to the unique mechanic that balances out some of this leveling stuff.

Each time you die, you return to the beginning of the game and choose a descendant of your family. The whole adventure is one long family tree of dying relatives on the same never-ending quest. I think I went through at least a hundred of them by the time I finished the first playthrough. You might be asking, “What does that have to do with anything?” The reason the descendant thing is important is because when you choose a descendant you have to choose from 3 different candidates. They often range in various classes like Mage, Warrior, Ninja, for example. They also have their own unique qualities that make them easier to use, more difficult to use, or just weird to use.

Here's an example: you could end up with the possible choice of a Dyslexic Paladin, a Mage with Gigantism, or a Colorblind Barbarian. Paladins typically have more defense and special shield ability, but being dyslexic means that the text that appears on the screen when reading story snippets is garbled. Mages have the ability to use spells more effectively but have less health, which isn’t too useful when he or she has gigantism because that makes the hero several times larger on screen and thus, a massive target. The barbarian can also dish out a lot of damage, but the colorblind trait makes your adventure take on a black-and-white filter. There are a variety of other traits classes your characters can have and the choices are completely randomized every time you start over. As you can imagine, some traits are rather benign and barely impact your adventure, while others can be a huge hindrance or even an advantage. The randomization of your character helps keep the experience fresh and meaningful as it still forces you to at least try to get good at the game, should you end up with a crappy trait.

Once you’ve made your character selection, made your adjustments to the progression tree, and equipped your gear, you give up all your remaining gold to enter the castle and start your quest over. The castle readjusts every time so that the layout is randomized every time, for the most part. Certain sections of the castle will always exist somewhere in relation to the starting point, even though the rooms that make up their placement are jumbled and changed, much like how the order of levels in Spelunky is always the same, even if their layouts may be different. You also have the ability to pay someone to keep the layout the same as the last time you went through the castle, but at a reduction of treasure discovered; all the gold you find on your new run will be a third less than before, which really makes the whole point of going through the castle somewhat moot in my opinion.

Gameplay

If it’s a roguelike game, then the controls have to be spot on in order for it to be any good. Since Rogue Legacy is very good, the quality of controls should go without saying. Jumping is tight and accurate and the delay on the attack forces the player to consider timing reminiscent of games like Castlevania on the NES. I will say that despite the various classes I unlocked throughout the game, I didn’t really dabble too much with them, partially because the opportunity to choose them wasn’t always there. There is quite a variety, however, and some of them are so drastically different from the rest that it really changes how you can approach the game entirely. I never found the magic to be extremely useful except in specific situations, so I tended to stay away from the magically tuned classes in exchange for mastering the core mechanics of classes like Barbarian or Paladin.

The difficulty in Rogue Legacy is rather dynamic due to how the randomization of rooms, characters, and enemies completely alters the experience each time. You can have extremely easy runs with minimal traps and somewhat benign enemies that can do little against your character with dwarfism. Or, you can have dreadful runs that are over in seconds, where each room you choose is loaded with buffed enemies and your gigantic ninja takes tons of damage from every little hit.

Thankfully, the character progression helps reduce the ire in certain areas. By the time I finished the game, there was still only one area that was a struggle to get through every time. Though, the easier areas still had their tricks that could kill me quickly if I was careless. The luck in the randomization in addition to the level progression help make Rogue Legacy more approachable than other games in the genre, even if it becomes a little relentless and unforgiving by the end.

Style/Story

Much like how Spelunky’s somewhat cute and cartoonish style juxtaposes against the nightmarishly difficult nature of the game, Rogue Legacy follows suit, with a few exceptions. The enemies themselves in their nature can be truly menacing by description alone, and while their art style helps reduce their horrific qualities, it never quite reaches the level of cute or benign that Spelunky uses. It’s cartoonish, so the monster designs won’t be something horrific like creatures conjured by the developers at From Software or the Silent Hill teams, but you’re still fighting headless horses, powerful demonic knights, and giant flaming skulls.

Perhaps what helps make the style that much more approachable is the fact that your character is always holding their massive weapon, outstretched, in one hand, and with a pose that just screams “talley-ho!” I feel like your knight could benefit from an optional costume of Theodore Roosevelt to really drive home the attitude.

The overall style of the characters works well with the writing to complete the overall picture. There isn’t too much of a story to experience in the game, since a majority of the focus is on the gameplay, but what is there feels like just the right amount for what the game needs. There were some deep and dark things discussed in the various journal entries you uncover by the end of your journey that, like the rest of the game, clash elegantly against the humor in the writing. It made me think about it, but the story didn’t overstay its welcome or feel like it was being forced in any way.

One stand-out journal entry I recall reading mentioned about how horrifically difficult it was traversing the labyrinth of a castle that constantly moved. Then the author mentioned how it felt like it “was all one big joke” with the absurdly video-gamey discovery that chicken legs (items that give you health) were found within furniture like chandeliers. The journal entries were brief, but in just a few short words, they told a convincing story about a prince on a journey with some witty fourth-wall-breaking commentary about the very mechanics of the game. By the end, I actually had a small emotional investment in defeating the final boss due to how efficiently the story helped the experience.

Closing Thoughts

While Rogue Legacy challenges the tropes of its genre, it still has some unique features to set it apart from its competition. Rogue fans, make no mistake, it doesn't pull any punches with its difficulty. New Game + is substantially more difficult and the enemies are far more powerful versions from the start of the game. So even if you managed to level up your descendants a great deal by the time you finished the game, it really doesn’t make the beginning section any more of a breeze than the first time you went through. If you are looking for another challenging and rewarding game that you can pick up and play for short intervals, Rogue Legacy is easily recommended.