LogFAQs > #950576525

#23. Rogue Legacy (PC, 2013)
I know several of you are not really fans of this game, maybe finding it boring or too floaty or the fact its not a true roguelike or something else about it. Well, yeah its definitely a bit floaty and its not really a roguelike, but these are things in its favor imo.

Rogue Legacy is a rouge-lite. You start off as a simple swordsdude in a castle, and you need to beat all the bosses to face off against the final enemy. Except youre really weak and you will die pretty quickly probably. Now youre dead. Its up to your next-of-kin to take on the castle. But alas, they have some recessive genes showing up. Each time your character dies, you choose one of 3 characters to storm the next newly randomly generated castle with. Each kin will have one of several classes (Paladin, Mage, Shinobi, etc) each with a basic skill (ie Mages can spell cycle or Shibobis can teleport) and stat set (ie, Mages hit for less physical but do more magic damage, have more MP, less HP etc), a random spell, and one or multiple genetic traits. These traits can range from positive to negative to neither and have great effects on how you play the game. You might have no foot pulse and therefore dont set off spike traps. You might be really huge or really tiny.You might be immune to knockbacks. You might be gay (this changes whether the male or female statues drop health or MP potions). You might be colorblind and only see black and white, making it difficult to tell enemies apart from their upgraded brethren. You might be alektorophobic and have to kill the castlevania style wall chickens before using them. Theres a whole ton of these, which make up the core game play, and these combinations, with the spells and classes make each characters run through the castle completely different. The different styles youneed to adopt keep the game fresh.

Once you die, your spawn comes out to the main area before the castle, where they can spend the earned money from the previous run on character upgrades which persist throughout (thus, not a rougelike) which besides your basic stat upgrades also include class upgrades, the ability to keep a small % of unspent gold on each run (usually unspent gold is lost to Charon), the ability to wear better armor, etc. You also have a blacksmith- you can findblueprints through your run allowing access to better swords. The rune lady provides extra modifiers which can make your characters even more custom as you like. You can equip several of the same type toboost your character. Maybe you want 3 speed runs, 1 jump rune, and 1 retaliation rune which stack- so the more speed runes you have on, the faster youll be-each jump rune gives you an extra jump- retaliation runes mean the enemy takes higher % damage when they damage you, etc. You can combine these with your kin to maximize potential! The amount of mix and matching you can do just adds further depth-all enjoyable!

The gameplay feels great. As I said, its floaty, but it feels really good and smooth to run around. Hitting with your sword is satisfying and you move swiftly enough that getting around is fun. There are rooms you may not be able to get by with your traits, but if you really want to see the secrets of that room you can pay a reduction fee to lock the castle from last time. The game also looks good and the enemies are nicely animated and colorful. Finding the boss in each area is fun, and then taking on the boss provides a good challenge as their rooms wind up being pretty complicated. You can also take on remix versions of the bosses for an even greater challenge. These run tough because you are using a specific pre-made character for each of these fights.

In then end, its a hack and slash platformer with really good game feel, a nice degree of variety and customization mixed with locked character traits, and addicting gameplay that make this game a win for me. The procedurally generated castle also keeps you on your toes. I wound up doing the trophy for this game where you need to beat it in 15 kin or less which was a fun challenge too. Looking forward to the 2nd one, once its out of early access!



Next up: No other score bar that I know of has evoked such humor, character, and personality as in this game.

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~Wigs~ 3-Time Consecutive Fantasy B8 Baseball Champion
2015 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPION NEW YORK METS