What Does Kill You, Find Someone Else To Beat It - Rogue Legacy 2

You like that anecdotal subtitle for this post? It speaks a lot for how this game works. Because you'll die quite a lot, but you learn a lot as death is needed as an important mechanic for you to learn how to play the game properly while helping your heroes become stronger and better each time they are deployed.

This game is a rogue lite, but it isn't just your normal rogue lite, this is the sequel to the granddaddy of all rogue lites. The first game came out in 2013, this game was in early access before it finally got out in 2022. I mean, it's going to be a tough pitch for a sequel to top other rogue lites out, since the last 9 years we already got crazier games.

The likes of Darkest Dungeon, Slay The Spire, Dead Cells, Risk of Rain, Hades, etc., standing as the great pantheons of all rogue lites to reflect on. The thing is, this game doesn't do anything to outdo those other games, it takes whatever strengths the first game had, and bring great modern sensibilities to them, alongside some changes and new things as well. Rogue Legacy 2 is like a callback to all the classics.

Oh man, ok I am not trying super hard here with the puns, but ah, do bear with me. Dying is important in this game, because you dying means you get to try out different classes of heroes, and stronger ones as you progress through the game. Different classes such as Mage you see, are ranged based but very limited range compared to archers, but they have different ability spells, and traits. The other mage I played after Lady Jane II was pretty short-sighted.

At least not traits like this one guy, of whom sees everything upside down. No, I mean the entire level I played as him was completely upside down. And worse part was that he was an archer. I had to rewire my sights and brain temporary for that one, least he died quicker than the rest.

That's like one example of a random aspect of the game, the other is that it does have procedurally generated levels, but some part of it like background and assets are similarly placed each round. Perhaps for story reasons, of course. And those carry the unique charm of the game, which is trying out new things and master the game while becoming a stronger hero each time. It is all about that grind.

Exploring levels, I had to face this dancing axe type which was hard to kill unless I had higher damaging weapons. But there were times with different heroes, I would lose against these guys and my health would go down. It's not easy to find pickups that replenish that, I had to be careful everytime I've dealt with them and other crazy enemy types. Like the floating ones that shoot flames, or knights with spears who do charge attacks.

A crazy amalgamation of traps, enemies, and level design kept me on my feet, dodging them, attacking them quick as I can. Now I did say dying is part of growing in this game, but the other thing is, you have to farm gold much as possible. Because if you've died, you had to spend it before the grim reaper taking you back will take all the golds you've had as token. Where you spend it is another interesting point of the game.

Behold, my kingdom, took me 7hrs of grind to build up. The selection of heroes I get, and the people at the ship docks, whom arrive long as their castle is built-up, paid with all the gold from my previous hero's sacrifice. I have a smithy to sell me armor, I have this fortune-teller that sells me lifesteal gems, this scientist dude, some test dummies with different purposes, you get the idea. They all come from me buying and upgrading my castle.

And it wasn't exactly a painstaking journey to get there, no, the painstaking part came when I kept playing it with the controller. Switching to PC KB/M made it so much easier to play, maybe to do with easier projectile abilities. The game just doesn't stress you out when you die so many times. It feels easily approachable.

There's a good number of bizarre places to go to one map to another, like this level for example. This is a trial given to me by a talking statue, that wanted me to partake in a trial so that I can own an item that is important, so that I can dash in midair or bounce on higher altitudes to reach levels I normally couldn't.

There are stories to tell, and a lot of it is shown in contexts of struggles, sadness, despair, they're all different kinds of stories, but nothing too important to learn for the main narrative. No, you're only here to slay your enemies and save the kingdom from falling.

I guess it's supplemental to add a nice atmosphere and sense of immersion to a game where you kick a lantern to go higher, or shoot an arrow past the wall, or warp from one place to another. It's a really great icing on this good cake.

This game celebrates great things about side-scrollers and rogue lites in general. I mean, it doesn't change the ballgame of any genre, but retreading it in such a way that felt refreshing was something I kind of enjoyed playing.

A charming game that is a seminal sequel to the first one. Anybody should give this a whirl, like it's even player friendly.