izigame.me

I was really hoping to like Rogue Legacy 2 a lot more than I did. Back in 2013, I played its predecessor to completion and a fair bit beyond. At the time, both metroidvanias and roguelikes were seeing something of a renaissance via indie devs, so it was basically inevitable that someone would have the bright idea to mash the two of them together. Along came Cellar Door and released Rogue Legacy, a game that managed to fairly adequately scratch the itch of both genres whilst feeling like something unique unto itself.

Of course, it wasn't a perfect game. There simply wasn't enough variety, in both its levels and enemies, and its bosses were massive letdowns. The story was a bit naff and incredibly difficult to parse and the meta-progression system was, while satisfying, a bit shit. Too much of your effectiveness depended on predictable, flat stat boosts rather than actually getting better at the game, and it really doesn't take long to see the credits. All that said, it was an incredibly satisfying game with crunchy combat, springy platforming and a charming art style. So overall, a great base to improve upon.

Nine years pass, and shockingly, Cellar Down announce a long-belated followup. Let me get this out of the way first: this is an incredibly impressive effort. The breadth and variety of content on offer here is pretty astonishing, and visually, Rogue Legacy 2 is spectacular. The environments are luscious, incredibly varied and amazingly well-drawn and the game has swollen from the five main areas to now seven. The new mechanics are great fun too, with dashes, double jumps and other great upgrades making the moment to moment gameplay a great improvement. Now with all that in mind, I have to confess that I just didn't really enjoy my time with Rogue Legacy 2.

For all its much improved artistry and the obvious levels of passion and love that have been put into it, almost all of the first game's flaws have been retained and often exacerbated. Despite the visual variety, the game is still largely repetitive, the story is even less penetrable than before and the meta-progression is not only more emphasised, but is now more essential than ever with the greater difficulty. The biggest issue is that there has been a lot of new stuff added, but very little done to address the core issues with the first game. Really, it feels more like bloat than refinement, which is what Rogue Legacy desperately needed.

Maybe I'm being too harsh, but things have changed a lot since 2013. Hades exists now, Dead Cells exists, Risk of Rain 2, Gungeon, not to mention all of the fantastic Metroidvanias that have been made. Both of these genres are at or are past their peak now, and it kind of leaves Rogue Legacy 2 feeling a bit pointless. Sure, the concept was interesting in 2013, but nine years later? Not so much.

None of this is to say the game isn't fun. I'd say the first six to eight hours I spent with it were great, but eventually I ran into a brick wall that felt like it took way too much grinding to get past. At a certain point, I couldn't face the idea of having to replay through the same levels over and over just to bash my head against three more bosses that weren't even particularly interesting. Ultimately I used the (admittedly quite excellent) accessibility options to tweak the game to a point where I could see the rest of the game without going insane with boredom or frustration, and I'm happy with that decision. If you loved the first game to death and think it's perfect, then Rogue Legacy 2 will be the game of your dreams. But for me, it's more than a little disappointing that Cellar Door didn't have more bravery with the choices they made here.