Reviewed on the Xbox Series X and S
In Rogue Legacy 2 just like all other roguelite games, you die over and over, but get new abilities and slightly stronger after each death.
You’ve probably played many games like this one before. Like Splunky, Dead Cells, and Hades…which are some of the best roguelites ever made. Rogue Legacy 2 ranks right there amongst those hall of fame roguelites games and in the Rogue Legacy 2 review I’ll explain why.
Just like the first game, in Rogue Legacy 2 you ventures out to take down bad guys, explore 2D levels, and beat bosses. You’ve played games of that description before, but nothing quite like this. Well unless you played the first game. What makes this series special is its “heir” system. Which lets the player choose a new descendant to play as at the beginning of each run.
The heir system is really just an assortment of classes, ailments, spells, and weapons. The way that elements randomly mix together in each randomly generated character that you play as is what gives the game it’s unique twist. Combine that with it’s tremendously fun gameplay and addicting gameplay loop and you have a game that is easy to fall in love with.
In this game you’ll easily find tons of different load-outs or heirs that you’ll fall in love with. I have four classes that lean towards, each fun to play as in its own unique way.
Your descendants start out weak and puny, but you slowly unlock resources and upgrades to become capable of taking on the games six biomes and six tough bosses. Its a nice touch that you can use the gold you’ve gotten from your last run to get better gear and unlock pieces of your family estate to further upgrade your characters going forward.
In Rogue Legacy 2, gold is your main resource and the way you raise your family’s strength. Pretty much everything in the game provides you with gold. Destroy enemies, breaking objects, and destroying your enemies all gives you gold. This is vital because when you die and choose your next heir you go back to your headquarters and use a skill tree (upgrading the family castle) to decide how you are going to upgrade all your future descendants.
Getting gold on every run makes each run feel like it’s worth your time and effort. Even if you don’t like any of the three random heirs you chose from, you use that run to go after as much gold as possible instead of trying to take on a boss.
By the way, those quirks that I mentioned earlier. Even when you get a selection of characters with quirks that you don’t like, the game gives you gold amplifiers to make those runs feel worth it as well.
Other ways you can use the gold to upgrade is to buy permanent gear for your family and to unlock additional classes for you to play as in future runs.
Overall there are fifteen unique classes that you can choose from. Some examples are the basic mage, knight, and ranger (your basic archer). You also get some weird, but awesome classes like a boxer and a chef. The chef is my personal favorite since he can heal himself and reflect projectiles with his frying pan.
All these features are great, but wouldn’t be much if the game wasn’t fun to play. Thankfully that’s far from the case.
The controls are snappy and very responsive. Combat is simple and fun. The platforming elements of the game are well thought out, fun, and challenging.
I really want to shout out some of the game’s accessibility options. The game allows you to tweak and adjust elements of the game. For example, you can turn a flight mode to help with those who have trouble platforming or raise and lower enemies’ health and damage.
It also features a new game plus mode and end-game challenges for those who want more after beating the game.
The one flaw I would give this game is its narrative. The story is presented in notes left around. I get it…that this game’s bread and butter is its gameplay loop, but it’s a slight con that the story isn’t a bit more of a focus.
Overall/Should You Play Rogue Legacy 2:
Overall Rogue Legacy 2 is a phenomenal roguelite game.
Even with its nontraditional way of storytelling, the game’s addicting loop draws you in and keeps you wanting more. By the way you don’t have to play the first game to understand what’s happening here. Really I’d skip the first game and just play this one. This one is everything great about the first game multiplied by 12. Rogue Legacy 2 is a game that you will play and lose all your sense of time. Seriously it’s that addicting. If you are a fan of platformers and roguelite games then this is one that you have to have in your collection.
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