Rogue Legacy

Genre: Action-Platformer Roguelike

Players: 1

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Review:

Rogue Legacy is a game that takes the Roguelike formula and puts it in an action-platformer with a whimsical premise of a family line gradually building up its legacy by exploring the local cursed castle.

This is a cute take on the Roguelike genre that does a really good job of giving players a sense of progression – each time players die in the massive nonlinear castle, the fortunes they amassed inside the castle are left to their successor, and players can choose which successor to follow and how they’ll spend that cash to unlock abilities and equipment or otherwise upgrade their character. Then, this new family member will embark into the castle as well, finding it completely changed since the last time.

As Roguelikes go, this game is very forgiving, and while players definitely want to try to press on as far as they can before the dungeon’s traps and baddies do them in, death in this game feels just as much of a reward as it does a punishment, since after every death you get a new opportunity to spend money to build up your abilities, as well as a chance to play a new character build.

The gameplay here is pretty simplistic, actually – just a basic jump, attack, downward attack, and special weapon. However, the game manages to shake things up well enough in the variety of enemies you fight, the options for changing stats, and so on. In other words, the depth of this gameplay doesn’t really come from any variety in your own abilities, but in building up your legacy and encountering different baddies.

Likewise, the graphics here are nothing special – they’re clean, they work, but no one will be impressed by them. However, the game manages to find all sorts of clever little ways to use them to further its own kind of humor, largely with the randomized character builds you choose from, such as characters with vision problems changing up the way the game looks, or characters with growth conditions looking freakishly big or adorably small. Also, while we’re on the topic of presentation, I should say that I found the game’s music to be oddly catchy, if a bit repetitive.

All in all, Rogue Legacy is a solid game for someone who enjoys Roguelikes but still wants to feel a good sense of progression. The action here is simple, but the game makes up for it with a good amount of variety in everything else. The visuals are unimpressive, but still appealing. This won’t set the world on fire for anyone, but it’s an enjoyable play nonetheless.

tl;dr – Rogue Legacy is an action-platformer Roguelike that gives players a great sense of progression as they build up their family line with each attempt at exploring the cursed castle. The gameplay and presentation is a bit on the simple side, but the game manages to be charming and enjoyable regardless. Well worth giving a look.

Grade: B+

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