Rogue Legacy 2 Review (Xbox Series X)

Its been a long time since Rogue Legacy came out. Technically, it was only 2013 but a lot has changed since then. The rogue genre, including likes and lites have not only become more popular but have also become more critically acclaimed and more commonplace.

In recent years we have seen games like Dead Cells, Hades chart new territory in the genre but the genre has also expanded to deck builders like Slay The Spire and even big budget games like Deathloop. I was largely unaware of the whole genre up until the last 5 years or so where I developed a strong love for the genre when done right.

I wasn’t oblivious to the influence and reinvigoration that Rogue Legacy gave the genre in 2013. With Rogue Legacy 2, Cellar Door Games doesn’t seem to be happy with sitting on their laurels of making a good rogue one time, instead Rogue Legacy 2 wants to reclaim its spot in the conversation of best rogues around and the argument can be made.

check out our list on the five biggest changes in Rogue Legacy 2

Heir-Bud

Rogue Legacy 2 feels like a follow up album by a band that had a hit single on their first record. Instead of alienating fans with a completely different sound, they embraced their sound by making it bigger, tighter and more refined. Thats not saying that Rogue Legacy 2 is shorter because it should take you around 25 hours to see credits and 60 hours if you want to see it all.

The early hours of the game can be extremely tough and challenging because you aren’t familiar with any of the systems, you don’t have anything levelled up on your manor yet and you haven’t figured out enemy patterns yet. However, despite this, the adventure is still plenty of fun because there is always something to learn, upgrade, or discover. The core gameplay loop feels pretty honed to maximize fun.

The environments are prodcedural, although there is a perk to lock them, but mostly the fresh feeling comes from constantly being introduced to new classes. Rogue Legacy had 9 classes and Rogue Legacy 2 ups the ante to 15 in total, all of whom have different skills, and talents, which make each one feel unique. When you add the skills, talents, and then throw traits in the mix, you can get some wild combinations, which can feel overpowered at times and other times you are stuck with hodgepodge of talents.

One character for example had gigantism, meaning that he was 2-3x bigger than the standard character, which felt like it would be ideal but it became harder to dodge projecitiles and even worse there were chests that I couldn’t get because I coudln’t fit where they were and secret areas that were discovered that coudln’t be squeezed into.

Sometimes though, the RNG gods look down on you and depending on your class and what random relics you discover, all of a sudden your build becomes broken. One of the first broken builds was when my barbarian discovered the ability to fly. Combine that relic with the class ability to axe spin while in the air and my barbarian was freely able to move around the screen constantly spinning his axe like a wind turbine.

Here is our guide for the best and worst classes

Hereditary

Cellar Door Games understood that there were many elements in place that didn’t need to be replaced whole cloth but rather refined or expanded upon for better or worse.

Traits are back but have been refined to offer a risk/reward scenario. Rather than easily deciding to avoid a trait, the decision becomes tougher because of the incentives they can offer. One of the early incentives I found was finding 150% more gold but at the cost of not being able to do damage with my main attack. Instead I carried around a peaceful protest sign that just bumped people around.

Wiith the amount of pixel based rogues, it made sense for Cellar Door Games to embrace a new art style that feels much more modern. Rogue Legacy 2 uses a 2.5D animation style that helps make each biome feel fully fleshed out with interesting animations and great hand drawn backgrounds, yet still manages to capture the essence of the first.

The new looks wouldn’t mean anything if Rogue Legacy 2 didn’t control well but it does which is required to have the precision to open fairy chests that contain runes, the control to make it from one platform to the next and the focus to dodge when everything on screen is coming towards you.

Not everything that remained is perfect and there are still some frustrating moments. Some rooms also feel cheap and force you to lose or take plenty of damage when there was next to nothing to do. Having a hard game is one thing, which it is, but sometimes it can also feel unfair. Some elements that remained include just touching enemies hurting you and the unfairness of some enemies being able to shot through walls, which can cause major problems in some room where it can feel less like a rogue like and more like a bullet hell.

In With The Old and In With The New

In addition to refining the rest of the game, Rogue Legacy also takes a step in the Metroidvania direction. Heirlooms are permanent unlocks that grant your character special skills including the ability to speak to spirts, which can reveal crucial information, extra jump and double dash. You can find heirlooms by completing mini dungeons, which are a fun change of pace.

One of the biggest changes from the first game is the introduction of relics, which are run based items that can greatly increase some of your stats. Finding Relics during each run is similar to finding boons in Hades, except in Rogue Legacy 2 it requires much more thought because is almost always a risk/reward scenario. Relics must be carefully equipped or what was a very good run can go out the window in seconds.

checkout our guide for the best relics

The story is fairly vague early as you are an heir who seems to be in the middle of some type of revolution or plague type event as you slowly uncover bits of story by finding journals scattered across the different biomes. It’s not quite on the same story telling level as Hades but its more story than 95% of other rogues out there. The story also has a cheeky sense of humour that can be found everywhere from character traits to vendors.

RL2 also features plenty of accessibility options with a great list of features including difficulty, the ability to turn off bump damage and even turn on flight if you are having trouble with platforming sections. Whatever your skill, you can fine tune these options to make the game fun for you.

Bad Genes

Oddly enough, one of the greatest assets of Rogue Legacy 2 is also its biggest liability. 15 character classes that feel unique and balanced is amazing especially when you consider the original had 9. However, at the start of each run you get to choose from three heirs at random and this can sometimes lead to the occasional run feeling you are making very little progress. This is very rare, as you should be able to find a class to fit your play style. Not often, but sometimes you get three classes that you don’t like and then you can sometimes gets those three heirs with bad traits. Its a small and infrequent problem that can be remedied much later in the game

It also feels like there isn’t enough health pickups in the game or enough classes that offer healing abilities. Out of the 15 classes in the game only one can heal as a skill.

Closing

Rogue Legacy 2 is fairly simple. Explore, find treasure, make progress and die. Pick a new heir, upgrade your manor, upgrade your vendors, and then pay Charon all your remaining gold to return to the castle. That’s it, nothing revolutionary, but every aspect is fun and rewarding. It captures that special quality of wanting to do just one more attempt. You always feel like you are moving forward thanks to the Quest Log by updating in the background when you find or complete goals.

Similar to a bands second album, RL2 includes more of what the fans wanted. More traits, spells, classes, biomes, monsters, equipment, rooms, secrets, story and just about everything else you could ask out of a sequel. There is always the discussion about game sequels and if more of the same is enough. Usually the answer for most people is yes, but in the case of Rogue Legacy 2, it is a lot more of the same but almost every aspect was improved upon in some way with little filler.

Score 9/10

***Game Code Provided By Publisher***