Switch Review | Rogue Legacy 2 - Awesome And Accessible
Firstly, we need to ask: What the heck is a Rogue Legacy, and who let developers Cellar Door Games make two of them? “How dare they?”, you ask, with limited knowledge on the subject, which is why you’re here, checking out a review.
The answer to whom is that Gamers™ did. Gamers™ that enjoy excellent and expansive sequels, the same kind of sequel that iterates on the modern roguelike formula that its predecessor basically invented. This predecessor, 2012’s Rogue Legacy, went and influenced an entire subgenre and philosophy of game design which resulted in mega-hits such as Hades and Dead Cells, all walking the same road that was paved by the developers of Don’t Shit Your Pants. But we’re not here to talk history, we’re here to talk about the Nintendo Switch’s November 2022 Indie Direct requisite shadow drop, Rogue Legacy 2.
Welcome to the family!
RL2 takes wonderful strides to evolve on its genealogical rogue-lite progenitor, but it isn’t afraid to look back either. As someone who enjoyed the original title and struggled with getting to grips with what a rogue-like or lite even was at the time, comparatively speaking, Rogue Legacy 2 is everything I needed from a sequel and more. New classes, weaponry, abilities, and biomes, all rendered in a refreshed art style that introduces 3D character models over gorgeous, hand-drawn 2D backgrounds - it just has so much more to offer. Environments remain eye-catching, enemy designs are both cute and intimidating, including the massive, challenging bosses that you’ll be taking on.
I mentioned this sequel being unafraid to look back, but it’s also equally unafraid of looking to its sides at fellow contemporaries and takes notes well. RL2 introduces ‘House Rules’ a brilliant feature that allows a player to tune the game’s difficulty to their liking. You can turn enemy contact damage off, or give your character the ability to fly, negating most obstacles or platforming. All actions can easily be re-bound to anywhere on your controller in-game too. Also worth noting is that reaching new game+ will reward players with the option to dial up the difficulty with ‘Burdens’ - similar to Pacts of Punishment from Hades.
Editor’s note: I promised I wouldn’t wouldn’t make this caption “I believe I can fly.”
So this is what you get, instead.
To briefly touch on the Switch and its performance running Rogue Legacy 2, I can thankfully say that it runs great docked and undocked. The only gripe I truly have is with the loading times during transitions from one major area to the next. You’ll find yourself swapping areas a good bit as you explore and backtrack in later runs, and being stuck at a black screen for about 15 seconds really halts the fun flow of exploration.
But speaking of ports, the hub area in Rogue Legacy 2 takes place in a port set just shy of the citadel and castle you’ll find yourself both plundering and blundering through. This dock is where you’ll see the beginnings of your own manor come into formation which will also act as your skill tree to invest gold in. No XP here, money makes this world go round, and as such, it’s also where you’ll spend the remainder of your acquired gold and other resources to upgrade your arsenal via traditional methods - blacksmiths, runesmiths, and such.
Now, I won’t harp on about how a rogue-lite works, but just for clarity, in RL2 you’ll venture off, fight enemies, get that bag, die, and pass your wealth on to your next descendant (your next run), who’ll use that to level up. Or put it towards a mortgage. It’s a clever formula that worked great ten years ago and works just as well now.
Precious baby. I will protect you.
My favourite member of the hub is Lady Quinn the training dummy, who’s great for new or overwhelmed players looking to learn or remember the ropes of each class and an absolute sweetheart. Also if you dare speak ill of her I will personally challenge any -f&$!*ing- one of you to armed combat. Anyways, when spoken to, Quinn will simply gush and nerd out about how cool your current class is, whilst offering genuinely helpful tidbits or strats pertaining to what the class can do. Some great examples of this are the Chef’s trusty frying pan weapon, which can reflect enemy projectiles back for extra damage with a timed swing, or the Ranger’s bow offers extra hang time in the air if you happen to be shooting below you.
Its specialities like this that help each class truly shine, and having these nuances explained early on is nothing but a boon to someone struggling to find their preferred playstyle. There’s truly some wonderful variety to the class system in here that will suit just about anyone, unless you hate fun, and rogue-lites. Also, there’s basically a Dragoon class from Final Fantasy and you can zoom around and make explosions with your lance. I like this game.
Look at this large lad. Beautiful. No thoughts, only sheer mass.
Furthermore, regarding classes, we also have Traits. These are each descendant's genetic intricacies and identifiers showing how they interact with the world around them. Namely things like Gigantism, Colourblindness (monochrome filter over the game), etc. Thankfully none of these feel like they are in poor taste either. Essentially, your traits will be bonus features on your chosen next descendant that will amplify or at times even hinder your next run, often applied in exchange for increased gold chances to make them worth the challenge.
To end my ceaseless rambling and gushing, Rogue Legacy 2 takes what the original built and surpasses it on all fronts. In almost a decade between releases the small team at Cellar Door Games managed to go from helping to craft and contribute to a booming subgenre of gaming, to reflecting the scene’s popularity to craft this grand, and well-thought-out sequel. Good on them.
