There was something shady about Rogue Legacy, the 2013 roguelite platformer developed by Cellar Door Games.
I remember sitting down to play the game for the first time on a Friday and suddenly it was Sunday night. I came out of the gaming frenzy bleary-eyed, disoriented, and unable to explain what my weekend had become.
Rogue Legacy 2, which began as an Early Access title in 2020, was released in full late last week, and it looks like Cellar Door has done it again. You sit down to do your “one and only playthrough” before starting your day, and suddenly it’s dark outside, and you remember skipping two meals. For a certain type of player, this game is a black hole.

Like its predecessor, in Rogue Legacy 2 you take on the role of an adventurer trying to kill monsters and steal their stuff. You’ll traverse 2D levels and attack baddies with swords, bows, staves, and a variety of other dangerous tools. You start off as a weak underdog and gradually improve your character until you’re strong enough to take on the game’s six bosses who dominate the game’s six biomes.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. Instead of improving your personality, improve your “legacy.” According to the developers, the game is a “genealogy roguelite,” meaning that each new character is the son or daughter of a previous character. At the start of each “run,” you can choose three new characters to play as. They are the “heirs” of your kingdom.

Rogue Legacy 2 is a roguelike (or “roguelite” if you prefer, which we’ll get to in a moment) that deals with procedurally generated dungeons, random items, and persistence. Permadeath is perhaps the genre’s defining feature. If you die during a run, that’s it. Your character is finished, and you have to start over. And you will die. Roguelikes in general are known for their crushing difficulty, arcane mechanics, and tendency to skimp on niceties like “instructions” (though Rogue Legacy 2 is much more accommodating when it comes to tutorials).

The reason roguelikes are so appealing to theory-loving, by-the-numbers RPG fans is that they shrink the long, slow character development journey of traditional RPGs into bite-sized chunks. In The Binding of Isaac, a modern example of the genre and one of the greatest games of all time, each playthrough begins as a feeble underdog barely able to fight the game’s weakest enemies. After 45 minutes, you’re a bonafide god, filling the screen with waves of colorful destruction. Roguelikes provide the familiar dopamine rush by accelerating and compressing your character development. But when your playthrough ends and you want to start again, you’re back to square one.

Rogue Legacy was different. The game pioneered a popular offshoot of roguelike games, now often called “roguelites”, that focuses on “meta-progression” – in these games you progress between runs, without necessarily getting stronger as you run.

Get that bread

Every time you do a run in Rogue Legacy and its sequels, you earn gold. Gold comes from treasure chests, enemies, and breakable items (nearly every item in the game is breakable, and it’s great that they spit out tasty things when you destroy them). When you die, you choose a new successor and are brought back to your headquarters, a castle that acts as a giant skill tree that you populate over the course of the game. You can then use this gold to unlock and upgrade nodes in your skill tree to get a little stronger in future runs. Improvements are permanent and universal, and apply to every character you play for the rest of the game. Death is almost guaranteed, but you’re quickly presented with numerous options to compensate for your weaknesses, so you’re not too disappointed when it happens. This means that essentially every run is worth it. Any gold you don’t spend is lost when you head out again, so finding a way to spend all your earnings is key.

Skill trees are the focus, with a dizzying array of upgrades (and you’ll discover even more as you progress). Unlockables include everything from extra health and armor to stat upgrades, gold generation bonuses and even new classes. You can also unlock non-playable characters to populate the small town at the foot of the castle. Each character provides a service. For example, the Blacksmith allows you to upgrade your weapons and armor, assuming you find the necessary blueprints during your adventures. And the Mage allows you to buy and equip runes that give you various small bonuses.

Each heir is randomly assigned a class, each with their own weapons, moveset and special moves. There are 15 classes in the game, all of which have a unique feel and playstyle. Of course, there’s the standard Knight, Mage and Ranger, but also some more creative ones, like the Chef, who cooks healing potions and attacks with flaming frying pans (don’t underestimate the Chef, it’s a great class).

You also get a random spell (all characters can use magic) and a randomly selected “Relic” and “Property”. Relics provide positive modifiers and abilities, but at the cost of “Resolve”. If Resolve falls below 100%, your maximum health will decrease. Traits are generally not very positive.

Pobody’s nerfect

Humans aren’t perfect, and neither are Rogue Legacy 2’s characters. There are dozens of traits available, ranging from the boring (“Colorblind: can’t see colors”) to the childish (“Irritable Bowel Syndrome: farts a lot”) to the downright annoying (“Dizzy: everything is upside down”). Traits were in the original game, but are better implemented here. Their effects are more interesting, and they come with gold modifiers that invite you to take on additional challenges. The more challenging the trait, the better the rewards.

Relics can also be picked up during runs, often with the option to swap out weapons and class abilities, allowing you to customize your current character to match your gear and the goals of the run. In true roguelike form, relics and possessions, like pretty much everything else in the game, only give you cryptic clues as to what they do before you pick them up.

How to make a sequel

Cellar Door had the common sense to not change anything that made the first game special, and thankfully the basic gameplay remains largely the same as its predecessor. Now everything’s just better; new enemies, new classes, new skills and weapons, new levels and bosses, everything has been added. According to Cellar Door, the pixel art graphic style of the original game has been replaced with a slick, cartoony “2.5D” look “featuring 3D characters on hand-drawn backgrounds.” The improvements are immediately visible.
The important thing is that the game just feels fun. The controls are precise and the movements are quick. The combat is relatively simple, but fun and challenging. It’s not a precision platformer like Super Meat Boy or Celeste, but the platforming is challenging and exciting, with enough double jumps, spin jumps and sprints to let you sprint your way through the occasional bullet-proof bullet that flies towards you while soaring over spikes and flame traps.

The House Rules section of the game settings lets you adjust the difficulty of certain game elements. You can increase or decrease enemy health and damage, or even turn on a mode that lets you fly at the touch of a button to help out those struggling with platforming.

Speaking of platforming moves, Rogue Legacy 2 gives you these abilities as rewards for defeating bosses, and each ability unlocks access to new areas. This nod to Metroidvania provides another source of progression. Not only do these abilities allow you to reach previously inaccessible biomes, but they also make combat and travel easier and more fun.

There are so many things to buy and improve, and while some of the improvements don’t seem significant on paper, the sense of progress you get after just a few plays is palpable. They always make you a little further along, more powerful. Upgrade your stats, rearrange your rune gear, and optimize your gear for your current class. If you like tinkering in video games, Rogue Legacy 2 will satisfy your crafting desires. New Game Plus and Endgame Challenge Run will also keep you busy for long periods of time.
There is a story told mainly through notes scattered around the area, but I’d be lying if I said I paid any attention to it. The appeal here is the gameplay loop. If what I’ve described above sounds boring to you, this game is definitely not for you. Rogue Legacy 2 is a game of failure, where only slow, incremental progress leads to success.

But if that sounds appealing to you, I can easily recommend this game.

The good

• Keeps everything you loved about the original and adds a ton of new features
• Great selection of unlockable content and upgrades to hunt for
• Precise and responsive controls
• Cute and appealing graphic style

The bad

• Repetitive If you like failure and can’t stand effort, this isn’t for you
• Combat is relatively easy

The ugly

• You’ll spend an entire weekend playing the game

Verdict:Buy it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you about the whole “Black Hole” thing.