Rogue Legacy #1 on Steam

[haphazard1]

Some interesting new mechanics. I like the new art style, although it may take a while to retrain my eye to recognize things. I like the potential, but it is definitely early access and rough around the edges still. The devs have lots of plans for additions and changes, so it will be interesting to see where it goes.

Edit: I like that the devs appear to be trying to make magic more viable/useful. You start with some inherent siphon (mana restore from monster kills) rather than needing to get it from runes or items. Starting with the basic dash ability/move rather than needing to unlock it also helps a lot. Class differences...hmmm, going to need to think on these a bit more, but liking what I have seen so far.

[Gustaran]

I agree, in the current state it's probably closer to a demo than a complete early access beta version.

But I am not disappointed, since the devs openly stated the final release will most likely be a year from now with updates planned every two months. I actually got an additional ~2 Euro loyalty discount because I own Rogue Legacy 1, so my price was 13.43 Euros, which is dirt cheap considering how many hours I spent on the first part. I probably won't restart with every update, but will rather treat this as a pre-order with a 50% discount and the chance to get some first impressions.

From the early screenshots I was bit sceptical about the new graphic style, but it has really grown on me. The laser beam spell feels fantastic! In addition, the 4 available classes play refreshingly different, I would argue even more so than RL1, which I find a good change.

But how come you have the dash unlocked? What key is it for you? It doesn't work for me on my gamepad and there was even a "heirloom" portal which introduced the dash ability, but I wasn't able to finish it. And no dash for me outside of that portal...

[haphazard1]

But how come you have the dash unlocked? What key is it for you? It doesn't work for me on my gamepad and there was even a "heirloom" portal which introduced the dash ability, but I wasn't able to finish it. And no dash for me outside of that portal...

I was incorrect about the dash starting unlocked; that same heirloom thing gave me the impression it would be. Oh well.

[Gustaran]

Edit: I like that the devs appear to be trying to make magic more viable/useful.

1st Patch: "COMMUNITY REQUEST - Spell Damage Buffs!: Spells in RL2 are made to be a little more utility driven. Given the right situations, and they can really shine. This adds a huge learning curve to magic, which means most people are underperforming with it. We’re buffing the damage on almost ALL SPELLS to compensate."

They also buffed the archer class, which feels much better, since you can do crazy midair shots.

[Sullla]

As this old thread attests, I played the original Rogue Legacy to death and wrote about it quite a bit. I streamed Rogue Legacy 2 on Tuesday when it came out and I'll be doing so again before tomorrow's Civ stream. RL2 looks to have a tremendous amount of promise based on what I've seen thus far. Each of the four currently available classes plays differently with each one having a completely different weapon and attack pattern. The Knight is the standard sword user that controls identically to the previous game. The Barbarian has a very powerful ground-based axe attack with the tradeoff of slow swings and a low-damage spinning attack while jumping in the air. The Hunter gets a bow which can shoot at range in 8 different directions, but there's a delay after each shot and you can't control your character after shooting in midair. Still a great class, just needs some time to get used to the different movement. The Archmage works the way that it should have in the original Rogue Legacy, with all classes now restoring a small amount of mana upon hitting enemies. There's a basic spell that doesn't cost mana to use and then two additional abilities that get to showcase the Archmage's spellcasting power. It's the hardest class to play while also arguably the most rewarding. Visually the game looks fantastic and puts the original to shame; it might be worth buying just for how awesome the environments look alone.

My biggest complaint at the moment is that it's a lot harder to unlock the double jump and air dash abilities, basic functions that are mandatory for playing Rogue Legacy. The original game made them available after the very first character died and it was unthinkable to play the game without them. RL2 hides the air dash away behind a hidden challenge room and I was tearing my hair out on stream because I was so annoyed at having to play the game without it. Now that I'm familiar with the associated challenge I can pass it pretty easily (a separate offline savegame file found it and completed it with the very first character) but this is not newcomer-friendly at all. I still haven't been able to unlock the double jump yet which I believe is one of the Runes found in a Fairy Chest, not certain about that. It's a bizarre design decision to take these very basic aspects of the RL gameplay and hide them away in places that are hard to unlock. Why not have these available by default from the start (?) I think that they're going for a Metroid-style system where various upgrades appear as the game progresses, but this isn't a linear game and I don't think the idea works for a procedurally-generated map. Just give me my air dash and double jump without making me leap through hoops, OK?

Anyone thinking about buying this game should also understand that it's not even close to being finished yet. The current product is basically a demo. It contains the "Castle" portion of the game (the first area in the original Rogue Legacy) and aside from a tiny segment of another area that's it. You can purchase exactly 7 health upgrades and then you're capped out - the original game had 75 health upgrades FYI. Most of the available content can be seen in just a few hours. Now I want to be clear that I'm liking this game a lot, especially now that my characters all have the air dash available, but it's very much a work in progress. Do not expect anything close to a finish game right now.

[Lewwyn]

I purchased it yesterday but intend to let it sit until the game is more completed. Just locking in my discounts and giving the developer some early money to keep working at it.

[Gustaran]

The Hunter gets a bow which can shoot at range in 8 different directions

That is actually not entirely correct and seems to depend on your input device: I use an Xbox One controller for PC and with the analogue stick I can actually aim anywhere I want, almost like using a mouse. That's probably a disadvantage for D-pad users when playing this class, since the analogue aim allows really precise shots at angles which you can't hit when restricted to 8 directions.

[Lewwyn]

Can aim anywhere you want with a mouse. I tried playing but I’m getting bad performance and lag on my actions and it’s not good.

[haphazard1]

The controls for RL2 are just different enough to really screw up my reflexes/muscle memory from RL1. The devs have been adding more options for controls, more key bindings, and added quick drop back (yay!) so hopefully this will be much improved with some more time and fixes.

I am running through RL1 again while waiting for more changes and content. Khidr down, tried Herodotus but played it badly and perished miserably in a swarm of blobs and mages.

[Gustaran]

What controls are different from RL1? I just had to change the "dash" behaviour in the settings, and of course the "downstrike" is different but can be configured as well, IIRC. Of course all classes apart from the knight feel different because things like attack recovery time have changed, but we might be seeing additional changes there before the early access is over.

I actually like the fact that special moves like dash and double jump are locked behind heirlooms and are needed to proceed to new areas (I believe you can't cross the bridge without dash or open the boss door). Of course that hinges on the reintroduction of the architect, so things like heirlooms and bosses can be attempted repeatedly without having to search the whole dungeon every time.

In addition I like the small story bits, especially because they are tied to the gameplay this time (like opening the boss door). Did you discover the secret room in the Tower of Light which gives 15% bonus damage against the boss?

The only thing giving me still trouble is the first boss, I would probably need more levels or the architect for 15-20 repeated tries to learn the attack patterns. And the ranger seems pretty bad in the bossfight so far, or did anyone manage to beat the boss with that class?