Rogue Legacy (PC, PS3/4, Vita) Review

[H-Man]

I picked this up yesterday in the Steam sale and instantly fell for it. It's essentially a hard as nails (for me at least), comedy, 2D rogue-like Castlevania. You start off as a generic looking knight dude with pretty standard skills and set off to save the day. When you die, which you will often, that character's gone for good - leaving just a portrait on the wall. You then get to pick from one of three descendants, each with varying skills/stats, to carry on the quest. You might end up a colour blind gay barbarian that suffers from gigantism - the colourful world will now be black and white and you'll be massive. Or a short sighted Ninja (everything beyond a few meters will be blurry) Dwarf. As you play you unlock more classes, items/weapons/armour/skills and level up. The castle is procedurally generated and different each time you enter, unless you pay to lock it - an essential feature that saves your map progress and arms you with familiarity of the layout and mobs at the cost of 40% of your cash. It's funny, challenging, and just good. It's like the best snes game to never be released on the snes. Having said all this I've only played it for an evening and may be giving in to early impressions too quickly - but it was the most fun evening I've had gaming in a while

[fuse]

I am absolutely loving this. I would agree with a lot of the parallels you've made; there is a tonne of inspiration from all of the shop but it still feels very much its own game, and is wonderful for it. I almost wish I was commuting right now so I could be playing this during that time.

[hudson]

Loving this too. I'm getting my bottom mostly kicked about, but it is addictive, and nice to know each visit to the dungeon is character building.

Loving the silly attributes you occasionally get dealt i.e. Shortsightedness, colour blindness, dwarfism and dyslexia, for example. How does being "Gay" affect your character in this game?

[H-Man]

How does being "Gay" affect your character in this game?

I don't believe it makes any difference - it just means you're a fan of the man

[Guts]

Damn you, H-Man, another indie title in the ever-growing pile of "to purchase"!

[bwi]

ok bought this the other day and have already got to the point where im gagging to see what coinage and loot i get, i just dont get what im supposed to do really.

Never played anything like this before and im at level 32 and still havent a clue apart from slaying things and then getting battered if i stumble upon a bosslike person

[PeteJ]

Just keep playing and after every good run bump up those stats and character unlocks a little bit more. That's all there is to it really!

If you get to a boss and feel you can do good damage to it, make sure you 'save' that dungeon and keep doing boss runs until you get the right mix of character and luck until you defeat it. Remember once you save a dungeon (by talking to the guy outside) you can just teleport straight to the boss area, saving all of your energy and magic. Killing a boss nets you three random stat upgrades which is pretty handy.

The same applies if you find one of those one-time-attempt chests - if you can't get it with your current class, then keep going back until you get it. The chests hold items and runes that really make a difference.

Tis a good game, well worth picking up

[bwi]

Problem being atm is that every upgrade i need now cost 600+ and usually i get battered before that point, so losing gold re-entering the castle and losing (for example 300 gold) really grates on me.

Now if i lock the castle down i only get 60% of my gold meaning i have to go further on into the castle (1000+ gold hauls are rare for me atm)

But for some strange reason its got that one more go thing going on and im never mad with it as ususally i know its my skill that let me down.

I have the double jump and float activated, but hitting the platforms with a downward thrust seems a bit hit and miss also, but again thats down to me.

After all that im loving the cross-save feature, so i take it to work with my vita and then return home where ive dabbled on the ps4 but ususally play it on the ps3.

[JU!]

Really, really enjoying this. Decided was gonna get after I heard the Giant Bomb guys talking about it, made up my mind would wait for the PS4 vers, certainly is ace. So hard but so addictive progression a long with randomness and that one more play feeling make it addictive.

[TonyDA]

This is pulling me away from The Last Of Us (which I'm playing for the first time and loving) which is some achievement as I'm absolutely rubbish at it.

Certainly gets better once you understand the mechanics of the game - i.e. You're going to get nowhere for a while but gather all the gold you can on each play through and spend it before going back in the castle! That unlocks stat upgrades etc which gives you (ever so slightly) more of a fighting chance next time.

Was impressed when I unlocked my first trophy yesterday - then looked it up and saw if was for 'dying 20 times'......

I've been fighting the urge to buy a Vita over the past few weeks for my holiday in a couple of weeks time. This is so good, I'm tempted again - and considering whether I'd want to play this on my commute to work, which would mean starting my day with an hour of frustration at 6.30am!!!

[PeteJ]

Problem being atm is that every upgrade i need now cost 600+ and usually i get battered before that point, so losing gold re-entering the castle and losing (for example 300 gold) really grates on me.

Now if i lock the castle down i only get 60% of my gold meaning I have to go further on into the castle (1000+ gold hauls are rare for me atm)

Yup! That's the game in a nutshell! I need roughly 1200 gold to upgrade anything at the moment (around level 80) so I have a lot of wasted runs. Occasionally I get the right combo of character and castle and can clear the first two areas in one run, but that doesn't happen often. Have only managed to kill the first boss but getting close to doing the second.

I found upgrading the stat that lets you keep money when re-entering the castle helps. I've got it up to 30% which isn't a lot but at least you start with some cash. Best runs at the moment come from the Barbarian class, though the ninja one is pretty good too (no critical but hits hard). The others I don't tend to bother with at all, though I'm playing with the Lich King currently.

Oh and the downward thrust is a bit arse, especially for those platforms. I tend to rely on the double jump\fly combo to avoid them.

[bwi]

Sometimes when I'm playing I get to one of the challenge rooms and the chest is in a room with no entrance. How are you supposed to get those?

[TonyDA]

Some of them are accessible via secret passages in the walls - but only if your character is a dwarf.