The basic mechanics of Rogue Legacy are very similar to an old-school Castlevania game, except the castle is randomly generated every time you step inside so you never know what you’re going to face.

Spikes, traps, enemies, and treasure are randomly dispersed throughout the level every time you bring a new heir into the castle. Even the design changes every time, which makes exploring genuinely intriguing no matter how many times you’ve played.

Death is permanent in Rogue Legacy, so when you die—and trust me, you’re going to die a lot—you start over as one of three randomly generated heirs in your bloodline.

Each heir also has randomly assigned traits that affect how you’ll play the game. Traits range from the game changing, “Vertigo” trait, which forces you to play the entire level upside down, to the hilarious “Clumsy” trait, which makes it so that whenever you walk by a vase or table in the game it automatically breaks.

Traits can stack too, which can make for some pretty interesting characters. For instance, the first character I defeated a boss with was named Sir Kenny. He was a dyslexic dwarf with ADHD.

Eventually after defeating the boss, Sir Kenny died as well, but thanks to his heroic efforts he earned the title of “Legendary Paladin.”

Every heir you’ve ever played as is viewable in your bloodline wall. Going back to review all of your previous heirs’ titles proves to be a lot of fun. As you continue to play heirs with the namesake of great members in your bloodline will begin to pop up. This proves to be a huge moral boost and it makes you want to play well enough to live up the legacy of your last playthrough.

While your character’s death is permanent, the gold you obtained carries over to your next heir, allowing the purchase of stat upgrades and new classes to play as in addition to armor and weapons. This brilliant mechanic allows you to make your heir stronger every time you start over and if you’re good enough you’ll even make it a little further than you did last time.

Cellar Door Games takes away the sting of death, because when you die you’re excited to see what new upgrades you can buy with your previous heir’s inheritance.

That being said, it’s extremely addicting to purchase new upgrades and venture off into the castle. South Park describes using heroine is often described as “chasing the dragon” because every time you use it you’re trying to experience what it was like the first time you used it and you’ll do anything to experience it again.

I found this to be an apt comparison to playing Rogue Legacy. The first time I tried the game I found myself playing for over 8 hours in a single sitting. I missed my doctor’s appointment and several calls from friends and family because I kept on saying, “Just one more try.”  So take it from this Rogue “user” when I say quit your job, sell your dog, abandon all familial attachments and start chasing the dragon, you won’t regret it. 

Rogue Legacy is devilishly delicious and wickedly funny. Combining a dose of nostalgia with a dab of amusing nuances and addictive gameplay, Rogue Legacy for all three PlayStation platforms takes what was best about the PC version and ups it repeatedly for a truly definitive.

Rogue Legacy released for the PC and OnLive users on June of 2013, which was followed by a Macintosh and Linux version the next October. The title was received well across all of the aforementioned platforms, being praised for its difficulty, “broader progression system,” and unique stylings.

Recently, Rogue Legacy made the jump to consoles and has been refined to fit consoles a little bit better.  All of the updates that slowly hit the original incarnations of the game have been bundled together along with some balance and difficulty tweaks. 

Gameplay

Essentially the game places the player as an ambiguous knight (usually with a hilarious name) and the character is tasked with exploring an ever-shifting castle.  As the game progresses the character battles numerous types of monsters while collecting coins, blueprints, runes, and other long lost artifacts.  Initially the castle is available, but as more of the map is uncovered and (more-importantly) as the knight levels up and progress other more difficult areas open up.  Each of these pre-defined areas, which are procedurally generated between deaths, have a boss.

Once the boss is defeated…the boss remains defeated.  The game promotes repetition and leveling to defeat the bosses.  Hardcore, skilled gamers will find much challenge in this setup, while those who enjoy the difficulty, but may not have a lot of time to play, will also enjoy the quick-pacing and eventual level progression that’ll make the bosses all that much more easier— Time over a ridiculous learning curve.

The real nuts and bolts of Rogue Legacy stem from death.  As the player dies, instead of respawning, the character chooses an heir to carry on the family quest.  The heir is chosen by making a selection from a group of three randomly generated characters.  These characters oftentimes have weird and unusual abilities that’ll affect the style of gameplay, the character’s attack, health, and combat/magic abilities, as well as the general feel of the character.  

The player also retains his or her gold from the prior play session and can then use it to purchase upgrades to the family manor, which ultimately upgrades all subsequent characters.  From the manor screen, there is another section which allows the user to strike up a conversation with a myriad of sellers which provide weapons, armor, and magical armaments.  There is even an architect, which can be paid a percentage to prevent the castle from randomly changing, so if a particular room is giving you trouble and you die you can pay to have the castle remain the same (instead of being procedurally generated) and tackle it once more (this can be done ad infinitum).

The Verdict

Rogue Legacy harkens back to an older era of gaming.  The art style is pixelated and colorful and the music is reminiscent of the more-limited chipsets of yesteryear.  Akin to such games as 1001 Spikes and Dark Souls in difficulty, Rogue Legacy will give most players a run for their money, however, the slick progression system, rich sense of humor, and overall cadence of the game is perfect for hardcore gamers or those wanting to play in bits on a commute or with only a couple minutes of downtime.  Plus, Rogue Legacy is cross-buy and cross-save on all three PlayStation platforms, so with a challenging experience, cohesive gameplay, and a great aesthetic there is a lot to be had by Cellar Door Games’ Rogue Legacy.

Roguelikes have been enjoying a renaissance lately, fueled in large part by the rise of independent games. A market where smaller games with tighter gameplay loops are encouraged lends itself well to the roguelike cycle of instant death and lightning fast respawns. The best of this new crop, led by excellent entries like FTL and 10000000, include some kind of persistent progression so that even when you do die, you feel as though you’re accomplishing something. Rogue Legacy takes a page from that playbook and executes on it extremely well, while wrinkling the formula in some novel and exciting ways.

The Bloodline

In Rogue Legacy you play not as a single character, but as a royal family. Each time one of your knights, knaves, or barbarians gives up the ghost, you’re given three choices of heirs to select from, each with their own class, magic abilities, and (often hilarious) traits. There are the endomorphs, who are too heavy to be knocked back by enemy attacks, and their paper-thin ectomorph counterparts, who a stiff breeze can send flying across the screen. Or perhaps your crown prince suffers from a rare form of colorblindness and can only see in black and white, or that rarest of conditions, reverse gravity, meaning that you’ll spend your entire playthrough walking on the ceiling.

The traits add some playful flavor that helps keep each run through the procedurally generated, deadly castle fresh and unique. You’ll battle giant armored knights, wicked living paintings, and disembodied eyes on a quest to find a powerful curative item said to purge all ailments. There’s also a host of boss encounters, each with their own set of wicked trials and rewards, and “fairy chest challenges” that test the player’s ability to meet certain objectives before the treasure within them can be claimed. The diversity of rooms, enemies, and loot makes each play through an engaging struggle to gather enough precious gold to purchase upgrades and equipment.

The Pot of Gold, Less One Rainbow

That gear, or the upgrades to your manor that provide class or stat bonuses to your heroes, is all purchased between runs. Any money you can’t spend is sacrificed to the gatekeeper Charon when you re-enter the castle. There are a number of pieces of armor and a host of weapons available, and magical runes to insert into them to grant powerful abilities like flight or sprinting, but all of the equipment has to first be unlocked by finding the appropriate blueprint. Because the blueprints are generally concealed in treasure chests secreted away in difficult to reach or challenging rooms, just unlocking the gear you want to purchase can be a trying experience.

It’s testament to how much fun the castle-raiding is, and how meaningful the upgrades feel when you’re able to afford them, that all the dying and respawning never feels frustrating. Like any good roguelike, Rogue Legacy gets you back into the action quickly and is a great example of “just one more run” syndrome that, if you’re not careful, will find you hunched over your controller in the middle of the night, wondering where the last three hours of your life have gone.