Rogue Legacy (Nintendo Switch) Review

Rogue Legacy is a microcosm of the human condition. We set out into the world, leave our mark,and pass on our ideas or inheritance to our offspring. It's a cycle of life and death where humanity itself strives and grows; each passing legacy enriching the next line. This is what playing Rogue Legacy is all about,and it executes this thesis perfectly using the framework of a rogue-lite and action-platformer. The rogue element utilised is a permadeath mechanic compounded with a randomized map. What sets this apart from similar titles is that after each inevitable death, users have three heirs to pick from who will carry on the legacy of his or her predecessor.

With only the skill trees and equipment carrying over; the three options will have their own unique traits or job class that are random. This keeps things exciting since these traits are a weird assortment of passives that can make things easier, harder, or just plan hilarious. Some heirs will find making progress to be easier, while others will be destined to die a swift demise. Choosing a near-sighted heir means that all aspects of the game will be blurry and out of focus, unless anything is within a very close proximity of the player-character, while one stricken with gigantism will have an enormous sprite with a larger hit-box, and equally massive attack range.

There are tons of traits like this that create unusual variables that manages to keep the experience very stimulating, and, surprisingly, very hard to put down. Throwing the job-classes into the mix also spices things up. Getting to play as ninja with dwarfism means an extremely mobile and small character that deals high damage, but dying means that this combo is unlikely to happen again, with a good chance that the next protagonist could end up being a wizard with dementia.

Rogue Legacy ends up being a rare example of rogue game design working perfectly thanks to how progress is earned.Of course, rogue-likes are often punishing. It's typical that most people are turned off by the idea of losing everything when they fail. Luckily, this finds a sweet middle ground that rewards intrepid explorers who do not give up. The only thing that is lost is gold and even how much is lost can be mitigated should anyone pour resources into the skill that reduces how much is lost to retry the super-dungeon.

The gold is used for upgrading stats, passive abilities or buying equipment/mods. There is other uses too that create a trade-off where the castle can be the same layout but with less gold to earn. There is always clever little flourishes that create situations where users have options. Rogue Legacy proves to be an addictive game to play on Switch but it does have some qualities that are disappointing. This one is not going to win any beauty contests.

This is a very crude looking pixel-art style indie title, where the sprites have a very amateurish and...New Grounds-esque vibe to it. Animation is limited and the boss designs are lazy and do not make for fun fights, but act more like battles of attrition. As expected, the level design will be leaving a lot to be desired given the
randomised nature of the system in place. The algorithm has no sense of flow or logic, thus expect every run to feel like a chaotic haphazard mess. There may never be an answer to the inherent flaws of procedurally generated maps, but Rogue Legacy is able to barely skirt the issue by designing this around progress above all else.