Rogue Legacy is a 2013 platform game with roguelike elements created and released by Cellar Door Games. It was available on Microsoft Windows, Linux, OS X, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and iOS. A sequel called Rogue Legacy 2 was released on April 28, 2022, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.

Gameplay

The goal of Rogue Legacy is to explore a randomly generated dungeon, defeat four bosses in each of the four different areas of the dungeon, and then defeat the final boss. Characters can jump and slash with their sword. They also have extra abilities, such as magic attacks that use mana. Players can use their sword to slash platforms to make them extend.

When a character loses all of their Hit Points (HP) and dies, control transfers to one of three randomly chosen heirs that the player can pick from. This number can be increased to six later. Each heir has unique traits and abilities, including special features like color blindness (the game is shown in black and white), ADHD (the player moves faster), and dwarfism (the character is short and can fit into small spaces).

Gold found during exploration can be used to improve a character's equipment and abilities, which are passed down to their heirs. Gold is found by smashing furniture, opening chests, defeating enemies, or finding fairy chests in special rooms. Most fairy chests require the player to finish a task, such as taking no damage in the room, to open them.

Spending gold on the manor, which appears after choosing a new heir, can increase stats like health and mana. It also unlocks and improves new classes that heirs can use. These include mages who can use more powerful spells, warriors with more strength, and assassins who can use stealth moves and have a better chance of landing critical hits.

Gold can unlock the blacksmith, the enchantress, and the architect, each of whom provides different services. The blacksmith uses blueprints from the castle to make new armor and gear. The enchantress uses runes from fairy chests to give the player boosts, such as double jumping and dashing. The architect can fix the design of a previously visited castle in exchange for a percentage of any gold found.

Any unspent gold must be paid to Charon to enter the castle. Upgrades can lower the amount needed to pay.

The game includes a "New Game +" feature. Each time the game is completed through a line of descendants, the difficulty increases, and rewards from enemies and chests become better. After the second completion, the name becomes "New Game +n," where n is the number of times played since the first. Enemies get harder forever, but bosses do not become harder across playthroughs. Players can't usually increase power past a certain point, though small improvements beyond this soft limit are possible through the "Fairy Chests" system.

Secret bosses exist, each a different version of the regular bosses. After defeating all secret regular bosses, players can challenge the secret version of the final boss to unlock the secret "Traitor" class, which is based on the first form of the final boss.

Development

The game was created by Cellar Door Games, a company based in Toronto that is run by brothers Kenny and Teddy Lee. This was the largest project the brothers have worked on so far, and it took 18 months to complete. The game was influenced by other games such as Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. Teddy said the game's design is similar to games like Spelunky and The Binding of Isaac. He explained that the team wanted the game to be easy for players to enjoy while still allowing progress that lasts forever. To make the game simpler, some important features were removed during development, including an experience system. Kenny mentioned that the money earned from the game will help them work on bigger projects in the future.

Developing the game cost the team about $15,000 of their own money. This money was all earned back within one hour of the game's release. Rogue Legacy sold more than 100,000 copies in the first week. Most versions of the game were made by the team themselves, but the version for Xbox One was adapted by a company called Abstraction Games.

Release

In December 2014, Cellar Door Games worked with IndieBox, a company that sends monthly subscription boxes, to create a special physical version of the game Rogue Legacy. This limited edition, which had unique numbers on each copy, included a flash drive with a DRM-free game file, the official soundtrack, an instruction manual, a Steam key, and several custom-designed collectible items.

The Nintendo Switch version of Rogue Legacy was released on November 6, 2018.

Reception and legacy

Metacritic gives the game a "mostly positive" score of 85 out of 100 based on 43 reviews. Mitchell Saltzman of GameFront says the game is "very hard for players who are not ready." Philip Kollar of Polygon and Mike Splechta of GameZone note that characters in the game do not survive for long. Scott Nichols of Digital Spy mentions feeling frustrated when first starting the game. Some other reviewers explain that the game actually encourages short play sessions but rewards players through a system that helps them improve over time. Ryan Stevens of GameTrailers describes the game as "balancing frustration and fun." Saltzman concludes that the game's difficulty might not appeal to players who become frustrated easily.

Sequel

A follow-up game, Rogue Legacy 2, was released on April 28, 2022. It is available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows.