Rogue Legacy 2 Is The Master Of Its Own Genre

thegamer.com:

Rogue Legacy 2 scratches an itch that few games do. It features a gameplay loop where every mechanic feels like it’s building towards progression, providing a worthwhile sense of satisfaction each and every time you start a level and meet your death at the hands of fireball lobbing skeletons and spooky floating ghosts. Even in defeat, you’re moving forward and carving out a legacy that will see kingdoms rise and tyrants fall.

The only game I can think of that even comes close to its level of brilliance is Hades. Supergiant Games manages to outshine this quirky royalist slasher with a phenomenal narrative and characters who have developed lives of their own outside the universe that spawned them. Rogue Legacy 2 understands why the genre has become so beloved while simultaneously building upon it in ways that feel equally challenging and approachable.

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I have always struggled with roguelites, partly because I struggle with the idea of starting each new run with nothing, having little to show for the time invested only to have myself murdered by a difficult boss battle or sudden cabal of procedural enemies I had no way of anticipating. Hades and Rogue Legacy 2 still trade in these fundamentals, but they both understand that to become engrossed in the adventure you need something to show for it.

From your very first run it is clear in Rogue Legacy 2 that each death is a step forward. Each enemy slain rewards you with coins, while the majority of rooms feature worthwhile treasures or secrets to discover that heighten your knowledge of what it means to navigate this labyrinthine environment. Obstacles are relatively easy to navigate, while the majority of enemies operate