Rogue Legacy

I've played this game on PS4, Switch, iPhone, and PC. Used to play at a buddy's house. The gang would all take turns playing, swapping out the controller each time one of us died. I've sunk a bunch of time across the devices, every bit was worth it. Love the death mechanic, love all the traits, love the humor, love the enemies, love the procedural generated map...

Above all else though, the music is absolutely spectacular. I've listened to the album for this game countless times. Pistol Shrimp is my hype song

die way too easy and characters are weak

This is just a fantastic game all around. One of the best roguelikes you can get.

game is fun but it is very grindy 7/10

👍

Pretty enjoyable rogue-lite, although suffers from a lack of enemy variety, each of the 4 areas in the dungeon are mostly filled with pallet swapped enemies from the previous area.

One of my favorite roguelike progression games.

Rogue Legacy 7/10 - A victim of being the first of the new wave of Roguelikes. It is the purest distillation of roguelite, with nothing extra up it's sleeve which is what really holds it back. I can see why when it came out it was hailed, but having played many of the games that improved upon the formula it feels very basic. I do look forward to playing the sequel, I think The first one absolutely nailed the fundamentals so just having the years to add new ideas could make something great.

I didn't like this game the first time I played it. The second time, ten years later, I loved it. Eventually, I'll be returning to it.

This is one of the most rewarding roguelikes I've played. Its meta-progression is extremely fun to engage with.

While this game may have been well received in its time, I don't think it really holds up and warrents a revisit. Under the veneer of quirky humor are a lot of mechanics that that are just anti-fun and hold the game back tremendously.

The concept of working up a family tree of characters is interesting, but in practice having to start each run by choosing from three descendants means you're often stuck playing with classes, boons and downsides that you don't want. While it "technically" adds replayability and variation, it's not the good kind. In addition, meta-progression is painfully slow. Each run makes enough gold for one, maybe two upgrades. Generally you'll be stuck purchasing some basic stat upgrade, and since stats can have 50 to 75ish levels, you know beefing up your character is going to be a grind. To make things even slower, you lose most if not all of your gold when you start a new run. You can't opt to save for more expensive upgrades. I have no idea why this is a feature. It adds nothing.

As far as the platforming and combat goes: it's inconsistent. Some rooms definitely hit that tough-but-fair sweet spot, but others feel like a bunch of enemies slapped togather in a bullethell environment. Eyeballs shooting at you from offscreen. Rooms with puzzle chests that your character can't complete. The different zones don't do terribly much to shake this up, and as you progress through the game you'll encounter a lot of reskinned enemies that simply have more health, more damage and more projectiles. Overall it's just a little random and unpolished.

It's not a horrible game. It's just also not a particularly good game. With so many more polished roguelikes out there, I'd spend my time and money elsewhere.

fun fun fun fun fun

A decent Roguelike with decent gameplay. It's a fun time and doesn't overstay its welcome. Some mechanics are really powerful, like keeping the map form the last castle. Which kind of defeats the purpose of a roguelike, but whatever. It also has some truly awful jokes about disabilities. The game hasn't aged too well.

Regardless, it's a good time with some cool visual effects. It's a good time.

I play a game that is similar - Dead Cells - but while the concepts are the same, this game seems to make me unnecessarily with the feedback loop not appealing to me with dying way easier than I would anticipate, no way to take breaks when you explore the castle, and having some awful characters to sort through when starting over.

I don't appreciate writing something negative with a game that has a lot of polish and presentation, but this title is a no from me, chief.

Jogo divertido, tanto no gameplay como nas habilidades dos seus personagens que vão surgindo quando você perde vidas.

You'll probably like Rogue Legacy if (but not only if!): You're up for a tough-but-fair 2D platformer roguelike with big chunky graphics which thematically feels a bit like a Castlevania game, but whose gameplay features fast movement and big floaty jumps, feeling bit more like a "melee Mega Man" game.

(I recommend this game, Rogue Legacy over its sequel, Rogue Legacy 2; I prefer the tighter character movement and level design of this original game, which does still hold up well here in 2025.)

Very fun! Excellent Challenge! I'd be playing it through a second time if I was good enough at games like this to have beaten it a first time by now! Now, excuse me while I take the Archmage, Sir Skunky II, and dive back into the castle. FOR MY FAMILY- and I'm dead again...

YA

Neat idea but looses it's charm very quickly.

VERY GOOD

good gameplay

I remember playing this gme on my friends psVita a long time ago, after all this years I finally got around to finish it jaja, the game is fantastic easy to pick up, the graphics are charming and change in some ways depending on heir you are playing with, the difficulty its nice, it scales from zone to zone like any rogue like, the music is a stand out for me I really liked it, I think this is the first game were I have no complaints not even small ones.
Thanks for the amazing game I'll check out the sequel :)

I forgot this game existed till clearing out my backlog. I remember having a good time with it. Randomizes your character when you die in fun ways. I seem to recall some very "of the era" humor. Like, using the word "teh" as a joke "of the era."

A decade or so years back i was absolutely obsessed with this game, playing on Xbox i got to around NG+19. A few months ago i got it on my PC and it was the most nostalgic game i have ever played. i had also forgotten just how amazing this game is. Thank you Cellar Door for making this amazing game, it will always have a place in my heart. <3

Fun overall, though not without flaws.

Its biggest boons are its music (which is consistently banging) and the depth and breadth of its progression systems. Expanding your manor feels great, as does unlocking new gear and experimenting with different runes.

Its biggest flaw for me would be its controls, which are awkward at best and infuriating at worst. Compared to how smoothly some more recent competitors such as Dead Cells play, it feels practically unfinished. I also found certain rooms in the castle to be pointlessly punishing.

A good first entry for people new to roguelites, though certainly not the pinnacle of the genre.

Fun game, I love the randomness of it all!

Yes

Rogue-lite with options to make it lite-er. I highly recommend this and the 2nd installment of this series. Worth full price, but with 2 out now, catch this one on a sale or start with that one(if you don't plan on coming back to this one).

.

kinda outdated and old but still pretty fun

Jogabilidade e historia muito incriveis. experiencia maravilhosa

Quite a simple story,but yet good, I would say that this game is simple in terms of fighting, but still great, but you need to get used to it to be good, there is a lot of content, and you will explore all of it during the game, and also contains something like hidden content in terms of bosses, that you can find after beating the game once, as an achievement addicted person also approved, but it was actually hard to obtain, especially achievement where you can’t just grind it, but you need to use glitches to make it easier, or just to be pro, but still enjoyable to play and to complete achievements, approved

Coming back after a decade, I can't fault a game this old and genre-defining for making you grind to win - but trying to achievement chase, it's a real nightmare trying to git gud at this game at low levels.

nah

Not my thing, just way too grindy.

Edit : I would swear that game f*cked my controller.
Since I tried the game I can't even use the sticks on any games and they worked perfectly before that.

Edit 2 : Took another controller and everything worked with it.
Very suspicious that the other one got f*cked right after playing Rogue Legacy once.
Had to put it in the trash.

Fun Fact: This game actually coined the term "Roguelite", to describe Roguelike elements while not actually fitting into the mold of the genre, which is actually a set of rules determined by Roguelike developers of yore in an event called the "Berlin Convention". This game is most-assuredly not an actual Roguelike, which is why "Rogue-LITE" is used in the marketing material, because it was a brand new term and style of game at the time.

Most games people call "Roguelikes" don't actually meet the real criteria, and this has been a source of annoyance for actual Roguelike fans like me for over a decade, since the Roguelite boom, which this game is partially responsible for along with Binding of Isaac. I like Roguelites a lot, this isn't a slight against the genre, but people SERIOUSLY need to distinguish them better.

If you want to know what a real Roguelike looks like, the Genesis game Fatal Labyrinth, the Game Gear version Dragon Crystal, Nethack, Caves of Qud, Angband, Path of Achra, Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead, Quasimorph, Tales of the Maj'Eyal, ADOM, why yes I did just skim Sseth's channel to remember half of these names.

What these games all have in common, are grid-based maps, being turn based, permadeath, zero progression between runs, ("metaprogression" being out of run progression), a strong focus on being non-modal. meaning every action you can do is always available, peaceful options rarely exist, procedurally generated levels make up most of the game, and "emergent gameplay" is prioritized, meaning you have a ton of out-of-the-box options that are all generally accounted for in normal gameplay.

I actually grew up with the 3DS VC version of Dragon Crystal and the PS3 Genesis disc that had Fatal Labyrinth on it. Although, gonna be honest, I played more Dragon Crystal, and when I was playing the PS3 Genesis disc, I was playing Shinobi 3 and Streets of Rage 2, a true classic. That reminds me though, the stellar Phantasy Star 1-4 was also on that disc, and also, the PS2 Shinobi reboot and it's sequel Nightshade are actually peak, despite getting sub-par reviews for the time. Time was very kind to those games despite their insane difficulty, and I don't think I'll have another opportunity to mention those games unless Sega puts them on Steam or something.

Less faithful to the original criteria, but still great examples are the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, the other Mystery Dungeon spinoffs, and also Shiren The Wanderer by the same team, which has 2 releases on Steam. Also another strange example of a Roguelike is FF X-2 Last Mission, a pack-in on the HD releases of FF X+X-2, in case getting the previously PAL/JP-only vastly superior re-release version of FF X with 14 extra bosses and a better, much more open, Sphere Grid wasn't enough of a bonus.

Rogue Legacy is a very good Roguelite, and it still holds up. As you can see by my playtime, this game was a staple for me in high school, and I still come back to this game and it's sequel. The "Neo" fights in this game are entirely unbalanced, but otherwise this game is very, very good. The Donation Box was a new feature to make the "Neo" fights less crushing, and it does help a lot, but the big problem is a lot of the Neo fights require playing against your play-style. The equivalents in the sequel are much better, since instead of having set strategies you're required to learn, it's a test of how well you can clear them as each class.

Class dichotomy is also not as good in this game as in it's sequel, and the disabilities provide no compensation like in the sequel. Rogue Legacy 2 is definitely a better game, but that doesn't mean this game is BAD. After all, the sequel came out 7 years later, and hindsight is 20/20. For a while, this was one of the best 2D Roguelites out there, before we got Dead Cells, which I played extremely late, and this game still has plenty of really good ideas, even if it has some design flaws.

A lot of those design flaws really don't become apparent until you've already beaten the game and are on NG+++, so in that regard, Cellar Door succeeded at making a sufficiently well-designed game. Also, as a bonus, Cellar Door included a copy of a fan-made overhaul mod, Lament of Zors, to the game, with permission, as an alternative launch option, and that fan-made mod is very interesting and adds a lot of new areas to the game, and rebalances a lot.

In short, the sequel is a better game, but this is still a great game to come back to, even with the sequel existing. I recommend this game wholeheartedly. I know half the text here ended up talking about other games, and the distinction between Roguelite and Roguelike, but there's not really too much to say about this game itself other than that it's a well-designed action platformer responsible for the Roguelite boom.

I really liked the generational aspect of it, where you play as the various iterations on one bloodline. And the more that you know about the game, the easier it will be for you. Just knowing things makes you more powerful.

rogue legacy

basically just life

Great game, I suck at it. Looking forwards to trying Rogue Legacy 2.

Ridiculously difficult. You die in just a few hits, and if you don't earn enough money for upgrades in a single run, the entire run is wasted.

What a game, what an ost (The Fish and the Whale is a part of me). A simple game- polished to a sheen. Fun as a roguelike, and fascinating as the arguable birth of the genre's current indie dominance.
What more can I say, why haven't you played it yet? Go on, go!
I mean, it's a modern classic for a reason. You could even say it has a... Legacy? eh? eh?

(I am struck down by Sir Johannes)

(also don't let my playtime fool you. this is my second copy. it's worth it.)

not that fun to be honest

I am deeply attached to this game and I'm not sure why.

you feel dumb useless playing this but its fun

Grind for permanent upgrades.
Underwhelming magic skills.
No idea why this received so much praise when there are much better games out there.

rng slop

"Rogue Legacy" is a brilliantly addictive roguelike that puts a unique spin on the genre with its innovative inheritance system and charming pixel art style.

In this game, you'll venture into a procedurally generated castle filled with deadly traps, fearsome enemies, and challenging bosses. But here's where things get interesting: when your character dies, you don't start over from scratch. Instead, you'll play as their heir, who inherits both their strengths and weaknesses, along with any gold and upgrades you've acquired.

This inheritance system adds a fascinating layer of strategy to the game, as you'll need to carefully choose which upgrades to invest in and which traits to prioritize in your heirs. Whether you prefer a powerful mage, a nimble assassin, or a hulking barbarian, there's a wide variety of classes and abilities to experiment with.

The gameplay is challenging yet rewarding, with tight controls and precise combat mechanics that make every encounter feel intense and exhilarating. As you delve deeper into the castle and uncover its secrets, you'll encounter increasingly tough enemies and obstacles that will test your skills to the limit.

Pros:

* Innovative inheritance system adds depth to gameplay
* Charming pixel art style and catchy soundtrack
* Wide variety of classes and abilities to experiment with
* Tight controls and challenging yet rewarding gameplay

Cons:

* Some may find the difficulty level daunting
* Randomized nature can lead to frustration at times

Overall, "Rogue Legacy" is a must-play for fans of roguelikes and action platformers. With its addictive gameplay, clever mechanics, and endless replayability, it's sure to keep you coming back for more, generation after generation.

"the sunlight, I had forgotten what it felt like"

9/10

game is good, even if you suck at it