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[jshackles]

Rogue Legacy, now with a "2" in front of it!

Welcome to the NeoGAF OT for Rogue Legacy 2, the sequel to SteamGAF's 2013 Game of the Year pick from Cellar Door Games!

Genre: Rogue-Like Metroidvania
Price: TBD
Available: August 18th, 2020
Platform: Steam Early Access

Rogue Legacy is a procedurally generated Rogue-lite game, where every run is random but the upgrades you obtain are permanent. When you die, your gold is passed on to your heirs, who inherit your quest and continue your legacy. Sometimes your heirs have silly traits such as ADHD which makes them move faster, nearsightedness that makes the screen blurry farther away from your hero, or IBS which makes them fart a lot. You must overcome your traits (or use them to your advantage!) to move forward and defeat the castle bosses. And yes, there will be clowns. Sad clowns.

Wanna see what all this fuss is about? Check out the first game (highly recommended!)

Brand New Style
We’re taking a whole new artistic approach to Rogue Legacy 2. The sequel features 2.5D stylings, with 3D characters against hand-drawn backdrops. The art uses heavy shading and all animations are done using stepping techniques to keep the familiar RL look and feel.

Unique Weapons
On top of new abilities, classes now have weapons that completely alter how they play. Rangers use bows, Lancers have multi-directional swings, and chefs throws ladles.

Revamped Biome Generation
We went all-out with biome generation to make each area in RL2 feel completely new. Each biome adopts different “build strategies” to create completely unique yet-still-randomly-generated regions.

True Metroidvania
To really push the metroidvania flair, RL2 introduces heirlooms: special items that permanently give your heroes new abilities that fully reveal the world’s secrets. These are not basic lock-in-key abilities, but powers that fundamentally change how you play. And heirlooms are not simply handed to you. You must prove your worth, provided you can find them.

Traits 2.0
Through the powers of Socialism we’re bringing in the Universal Healthcare System, which adds a gold gain modifier to some traits. The more debilitating the trait is (in-game), the bigger the reward. This makes choosing your heirs a meaningful decision every time.

Improved Accessibility
RL1 was always designed for accessibility, by catering to both the hardcore players through skilled gameplay, and the more casual with a detailed level up system. However, in some cases progression could still hit a wall, so we’ve introduced new mechanics such as Off-shore Banking to give struggling players more ways to succeed.

More of everything
Of course we’re also adding more of everything people loved from the original Rogue Legacy. More traits, more spells, more classes, more biomes, more enemies, more equipment, more rooms, more story. Just more everything.

Clownathropy
More clown.

AND THERE'S A WHOLE LOT MORE. But we're still working on them through Early Access, and we'd like to keep a few secrets in our back pocket.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I'm in. Excited for this one.

 

[jshackles]

Early Access details:

Why Early Access?
Before the launch of the first Rogue Legacy we received an immense number of ideas from the community through social media, emails, and our Steam Community forums. Your feedback resulted in new traits, balance tweaks and improved stability. We also had diehard fans creating incredible mods and content that kept Rogue Legacy’s flame burning. All of this involvement helped steer RL1 in a better direction, and we feel that officially bringing Rogue Legacy 2 into Early Access is the next natural step.

We already have a roadmap of what would be in the final game, but we’re excited to see what fans will come up with along the way. Here’s what our schedule looks like:

Major updates approx. every 2 months: Major updates include biomes and everything associated with them (new bosses, new enemies, new hazards, etc.). We’ll also add big features (either alongside or in replace of new biomes) such as new player classes, NG+ mods, and new NPCs. Major updates will come with big announcements and a video detailing the changes.

Minor updates in-between major ones: Because there are so many places to add new content in Rogue Legacy 2, our plan is to do so incrementally between major updates. These minor additions will hopefully ease the wait before we can drop big content packs. Minor updates include new traits, new spells, new relics, new rooms, new insights, new equipment, and new runes.

Bug -fix patches at any odd hour: Of course we will be at-the-ready to address any bugs people may encounter. There is no schedule for these patches though, because it purely depends on how many bugs occurs between updates and the severity of them. RL2 has a lot of moving parts, and we want to make sure the experience is as smooth as possible for players.

Nothing is set in stone: This schedule is purely preliminary, because we have no idea how things will work out. That means anything can change, from when an update comes out to what appears in each. For example, if a monthly update is too aggressive for us to maintain, we may batch everything into the major updates.


Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
Our current roadmap pegs the launch of the complete game approximately one year after the Early Access release, sometime in 2021. But don’t bet on this even if you are a gambling man. While we would love to give a guarantee, things change, whether it be an oversight on our best-laid plans, or simply big and unexpected new features that we absolutely must have in the game.


How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
The full version of Rogue Legacy 2 will be feature and content complete, with a concluding narrative, the full measure of gameplay elements, and additional components like localization and achievements. Currently there are no plans to provide incentives for early-adopters, outside of the ability to play the game early, help shape its final form, and to receive the game at a lower initial price.


What is the current state of the Early Access version?
Rogue Legacy 2 has already been in development for more than two years, because we wanted to make sure we gave players the most complete experience we could with an incomplete game. Many of the systems are in place, all that’s needed is more time to create more content. Provided below is a list of features and content that the game currently has. That said, as we continue to develop in Early Access, this answer is subject to change. So we’ll be sure to keep this list up-to-date.

• Complete game loop (Title screen to lineage selection to skill tree to town hub to castle).
• 2 biomes (with 3-5 more to be added).
• 700+ random rooms (with more on the way).
• 4 complete character classes with individual talents and unique weapons (at least 8 more classes planned).
• 35 traits (with more on the way).
• 25 upgradable skills (with more on the way).
• 5 equipment sets for a total of 25 pieces of equipment (10 more sets for 50 pieces planned).
• 10 runes (with more on the way).
• 12 enemies + 1 boss (many more bosses and enemies to come).
• 7 unique relics + heirlooms (with many more on the way).
• Additional features such as Universal Healthcare, Insights, memory fragments, and more!

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
Yes, the price will be raised two times during development. If all the content we had planned makes it into the final version, Rogue Legacy 2 will be more than twice as large as the original. We understand the disparity of playing an incomplete game though, so our intention is to set the price in three tiers as more and more content gets added. The game will be available for the Early Access launch at a special EA release price. Approximately half-way through development, we will raise the price, and then raise it once more to a final price once v1.0 is released. Any changes to the price will be clearly communicated before they are made.


How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
We’re expecting the Community will be instrumental in all aspects of development, from the gameplay to the story to the technical stability. On the gameplay level, we mentioned earlier that we feel Rogue Legacy’s intrinsic expandability lends itself very well to community feedback. Have a great idea for a quirky new trait? Tell us more! Inspired by a new character class? You better start yapping! Got a pyramid scheme, but you’re certain this time it will work? We dig it! That said, Early Access can be a hectic process, so we’ve created a roadmap to ensure things don’t get too crazy and we can still release within our expected launch window. We’re also taking the story very seriously, and are keen to know what people think of it and how we can improve the narrative. And of course, the bugs reported by players will be a constant boon that ensures Rogue Legacy 2 runs as stable as possible. We’re extremely excited to see what our fans come up with to expand our tiny corner of the roguelite universe.

Players can offer feedback directly through the in-game user feedback system, our discord channel (discord.gg/cellardoorgames), and Steam community forums.

 

[ComputerBlue]

Love the first one, will get this on PlayStation when it releases, or maybe mobile since the first one is on mobile now with controller support.

 

[MiguelItUp]

This OT looks great! Kudos! Can't wait for this!

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I sunk way too much time into the first one. Cranking up the difficulty / absurdity with runes was endlessly fun. It sounds like this one has no "cap" to the number of runes. I hope this game follows up in a big way. Rogue Legacy 2 and Spelunky 2 in the same year/ Goodness...

Nice OT!

 

[Nymphae]

Will play on a Sony platform when it's finished

 

[MrS]

Loved RL. Day one on PS4/5. Great OT also!

 

[drotahorror]

Sunk so many hours into the first game. Hype for the second one, even though I'm playing tons of shit right now.

 

[Davey Cakes]

I recall many nights of playing Rogue Legacy until 2am-4am. That game was a perfect “just one more run” kind of experience. Simple, easy-to-understand upgrades and an addictive gameplay loop. It also had the Castlevania aesthetic, which made me feel right at home.

I’ll probably grab RL2 on Day 1.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

An |OT| as crisp as your game collection jshackles
Thanks for making this!!

 

[ThatStupidLion]

Totally forgot about this game - cant wait for console release. Not loving that art direction though

 

[jshackles]

Three days left til Early Access launches

 

[Daneel Elijah]

I can't believe that the first game was 7 years ago...
I hope that Rogue legacy 2 will be bigger than the first one. Perfect game to play while waiting for next gen!

 

[Tesseract]

loved the first one, rec'd it to a bunch of friends

 

[SCB3]

I'll be honest, I didn't realize that the EA date was this close! Defo picking up on Tuesday

 

[Typhares]

Loved the first game, think I prefer the old art style but I don't mind too much. Will wait for full release though.

 

[jshackles]

Personally I like the new art style / direction. 3D models against a 2D painted backdrop looks like it's going to be pretty sweet. I guess we'll find out tomorrow what that fully looks like in motion, but if the trailer and gifs are anything to go by, it's gonna be great.

 

[DeliciousDoc]

Didn't like the first one so I'll pass but the visual style is very nice.

 

[boutrosinit]

Rogue Legacy, now with a "2" in front of it!

Welcome to the NeoGAF OT for Rogue Legacy 2, the sequel to SteamGAF's 2013 Game of the Year pick from Cellar Door Games!

Genre: Rogue-Like Metroidvania
Price: TBD
Available: August 18th, 2020
Platform: Steam Early Access

Rogue Legacy is a procedurally generated Rogue-lite game, where every run is random but the upgrades you obtain are permanent. When you die, your gold is passed on to your heirs, who inherit your quest and continue your legacy. Sometimes your heirs have silly traits such as ADHD which makes them move faster, nearsightedness that makes the screen blurry farther away from your hero, or IBS which makes them fart a lot. You must overcome your traits (or use them to your advantage!) to move forward and defeat the castle bosses. And yes, there will be clowns. Sad clowns.

Wanna see what all this fuss is about? Check out the first game (highly recommended!)

Brand New Style
We’re taking a whole new artistic approach to Rogue Legacy 2. The sequel features 2.5D stylings, with 3D characters against hand-drawn backdrops. The art uses heavy shading and all animations are done using stepping techniques to keep the familiar RL look and feel.

Unique Weapons
On top of new abilities, classes now have weapons that completely alter how they play. Rangers use bows, Lancers have multi-directional swings, and chefs throws ladles.

Revamped Biome Generation
We went all-out with biome generation to make each area in RL2 feel completely new. Each biome adopts different “build strategies” to create completely unique yet-still-randomly-generated regions.

True Metroidvania
To really push the metroidvania flair, RL2 introduces heirlooms: special items that permanently give your heroes new abilities that fully reveal the world’s secrets. These are not basic lock-in-key abilities, but powers that fundamentally change how you play. And heirlooms are not simply handed to you. You must prove your worth, provided you can find them.

Traits 2.0
Through the powers of Socialism we’re bringing in the Universal Healthcare System, which adds a gold gain modifier to some traits. The more debilitating the trait is (in-game), the bigger the reward. This makes choosing your heirs a meaningful decision every time.

Improved Accessibility
RL1 was always designed for accessibility, by catering to both the hardcore players through skilled gameplay, and the more casual with a detailed level up system. However, in some cases progression could still hit a wall, so we’ve introduced new mechanics such as Off-shore Banking to give struggling players more ways to succeed.

More of everything
Of course we’re also adding more of everything people loved from the original Rogue Legacy. More traits, more spells, more classes, more biomes, more enemies, more equipment, more rooms, more story. Just more everything.

Clownathropy
More clown.

AND THERE'S A WHOLE LOT MORE. But we're still working on them through Early Access, and we'd like to keep a few secrets in our back pocket.

This looks beautious.
Give. IT. TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

 

[jshackles]

Game has released.

$15.99 launch discount. Their early access statement said the price will raise twice more before the full game fully launches.

 

[MrS]

Game has released.

$15.99 launch discount. Their early access statement said the price will raise twice more before the full game fully launches.

That's extremely generous of them.

 

[jshackles]

Actually the price is $17.99.

I think I got an extra $2 off for owning the first game(?)

 

[Zendoc]

~5€ if you still have the coupon on Epic Game Store.

 

[SCB3]

~5€ if you still have the coupon on Epic Game Store.

Just used mine on Mortal Shell but I own the original on Steam so still got a discount

Can't wait to jump in, I still maintain that the Original is the best Rogue Like out that, hard but fair and always working towards getting better

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Just bought a copy. I plan to get some time in this afternoon if work allows.

 

[jshackles]

Developer livestream happening now on Steam.

I'm stuck at work for the next 6 hours, so I'll tune in a bit to this and see what's up.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Hot take after 10 minutes - shit hot and D O P E!

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Played for about an hour in between meetings. First take, gameplay feels similar to the first. I actually enjoy the new art direction in motion--it looks nice. First negative about the game is that they don't allow d-pad input for movement.

 

[jshackles]

Played for about an hour in between meetings. First take, gameplay feels similar to the first. I actually enjoy the new art direction in motion--it looks nice. First negative about the game is that they don't allow d-pad input for movement.

Ouch that sucks. I saw a lot of people mention that in the Steam discussions though, hopefully they're using that as a bit of a feedback hub for this early access release.

EDIT: what's even more puzzling, is that you can use the dpad in the menus and when selecting castle upgrades. Perhaps they didn't want to fuck up aiming for the archer class?

 

[Zendoc]

Played for about 3 hours... glad i only paid 5€ on EGS... It's a big demo, some classes are not fun/viable, i have a lot of stuttering, i must authorize the game everytime when i launch it on EGS ...
It could be a nice game, and it will, but not now and not soon.
There's just better roguelite on the market.

Oh, graphics are really nice.

 

[jshackles]

Played for about 3 hours... glad i only paid 5€ on EGS... It's a big demo, some classes are not fun/viable, i got a lot of stuttering, i must authorize the game everytime when i launch it on EGS ...
It could be a nice game, and it will, but not now and not soon.
There's just better roguelite on the market.

Oh, graphics are really nice.

Is your PC otherwise kinda outdated?

I wonder if that's just an EGS issue because my experience with the Steam build has been incredibly smooth. 2560x1440, max everything, getting 175fps on average with my AMD Radeon RX 580.

 

[ClanOfNone]

This and Spelunky 2 less than 30 days away... The world may be going to shit, but at least the games are amazing.

 

[Zendoc]

Is your PC otherwise kinda outdated?

I wonder if that's just an EGS issue because my experience with the Steam build has been incredibly smooth. 2560x1440, max everything, getting 175fps on average with my AMD Radeon RX 580.

It's not a beast : i5 4460 & GTX 970, but yeah i don't know... it's a weird stuttering (and not gamebreaking), i've seen some guys with the same problem on steam with better PC than mine.

 

[jaysius]

From watching footage, it looks like they're really leaning on destructible spikes in the level generation.

I loved the first one, it hooked me like very few roguelikes do, but for this one I think I'll wait and get it on a console.

 

[jshackles]

First patch has been released! The biggest thing (for me) is that it adds D-Pad movement. I tested it out for about 45 minutes, and it's really great. Aiming can use the right stick and it works really well.

One day in and we’re bringing our first big patch!

Thank you to everyone for the feedback! We’re taking Early Access very seriously, and we really wanted to get the biggest feature requests and bugs in ASAP. Critical lock bugs were addressed first, then we hit the biggest community requests, and then we hit balance stuff.

Also, we’ve added a new spell!

- The Cellar Door Dev Team

**IMPORTANT** To add in D-Pad support, and allow for more button bindings, all button configs had to be reset to default. Sorry about this!

GAME UPDATES

• NEW SPELL -Flame Barrier: The most used spell from RL1 is back! We were able to fix a few bugs with it yesterday, and we’re confident to push it live! Like all spells, we’ve added a few more nuances to it for those interested in min-maxing.
• COMMUNITY REQUEST - D-Pad Support: You can now play with your D-Pad and aim with Right Stick.
• COMMUNITY REQUEST - Classic RL1 Dashing: In the Settings you can now set Dash Direction to be like classic RL1. LT/Q to dash left, and E/RT to dash right.
• Disabled Traits: Optical Migraine, Near-sightedness, and Panic Attack have been disabled as they were giving some people headaches. Side bonus, it now lets other more interesting traits appear more frequently, so we might keep them out forever.
• Vampirism Rune Redesign: We implemented a new Vamp system, that was starting to break in a lot of situations. Coupled with the Enchantress UI bug, and it felt awful. We’ve changed it so you get 2hp per kill now.
• COMMUNITY (FIX) - Unsupported Controllers Bugfix: Technically not a feature, but it was affecting a lot of people. It was a complicated problem, but we think we’ve fixed it. Almost all controllers should be supported now!
• COMMUNITY (FIX) - Impossible rooms: Fixed a bunch of soft lock rooms. Biome generation is a lot more complicated, so thank you for finding these for us!
• COMMUNITY (FIX) - Dwarfism lock: Fixed issue where going through rooms with dwarfism would sometimes make you go through the walls when transitioning rooms.
• COMMUNITY (FIX) - Heirloom loading: Fixed issue where entering an heirloom would not correctly load the room.
• COMMUNITY REQUEST - Spell Damage Buffs!: Spells in RL2 are made to be a little more utility driven. Given the right situations, and they can really shine. This adds a huge learning curve to magic, which means most people are underperforming with it. We’re buffing the damage on almost ALL SPELLS to compensate.

CHARACTER BUFFS

A lot of these classes are pretty well balanced at the high levels, but many players are coming in with dozens of hours on the knight. That veteran experience makes all the other classes feel much weaker. We’ve added a bunch of QoL tweaks to make them better without breaking the game (hopefully).

Barbarian Buff: Lock out duration for air attacks, and ground attacks decreased. Air attacks exits out slightly faster than the ground attack.

Archer Buff: Lock out duration for arrow attacks decreased. You can now do some crazy aerial acrobatics!

**Mage has been buffed from the new FlameBarrier spell, and the global spell damage buffs. We still have a few more tweaks we want that will take more work to implement.

MINOR UPDATES

• Optimizations done for Memory Heirloom. Should be smoother for most.
• A whollle lotta typos fixed. Thanks everyone! I suck at writing.

BUG FIXES & BALANCE TWEAKS

• Fixed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome applying to weapons. Sorry!
• Fixed a bug in the Bridge to Forest Transition room which would spawn player off map.
• Fixed Cartographer Trait exploit, where you could center on player.
• Fixed Knight shield block exploit where you could abuse animation breaks.
• Fixed Enchantress Shop showing wrong values for runes.
• (Possible Fix) Players would sometimes get hyper gravity after dying with a low gravity character. We’ve added some failsafes.
• Fixed Archer not aiming properly when they had vertigo.
• Fixed Spear Knight expert not attacking.
• Fixed Ice Elementals not using the proper attack (they are temp)
• Fixed bug with Aimer snapping back to the left if you were aiming down+left and let go.
• Fixed a crash bug with reading a journal in a fairy room after you had failed it.
• Fixed bug where dashing and opening chests would soft lock you.
• Fixed Ivy Platforms counting as “teleportable ground” when hitting water.
• Fixed traits like Glaucoma not properly following the player when camera is zoomed out.
• Removed keyboard arrow keys as illegal characters in the key bindings.
• Buffed the magnet distance for the Magnesis rune.

 

[Graciaus]

This is really early in early access. It was cheap so I don't really care. But right now there's only 1-3 hours of gameplay depending on skill level. I'll just wait for the full release now.

 

[BertleTheTurtle]

I bought it on Steam but I'm hoping it gets added to GeForce Now so I can play it on my phone in bed. Max comfy.

 

[Knightime_X]

I love this game.
Already put nearly 10 hours into it and it's only 20% done.

 

[Grinchy]

I watched someone play some of it. At first, it felt too clean, like a high budget Flash game or something. But once my eyes adjusted, I've come to really like the visual style. The animations are so good.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

D-pad controls make this so much better.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Austin Walker said Rogue Legacy 2 was "problematic" because it gave players the trait of chronic fatigue syndrome. And that's mean.

 

[bronk]

Played for about an hour in between meetings. First take, gameplay feels similar to the first. I actually enjoy the new art direction in motion--it looks nice. First negative about the game is that they don't allow d-pad input for movement.

That is an absolute deal breaker. Wont touch any game that doesn't allow you to play with d-pad.

Edit: Looks like it's already fixed. Back on board haha

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I've clocked in around 3 hours. Found a new zone but note from the developer prior to it so I skipped over it for the time being.

I've found one of the boss doors, but haven't figured out how to open it.

Spoiler

It has the same message about faint voices that I've seen in other locations.

Enjoying so far. Much like the first, the traits are somewhat hilarious.

I haven't played much of the ranger or mage class. They seem far more difficult without much reward for picking them so far. Maybe they will buff in later patches?

 

[SoraNoKuni]

Wait what, I really enjoyed the first one played countless hours and this pops up.
Will grab it when I get my paycheck.

Great game people, try it.

 

[Hendrick's]

Is there a console release date?

 

[Hendrick's]

That is an absolute deal breaker. Wont touch any game that doesn't allow you to play with d-pad.

Edit: Looks like it's already fixed. Back on board haha

Never used the D-pad for RL1. I can see why people would want it, but it's far from a deal breaker.

 

[jshackles]

I've clocked in around 3 hours. Found a new zone but note from the developer prior to it so I skipped over it for the time being.

I've found one of the boss doors, but haven't figured out how to open it.

Spoiler

It has the same message about faint voices that I've seen in other locations.

Enjoying so far. Much like the first, the traits are somewhat hilarious.

I haven't played much of the ranger or mage class. They seem far more difficult without much reward for picking them so far. Maybe they will buff in later patches?

There are two heirlooms in the game so far, the dash scarf and the telepathy thing. If you have the telepathy heirloom it will let you listen to the voices.

There is a (much) harder section after the unfinished bridge area, it's the snow biome. The enemies there are a lot harder - I've got to the boss door there, but there is no boss yet.

Rangers can be pretty OP but it takes quite a while to get used to them. Since they can shoot anywhere, they're kinda the "stealth" class in the game - standing on a ledge and being able to shoot everything below is a huge advantage. Not so good for flying enemies, because they can come at you, but against other things they're really great. Their platform skill is also super handy, but again you've gotta figure out how to fire their stuff rapidly and get the hang of aiming before they start having any real benefits. Your assessment of mages is pretty spot on though. I imagine they'll both get buffed a bit too in an upcoming patch.

 

[bronk]

Never used the D-pad for RL1. I can see why people would want it, but it's far from a deal breaker.

I cant even play a 2d game without a d-pad. Its like hardwired and feels so weird otherwise. Im a weirdo though

 

[jshackles]

Road Map — Rogue Legacy 2

roguelegacy2.com

Finally, an update.