Rogue Legacy is not a new game. Most gamers who follow the indie scene probably remember the title’s critical acclaim from when it launched back in 2013. I personally remember an influx of streamers playing it because of its quirky take on the rogue-lite genre. With the Switch, Rogue Legacy has found a new release and a new home. But has Rogue Legacy withstood the test of time and what reason is there for an old fan to buy it again? Let’s find out.

If you happened to miss the original release of this game, let me fill you in. Rogue Legacy is a side-scrolling rogue-lite/Metroidvania mash-up. The player navigates a shifting labyrinth of a castle in search of the treasure and power-ups necessary to challenge the bosses. When defeated, these bosses will reveal the path to the great treasure being protected by the castle. The game uses a tried and true trope – a procedurally-generated magical building rumored to protect great treasures – that creates a familiar game-space for the player to explore.



This isn’t exactly an unfamiliar sight by this point.

Those of us who have picked up Dark Souls Remastered recently will find Rogue Legacy’s gameplay loop very familiar. Enter the dungeon. Collect resources. Use those resources to build character strength, which in this case ranges from new classes to raw stats. Challenge the boss. Slam your head against it a few times until you know its attack pattern. Kill the boss. Go to the next zone and repeat. It’s a tried-and-true formula that we never seem to tire of, and this title uses it effectively.

Oh boy, I can’t wait to dodge some tear-shaped blood bullets!

However, Rogue Legacy adds some unique twists to this formula. Death doesn’t result in a respawn in the traditional video game sense. Instead, you are prompted to “choose your heir” and presented with three potential picks whose classes and traits are listed. You now play as this next generation of your family and continue the work of your ancestors. Well, until your untimely demise, that is.

This means upgrades can take some interesting shapes, like new classes for future generations.

More interestingly, characters come with their own unique benefits and dysfunctions, called traits. These traits range from increased physical size and knockback power to suffering hypochondria, which results in your character reporting damage taken as thousands of points higher than it actually is. These traits can influence how your character plays, hinder the information you receive, or tweak the aesthetics of your character and the dungeon in fun and clever ways.

Featuring: Swole-kage. Dread him. Run from him. He’ll find you all the same.

With an overview of the game out of the way, how does this version hold up? As a port, the Switch release is perfect. There are no discernible differences between the original PC version, and this port. I enjoyed playing the original release back in 2013, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing Rogue Legacy again on the Switch in both handheld and docked mode. It’s a fantastic game, and the Switch port functions perfectly. Let me repeat that to be explicitly clear – Rogue Legacy is a fantastic game and the Switch version is a perfect port. If you have yet to play this game and at all enjoy rogue-lites, dungeon crawlers, or procedurally-generated death machines, stop reading and go buy this game.

There’s also some self-aware humour kicking around, just in case you needed more reasons to like Rogue Legacy.

That said, although there is technically nothing wrong with the game, there’s little to entice previous fans to pick up this new version. There was an update which added new content, but after a casual playthrough to full base-game completion, I had to search for the patch notes online. I had no idea what was new.

There are four new character traits and twenty-eight new room layouts, but these additions were so low impact that I didn’t even notice them. The real new content is post-game. There are five remixed boss fights which give you specific character setups and are intended to be rather challenging. Completing these encounters gives you access to the one new character class, which has a unique set of spells. All these new features are only accessible to players who are playing New Game+.

New Game+ does come with tons of content, however. I have a LOT of upgrades left to buy.

Conclusion

Rogue Legacy is amazing and represents the best of its genre. If you have yet to experience the title, I can’t recommend it enough. The only issue with this new release is that there’s little to draw in old fans. The new remixed boss fights are interesting, and as something of a challenge seeker, I might find myself searching them out if I have the free time. But with so many other great releases around the corner right now, revisiting content I’ve already played multiple times just isn’t my priority. Really though, none of that matters, because Rogue Legacy is fantastic, the Switch port is perfect, and at $14.99, you’re sure to get your money’s worth.



Itching for some more rogue-lites? Check out Tom’s review of Moonlighter. If you don’t care about old vs new, check out my older Wizard of Legend review. Maybe you’d like dying to be quicker and less painful? Samy reviewed a fun little platformer called Jack and Jill DX. Lastly, let me add that Nindie Nexus is entirely funded by passion, but as a non-profit review site, every bit of help we can get is greatly appreciated. Check out our Patreon and our Ko-Fi. Hell, joining our Discord and Reddit is tons of help – a big community is a happy one after all!