Absolutely I was a vampiric gigantic pizza throwing astromancer! A huuuuuge improvement over the first game, which admittedly was one of the earlier roguelikes that popularised the subgenre to today's standards. A fresh lick of paint, an expansive map, new abilities, more challenging difficulty, far more upgrades, side insights, loads more blueprints and tonnes of unique class combinations that keep the castle-crawling gameplay fun.

Basically the same game just with more more MORE! And sometimes that's all you need for those pick-up-and-play type games. Time just flies by with these rogues...

Una versión muy mejorada del primero, pero de verdad. Es lo más de lo mismo pero se siente más completo y más divertido en absolutamente todo, es divertidísimo y me parece de los indies más buenos que he jugado nunca. Algún día me pondré con el contenido adicional, pero de momento lo dejo aquí una vez pasado el jefe final. Recomendadísimo para todo el mundo y en especial a los amantes del género.

Top tier track: Immortal Cain

I just fundamentally don't like this many permanent upgrades, this much resource gathering, this much 'play and play again to make the next run easier'. I thought that the 'True Rogue' one life mode would offer something more compelling, but it's more of a one shot randomizer than it is something curated and of genuine interest. The entire class and heir system feels like it goes out the window, not to mention the narrative and spatial logic.

This is both a pretty different and an obligatory game compared to the original. It is the original elaborated in the common ways, but it prioritizes different aspects of its gameplay. This is a much more movement heavy game, and it's easy to see not just in the level and boss design, but also by its odd tutorializing and its slow-roll of movement options. I'm not sure I needed a tutorial for how to double jump, but it's there and grinds whatever run you're on to a halt. The upgrades and the areas that they lock off, that make a first run into a pretty linear experience, call into question why it wasn't just a collection of sequential levels in the first place. The larger design feels light; lightly roguelike, lightly metroidvania, but the moment to moment design is a that of a pretty good combat platformer.

I enjoyed the boss fights, the enemies with different properties---restricted or unrestricted by walls, firing projectiles that pass through or not. It creates compelling logic and rhythms to combat, though I don't think the levels themselves are that interesting to move around in. I can't say I enjoyed a lot of the weapons, but when I found one I liked I gladly stuck with it (the Valkyrie's spear). There's a nice sense of survival to it, of managing and risking your HP. There are a number of nice ideas and moments here, but as I said up top, I don't care for the delivery method.

Não sei se fui jogar com a expectativa maior do que deveria, mas eu esperava mais.
As áreas são muito similares a cada run e o jogo exige um certo grind para progredir, além de que não senti que eu tivesse o poder de fazer builds muito diferentes a cada run, fazendo tudo depender dos upgrades permanentes, equipamentos e classe que está sendo utilizada no momento.
Apesar desses empecilhos na minha experiência, o jogo tem uma gameplay bem agradável, algumas classes são bem divertidas de jogar. Não joguei o 1, então não consigo avaliar a evolução em relação ao seu antecessor.

Rogue Legacy 2 improves and expands on its roguelite-defining predecessor, and yet despite everything that's new and everything that's better - I enjoyed the original far more.

I know this is a genuine case of "it's not you, it's me", but the roguelite scene has progressed a long way since (and partially thanks to) Rogue Legacy 1's release. I enjoy the simplicity of Rogue Legacy 1 in the scene of roguelike/lite action platformers available to play now - but the middle ground of Rogue Legacy 2's simplicity+ isn't working for me quite so well.

I've played a good few hours, I enjoyed that time, I can see the merits - but I don't think I'm pushing to finish this one and I'll accept that much of that is simply on me.

Me jode no darle más puntuación, pero es como me siento tras completar el juego.
El loop jugable sigue siendo muy bueno, sin embargo, de mitad para adelante hay un pico de dificultad brutal con enemigos haciendo mucho daño y a veces demasiados proyectiles en pantalla sin opción viable a esquivar, y llega un punto que ni compensa farmear.
Una pena, porque el primero era de mis juegos indie favoritos, pero para mi, esta secuela me ha dejado bastante mal sabor de boca en algunos aspectos. Igual me planteo hacer algún desafío que he desbloqueado, pero ahora mismo 0 ganas.