Rogue Legacy 2 Confirmed in Development

Cellar Door Games has confirmed that the rumors surrounding Rogue Legacy 2 were not a joke and that they are currently working on a sequel to one of the best roguelikes ever made.

“Yes, it’s official. Rogue Legacy 2 is in development!” reads a tweet from the Cellar Door Games Twitter account. “We’ll be releasing a lot more info in the coming days.”

We sadly don’t have much more info to go on at the moment. The few screenshots that the studio has shared of this sequel give us an idea of what to expect, but in terms of alterations to the existing franchise formula, there’s no real indication at this time regarding how Rogue Legacy 2 will separate itself.

That being the case, let’s talk a bit about the original game. Rogue Legacy was originally released as part of that initial wave of renaissance roguelike (or roguelite) titles. It was a time when the basic staples of the revitalized genre (permadeath, randomization, etc) were already being established by popular games like FTL and The Binding of Issac, so new games had to find ways to alter the formula with unique elements.

For Rogue Legacy, that element was its legacy system. Basically, each game saw you enter a castle as a heroic warrior who sets out to defeat a great evil and all that noise. Very early into your journey, you are going to die. When that happens, you’ll be revived as one of the heroic warrior’s ancestors and continue your journey.

Here’s where things get interesting. Each of your ancestors possesses unique abilities and attributes. Some are smaller and can fit into areas in the castle that others cannot, some are colorblind, and some can jump higher. While you retain your equipment and certain other items regardless of who you are playing as, this ability system (along with level and item randomizations) ensures that no two runs play out exactly the same.

It was a fascinating dynamic that added quite a bit of replayability and personality to an otherwise very well-made classic action-platforming experience. It seems fairly obvious that this sequel will feature quite a few new personality traits for the legacy revives, but we’re also curious to see how it will build upon and improve the original’s solid foundational gameplay.

There’s currently no confirmation regarding Rogue Legacy 2‘s release date and platform availability, but we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as that information is available.