Rogue Legacy developer Cellar Door Games took to the Nintendo subreddit for an AMA (ask me anything) to answer a few questions about its recently announced upcoming sequel, Rogue Legacy 2. While we’re still a long ways off from getting a full reveal (aside from the few screenshots we got earlier this month showing off the gorgeous new art style), the AMA was very illuminating regarding some key ways Rogue Legacy 2 will be different from the first game.
Cellar Door Games describes Rogue Legacy 2 as “a fully realized Metroidvania in a procedural world.” At least that’s the goal, anyway. Metroidvanias typically require gaining new abilities and retreading old ground with the newfound methods to open additional pathways. To say this seems like an incredible challenge in a game where every run is procedural, both from the character perspective and the level layout, is an understatement. Cellar Door Games is confident in this direction though. “I think we have the answer, but we’re still in development, and things can always change.”
A number of other interesting details were also revealed during the AMA:
- Rogue Legacy 2 has already been in development for two years. The studio didn’t feel comfortable unveiling anything until they were “pretty deep in development.”
- Target framerate is 60 fps
- Goal is to have more variety in runs with new character classes/weapons and talents. There’s now a ranged options with a bow.
- Variety also extends to the world and various biomes. “we had to redo map generation from scratch in order to allow for more variety. It’s also gotta support our Metroidvania system, so that was… Quite a task.”
- New mechanics and meta-progression systems have to be layered onto the game.
- New system called “Universal Healthcare” adds gold modifiers to various traits to incentivize taking the less desirable traits when picking a new heir. ” And these modifiers can get insane, so every character you’re choosing has a push and pull to them now. It makes all traits much more compelling.”
- The castle is a “new” environment (quotation marks and all). Won’t say much more than that.
- Some rooms will “lock-off” and require players to kill all enemies before proceeding, but not all rooms.
- There is some interest in a physical release, but it’s still early.
- They want the average Rogue Legacy run to be about five minutes, so they’ve spent a lot of time tuning the “time burner” sections of games where experienced players can blaze through them. This is why changes to things like character classes and rune stacking are being pushed up front.
- Implementing fast travel to get to harder areas faster to avoid “ballooning” time on difficult long runs for people who just want to get through quickly.
- A lot of tuning being done to balance the various classes. For example, ranged characters will have certain limits like not being able to move and shoot or pauses after firing.
- Rogue Legacy 2 will support cloud saving on release.
- When asked if remixed bosses were coming back: “We’re doing something different with the bosses for the sequel.”
- The team addressed COVID-19, saying that they quarantined pretty early on so it’s felt like forever. “It’s slowed us down a little – that’s inevitable – but I still think we’re on a pretty good pace.”
That’s a whole lot more information than we knew about Rogue Legacy 2 previously that only leaves us even more hungry for an official reveal (and of course, the release). They concluded the AMA saying that they—just like the rest of us—have to get back to playing Final Fantasy VII Remake. And who can blame them?
[Source: Reddit]
