New generations of heroes will rise and fall when Rogue Legacy 2 launches into early access on July 23. The developers, Cellar Door say they expect a full launch in 2021 for the roguelite platformer, which is about conquering a randomly-generated castle across generations of lives by pumping upgrades into your family tree for your heirs. The original was good so yes, good. Come watch the new trailer.

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I’m not going to tell you how dreadful I am at Rogue Legacy. If I did you’d never invite me to play with your group in the playground again. But I am going to tell you how much I still enjoy playing Rogue Legacy, despite seemingly having failed to improve at it over seven years of playing.

With Rogue Legacy 2 possibly coming this summer, it seemed good timing to return to the 2013 original and explore what still makes it stand out from the crowd of rogues.

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Forget dodging spikes or slaying foes – Rogue Legacy was a game about family. Specifically, training up your kids to be better dungeon-divers than you so they’d be ready to take up your mantle after an unfortunate spelunking accident. Fitting, then, that Rogue Legacy would establish its own legacy. Seven years after Rogue Legacy first picked up a sword, Rogue Legacy 2 is preparing to take up that rusted mantle and live up to its family name with yet another trip down the dungeons.

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Progression is so often an illusion. Many games use the idea of permanent progression as a way of tickling our lizard brains with a growing pile of loot or numbers which constantly tick up, so that we feel like we re achieving something while we sit in front of a computer and repeat the same set of tasks over and over again.

The beauty of permadeath is that it does away with all this. Characters grow and collect things, but then they become permadead, and it s time for a new explorer to begin their adventure. The only thing that progresses is you, the player, slowly learning a set of systems with each failure. At least, that s the theory. We spoke to the designers of Spelunky, Into the Breach, Dead Cells and Rogue Legacy to learn more about persistence within a permadeath mould.

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Full Metal Furies [official site] is a brawler from the people responsible for Rogue Legacy where “cooperation is the key to victory”. This even extends to solo play where you’re able to swap between characters as a kind of one-person team. … [visit site to read more]

My Rogue Legacy ends in defeat. I’m close to discovering all of the castle’s secrets and I’ve slain fearsome bosses, each taking me one step closer to victory, but my much-pruned family tree has been reduced to kindling. As I peeled my eyes from the window in which so many generations had perished, I vowed to remember my last and most valiant relation – a giant lich queen with a vampiric sword and a fear of chickens.>

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