Game Rant speaks with Rogue Legacy 2 lead designer and co-creator Teddy Lee about the new classes and class changes coming in its 1.0 release.
Cellar Door Games recently announced Rogue Legacy 2 would be releasing later this month, exiting its early access and entering its full launch. Cellar Door Games has been working on this entry since 2018, with its early access period beginning in late 2020. It seems newcomers will be getting a meaty platformer with roguelike elements, while early adopters and veterans will be getting a ton of new content to reel them back in.
Game Rant recently spoke with Cellar Door Games’ Teddy Lee, lead designer and co-creator of Rogue Legacy, ahead of the sequel’s upcoming launch. A lot of work has been put into making sure the 1.0 release was stable and packed with content, and during this conversation, Lee also briefly discussed what fans can expect out of Rogue Legacy 2's new classes and class changes.
Namely, there will be two new classes and two classes that are getting retooled in the update. Lee doesn’t reveal many specifics about the new classes, but he does briefly discuss them. The first is the Astromancer, which has been teased and briefly discussed before. The second, he says, is “super weird” and is seen at the end of the recent Rogue Legacy 2 trailer, as seen above. “You actually do see him, he's the dude on the pirate boat at the very end of the trailer, right? He's a really fun guy.”
In regard to their talents, Lee also said,
“Yeah, their talents are pretty crazy too, the Astromancer especially. It adds a ridiculous amount of mobility, which you're not expecting from this class, right, but we really wanted to separate it from the standard Mage. We also retooled two of the other classes to make them a lot more fun.”
With the addition of these two, Rogue Legacy 2’s class count will increase from 13 to 15. Yet, these two new classes aren’t the only ones getting any love. Lee discussed how both the Gunslinger and the Assassin were getting some quality of life and balance changes. These changes sound fun and should bring these two up any Rogue Legacy 2 tier list, putting them closer to the middle or top (with the Ronin, Valkyrie, or Chef).
Lee states that the Gunslinger went through a lot of updates, with the biggest change affecting his Makeshift Explosive Talent. Lee described it as “too high skilled” and reveals that the changes made should make it more usable. Another change is a new dynamic reload. “So before, he took like half a second to reload every time. Now if you've only shot like two bullets, he'll reload in like a tenth of a second. It's good. Everybody wants to reload to the max. It just makes him play way better, so that was a big change for him.” Indeed, the number one rule in any game with guns or a gun-based character is to stay reloaded, so this small change may go a long way for Rogue Legacy 2’s Gunslinger class.”
For the Assassin, Cellar Door Games makes one big change to its Obscura talent. This ability allows a player to cloak, moving faster, becoming invulnerable, and phasing through enemies. While effective against fireball traps and the like, it hasn’t been much use in combat. Attacking removes the cloaking effect, but its brief grace period didn’t really add much to the ability. Now, however, players will apply the vulnerable status when they break their cloak and attack. What this does is make all attacks critical hits for a few seconds. This not only adds to the Assassin’s combat abilities but, as described by Lee, makes him “a lot of fun to be ultra-aggressive with now.”
Between the class additions, class changes, and the variety of other content coming in Rogue Legacy 2’s 1.0 update, there are a lot of reasons to be excited. Newcomers, platform fans, and veteran players will almost certainly find something in the new update that suits their fancy.
Rogue Legacy 2 releases on April 28 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
When Joshua Duckworth received Pokemon Yellow for Christmas at 5-years-old, his fate as a gamer was set. Since then, he’s been involved with every step of the gaming industries’ growth from the golden PS1 era and the dying days of the arcade to any current gaming trend. When he’s not writing, playing his own games, or thinking about writing or playing his games, he’s probably the second player to his son’s Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! file. Joshua has an MA degree in English from Jacksonville State University, and the best way to contact him is at [email protected].
