Reassessing Rogue Legacy

Rogue Legacy is free to pick up as a PSN subscriber this month so I downloaded it for PS4 even though I've already tried it out on PC.

I launched the game while I was on my stationary bike and just kind of zoned out for a bit while playing, exercising, and listening to some podcasts.

My initial reaction was the same as when I played it on PC.  I didn't like it much.  But, it was helping me kill time while exercising and most of my brain power was being used listening to podcasts anyway.  So I kept playing.

The first hour or so of the game sucks.  Like, it really sucks.  Characters die almost instantly against enemies and can barely get anywhere in the game.  It's super frustrating and the first few unlockables don't feel like they help at all.  If you look back at my initial impression on the PC you can see that I gave up before even playing an hour of it because I was so frustrated with the game.

Something interesting happens after about an hour and a half.  The game starts to get better.  Enough upgrades and progression are finally unlocked.  Finally, characters don't die within the first few encounters.  I was able to get to new tilesets, new sections of the castle, and new enemies.  It became interesting.

While I'm not a fan of roguelikes in general and I still don't think it's a great game... it is much better than I originally thought.  From now on I'll probably play it occasionally while I'm on my stationary bike but I don't anticipate a time where I will ever sit down and play the game on it's own.

But it seems like podcasts, biking, and rogue legacy are a decent combination.