Rogue Legacy: Sir Fleming, the coprolalic lich king
I am Sir Fleming. Long have I travelled the halls of this haunted castle, seeking fortune and fame. Though from time to time I seem to hear the sound of laughter, and enemies fade to thin air before my eyes, I remain steadfast. Each enemy I kill only strengthens me. Take this mimic above me for example. I jump towards it, sword slashing through it. *@#$! It bit me! Run all you like, I’ll get you in the *#$%!!! It bit me again!!! Oh no, here it comes again! &#%@ @^#$ @#$%!!!
After the jump, @#&$ $@&#, or liches get stitches!
The class system in Rogue Legacy has is beautifully balanced. While there are three main classes; a mage, a barbarian, and a paladin that each specialize in either magic or melee, or a balance between the two, upgrades to your home castle grant access to new and more specialized classes. I have talked about a couple of the other classes in previous entries; the assassin and spellsword. The assassin is a glass cannon that relies almost solely on melee while the spellsword relies on a powerful magic special and recovering mana from melee combat.
The lich king is another highly specialized class. While suffering a penalty to starting health, mana, and strength, the lich king has a bonus to intelligence that makes spells more powerful. The primary mechanic when playing as the Lich or the upgraded class- lich king, is that each kill increases the maximum health the Lich has, though this is capped at the point that the penalty to health is erased. When the Lich is upgraded to the lich king, you can choose to convert the maximum HP into maximum mana, a perk that is very useful given the Lich’s additional magic damage.
Sir Fleming also was born with dementia and coprolalia. Coprolalia is mainly an aesthetic trait, in that it causes you to curse when you are hit by an enemy, and the parting words your character leaves for the next generation is just a curse. Dementia however has a more interesting effect on gameplay. As you are clearing out rooms, you will come across enemies that are capable of attacking you but cannot be defeated. When you hit them with your sword or magic, question marks will appear over your character’s head to let you know that it is not a real enemy. Additionally, the attacks from that enemy cannot effect your character, meaning you can allow them to pass directly through you. While this may seem like a plus, when you are in a room with a screen growing busy with projectile attacks, the last thing you want is to try to suss out which attacks are real and which are not. Thus this trait can complicate your run by causing you to attempt to dodge attacks that are not real, and end up putting yourself into a bad situation.
As Sir Fleming journeyed through the castle, I came across a room containing three chests, a gate, and an elf that offered me the chance to gamble a quarter of the gold I had collected in order to triple what I had wagered. You can see how that turned out below.
Cursing my bad luck, I pressed on through the castle and into the maya, the third main area of the game. Shrouded in a fog or mist, this area is host to enemies far more difficult than any of the previous areas. Here enemies hit harder, have more abilities, and are just generally damage sponges. However, the considerable amount of upgrades to my home castle, and purchases made at the smithy paid off and I was able to finally reach Ponce de Leon, the boss of the maya, and featured as the intro to this entry. Though a valiant effort was made, Sir Fleming was on his last legs when he made it to the boss room, and ultimately, as the breath left his body, Sir Fleming uttered one final $@#$!!!
In the next entry: gold and glory, or disgrace and fast death?
Click here for the previous Rogue Legacy entry.
Andrew Kneller is a chemistry graduate student and avid gamer. When he isn’t busy kicking laser tables and trying to teach undergrads, he and his wife play videogames and watch movies together. You can find him on the Quarter to Three forums as TREOS.
