Rogue Legacy: Sir Hirshley, the gigantic alektorphobe mage

I am Sir Hirshley, the first of my name. Unlike my mother, Lady Henrietta III, I do not wish to face the monstrosity Alexander. In fact, I don’t even want to venture into the treacherous forest where my mother died. My only desire is to spend my life wandering the castle and to perhaps delay my doom. I don’t trust this castle. In fact, I entered unwillingly through a necessity to do my duty to my family. The rooms seem to shift, and the demon at the gate, Charon, has stolen the remainder of my family’s money. Zombies and skeletons roam the halls, and haunted portraits hang on the walls. And the chickens. Charon take me, the chickens!

After the jump, who’s afraid of the big bad chicken?

Unlike the barbarian and the assassin, the mage is primarily focused on magic. While the mage can still be formidable in melee combat with the right gear and armor, it is best to stay as far away from the enemies as magic will allow.

Sir Hirshley is an archmage who was born with gigantism. As an archmage, he collects mana from each enemy that is killed. He can switch among spells. Each archmage is given three spells at random, however only one is shown on the character select screen, which can make it difficult to choose which character would be best.

The trait of gigantism may seem like an advantage at first blush. Due to this trait, the character’s reach is much longer, which can keep you out of danger. When you combine this trait with an archmage who needs to stay at a distance, the longer reach and the stronger magic allow the mage to maintain a bubble of safety. However, the gigantism means a larger hitbox. This makes dodging projectiles difficult. It can prove disastrous in some of the boss fights.

I sent Sir Hirshley into the dungeons with the goal of farming as much gold and special items as possible to unlock upgrades for a later character to take on Alexander. Fortunately Sir Hirshley was able to fight off gray knights, skeletons, and zombies. Oh, and did I mention chickens? Sir Hirshley has alektorphobia, which is fear of chickens. This means healing drumsticks can turn into chickens and run around. If you make contact with it, it will inflict damage. However if you slay this fearsome beast it will transform into a plain drumstick that will heal you.

Sir Hirshley was able to overcome all these challenges, and he cleared all the treasure from the castle. Feeling confident, I sent him into the forest to continue gaining treasure. The combination of gigantism and archmage was very successful against the forest’s harder enemies. One of his spells was a time stop which freezes everything on the screen. While this has a high mana cost, it allows for emergency dodging or clearing a room of enemies with no danger. After clearing much of the forest of the available treasure, I found the entrance to Alexander’s lair. With no other choice, I pressed on, determined to fight bravely against him at all costs. Using the time stop spell to kill his minions, Hirshley was able to replenish his hit points and mana. Though he nearly defeated Alexander, Sir Hirshley’s gigantism turned out to be his undoing. I thought he would duck safely under an attack, but he instead took a blow to the face. Slightly discouraged that both a character with gigantism and another with dwarfism had fallen to the same boss two generations in a row, I resolved myself to pay Alexander back in kind.

In the next entry: bargaining with death itself, or the curse of the hedgehog!
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.