Rogue Legacy: Lady Jenny, the nostalgic savant spelunker

I am Lady Jenny. Unlike most of my family, I am completely unsuited for a life of combat. I am too weak to survive direct confrontations. Instead, I hide in the shadows and find secret passageways to avoid my foes. But while I am not suited to killing, I am suited to all things money. Finding it, counting it, squeezing the most out of each pile. Unlike other members of my family, I can find chests others would ignore. Oh no! I see a skeleton! Better make a dash for it!!!

After the jump, the Scrooge McDuck of the Rogue Legacy family

While most of my time in Rogue Legacy has been a lot of fun, I do have some issues. The miner class which is upgraded into the spelunker is one such issue. This class is weaker in melee combat, has lower health, and lower mana. The miner’s only strength is the ability to gain 30% extra gold from chests or dropped gold. While this may seem useful in a game where upgrades are key to success, eventually runes and home castle upgrades increase the bonus on other characters beyond 30%. This means that a single run using class with better survivability can pay off even more than the miner. Additionally, the miner costs a large amount of money to unlock in the early stages of the game, money that may be better spent on upgrades or other character classes.

The upgrade to the miner, the spelunker reveals all the chests in the castle which will also show you hidden chests. Sadly though the special ability doesn’t really measure up to any of the other classes. The barbarian king gets a shout, the archmage changes spells, the spellsword has an uber spell, the assassin avoids damage, and the spelunker gets a headlamp that turns on. You read that right! A headlamp that turns on is special. As opposed to the miner’s headlamp that is non-functional. I’m trying to contain my enthusiasm here. I know I bragged in the previous entry about the balanced class system, and I really do mean that, with only a couple of exceptions. The miner/spelunker is one of them. Every time I roll a generation with spelunkers in it, I groan.

Lady Jenny was a savant, which even further complicates things. This trait causes a random spell every time you cast. While this can be managed with a regular class, the spelunker needs a predictable spell as an emergency escape in case the enemies close in. Additionally, she was nostalgic, which is a purely aesthetic trait that causes everything to be viewed through a sepia tone.

Due to the weakness of the class, and the savant trait, Lady Jenny didn’t live for long in the castle, ultimately falling to a simple gray knight after a spell I was hoping would be a direct ranged attack turned out to be a spell that reflects around the room, causing me to be killed by the gray knight instead of escaping. Perhaps her headlamp will light her way in the afterlife.

In the next entry: playing god with the family tree
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.