History VideoGame / RogueLegacy

* GutturalGrowler: [[spoiler:Johannes and the Fountain]] let out a deep growl whenever they are hit. This trait is also shared with their counterparts including [[spoiler:the Traitor class and the Brohannes]].

** The game's {{Bonus Boss}}es force you to fight them with a preset character, making grinding your way through impossible. An update later introduced donation boxes which allow you to empower them for a hefty sum of gold.

* BraggingRightsReward: The 1.2 patch adds five {{Bonus Boss}}es that are more powerful versions of the regular bosses. The reward you get for beating all of them is overpowered, [[spoiler:the Traitor class]]. But of course, since you've already beaten the hardest challenges in the game, all it's good for is tearing through the castle with much more ease.

** Having a hard time against the [[BonusBoss Remix Bosses]]? You can empower them using the nearby donation box for a [[MoneySink hefty price]] for up to nine times. This process increases their HP and damage output, allowing you to have a better chance in the fights.

* AsteroidsMonster: The "Blob" enemy classes, which split into two smaller versions of themselves upon being slain. For bonus points, there's the [[spoiler:BonusBoss Astrodotus, who highly resembles the TropeNamer by virtue of being fought in a space-like area with WrapAround]].

* BonusBoss: A content update added these. They are quite difficult as they are more powerful than the regular bosses they're based on and you're forced to use a [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent preset character]] for the fight, so no amount of LevelGrinding will help you. On the merciful side, losing to them won't kill you, just dump you outside the boss door, so you can try again as many times as you wish.

** [[spoiler:Johannes himself is playable in the [[DualBoss Brohannes]] BonusBoss, using the Traitor class which is unlocked after defeating them. This class has the Dagger Spray (mapped to normal magic), flurry Axe (mapped to special ability), and special longer-lasting Blade Wall (used by pressing the magic button while dashing), making Johannes play just like he does in phase one of his boss fight against two renditions of that same boss.]]

* MoneySink: Even if you unlocked all Manor Upgrades and purchased all Runes and Equipment, you can still use your gold to power up your "ancestors" who are used in the BonusBoss fights. In fact, that is the final use of the currency. When you unlock the [[spoiler:Traitor class]], money no longer has any value.

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: [[spoiler:The Astrodotus BonusBoss is fought as a flying hero in a wraparound room, highly reminiscent of {{VideoGame/Asteroids}}]]. On top of that, [[spoiler:the Dragon class turns the game into a {{Danmaku}}]].

** Subverted with the Architect, who can [[JustForPun pin down]] the previous castle layout, in exchange of 60% less gold earned for this generation.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gamelogo_1860.png]]

* EldritchLocation: The castle. Its shifting layout renders maps useless and the Prince thinks it's alive, sensing him and possessing possibly malevolent purpose.

* FluffyTheTerrible: Deep in the depths of the dark forest there lurks a giant skull, wreathed in flame. Its name is Alexander.
** Inverted if one interprets it as [[spoiler:Alexander the Great, since Johannes implies the bosses are all legendary heroes, and Ponce De Leon - who is just as real Alexander the Great - is among them.]]

* {{Speedrun}}: While the random nature of the game doesn't lend itself to speedruns, several exist already, including someone who beat New Game+7 (i.e. the 8th playthrough) in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyRKpbold_M thirteen minutes.]]

* AnAxeToGrind: One spell tosses out an axe in a Franchise/{{Castlevania}}-esqe arc.

** The castle guardians all have names [[spoiler:relating to the Fountain of Youth.]] All minibosses are named after the demons of the Literature/ArsGoetia ([[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant even]] [[UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean Barbados]]).

* WakeUpCallBoss: Khirdr, the castle's giant eye boss will unleash BulletHell on you the likes of which you haven't seen anywhere in the castle. If you're the one who prefers getting up close and repeatedly [[AttackAttackAttack attacking enemies to death]], it will force you to evade and take potshots.
** WarmUpBoss: On the other hand, compared to the later area bosses, Khirdr doesn't move from his position, meaning you don't have to balance [[CollisionDamage constantly fleeing from him]] against staying close enough to attack, doesn't [[FlunkyBoss spawn a horde of lesser enemies to try and overwhelm you]], and his BulletHell attacks, while initially intimidating, come in a fairly simple pattern you can learn with some practice. Later bosses aren't ''nearly'' so generous.

* BulletHell: Some monsters and traps spew these, and bosses turn it UpToEleven. It gets even worse in NewGamePlus (and then again in the second NewGamePlus) when all enemies are replaced by versions that put out more projectiles, and in the latter, many more of these attacks can go through walls.

** Taken UpToEleven with a [[spoiler:giant portrait enemy]] that masquerades as [[spoiler:one of the large paintings that can be examined to give information about Cellar Door's past games]]

''Rogue Legacy'' is an action-platformer with {{Roguelike}} and {{Metroidvania}} elements developed by Cellar Door Games. The player must explore a procedurally generated castle full of traps and monsters. When they [[NintendoHard inevitably die]], the player then has a choice of which of their character's descendants to play next. Each has a different class, subweapon and interesting genetic conditions. Over the course of a few generations, players will build up their base and armory, allowing each new generation to be a little stronger and press a little further into the depths of the ever-changing castle.

* {{Meganekko}}:
** Lady [=McSwordy=], who is one of the pre-generated characters you use to fight the remixed boss battles.
** Any female character can also be applied by picking up the Nerd Glasses.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Female ninjas have this, because {{Anime}}.

A sequel, ''VideoGame/RogueLegacy2'', was announced and entered Early Access on August 18th, 2020, with a scheduled full release in 2021.

** No Looking? Equip the Dash ability, turn your back against the chest, jump up then dash backwards until you reach it.

* FamousLastWords: Whenever your character dies, in the form of a gameplay tip... unless you have Coprolalia, in which case they just [[SymbolSwearing curse angrily]]. [[spoiler:Johannes gets them too, since he's part of the family line.]]

** [[spoiler:Johannes also gets a FamousLastWords since he's your ancestor. And it is exactly the same dialogue he tells you before he collapses namely "The sun... I'd forgotten how it feels."]]

** [[spoiler:Despite Johannes getting a similar game over screen with FamousLastWords, the enemies he killed only shows the King, even though the Journal entries state that he also conquered the four guardians Khidr, Alexander, Ponce de Leon and Herodotus. It could be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] as you only get to kill the King when playing as Johannes in the tutorial.]]

* VideoGameSettings: ''Rogue Legacy'' has four areas connected to one another. Through exploration, you can come across one or another at any point, but they are, in order of difficulty:
** BigFancyCastle: Castle Hamson, the starting area
** TheLostWoods: The Forest Abkhazia.
** EvilTowerOfOminousness: The Maya
** LockedInTheDungeon: The Land of Darkness.

* FinalDeath: Every time. However, you can continue playing as a new character with the same base and equipment.

** No Jumping? Just use the Dragon class to fly! But one must fly from ''outside'' the Fairy Chest room since Dragons must double-jump first before they can fly.

* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: It's not pointless since the NewGamePlus will keep increasing in difficulty even past where you actually max out, but by the time you've finished upgrading, your manor your level will probably be four times than what you were at when you first beat the FinalBoss. And even when you've bought absolutely everything, you can keep nudging your stats upward with no apparent cap (easily past level 500) by beating fairy challenges to collect stat up items.

** The sword barrier spell theoretically does a lot of damage and can stunlock enemies against a wall, but its range is so pathetic it's useless as offense and only serves as a deterrent against melee threats (and usually the chakram can do that just as well). Unless you're playing a Spellsword, in which case you get massive swords that hit above and below and do possibly the most damage per casting of any spell. Plus the giant swords form a much more effective defensive barrier as well, allowing you to refill your MP bar via sword attacks relativey safely even against melee enemies.

* SoundCodedForYourConvenience: All of the robe-wearing magic-user enemies have a distinct sound that plays when they're about to fire off their magic. Flame-using ones have a low-pitched burning, ice-using ones have a sound akin to ice freezing, and earth-using ones have a runic charging noise.
* SpeedRun: While the random nature of the game doesn't lend itself to speedruns, several exist already, including someone who beat New Game+7 (i.e. the 8th playthrough) in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyRKpbold_M thirteen minutes.]]

* StabTheSky: A downplayed variant occurs in-game as your characters will ''always'' point their swords above their heads, but at a 45-degree angle to the top-right. When you beat the game, the [[EvolvingTitleScreen title screen will change]] featuring a knight on top of the castle holding this pose.

** Gold and stat boost drops are now automatically collected since they draw closer to the knight when dropped.

* MoneyForNothing: This mod [[AvertedTrope averts]] the base game's problem with this; it's possible to get upgraded blueprints for armors from chests, which are heavier but boast better stats than their normal counterparts. Additionally, the Enchantress will begin selling stat increases after NG+ 2, allowing you to invest money on boosting your characters directly.

* PowerGlows: Assassin's critical attacks can now be pre-emptively determined with a flaming sword, indicating that the next attack will be critical.
* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: Hokage can heal past their max health. However, they suffer from armor taking less effect on their higher health bars, causing them to take more damage if they have more health.

* StatGrinding: The new EVP mechanics of the Lich class passively grants you bonus stats such as Attack, Magic Damage and Armor by accumulating a lot of EVP from killing enemies. The stats go down if you heal yourself instead.

* GutturalGrowler: Johannes and the Fountain let out a deep growl whenever they are hit. This trait is also shared with their counterparts including [[spoiler:The Traitor class and the Brohannes]].

* MoneySink: Even if you unlocked all Manor Upgrades and purchased all Runes and Equipment, you can still use your gold to power up your "ancestors" who are used in the BonusBoss fights. In fact, that is the final use of the currency. When you unlocked the [[spoiler:Traitor class]], money no longer has any value.

** Any of the bouncing spiked balls) will be defeated if they impact walls 12 times within a short timeframe. This is to prevent any small areas from being blocked off by them.

*** Miners and Spelunkers now gain higher amounts of gold by increasing their bonus gold gain to 30% instead of a constant 3 gold per coin. They are guaranteed to get gold from breakables and their base movement speed is also increased.

* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: Hokage can heal past their max health, at the cost of lowered defense.

** Defeating enemies that are out of reach or blocked by walls? The Crow Storm weapon of the Lich class can reach them.

-->The Blacksmith can build the finest equipment in the world, turning you into a veritably virtuous violent-villain vaporizer.

** Spiketors (the bouncing spiked balls) will auto-destruct if they hit enough walls in a certain amount of time. This is to prevent any small areas from being blocked off by them.
** After beating a boss, it is also impossible to take damage from spike traps or spiketors.

* AntiGrinding: The game's {{Bonus Boss}}es force you to fight them with a preset character, making grinding your way through impossible. An update later introduced donation boxes which allow you to empower them for a hefty sum of gold.
* AntiHoarding: Charon takes away all (or a portion, with the Haggle upgrade) of your gold every time you enter the Castle. This makes it so that you cannot easily accumulate gold to unlock everything yet at your current playthrough. Not unless you find his Obol artifact which convinces Charon to let you pass one-time only with all the previous gold earned by your ancestor.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:The King, who essentially destroyed the kingdom he ruled for a chance at immortality. He deserved it.]]
* AsteroidsMonster: The "Blob" enemy classes, which split into two smaller versions of themselves upon being slain. For bonus points, there's the [[spoiler:BonusBoss Astrodotus, who highly resembles the TropeNamer]]

** Giants have larger range than other characters. They also have enormous hit boxes, making it easier for them to get stunlocked.

--> I will be victorious! There is no greater swordsman than I, even amongst my siblings.

** Shield-holding knights do this to you if they're struck you from the front on their shield.

* BulletHell: Some monsters and traps spew these, and bosses turn it UpToEleven. It gets even worse in NewGamePlus (and then again in the second NewGamePlus) when all enemies are replaced by versions that put out more bullets, and in the latter, many more of those bullets can go through walls.

** Sentient paintings will fly off the wall and attack you when you approach. You can spot them by the shaking beforehand, and their darker outline, or by pausing to reveal the stats of all nearby enemies. [[spoiler:Several of the "?" rooms contain giant paintings remarking on the developers' past games. One of them is a boss mob, Sallos. What's worse, this one is smart enough to not shake when you're in its vicinity; you can only tell (short of jumping into it) if you check your stats first, attempt to 'read' it like the other giant paintings, or notice its darker outline.]]

* CollisionDamage: All enemies have this except for Guard Boxes. The player can gain it too with retaliation runes, which can even destroy invulnerable objects like spikeballs. The Assassin's Mist Form can disable this mechanic while in effect.

* ColorCodedTimeStop: Done the same as [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure the original]] Ur-example of the trope.

* DoubleJump: One of the runes you can buy lets you do this. It stacks too, so you can even jump more than twice if you want.

* DualBoss: [[spoiler:One of the secret bosses pits Johannes against Brohannes, a pair of red-and-purple-garbed knights with the powers of the Traitor class.]]

* EnemyDetectingRadar: A trait allows you to know and track where the enemies are immediately after you enter a room.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Ohhhh, yes. Even the ''health powerups'' spring up and come after you with a certain trait.

* EvolvingTitleScreen: Beating the game changes the title screen background from a castle shrouded in darkness and red clouds to one with clear blue skies, sunlight and a knight at the top, [[StabTheSky pointing his sword upwards]].

* FlechetteStorm: [[spoiler:Johannes the Traitor]] can throw several daggers at once. [[spoiler:With the Traitor class, you can use this same ability as your normal spell.

** Whenever you deal enough damage to make him split, Herodotus spawns a Gravisor. Unlike Alexander, they don't do anything to make him more than a minor annoyance.

** Of course, there are also the traditional Mimics in the Maya. These have a lighter outline than the chests instead. Another far simpler way of checking if a chest is a mimic is to look at your minimap. Is there a chest there? No? IT'S A MIMIC (although the game can still throw you a curveball by having a Mimic sitting right in front of the actual chest to disguise itself.)

* CoolSword: Spellthieves and Spellswords have an invisible one.

** Assassins have lower stats in return for higher critical hit rate.
** Inverted with Shinobi/Hokages, who are the only classes who cannot perform critical hits.
* CrutchCharacter: Shinobi/Hokages have great stats initially, making them much quicker at killing things with normal attacks. Unfortunately their complete inability to get critical hits comes back to bite them in NewGamePlus by which point you've probably upgraded critical hit chance and damage to the point that other classes that can crit will exceed them.
** Unsurprisingly, the BonusBoss you have to defeat as a highly-trained Hokage makes for what's likely the hardest fight in the game.
** Miners/Spelunkers qualify as well. Early on, their gold bonus is a huge help in powering up, but a couple of cycles into NewGamePlus, their usefulness fades since even with top tier equipment, they're simply too weak to survive for long. Not to mention at that point the enemies give so much gold you don't really need the bonus anymore.

* FlechetteStorm: [[spoiler:Johannes the Traitor]] can throw several knives at once... which also homes toward you.

** Whenever you deal enough damage to make him split, Herodotus spawns a mage that summons a small stone tower at your feet. Though unlike Alexander, they don't do anything to make him more than a minor annoyance.

** The Shinobi/Hokage. 30% faster than other classes, but low has HP.

* GatheringSteam: The "Down Strike Up" upgrade increases the damage of your next consecutive downward sword strikes.

* HalfHumanHybrid: The secret class. Half-human, half-[[spoiler:dragon]].
** The name of this upgrade, "Bestiality", implies this is indeed the product of HotSkittyOnWailordAction.

*** The "hypochondriac" trait is particularly amusing as the damage display greatly exaggerates the amount of damage done to you (a 16HP hit registers as 1654HP) even though it actually remains the same.

* MirrorBoss: As compared to the gallery of monsters you've fought before, [[spoiler:the FinalBoss fights with the same gameplay mechanics as you have, since he is your ancestor Johannes, the knight who you played as during the tutorial.]]
** [[spoiler:He is also playable once more in the Brohannes BonusBoss, where he fights [[DualBoss two clones]] of himself and retains most of his boss abilities that he notably ''didn't'' have in the tutorial.]]
** [[spoiler:Defeating all the {{Bonus Boss}}es unlocks the Traitor class for normal play, opening the possibility of the FinalBoss becoming a mirror boss a bit more literally. And in order to unlock the "Katagelasticism" achievement, you have to deliberately [[InvokedTrope invoke this trope]] using the aforementioned class.]]

** The Helios' Blessing artifact increase the chance and quantity of gold coins dropping from enemies and furniture.

*** Assassin sneak cost now depends on room level.