Developer Cellar Door Games is delaying the Early Access release of Rogue Legacy 2 on Steam and the Epic Games Store from July until August 18th.
Rogue Legacy 2, the sequel to the hit roguelike platformer from 2013, is pushing back its launch in Early Access on Steam and the Epic Games Store by one month. Developer Cellar Door Games announced Rogue Legacy 2 on April 1st, 2020, confirming the next day that it was actually happening and not just a cruel April Fools’ Day joke.
The Rogue Legacy sequel will inherit the first game’s defining mechanic, the ability to continue playing as a descendant of the main character after each death, each with a collection of new traits that will help or hinder players. By tackling the game’s challenges through the generations, players will make permanent progress by defeating bosses despite the dungeon’s layout changing for each run. The composers from the original game are also returning for Rogue Legacy 2’s soundtrack. On the other hand, Rogue Legacy 2 is going with a sleeker hand-drawn style for the game’s graphics, as opposed to the pixel art style used in the original Rogue Legacy and Cellar Door’s Full Metal Furies.
Rogue Legacy was set to enter Early Access on July 23rd, but Cellar Door now confirms that it will be pushed back to August 18th. According to Cellar Door, the delay will allow time to fix some performance issues but also add more features. The developer says some features were so far along that it makes sense to wait until they’re complete to launch the game than to release it now and add them later.
Rogue Legacy 2 is just the latest in a long line of games to be delayed this year. Some of the biggest releases of 2020, including Cyberpunk 2020, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part 2, and most recently Destiny 2’s Beyond Light expansion, have all been hit with delays ranging from a few weeks to a few months. In one of the most extreme examples, Amazon’s New World MMO recently released a delay of a full year. Some of the delays this year were reportedly due to the complications of developing a game while observing social distancing due to COVID-19, while others just come down to the unpredictability of game development.
All things considered, a delay of a single month isn’t so bad. Especially considering that it had been seven years since the original game’s release before Rogue Legacy 2’s surprise announcement, one small delay in the last weeks before launch is well worth a more solid first impression.
Rogue Legacy will be available in Early Access on PC on August 18th, 2020.
Source: Cellar Door Games/Twitter
