The Dark Castle lies deep within the mountains, casting an ominous shadow on the forest below. All around this fortress of night, the land is corrupted, raising the dead and rousing monsters from their slumber. It is a terrible omen, a dark presence that fights the very world itself, so what is a brave young hero to do?
Why, loot it for treasure, of course.
Lost Castle 2 is a beat-em-up roguelike that tasks players with joining the Treasure Hunter guild and plunging into the depths of the Dark Castle for gold, glory, and adventure. It’s a light-hearted, colorful fantasy full of the spirit of adventure, awesome foes, and hundreds of pieces of gear and gold for the most worthy adventurers to claim.
Lost Castle 2 is what I would describe as the MMO of Roguelikes.
The game features your typical Roguelike structure and doesn’t deviate far from it. You have a base camp full of familiar NPCS and upgrades to be purchased using treasure gathered from your runs. Said runs see you moving through a progressively difficult string of levels, fighting monsters and bosses in a handful of unique stages, collecting gear and upgrades along the way, and ultimately seeing how far you can go before you face defeat and are sent back to the start with your treasures.
Where I would say Lost Castle 2 stands out the most, and the reason I call it the MMO of Roguelikes, is that the game feels very deeply designed to be a multiplayer game.
This is nothing new for the genre, of course, with some of my favorite Roguelikes featuring co-op modes. Lost Castle 2, however, feels much more inspired by the dungeon-finding systems of MMORPG titles, where each member of the party plays a specific role.
The multiplayer aspect of the game is heavily hinted at by the unique character customization, something you don’t really see in Roguelikes, but you need to look at how the game handles weapons and armor to really understand what I’m getting at.
Lost Castle 2 features six weapon types: Single-handed weapons with shields, Dual Blades, Two-Handed Weapons, Turbo Lances (reminiscent of the guidance from Monster Hunter,) Bows and Spell-Casting staves. Each of these weapons has a unique playstyle, with its own attack pattern, moves, and specials, and drops in various forms during your adventures. Picking up better versions of weapons during your adventure not only gives you better stats but also unlocks special abilities that greatly define how you play.
I can’t emphasize enough how different each of the game’s 200+ weapons feel from each other. While two weapons may fall into the same category, the difference between a steel greatsword and a bamboo katana is vast and immediately noticeable. The game really captures that special RPG desire to find, collect, and wield unique treasures, making every new piece of gear you find feel like a legendary discovery rather than just an arsenal upgrade.
What I find really cool is that Lost Castle 2 also allows you to choose what kind of weapons will drop during your adventure. Partial to Two-Handed weapons like myself, but hate bows? You can switch off weapon types to limit drops in your run to your favorites, just as long as you have three types of weapons selected. This is a cool way to strike a balance between always giving the player their preferred tools without circumventing the RNG aspect of a roguelike too much.
Each weapon’s moveset puts a member into a different role, with swords and shields being great tanks, two-handed weapons being AoE/crowd control, archers and mages being great damage, etc. Pair this with how the game treats light, medium, and heavy armor as well as the stats gained from treasure and gear, which focus on increasing certain stats often at the cost of others, and what you have is a Roguelike with an even greater emphasis on players playing a certain “class” or role.
While the game can most certainly played solo, and a jack-of-all-trades type build isn’t impossible, it’s safe to say that Lost Castle 2 is built around cooperation, and I’m willing to bet that players will get a lot more enjoyment out of the game in multiplayer.
Beyond the game’s impressive roster of 200 weapons and 150 treasure items, Lost Castle 2 features a ton of enemies, all of which feature cool designs and their own move sets. Each area feels like a unique challenge, and the art and overall design direction make the game’s visual experience a tireless one.
That being said, I feel like the game could really do with some tweaking to the stats of its enemy units. I often found that large hoards of foes were easy to juggle and stun lock, which made their time to kill feel exceedingly long. It feels a little pointless for an enemy to take so many hits to put down if they’re going to spend the whole time stunned anyway. Reducing the overall health of enemies and/or making them faster or giving them more immunity frames could certainly help spice up the combat in a much-needed way.
On top of this, I feel as though the game doesn’t have very good feedback for when you take damage. Sure, getting hit often knocks you back, but I often found myself dying because I was incredibly low on health and had no idea. The game could use with some visual indicators to remind you to heal or play it safe, instead of having death sneak up on you if you aren’t vigilant with glancing at the relatively small health HUD.
Overall, Lost Castle 2 is already at a great state in its Early Access release, and should prove to being a co-op favorite among Roguelike fans.
Pros:
- A massive variety of weapons, armor, and trinkets
- Great multiplayer mechanics
- Fantastic art design and levels
Cons:
- Slightly repetitive combat and less-than-perfect HUD/damage feedback
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