Hades, Balatro, Slay the Spire… They all owe it their existence. Released almost 13 years ago, Rogue Legacy’s heritage is immense for a game that may seem obscure today. It was the first to popularise the concept of permanent progression in Roguelite games, through a genealogical system where the goal was to avenge the death of one of your ancestors. And yet, through your progression, the developers of Rogue Legacy were preparing you for the inevitable.
The question that naturally comes to mind is why talk about this game now? Let’s just say that I’ve always had some troubles with Rogue Legacy. Nine years later, to find out whether it was really justified or not, I decided to revisit it with all the knowledge I had acquired over the past decade. To conclude this analysis fairly quickly, I would say that Rogue Legacy is every bit as good as the titles coming out now, as it already had all the basics of a roguelite. Even better, the game also tried to explain through its game design why it was a roguelite.
On paper, the concept devised by the Lee Brothers, Kenny and Teddy, is absolutely brilliant. In each game, you are given the choice of generating a new child who will have a class and personality traits that may be advantageous or disadvantageous depending on the situation. ADHD will allow them to move faster, while short-sightedness will make everything blurry up close. Once chosen, this child must infiltrate a castle with randomly generated rooms, loot it as much as possible while trying to stave off the inevitable death that will result in the choice of a new heir. They will also have to spend their hard-earned gold to increase their characteristics by rebuilding a vanguard that will act as a skill tree.
To avenge your ancestor, you must open a door sealed by four bosses, whom you must find at the four corners of the map and eliminate. Once they are all defeated, you will be surprised to discover that the one you thought was dead is in fact… well, not dead. He has actually been corrupted by the power given to him by a fountain. Johannes, your ancestor, bathed in it to preserve his immortality, even embodying the fountain in a final confrontation. And when, after my 135th attempt, I finally triumphed and the credits rolled, a question came to mind: why do these bosses have such strange names, and why did I eventually fight the fountain? The answer can be summed up in one word: the Fountain of Youth (fontaine de Jouvence in french).
Daughter of the titan Oceanus from Greek mythology, the nymph Jouvence possessed the secret of eternal youth. After looking for her for this specific reason, Zeus managed to find her and fell madly in love (which was hardly surprising coming from him), which allowed him to gain access to this power. As a token of his gratitude, the King of the gods granted her a wish. Jouvence chose to be invisible to the world. Zeus then decided to transform her into a fountain (nice of him). Only a few gods know its location, such as Hera, who bathes there every year to preserve her virginity. There you have it, our connection. The search for forbidden power, embodied by four other names, those of the bosses of Rogue Legacy.
Khidr
The big eye is the first boss in the game, found in the central part of the castle. Khidr, depending on the country, has several spellings, such as Al Khadir, Khezr in Persian, or Kwaja Khizir in Hindu, and his myth is very often associated with another man (who we will discover in the next paragraph). He is an enigmatic character, appearing in the Koran as an old man who became immortal after drinking the water of youth. According to legend, the fountain is located in remote or dark lands at the far reaches of the East.
Alexandre The Great
Khidr, Alexander The Great and the Fountain of Youth seem to be inseparable. Muslim legend claims that Khidr, nicknamed ‘the green man’, succeeded where Alexander had failed. The latter probably spent part of his later life searching for a river or other source that would allow him to live forever, even if it meant descending into the underworld or exploring the polar regions, as described in the spectacular 12th-century Alexander Romance (here in French). The King of Macedonia, after expanding his territory to present-day Uzbekistan, died in 323 BC at the age of 33. In Rogue Legacy, Alexander takes the form of a human skull that you face outside the castle.
Juan Ponce de León
Clearly the most complicated boss. A ball of flame nestled in the castle tower, Ponce de León is the name of a Spanish conquistador who became governor of Puerto Rico and claimed to have found the famous fountain. But this was actually a posthumous claim. This legacy was only made public after his death in 1521. According to the writings of various chroniclers of the time, the source was located between the Bahamas and Florida. It is in this American state that the self-proclaimed city of La Fontaine de Jouvence is located: St. Augustine, built after the death of Ponce de León. All these approximations make historians doubt the reality of Ponce de León’s search.
Herodotus
The final boss is a kind of blob found in the castle’s underground passages. According to the geographer, the miraculous fountain was located in Ethiopia and belonged to the Macrobies people, as he recounts in Book III of his Histories. By bathing in it, men and women, without becoming immortal, could easily reach the age of 120, according to him. Pliny, Orpheus and other authors believed that these people lived on the borders of India or in Hyperborea, an ancient territory which, according to Herodotus, was guarded by griffins.
