Rogue Lords

 PC
User Score
3.9

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 13
  3. Negative: 8 out of 13

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  1. tjohobbit
    Oct 2, 2021
    0
    Why make a lot of characters when in the end you will not use them becasue they are just worse then the others?
    Loading screens everywhere. Every time you click a event you have a loading screen.
    Why must I walk on the map? Its just to make it take longer time and they can say "ooh look at how many hours you can play" I love roguelikes and there are so (too) many so why settle for    Why make a lot of characters when in the end you will not use them becasue they are just worse then the others?
    Loading screens everywhere. Every time you click a event you have a loading screen.
    Why must I walk on the map? Its just to make it take longer time and they can say "ooh look at how many hours you can play"

    I love roguelikes and there are so (too) many so why settle for less?

    This game is just not good and when you implement useless yimesinks you get a 0 from me.    … Expand
  2. Nokturnalex
    Oct 3, 2021
    1
    While the artists did a pretty good job, the people behind the actual game design didn't.

    I'm normally a fan of rogue-likes + lites and turn based combat as well but too much was designed badly with this one. The way you upgrade your heroes is up to RNG of what abilities are offered, on top of that for some odd reason you have to get multiples of a single ability in order to level that    While the artists did a pretty good job, the people behind the actual game design didn't.

    I'm normally a fan of rogue-likes + lites and turn based combat as well but too much was designed badly with this one. The way you upgrade your heroes is up to RNG of what abilities are offered, on top of that for some odd reason you have to get multiples of a single ability in order to level that ability up. On top of that, abilities not only have cooldowns but you have to spend resources refreshing your abilities so you can use them again. Seem like a tiresome waste of time? it is. On top of that the game is balanced around "Devil Mode" which basically gives you a finite resource that you have to spend to cheat during combat. So it becomes less about building a good team with well thought out abilities and becomes more about cheesing the fights as efficiently as possible using Devil Mode. (Use as little devil mode as possible to get the biggest bang for your buck) Now if the game was balanced around it not existing, then it'd just be a little cherry on top, but it's balanced around being forced to use it if you want any chance at victory. Then as others have complained the map is just a giant waste of time, having your guy run across it is pointless when it could've just been icons you click on.

    They didn't really listen to much feedback about the game prior to release so I don't see them changing anything, to fix it they'd also have to basically scrap the entire combat system they came up with in order to create a better balanced + fun system.    … Expand
  3. Derekao
    Oct 5, 2021
    10
    Looks like i have a very different opinion as most of the people.
    Very very enjoying experience for me.
    I cleared the main story in about 18 hours. I like the fact that the RNG play a very small role on this game. Devil power allow you to balance RNG to your advantage, and if you are use to this kind of game, you will manage to destroy every single run. While on most of the concurent,    Looks like i have a very different opinion as most of the people.
    Very very enjoying experience for me.
    I cleared the main story in about 18 hours.
    I like the fact that the RNG play a very small role on this game. Devil power allow you to balance RNG to your advantage, and if you are use to this kind of game, you will manage to destroy every single run.
    While on most of the concurent, you have to restart your runs when you get unlucky.
    The DA is icredible
    The Story is okay (Interesting, but not the best ever)
    The Game design and the mecanics between different composition is amazing (In my opinion, not a single game of the sort goes that deep)
    The difficulty is prety high, specialy if your composition is not balanced. If you try to only max out one kind of damage or one character : You will fail
    I repete myself but the devil power is super original, and reduce RNG in a way that I really love

    The only big negativ point on my side is the lack of lategame content (After 40h+ of gameplay)
    I still rate this game 10/10 cause i do bielve that on this kind of game, the game design is everything.
    Lategame content can come later, and i'm sure it will be greate.    … Expand
  4. Spyan
    Dec 6, 2021
    1
    Pro : vewy pwetty graphics, character design and color palettes.
    Cons : everything else, this game is tedious, way too hard (couldn't even reach the first boss after palying for 4 hours), the rythm is bogged down by confusing/useless mechanics (having action points + having to "reactivate" cards you played = total slog, can't do much in a turn, skip until you have enough AP while the    Pro : vewy pwetty graphics, character design and color palettes.
    Cons : everything else, this game is tedious, way too hard (couldn't even reach the first boss after palying for 4 hours), the rythm is bogged down by confusing/useless mechanics (having action points + having to "reactivate" cards you played = total slog, can't do much in a turn, skip until you have enough AP while the ennemy tears you to shreds and kicks your ass), underpowered characters, incredibly unbalanced, bad tutorial, and for a rogue-like, it's extremely repetitive (the first 5 combats are more or less the same, and since you keep on dying, prepare to see these 5 battles over and over again).
    Stick to Slay the Spire, this boring, frustrating piece of garbage was released without having been tested, it's pretty obvious.
    DON'T BOTHER with this one, don't even get it on sale, it's not worth your time.    … Expand
  5. savvym
    Apr 27, 2023
    4
    Rogue Lords is a nice candy with a tasteless filling that will bore you after the first 2 hours. After that, it is the same over and over. Nice setting, graphics, interesting set of skills and good voice overs but lack of real depth in combat, poorly balanced essence feature, empty useless world, too linear, merchant is a bummer and it is a bad roguelike. More specifically, you encounterRogue Lords is a nice candy with a tasteless filling that will bore you after the first 2 hours. After that, it is the same over and over. Nice setting, graphics, interesting set of skills and good voice overs but lack of real depth in combat, poorly balanced essence feature, empty useless world, too linear, merchant is a bummer and it is a bad roguelike. More specifically, you encounter events on the map where your lords can improve their skills or get more souls and create terror advantages throughout sections of the world. Combat is turn-based where each character has their unique set of skills that needs recharging before next use costing the action points from the same action points pool.


    The events are varied but it is always about cheating the skill checks. In combat, you deal physical and spirit damage with actions points from a conjunct pool, similarly to Iratus or Darkest Dungeon but the problem is enemies deal too much damage and your lords have short physical and spirit bars which get restored after every fight but after just few fights, your demonic essence, which is used for cheating skill checks as well as moving statuses, will get depleted, and it also works as back up health and stress pool if your lords are on a brink of dying, so if it reaches zero, it is game over. You can regain this essence only in a specific shrine in one of the world paths. I also do not understand why we have to walk through the world if there is nothing in it and you only walk from combat to event to merchant to combat to shrine. And that is it. Instead, they should simply make it like in Slay the Spire, click on these events directly on a map and not waste our time walking and getting stuck on trees and "exploring" a linear lifeless world.


    Merchant aka Grim Reaper is another supposedly complex feature, we get to buy new skills or upgrade existing ones by merging 3 of the same kind, or upgrading one but we will lose it until the next merchant encounter. And then, there are relics which can be either good or terrible. By good, you get to be lucky to buy one that synergizes with ones of your lords and by terrible, it will give you some bonus but will reduce something else important like give 1 more action point but all incoming damage is doubled. Merging skills is too expensive and it is better to lose one temporarily and fight with another lord or skill with similar values. I can barely afford anything useful if anything at all at merchants also thanks to negative effects on the world map which can sometimes not be avoided altogether.


    The 3 lords I start with are a vampire who deals only physical damage and can cast stealing physical damage to allies but can not receive any spirit stealing from his allies so easily “dies” to exhaustion and is otherwise almost useless. His special skill is recharging all other skills. Another lord is a headless guard who is supposed to work like a tank but somehow does so ineffectively. He deals massive physical damage. Third starter lord is a witch who can deal both physical and spirit damage and can double attack with her special ability. She is a very potent fighter but she has short damage bars. I unlocked a fourth character who deals spirit damage only with stealing spirit and her skills cost only 1-2 action points, but can not withstand damage much more than any other physical only character.


    This game is a huge disappointment for a roguelike game. I do not get stronger after each run. Yes, the new lord is slightly more effective at dealing spirit damage but the main problem is still persistent. Demonic essence pool is too small at the start and used for so many things, do not forget that enemies deal more and more damage just in the first stage of the world and you do not get many occasions when to replenish the essence back. In many matters it feels like a Banners of Ruin approach when you start each game with the same enemies, and waste so much time before you reach something slightly so interesting. I like the narration and events are quite a nice touch but gameplay wise it is very linear, there is no strategizing, you only have to get so lucky to get high damage spirit skills and kill enemies before they kill you. I would rather lose some of my lords and go on then having to perish in a failure every time I run out of demonic essence. I also discovered I can not snowball my damage with extra status points which deduct each turn, they get reset to the same number, so I have to keep using and recharging my skills and keep playing with just one lord while the other two lords just stand there aimlessly. It is a bad design that annoyed me in Banners of Ruin as well but it was better executed there.    … Expand
  6. Warchon
    May 10, 2023
    0
    Great game. Love the characters, the design, the difficulty. They patched it a year ago and broke it to the point of being unplayable with serious game breaking bugs and ignored all attempts by players to have it reviewed and fixed. Basically a dead game no chance of it being fixed. Don't bother.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 15
  3. Negative: 1 out of 15
  1. Softpedia
    Jan 17, 2023
    75
    Rogue Lords presents an interesting take on the roguelike genre. Although it draws inspiration from many games, including Darkest Dungeon, Slay the Spire and Iratus: Lord of the Dead, Rogue Lords sets itself apart thanks to some compelling gameplay mechanics. Moreover, all the additions to an already traditional formula feel well thought out and extremely fun. The writing and the art style are top-notch as well, and so is the voice acting. If not for the balance issues and the repetitive nature of the formula, Rogue Lords could have been a truly great game. Even so, if you love games like Darkest Dungeon and Slay the Spire, you’ll certainly enjoy Rogue Lords.
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  2. Hey Poor Player
    Oct 21, 2021
    80
    Rogue Lords is an innovative mix of roguelike and RPG elements with clever new concepts to tax your tactical mind. There’s a constant one-more-encounter compulsivity as you look to make your band of villains ever more powerful, and a huge scope for creativity provided by the reality-bending devil mode. For an entertainingly strategic experience where you have free license to indulge your dark side and wreak havoc with a variety of ghosts and ghouls, Rogue Lords will sate your wicked desires.
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  3. Jeuxvideo.com
    Oct 15, 2021
    75
    The necessary mastery requires showing patience and perseverance, further reducing the accessibility of a title which, for all that and despite the implementation of actions that are sometimes difficult to define, remains particularly well designed, surprising and satisfying to go through.
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