“PRAISE NEATH”, cry the developers of Rogue Legacy. “What’s Neath?”, I ask politely. It’s their new game, they say, a roguelike RPG with some tactical combat about an upside-down tower constantly shifting because a god can’t make up his mind. It’s out next year, they add, before their fingers lose grip on the ceiling and they crash down from their inverted positions.
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“Lead a band of fragile warriors through a colossal, inverted tower, where Taboos, the everchanging edicts of a God, warp the laws of reality,” reads the start of the game’s cracking synopsis. The tower’s pointy, but stout, with its orientation meaning that it’s hanging rather precariously above a city in a crater. Think an infernal robo-stalactite. The city has a tavern, for the love of all that’s roguelikey, won’t someone think of the ale?
Anyway, my fear of things falling aside, you head into the tower with your party, where gridded battle rooms await. The order of turns is always shifting and the goal is to think one step ahead, anticipating enemies’ moves. Each run aims to be like a classic dungeon-crawl, with the usual roguelike twists and turns to keep things fresh and have you uncover more clues to the dark mystery that needs solving.
Cellar Door co-founder and lead programmer Kenny Lee cites Subset Games’ mech strategy-fest Into the Breach and board game Mansions of Madness as Neath’s inspirations. “Development has taken us far from our comfort zone, working in an unfamiliar genre with an aesthetic much darker than what we usually do,” he said. “But we’ve got a lot of new ideas, from ‘engagement locking’ to the ‘attack resolve system’, and we’re excited to see if we can move this burgeoning genre in a whole new direction.”
Neath’s currently being aimed for a 2026 release on Steam. Cellar Door are planning some closed betas next year, which you’ll be able to throw your name in the hat for via the studio’s Discord. Here are former RPSer Ed Thorn’s thoughts on Rogue Legacy 2 if you’re in need of something to tide you over ’til then.
