My main thought when I finished my first run of RoRR was something along the lines of 'I swear there were way more chests than this', but after sitting on it for a little bit I remembered - I prefer it that way! Even when I was really into RoR2, the original was always sitting there at the back of my mind, and a big part of it is because it's *less* of a power fantasy. It's not hard to get to a point in the sequel where it's basically 3D Vampire Survivors and the game is quite literally playing itself, and at the wilting old age of 23 I simply do not get anything out of that - the biggest challenge at that point is fighting through all the aggressive overstimulation only to see that I haven't actually done anything myself in the past 20 minutes. RoR1, in contrast, is generally a lot more restrained - slower, more methodical and less immediately gratifying, where positioning is much more important and slight missteps are punished a lot harder.

Not to risk romanticising it, though - it's still a post-Isaac roguelike about stuffing yourself with slight passive buffs in the hope of pulling the fabled 'god build' and tearing the game into tiny little pieces. (it's not exactly a god build, but I did get pretty crazy luck in my run earlier!). Runs still live and die almost entirely based on how lucky you get, and it still wants your tiny little monkey brain to light up like a fireworks display when you do get lucky. Yet there's something weirdly captivating about it all the same that lets it stay fondly remembered by me - the #1 biggest roguelike hater of all time (as voted by me) - when I can't help but feel pretty 'eh' about RoR2 in retrospect. Could be the movement that feels like it came straight from an old action-platformer, complete with no vertical aiming in a game with loads of flying enemies. Could be the lessened amount of loot combined with a timer that feels much more meaningful making it difficult to feel *quite* as powerful as you want to be. Could be the indescribably beautiful soundtrack, crushing, contemplative and adrenaline pumping all in equal measure (seriously, this shit is GOLDEN). Could just be that it's a game I sunk a ton of time into with friends a decade ago. Am I just nostalgic? Please don't tell me I'm nostalgic for a game that came out in 2013, it wasn't that long ago.

The remaster itself is pretty great in that it polishes up a couple areas that desperately needed it - multiplayer no longer needing port forwarding or some other solution, and actually being able to use mouse buttons for keybinds (I don't have to use the fucking arrow keys for my attacks any more!!!!). Both of those pretty much justify this game, but it comes with a whole host of additions that... don't really do that much for me? I like porting the alternate skill system over to 1, but the unlock requirements are weird! Take your choice of Providence Trials (minigames involving the new skill, cool concept but mostly feel a bit gimmicky, unsatisfying and they probably don't let you have health regen), or.. Kill 3000 enemies as [character], pick up 300 items as [character]! I loathe timesink stuff like that so much that I still pushed through all the trials I have so far even though I haven't really enjoyed any of them. New enemies are cool though, and sand crabs are finally recognisable as crabs instead of giant walking rocks.

...and so they left, more bustling fungus than man.