Second Legacy

Second Legacy is a top-down manic shooter inspired by masterpieces of the genre by developers such as Compile, CAVE or Treasure, with design ideas borrowed from game franchises by Platinum Games or FromSoftware.

The game currently features a single demo stage, with an optional hidden path. The goal is to reach the end of the main path, using one of the three available aircrafts, that can be customized to a certain extent.

To take the hidden path, fill up your energy tanks before destroying the first bullet-cancelling enemy, and survive until past the mid-boss.

More details about gameplay mechanics can be found in the included Readme.md file, or in its online version.

The soundtrack of the game is freely available at Bandcamp.

Disclaimer: the game is still in active development, and subject to regular changes.

Controls

Second Legacy is best played using a gamepad, to take advantage of analog controls. You can customize button mapping when starting the game for the first time, or from the options menu (presets for XBox360 and DualShock controllers are available).

Default keyboard controls are listed below for reference:

• Arrow keys: fly the ark forward, backward, left or right / select options in menus
• Space: auto-fire / validate menu options
• B: shield bomb
• Left Alt: focus energy to main gun (can be combined with auto-firing)
• C: focus power to propulsion for fast manoeuvers
• V: EX mode trigger
• N: action trigger
• Enter: pause / validate menu options
• Escape: pause or resume game / cancel menu options

Known issues to date (2025-05-23)

The following is a non-exhaustive list of bugs I'm aware of or open design questions. Feel free to contact me if you encounter something amiss that does not fit any of these descriptions.

• It was reported to me that keyboard keys could not be remapped on OSX.
• After a long time retrying the hidden boss (~1 hour), some of its patterns may have a lot less bullets than they should. Workaround: restart the game.
• In roughly the same conditions, cannons may start spawning bullets with no movement. Workaround: restart the game.
• Some clicking can be heard on some SFX

Trivia

• Second Legacy is the sequel to a game that does not exist except in the mind of those who listen to its soundtrack, called Prime Legacy.