So there's a game I recently got on my Switch Lite and for these last couple of weeks I had it, I've been enjoying it. It's called Castle of no escape 2, an 8-bit roguelite game where you play as one of six playable characters and traverse the randomly generated rooms of the six floor castle to find the five pieces of The Sword, the only known weapon to be capable of harming the boss of the game, and the five gem artifacts. There are a ton of awesome enemies to kill between rooms and lots of cool stuff hidden throughout the game, like the secrets the books tell you and such.

See, the game takes place at least a year after the events of the first Castle of no escape game. Another great evil, a demon named Nikolai, has taken over the castle and has threatened the world with his power. Three new heroes have arised to challenge the castle walls and bring the five pieces of The Sword together again, as well as gather the five gems to help them in the final battle with Nikolai. Also, three of the six characters you can play as are presumably from the first game and you have to unlock them by fighting their Fallen selves, whom are kinda like mini-bosses and are basically super powered evil versions of the three characters they represent.

I have fallen for this game so much that I have decided to draw the characters out to show you all with! It took some doing since the game itself only has one piece of official artwork in itself for most of the characters (a couple of the characters get two since they were new characters) and then there's sprites of the characters, some of which kinda contrast what the official art shows, but nonetheless I did it the best I could. I'm not very experienced in drawing knightly characters, so forgive me for butchering the human characters because of it. 😖

First, the three characters you start off with and the new characters introduced in the Castle of no escape 2 game.

The Guardsman Human- His sprites show him with his visor up but the artwork shows him with it down like he's trying to be edgy or something. Idk. The Guardsman Human uses what the game calls a "telescopic spear" which does the most damage when it is detracted back. The in-game manual also states that he is the slowest but most armored hero. His race is Human, and his class is Guardian, according to the game manual. I find his gameplay style to be a fairly decent one for myself. He can only attack what's in front of him when he extends his spear, and both his normal and his "dexterity" attack(let's call it that for now) are essentially the same; the only visual difference is that his dexterity attack doesn't need to be charged where his normal attack does. All and all, he is a ranged fighter with good defense right off the bat, and I don't mind too much playing as him.

The Huntress Lizardian- An awesome female anthropomorphic lizard archer, and she's my favorite character to play as for both design and gameplay. She shoots arrows at her foes, which makes her a long range fighter. She is described as the rogue of the game by players and the game manual states she is in the class of, well, huntress! Her normal attack is a charged arrow shot, with the distance the arrows go and the attack damage depending on how long you charged the attack. Her dexterity attack is to shoot a fire arrow that is somewhat more powerful then the normal arrow attacks and doesn't need to be charged. Her attacks aren't very powerful, but what she lacks in her attack, she makes up for in speed. Her speed is her greatest stat right from the start of a new game, and it can get ridiculously fast when you find the gem Faster Then Wind (that's literally what it's called, and all it does is speed up your character, which some players consider pretty disappointing compared to the other gems). She's got a pretty good amount of health to spare compared to some of the other characters and a large amount of dexterity points that allow you to use your dexterity attack, which is good for whenever you're cornered.

The Cardinal N'rgon- Don't ask me how to pronounce N'rgon idk either. Some time between the events of the first game and this game, the N'rgons created a new formation called Cardinals, which I'm assuming is basically their term for mage since the Cardinal N'rgon is basically the mage class of the game. He looks so much like Anubis and I doubt anyone would argue with me on that, I mean look at him. He shoots fire balls from his hands to attack foes, and he is considered one of the most powerful characters attack stat wise. His normal attack shoots a single fire ball in a random angle in front of him, and his dexterity attack shoots three red hot fire balls in fixed directions in front of him, so I guess he is considered a long range fighter but doesn't mind with close range situations. The manual itself admits that the Cardinal N'rgon's attack "may not seem useful, but an experienced player could prove otherwise." I don't mind playing as the Cardinal N'rgon much at all, tho you do have to take in consideration the random angles that the fire balls can go and also be considerate of the five point health he has.

And now we have the three individuals whom you have to fight in order to unlock and play as them. I'll tell you of their Fallen fights as well as their general gameplay.

The Champion Human- A dual gauntlet wielding warrior human. He is generally a close range melee fighter, but his dexterity attack launches energized gauntlets from a distance, so I guess he's balanced. He is as powerful stat wise as the Cardinal N'rgon but he isn't very speedy, much like his Guardsman cousin. His Fallen boss fight is considered the easiest of the three Fallen bosses, but he can catch you off guard if you aren't quick on the joy-stick. He basically chases you all over the room, then when you're close enough he'll try to punch your lights out, but usually you can run away before he can. When his health bar gets low enough, he'll start throwing his energized gauntlet shots in all directions that cover nearly the whole room. The best technique with the Fallen Champion is to just out run him and attack him when he is still or preparing to attack. For me he's alright to play as, but I wouldn't spend all my time with him of course (I got the Lizardian for that 😅).

The Bandit Werewolf- Yes, you can play as a werewolf in this game. He attacks with his claws, of course, with an energy swipe directly in front of him and a dexterity attack of charging straight through enemies. He is as melee as they come and is as equally fast as the Lizardian. His Fallen boss fight is considered the hardest of the three, with his charge attack causing a health drain effect nothing else in the game is capable of. His Fallen self also unleashes larger areas of claw swipes and they last much longer then the playable version. I swear when I fought the Fallen Werewolf for the first time, I was scared out of my mind. Not just because I had heard he was the hardest of the Fallen, but because I was on two health, no armor, and I just walked into a teleporter thing and it took me RIGHT INTO THE BOSS FIGHT WTF!? Fortunately with my quick wits and desperate nerves, I was able to rather easily defeat and unlock the Bandit Werewolf to play, and he was the last one I had to unlock out of the three so I was proud of myself that day😎. I don't mind playing as the Werewolf, but I can't count the number of times I have accidentally walked into enemies and hurt myself trying to claw swipe them. However I can agree with other players that the Werewolf can deal with Doppelgangers where the other characters can't, so that's a bonus I suppose.

The Shamaness N'rgon- What you see is what you get. When I first saw her, I couldn't quite put my finger on what she reminded me of... or what even what animal she was supposed to look like. It finally donned on me that she reminded me of Mew or Mewtwo, with her feline look and all. She is all close range when she's playable, and a pretty respectable Fallen boss if you ask me. As a Fallen, she starts off like how she plays; surrounding herself in magic book pages (yep), hoping you'll get too close. It takes one attack to get rid of the page, but the Shamaness replaces them within a two seconds, so the Guardsman or the Lizardian would be good choices here. However, as her health goes down, she start teleporting around the room with no warning and summoning more pages to protect her. And when it gets lower, she goes to the center of the room, with her pages suddenly indestructible, and try to hit you by moving her pages to the edges of the room, usually with one page flashing red and chasing you, but this leaves the Shamaness wide open to three or four attacks at a time.
Honestly, I don't see how anyone can play as the Shamaness. She only attacks by walking up to enemies with a magic page orbiting her, and she has the lowest health of any character with four health points. For her normal attack, the number of magic pages she can have out depends on her health: full health allows one page, lost one health allows two pages, half health allows three, and one health left allows the max of four. And her dexterity attack is to surround herself completely with pages that do the exact same thing as the pages for the normal attack. She is said to have the highest defense stat, but what exactly counts as a defense stat in a game where just running into an enemy makes you lose health (that's probably why most of the enemies either don't bother throwing attacks and chase you or just walk by themselves wherever), and you can only NOT lose health when you have some kind of armor on. I personally don't like the Shamaness gameplay wise, but I love her design which makes me so conflicted on her character.

So there's all the playable characters, and just for kicks I decided to draw Nikolai as well. I have managed to find everything you're supposed to and summoned him to fight him, so I can give you the details. Granted, he still managed to kill me because d**m his third phase into the fight is insane. I'm not sure if Nikolai has a "human form" of any sort, but I gave RED and Warlock a human-ish form each so I don't think it's a big deal if I give Nikolai one too.

Not many pictures of Nikolai are out there on the Internet since this is a mostly unknown game, and the game itself makes his appearance a pretty big secret so the game doesn't help much without you actually fighting him. All things considered, I think I did-

Nikolai: MEDICORE AT BEST! 😂
Dragontamer: 😲WHAT THE H*LL!? (falls on the floor)
Nikolai: THAT'S RIGHT FOOLS! It is I, Nikolai, in the flesh! And I can't blame you for improperly "sketching" me. For no mortal can ever think to comprehend my majesty. 😈
Dragontamer: (gets up) What're you even doing here!?
Nikolai: I'm so powerful I break the fourth wall like it's nothing, remember? I'm so "meta," as you call it, that I can literally send chills down your spine whenever you pause your game or when I succeed in making you get the game over screen. Why wouldn't I be here to torment you!? (Cackles)
Dragontamer: *sigh* Is it not enough that I have died at least over 30 times in your game Nikolai? If that's even your name.
Nikolai: Uh, no. OF COURSE IT ISN'T ENOUGH! I'm the demon of the Castle of no Escape! The more terror, THE BETTER! (Cackles maniacally) ...😐You're rather calm about this...
Dragontamer: Eh, I've met people with worse traits and powers then you. 😒
Nikolai: Don't you mean you've WROTE characters with worse traits and powers?
Dragontamer: 0.0 Okay seriously you're getting way too meta right now-
Nikolai: I CAN BE AS F**KING META AS I WANT TO BE! (Cackles) No one commands me and my power- OW!
Sonic.EXE: (spin dashes into Nikolai) Oi! No one around here is allowed to be that meta except me! I'm the one everyone fears because I can come straight otta ya computer and give you a heart attack! And that's at the VERY least of my BS powers!
Dragontamer: Oh dear God, here we go.
Nikolai: Fool! You dare put yourself above I, Nikolai!? Do you not comprehend the horror my game consists of!?😠
Sonic.EXE: 😑...Buddy, try playing one of MY fan's EXE games sometime. That'll teach you what horror is.
Nikolai: Oh really? Let me tell YOU about horror, "E-X-E". I am more then willing- H*ll, even more then tempted- to take your body and slash it open with my bare hands, and [Redacted because, well, extreme gore talk and we try to keep within the PG-13 rating here. Just know that Nikolai goes on with all sorts of MLP Creepypasta style gore for awhile] and THEN I'll take all of what's left of you and splash it all over every wall on the 4th floor of my castle! (Cackles) How's THAT for horror!? 😤
Dragontamer: 😨 Oh God... *starts gagging* Oh God I'm gonna be sick😵... (runs off)
Nikolai: What's wrong? You've seen what I do to those d**m merchants! Believe me, I think much worse things to do. (Cackles) 😂
RED: Okay, listen here pal! I'M the only one around here that can get THAT gore-y and insane! It's my niche! And you ain't taking that from me, sucker!😡
Nikolai: Oh, haven't I already? (Chuckles darkly)
Sonic.EXE: I say we end this madness here. No more making the font change whenever you get nasty Nicki! Sick 'em RED!
RED: With immense pleasure.😈 *growls*
Nikolai: Come at me if you dare fools! Have at me!

*cough* I'm okay now, I think. Sorry about that, but Nikolai is pretty insane on alot of levels, and not just castle levels either.

While all those idiots over there are dog fighting it out, I better explain what all was just talked as best I can. See, a book in the game you can find says "Nikolai? Why Nikolai? That's what he calls himself, or someone else did? I dunno." Which suggests "Nikolai" isn't even his name, but we have no other name for this demon so eh. Nikolai works. And he is brutal in his taunting you when you pause the game or get a game over. He says things like "Lucky sitting in that cozy chair, aren't you?" And "Leaving this creature out of choice?" He even says "You better play some other game, like online farms or such."  So yeah, he's pretty fricking meta.

And his boss fight is just as insane. And the more peices and gems you find, the more likely it is you'll see merchents brutally murdered, torn, and even hung! After you find all five pieces of The Sword and all five gems, you have to find his lair and summon him yourself. Then he just floats around the room, with no health bar, like you have to show him just how powerful you actually are. After you land several hits on him, he suddenly disappears for at least a minute before the whole map for the floor you're on starts disappearing and is replaced by Nikolai's face as he laughs at you. He then transports you into this h*llish room where the real fight begins.

He floats around and tries to attack you by turning into a shadow of himself and glithes out or something. He'll also disappear again and make these demon faces on the walls shoot fire balls at you before reappearing again. After you take out his health, he literally STEALS THE SWORD AND F**KING FUSES HIMSELF WITH IT, making him "unstoppable" now. But of course, you can still hurt him because you've come this far you might as well you don't have any other options. He basically does the same thing but when he turns into a shadow he spins around the room to the edge and then teleports back into the center. Like I said before, he killed me in the final phase so I don't know what the ending or credits or anything is like yet, but believe me Nikolai is a force to be reckoned with.

I love this game. If you get the chance, try Castle of no Escape 2 sometime. I hear it may be available on PC so if you have that, look for Castle of no Escape 2. It's amazing. If you guys want, I can tell you more about it in my new random book sometime, but only if you guys say so. Cheers!