Roguelikes and Roguelites General - Discussion, recommendations, and suggestions

[Javier]

If you haven't tried Balatro yet, you should.

Its like digital crack.

I did indeed play Balatro! I managed to win with the highest difficulty, though I can't exactly name which color of the chip it was. The deck was +1 hand played or 26 red/26 black.

Other games I forgot in the initial message of mine include Diceomancer (incredibly intriguing title, although lacks replayability after you max out an ascension personally) and a little bit of Inscryption (stopped right when the 2nd part started).

 

[fatass hamster]

I did indeed play Balatro! I managed to win with the highest difficulty, though I can't exactly name which color of the chip it was. The deck was +1 hand played or 26 red/26 black.

Other games I forgot in the initial message of mine include Diceomancer (incredibly intriguing title, although lacks replayability after you max out an ascension personally) and a little bit of Inscryption (stopped right when the 2nd part started).

There's a new game that just came into early access called Aotenjo: Infinite Hands, it's a lot like Balatro but mahjong themed. Haven't tried it yet but it looks promising

 

[Anonitolia]

opinions on lites vs likes? It's probably been discussed before but I'm curious regardless. The latter tends to turn me off hardcore because I really dislike mindless repetition without purpose, but the former can really get me hooked if there's some palpable progression in the background throughout. Losing everything you worked for is a pain in the ass that detracts from actual achievement, while improving your chances after every failure feels enough like a simulation of actual improvement to satisfy me.

Sucks that 95% of current indie roguelites don't seem to understand the meaning of "satisfying progression", though. Yeah, give me +1% more damage on this weapon I'll never use after I lost three runs in a row to random bullshit, that really helps keep the gameplay fun. Why even bother with meta progression at that point? Just make your game a -like.

Also looking for recommendations of good -lites especially. Feels like they're farther and fewer in between every day now.

 

[demicolon]

For me, palpable progression in likes is the knowledge and skill I retain after a YASD. There's always savescumming or wizard mode if you're too frustrated. Lites never grabbed me, maybe because many of them claimed to be roguelike but all it amounted to was semi-permadeath and some layout randomization, not very roguelike-y for me. I'm mostly into DCSS these days, there you have constant development even if the devteam is troon-infested, they tend to keep that shit to themselves for the most part. You have a kind of a competetive scene there and streaking is a big motivator to play more, there's also a thriving challenge game scene and tournaments twice a year if you're into that.

I liked Crypt of the Necrodancer.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

cant believe im a roguelike person now. anyway, because i happened to have the last of us 2 and a ps5, it meant i can play their no return mode which is just a roguelike mode for the game. if youre in on the game's combat and stuff, this is gonna be good for you because you can say what you want about the game's story, that is far removed from this game mode.

 

[Nigger Caviar]

cant believe im a roguelike person now. anyway, because i happened to have the last of us 2 and a ps5, it meant i can play their no return mode which is just a roguelike mode for the game. if youre in on the game's combat and stuff, this is gonna be good for you because you can say what you want about the game's story, that is far removed from this game mode.

I never played Last of Us 2 but if the game mode is fun then I dont knock you for enjoying it.

I used to play vampire survivors alot and then I found out that Jim Sterling wrote the item descriptions.

Gave me mixed feelings about the game, but at the end of the day it genuinely is an enjoyable game.

 

[Tommy John Surgery]

I feel like I have brain damage because I've never been able to get past Cycle 17 in Path of Achra and I beat Cycle 16 in December (although I didn't play the game as much during the last couple months I'll admit). I have died to the King of Many Colors at least 5 times now. I can't tell if I'm just bad or I've used all of the high cycle meta prestige classes and just have dogshit ones I don't have achievements for yet left.

The roguelite Roguebook gripped me and was actually pretty good but had an extreme lack of polish which occasionally pissed me off. I have not paid for the 4th character nor do I ever intend to.

And Slay the Spire is still number one in my heart because I love the feeling of having that much control and information on my fingertips each run. That's why Balatro never really got me too addicted, it really feels more like Luck Be A Landlord (as the dev said) than any of the games clearly inspired by StS.

 

[Nigger Caviar]

Path of Achra

I just picked up path of achra and I am on cycle 3. I find that the goblin, nartaka, and tengri build with no weapons, and you spec into pugilism, master charge, electokinesis, electromancy, and skera is incredibly fucking OP. Level up mostly dex and only spec into other things as needed.

Not sure how it holds up in later cycles though.

Also there is no path of achra thread, I might make one.

 

[Tommy John Surgery]

I just picked up path of achra and I am on cycle 3. I find that the goblin, nartaka, and tengri build with no weapons, and you spec into pugilism, master charge, electokinesis, electromancy, and skera is incredibly fucking OP. Level up mostly dex and only spec into other things as needed.

Not sure how it holds up in later cycles though.

Also there is no path of achra thread, I might make one.

Dodge charge-stacking builds get worse at later cycles because mobs get more speed and accuracy which makes it more likely that you'll get one-shot eventually unless you invest into Strength and/or Vigour or can still outscale the mobs enough to one-shot all of them.

I know of one of the best stable strats up to high cycles is going Goblin (for Dex/Speed scaling) + Apophis (for Strength and HP gain) + the one culture that limits your defenses by your Will while giving you a Will-scaling stand still weapon and dumping all your points into Will for damage because you already scale the other things anyway. You then combine it with an Ill Prophet or another stand still prestige class and it can clear up to Cycle 32, usually.

 

[Nigger Caviar]

Dodge charge-stacking builds get worse at later cycles because mobs get more speed and accuracy which makes it more likely that you'll get one-shot eventually unless you invest into Strength and/or Vigour or can still outscale the mobs enough to one-shot all of them.

I know of one of the best stable strats up to high cycles is going Goblin (for Dex/Speed scaling) + Apophis (for Strength and HP gain) + the one culture that limits your defenses by your Will while giving you a Will-scaling stand still weapon and dumping all your points into Will for damage because you already scale the other things anyway. You then combine it with an Ill Prophet or another stand still prestige class and it can clear up to Cycle 32, usually.

This game is so fucking complicated.

 

[Counterfeit Obol]

Dodge charge-stacking builds get worse at later cycles because mobs get more speed and accuracy which makes it more likely that you'll get one-shot eventually unless you invest into Strength and/or Vigour or can still outscale the mobs enough to one-shot all of them.

You could also counter their scaling by getting anything that inflicts blind (fucks up both their accuracy and dodge), as well as entangle or freeze. You could also spec into Uspori (Ice/Poison) to get Paralysis (fucks up speed and dodge, but not accuracy).

 

[Pimozide]

You could also counter their scaling by getting anything that inflicts blind (fucks up both their accuracy and dodge), as well as entangle or freeze. You could also spec into Uspori (Ice/Poison) to get Paralysis (fucks up speed and dodge, but not accuracy).

It starts to feel cheesy, but get a few levels of Master of Repulsion and Psychokinesis at a roughly 1:4 ratio and you can clear all of the higher cycles by just standing still. Race and class don't matter, but pick Oros for your god. As long as you're consistently clearing levels you can spend excess points as you see fit, including to unlock prestige classes. Psi-blade can help if you're struggling early, O Pilgrim.

Equipment you need includes the Brazen Eye, Mind Diamond (Skull Helm if you can't find MD), Intabah (Cosmic Trabea is an alt, or even Jade Discplate if you're desparate) Kairos Skirt (Mind Hunter Sash if you just can't get the KS). Ruddy Fist or Arbestus can also be nice.

You should be able to 100% the Steam achievements and clear Cycle 32 doing this. The build scales faster than cycle difficulty and you end up hitting the stack cap for Repulsion after a few turns, and you're doing several times your number of stacks of Repulsion in Psychic damage, which is also not often resisted.

This was only on Cycle 10, but it was when I realized the build was pretty broken.

You psyblast the Yellow Priest for 400,122 <- Psychokinesis 360, Attune+68, Master Repulsion +4000000, Willpower +792, Resistance -3601098
You kill the Yellow Priest!

Keep in mind that Kolpacs (those crystal things, I forget the exact name) and Bogans (the red snakes) can still ruin your day, as well as the purple Tethic Priests or whatever they are called.

 

[Whatevermancer]

My honest reaction to checking out the "roguelike" tag on Steam Next Fest and realizing that most games aren't even roguelites, but Vampire Survivors-likes:

 

[Corette]

My honest reaction to checking out the "roguelike" tag on Steam Next Fest and realizing that most games aren't even roguelites, but Vampire Survivors-likes:

There are also card games.

 

[AnOminous]

My honest reaction to checking out the "roguelike" tag on Steam Next Fest and realizing that most games aren't even roguelites, but Vampire Survivors-likes:

It has to be one of the most overused tags on Steam all of vidya and like you point out, rarely correctly used.

 

[demicolon]

It has (but not really) permadeath and some randomization? Roguelite it is, then.
The term has lost all meaning at some point.

 

[Consoooomer]

A true roguelike should be a game that you could imagine it running on a terminal emulator and it also should be a game you try once and you spend like two hours trying to figure it out and get kind of bored and quit. Then like five months later you start it up again and then all you do is play that game for like two weeks.

Speaking of, been obsessed with Cogmind. I think it would appeal to you guys who are into card games because a big mechanic in the game is that your weapons, limbs, core, and utility items can be destroyed in combat so you're constantly mixing and matching things you find. Trying to maximize your effectiveness replacing parts with whatever you can find around you is really fun.

 

[demicolon]

Well, how similar the roguelike in question is to Rogue?

 

[Billy the Adult]

My honest reaction to checking out the "roguelike" tag on Steam Next Fest and realizing that most games aren't even roguelites, but Vampire Survivors-likes:

I don't know why the genre isn't just called Survivorlikes. Hell, a decent chunk are named ____ survivors. I guess some people have ran with Bullet-Heavens, since I guess its normally a bullet hell in reverse. Hope they at least set up a tag, since I've probably played enough and they don't normally vary that much.

 

[The Paranoid Organ]

Cogmind

Cogmind also looks absolutely amazing. From the tileset that represents the changing environment (destructionel especially) to how it has ASCII representations of items and weapons. I personally believe Cogmind and BRouge are on the track of how roguelikes should look going forwards. We have the technology to make these things visually stunning yet keep to first principles.