I don’t really like roguelites. At least I always thought. The only one I really tried was the Binding of Isaac. I never progressed far, I never really got the hang of it and had a lot of unsuccessful runs. I finally gave up on it. So I went for years without trying new ones. Until Hades. I played it quite a lot and had a lot of successful runs, but never fully beat the game.
I returned to it with the recent launch of Hades II into Early Access and finished (except a few achievements) my save. The gameplay and difficulty is very well-balanced for my skill level and it managed to motivate for several weeks. Overall I put over 100h into it and the pull was so strong, I got Hades II right away. I know not very patient of me. Another 40h later and I finished the content that is available so far. I can see myself diving back in for the 1.0 release or a big update.
Afterwards I looked for other well-received roguelites and picked up Dead Cells and all the DLC in a sale. Similar story here. 80h in, I made it to 2 BC and unlocked a most weapons and quite a big chunk of the outfits. My playstyle is rather slow and deliberate, but I enjoy the challenge a lot. 2 BC is kicking my ass a bit and I’m thinking about moving on again.
I’m currently thinking about what comes next. With the steam sale going on, I am considering Hollow Knight, even though I have very little experience mit Metroidvanias. Also Sekiro is a possibility. I never played a From Software game or our souls-like before. (Mostly) fighting human-sized enemies and a focus on parrying suits my preferences well.
If anyone has recommendations for other roguelites or games to jump to, please leave a comment.
I’m glad I tried a genre I had written off before. It resulted in a lot of fun playing hours. I recommend stepping out of your gaming comfort zone once in a while.
Ok, sticking to roguelites, here’s some other options:
Deckbuilding Style: Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Griftlands, Balatro
Survivor/Bullet-Heaven Style: Vampire Survivors, Brotato, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor
Realtime Combat (I’d put Hades/Dead Cells here): Hand of Fate 1/2, Zero Sievert, Wall World, Rogue Legacy 1/2, Risk of Rain 1/2, Heroes of Hammerwatch
FPS: Gunfire Reborn, Roboquest
Turn-based/Pausable: FTL, The Last Spell, Loop Hero, Dungeons of Dredmor, Darkest Dungeon 1/2, Backpack Hero, Into the Breach, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2
Sure I missed some other good stuff.
Not a roguelite/roguelike but if you liked the combat style of Hades, check out Bastion.
Roboquest is one of the most enjoyable games I have played in years, And the devs seem to really care, every update has made the game significantly more enjoyable and they seem to be actually listening to player suggestions and feedback. Highly recommended if you want a fast paced FPS Roguelite.
If you’ve played Gunfire reborn and are expecting more of the same your going to be disappointed though.
Gunfire Reborn is Roguelite first, FPS second Roboquest is FPS first, Roguelite second.
Same concepta executed and implemented very differently.
One bullet-heaven game I’ve been enjoying is 20 Minutes Till Dawn. Each run is 20 minutes, and you try to survive at harder and harder difficulties and with different weapons or characters. There’s also a free demo of it called 10 Minutes Till Dawn.
A lot of great options named in the thread but I’ll also add Slice and Dice and Crypt of the NecroDancer. Seconding FTL too, that was one of my top games of the 2010’s.
I also recommend Cobalt Core, which is not quite patient as a past November release. Great for FTL fans or anyone that likes tactical card battlers.
Slice & Dice is also one of, if not the best game that is playable on mobile, imo. Such an excellent one.
Exact same games for me, I started with dead cells and a hundred hours in was like well I guess I do like roguelites after all, Even though I had always thought I didn’t.
And then I played Hades and was absolutely blown away, I love the stories inside and the action.
Boy, if you’re considering hollow knight, you will have zero regrets, it’s so fun and so eerie.
Soulslikes still make me yawn in comparison, dead souls 1, 2 and elden ring.
Maybe one day
I really liked enter the gungeon. It was one of the first roguelites I played. It’s fairly basic in terms of mechanics compared to some newer entries in the genre. But it’s just good arcadey fun. Bonus is that it runs on a lot of systems. It’s still one of my go to’s for plane trips or other offline scenarios
People have mentioned almost all the good options. You’ll find gems within these. I’ve absolutely loved Curse of the Dead Gods, Balatro, FTL, Blazing Beaks, Slay the Spire. I haven’t liked some really well loved recommendations like Children of Morta and Moonlighter.
Roguelites have been great for me because of a number of factors. Handhelds like the Switch and Steam Deck have really helped. When I had kids, I needed something I could pause when interrupted, and then get straight back into. With little bits of fragmented time, a roguelite is great for getting some progress and experiencing a power curve and good progress (whereas in long story driven single player games, there wouldn’t be much progress to be had in half an hour). Roguelites have been underrated, and I feel like we’ve really had a golden era of roguelites over the past decade.
If you like Hollow Knight and Sekiro, Nine Sols is another game I’d recommend. Kind of a combination of the two, the 2D traversal and game mechanics of HK, with the unforgiving parry heavy combat of Sekiro.
I went on a similar journey but instead of being pulled back in by hades, for me it was risk of rain 2. Now I’ve played risk of rain returns, hollow knight, and I’m just starting to get better at noita. Dead cells and hades have been on my radar for years, just haven’t had time to pull the trigger on them yet
Check out heat signature, i loved the concept
I second this. Heat Signature is the perfect heist game, and there’s no feeling as good as when you get into the zone and take out or avoid everyone in a high-ranked mission and escape without being noticed. And when you’re not in the zone and screw up, it turns into pure chaos as you desperately try to salvage the situation. It’s great fun.
It’s by the same guy who’s making Tactical Breach Wizards, if that helps.
Curse of the dead Gods: Relatively slow and methodical action-roguelite. Heavily focused on dodging and parying, so might be right up your alley.
UnderMine: Another action-roguelite, a bit more story focused and humorous. Mining themed, so what’s not to love?
Ori and the Will of the Wisps: Beautiful Metroidvania I personally prefer over Hollow Knight.
Dome Keeper: Still in early access and more for the relaxed evening than the constant high-octane gaming session.
I’ve been playing a ROM hack of Pokemon Emerald called Pokemon Emerald Rogue, and it’s been a blast. Every run is a new opportunity to use Pokemon you’d normally never use, and every fainted Pokemon hurts as once their health is depleted, they’re gone for good (mostly). Items and Pokemon are reset every time you lose, but you also get money to buy items to bring into new runs and also the opportunity to catch a new “starter” Pokemon. It entirely changes the way you play the game and there’s a ton of choices on how to progress. A new version is currently in the works which’ll make it even better. The trainers are also no pushovers and have well-built competitve teams unlike the main series, so it’s not a total snoozefest. Highly recommend.
Hollow Knight is my favorite game of all time. It’s tough though, and you will feel lost and “where the fuck am I supposed to go?”.
I recommend that new players install the mod manager and enable “free” Gathering Swarm and Wayword Compass charms mods. Frees up 2 charm slots for two QoL charms – those two free slots will make the midgame a tad easier.
Edit: The mod manager you want is called “Lumafly” (formerly Scarab).
I hadn’t heard about the charm mods, thanks. Wayward Compass being permanently free by default should have been a thing. If it weren’t for the awful map system, I would have felt Hollow Knight was a flawless game.
I love Rogue…likes, lites, “super gently inspired things” because it’s something I can do over and over which my brain loves doing.
My usual go to is Wazhack. Simple, quick to get back into a game when you die (very important to me)
Recently I was playing the Blue Prince demo and can’t wait to for that to fully release, hoping soon!
I don’t know rogue-lites too well, but I know Hollow Knight quite well, and I know Sekiro very, very well. Hollow Knight is the best 2D game I’ve ever played, and I think it’s worth at least checking out. The music, the art, the atmosphere, everything is really well done. For less than $10 it’s worth trying for 2 hours and if you don’t like it you can always refund it.
As for Sekiro, I think it’s got the best gameplay of any game ever. That being said, it has a very steep learning curve. Eventually the game will click, but until then it’ll be incredibly frustrating and very difficult. Once you get past that though it’ll feel amazing to play. Every one of my friends gave up on it before it clicked for them so there is definitely some risk but I truly believe if you push through until it clicks you’ll find it incredibly rewarding and satisfying to play.
