Roguelike, Roguelike-like and Roguelite games

Oh I just remembered,

It’s an FPS, rougelite, RPG apparently, which might be stretching the definition a bit.
I’ve been playing co-op with @Dragonic and others. It’s pretty good, pretty cheap too.

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I love dem Roguelikes.
Binding of Isaac, Deadcells, Rogue Legacy, Wizard of Legend, all great games.
And yeah, like @SlinX mentioned, Gunfire Reborn is great as well, still early access and lots of things planned.
One other game that I recently put on my wishlist is Hades. Looks great.

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If we can back away from the all the different game mechanics for a second, I think there’s something deeper that separates rouge-like from rouge-lites.
It’s mainly got to do the the distinction of one genre have turn-based combat and one having more action-RPG or twin-stick shooter type combat.

Rouge-LIKES are turn-based, so they require careful planning and strategizing, you min/max your way through these games to have the best chance of winning.

Rouge-LITES rely more on action combat and requires reactive thinking and dexterity, you need epic fine-motor control to do well in these games.

Yes? No? Thoughts?

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I hear you.

One distinction that I (personally) used here was the following:

Rogue-LIKES are hard by nature, by that I mean no progression is carried over and each death is a hard reset. Think Binding of Isaac, FTL or Rogue Legacy.

Rogue-LITES borrow from this with some more accessibility and allow the player to carry over some progression. Think Dead Cells, Wizard of Legend or Enter the Gungeon.

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Nope. A roguelike doesn’t have to be hard to be a roguelike. It’s not one of the requirements. Not one of the 3 games you mentioned are actual roguelikes. Also there are actual roguelikes with permadeath where there are some progression carried over. Like unlocking new skills or new classes.

The Berlin Interpretation has the rules set clearly for what constitutes a roguelike.

@SlinX is correct that roguelikes must be turn-based. As soon as the game isn’t turn-based anymore then it can’t be an actual roguelike.

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Hence why I referred to it as my personal distinction of the two. This was prior to me knowing there is a specific rule set for what made a roguelike a rogue-like.

Edit: I only learned this today, what the rule set of what makes a roguelike is.

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I am an internet warrior and I must fix it when people are wrong on the internet. :stuck_out_tongue:

Seriously though, I love my roguelikes. I love roguelites too but roguelikes have a special place in my heart.

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Looool and here I just used the term rogue lite and rogue like interchangeably. whoops

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Don’t think I’ve ever finished a game that has permadeath. I find that mechanic too frustrating and annoying.

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This is one I played a bit. I got stuck and stopped playing I think.

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I’m sure the Google minions are listening and watching, came across this as a recommendation…

Then I went on to this out of curiosity…

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While I’m not really a fan of the genre I really enjoyed Rogue Legacy, Dead Cells and Children of Morta.

I really want to grab Hades but at R450 on switch vs R150 on steam I’m going to wait.

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Same here. The Switch (or console, in general) tax is just crazy. Once Hades drops to a 50-75% discount on Switch I’m grabbing it…

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Another rogue-like that I haven’t seen mentioned herein is Neon Abyss.

I p[layed a little of it while I was on Game Pass and I must say it has intrigued me and hope to make a full purchase some time.

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So I watched a Jimpressions of Hades and then the FOMO hit me. Caved and got it on Steam. I’ve only played an hour so far but so far it’s really good.

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Anyone playing Neon Abyss on an OG Xbox?

I’m getting terrible performance and wondering if anyone else is eperiencing this issue. Like microstutters whenever picking up new item, using an item or loading into a new room.

EDIT: turns out the issue is widespread, read one comment saying something about the Microsoft API performing I/O requests causing CPU slow down. Not sure if this is Xbox specific or affecting PCMR as well.

Be warned. It is playable but expect some micro stutters around ~300ms delays at times.

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So the criteria of being a roguelike is that the game must have a minimum of the following:

  • Permadeath
  • Random environment generation
  • Exploration and discovery
  • Turn-based, grid-based, non-modal gameplay
  • Hack-n-slash (e.g. lots of enemies to kill)
  • Resource management

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I have been playing a tonne of Spelunky 2 lately and have been wondering why you mentioned that this is a roguelite and not a roguelike.

  • Permadeath — check
  • Random environment generation — check
  • Exploration and discovery — check
  • Grid-based, non-modal gameplay — check
  • Hack-n-slash — check
  • Resource management — check

It seems to have all the requirements. Sorry, I realise this may seem that I’m being pedantic but simply trying to better understand.

You missed “turn-based”.

I interpreted the commas as an all or one of the following.

Okay, my bad.

Edit: it should then be worded as “Turn-based, grid-based and non-modal gameplay”

Nice one, @Beo. We have a topic for ARPGs, but not Roguelikes and Roguelites.

The Berlin Interpretation of the definition of Roguelike reminds me of the Reinheitsgebot for beer. On the other side of the seesaw, it’s also a little bit like the term “Metroidvania”, which has perhaps been used too liberally by devs.

@Solitude: It’s awesome to have a true aficionado of the genre resident at MEW :smile:

I’d like to add one of the “elders” of the South African game dev industry to this list. It fits all of the requirements of the Berlin Interpretation, except (I think) permadeath. I can’t actually remember how Desktop Dungeons handles death… it probably has some kind of hardcore mode.

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