Just one more run...

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laughingman

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In the last couple of months I've finished Dragon Quest XI, Octopath Traveler, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I just don't have the motivation to start another 80+ hour game, so I've returned to my gaming comfort food: rogue-likes.

I grew up playing Rogue and most of its variants, and the genre remains one of my favorites to play. I love how it forces experimentation and improvisation, how each run teaches you something you can use in the next, and how amazing you feel when you finally put it all together into a winning run.

I've gone back to some old favorites and some that I overlooked the first time they came out. Here are a few that I keep coming back to for "just one more run." I only have the Switch, so that's where I'm playing them.

Dragon FangZ: This is as close to the classic "Rogue" as you can get: items that are only identified once you use them, turn-based movement, hunger meter, top-down dungeon...it scratches all the itches. There are some dodgy translations, and the characters can be a bit too precious for my tastes, but it's a solid game that reminds me of just how much I miss Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer on the DS.

Bring back Shiren, damnit!

Tangledeep: Multiple unique character classes with plenty of viable skill builds, a persistent home base that you build up between runs, and plenty of that good old-fashioned dungeon crawling. This one leans heavily into the RPG side of things, with lots of stats to juggle and skills and spells to optimize, plus a Pokemon-style monster capturing system. The learning curve is pretty steep and it doesn't do a great job of explaining some things, but it's still quite a bit of fun once you get past that.

Into the Breach: I still can't believe how perfect this is.

Invisible, Inc.: Austin Walker's insistence that this be included in GOTY made me take a look at this, and I'm glad I did. I love everything about its look, feel, and mood. I have yet to beat the final level, but I've made it there more than once. It's the ultimate "do the best you have with what you get" game. When it came out for the Switch I picked it up immediately and I don't regret it at all.

Risk of Rain, and Risk of Rain 2: These are much more "-like" than "rogue," but they capture what I love about the genre. I learn a bit more each time I finish a run, and get a little further each time. They also have some of the best flavor text in item descriptions that I've even seen.

What are your "just one more run" games? Are there any hidden or under-appreciated gems that I should add to my Switch collection?

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AKTANE

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#2  Edited By AKTANE

Into the Breach is SO perfect, for me I think top 5 games of all time.

My "1 more run" game is Dead Cells and bonus that it plays smooth as butter on the switch and feels perfect in both small screen and big screen mode. Also they JUST added even more free shit to it, substantial shit. They're just such a lovable dev.

Do you like Shmups? And hey are Shmups roguelikes or not!? Hahaha I think they may be the OG roguelikes in some cases... Except there's a lot less RNG in them. Let me know and I can maybe recommend some.

Edit - also do you like puzzle games... Lumines and Puyo Puyo Tetris come to mind... Hehe

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sombre

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For me, it's Spelunky

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redwing42

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@laughingman: TIL that Invisible Inc. is on Switch. I need to get that.

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hermes

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Okhlos

For those unfamiliar, it is sort of an RTS-roguelike where you control a horde of humans and have to fight against Olympians and other mythological creatures. The game has a ton of references to classic mythology and pretty charming writing.

Each playthrough lasts about 30 minutes for me, but there are longer runs out there. Luckily, you can save between worlds.

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Ryan3370

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Hades IMO has the best writing from any -like game. A lot of times I'd play one more run just to see what the characters would say after the next time I die.

The action, weapon variety, and experimenting with different builds will probably make this a 100+ hour game for me

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Ben_H

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Dead Cells is the game for me this happens most in. It's dangerous because each run is almost always 45 minutes or longer.

Recently it's been "I'll just do one more looting trip" in State of Decay 2.

Also yeah, Into the Breach and FTL are games this happens in a lot. I still play a substantial amount of FTL these days.

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Ascara89

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#8  Edited By Ascara89

Dicey Dungeon has been that game for me lately

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deactivated-6357e03f55494

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I'm liking the new stuff they are doing with rogue legacy 2. Definitely took some hints from dead cells(allowing different weapons while still keeping with the class system).

Into the breach is the first rogue like that REALLY hooked me. I beat RL 1 but it was just a run every few days sort of game. I spent literally an entire weekend with into the breach on more than one occasion.

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Intradictus

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Lately its been Slay the Spire for me, if you like a bit of deck building its highly addictive, especially once you finish your first run and start unlocking the different ascensions

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laughingman

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@ryan3370: That looks really cool, I'll have to check it out when I can.

@aktane:Love SHMUPS, and one I've spent a lot of time on is Steredenn: Binary Stars. It's definitely more rogue like than others, with randomized levels, power-ups, and bosses. It also has some of the best pixel art explosions I've ever seen.

Dead Cells is top tier, I'm going to have to come back to that eventually.

I made the mistake of starting up Slay the Spire this morning. They've added a new character since I played the last time. I guess it's time to climb the Spire...

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SpunkyHePanda

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Enter the Gungeon is the only one I spent enough time with to say I conquered. Amazing game.

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jacksmedulla

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#13  Edited By jacksmedulla

Anybody in here who enjoys Slay the Spire is doing themselves a major disservice if they haven't played Monster Train yet. It's a slightly more complex take on slay the spire, with significantly better art and production values.

Although it isn't a rougelike, Rainbow Six: Siege is definitely a game I can get sucked into if I've been having some good matches. It's also a game that can absolutely crush my spirit if I'm not doing well.

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CyrusRaven

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@laughingman: Have been playing Undermine and enjoying that a good bit.

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laughingman

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@spunkyhepanda: Enter the Gungeon is one of those games that I love that I am also horrible at. I don't think I've ever gotten past the second level. Maybe I should put it back into the rotation.

@jacksmedulla: Monster Train looks great, and I wish I had a PC so I could try it. :( Interesting point about Siege: I think that competitive shooters definitely share a lot of DNA with rogue likes, as odd as that may sound. Your run can turn out very differently depending on what you get, how you use it, and how lucky you are.

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jacksmedulla

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@laughingman: Oh bummer. I play almost exclusively on pc, so I completely forgot Monster Train hasn't released on any other platform yet. I take it you primarily play on a switch?

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laughingman

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@cyrusraven: Undermine looks great, and seems specifically designed to appeal to me. I'll put it on the list.

@jacksmedulla:Yeah, the Switch is what I play on, mostly. I've considered getting a mid-range PC recently, but the only reason I would need it is to play games and I'm not sure that's a good decision to make right now. :)

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Slag

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I'll second Undermine as a good one

it's fresh to Gamepass and it's off to hot start with me.

Gunfire Reborn is another good new one kinda in the vein of Risk of Rain. Still in early access and it needs a lot of polish on production values, but it's well balanced and it's got its' mechanics and progression nailed.

Rogue Legacy, Abyss Odyssey and Dungeons of Dredmor are some of my other favorites I haven't seen mentioned so far.

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SethMode

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My go to all timer is probably Binding of Isaac, but I was really into a lot of ones additionally mentioned like Dead Cells (still am), Rogue Legacy, Spelunky, and Slay the Spire.

One I hadn't seen mentioned that I thought was fun and very well done was but seemed to come in with little fanfare is Cryptark. It was a clever space rogue-like that had some pretty good writing and it both felt like it became hectically INSANE as you went on, but still doable.

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jacksmedulla

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@laughingman: Honestly, for a lot of these indie/roguelike games, you wouldn't even need a mid range pc. Monster Train, for instance, has a minimum requirement of an Integrated Graphics Processor, so damned near any laptop could run it no problem.

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AKTANE

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@laughingman: If you like Shmups see if you can find Danmaku Unlimited 3 for cheap. Gunbird 2 is also fantastic, but yeah we're talking about basically mame-esque games here so not true rogue likes.

PSA Dead Cells is on SALE on Switch y'all

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clush

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Into the Breach is a good game, but imho it lacks a bit of depth because of how small the grid is. I've played it a lot, but it isn't a game I could play indefinitely.

I'll second FTL, Slay the Spire and Spelunky. Those games never get old.

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Mezmero

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Love me some Rogue-esque-ish-lite-likes or as they're commonly called by no one "REILL" style games. Into the Breach and Invisible Inc are terrific, two of the absolute best. I've done 4 island victories on hard with every mech squad in ItB and I still have a save on like day 16 of endless mode in I.Inc.

Other ones that are my faves are Nuclear Throne and Enter the Gungeon. Gungeon is probably the best one though a full run to the end can take about an hour so you may not do as many "one more" runs as you would with other stuff. Nuclear Throne is great because it's quick, you can get to the Throne in less than ten minutes with a level skip and if you don't plan on looping. Achievement wise I have both games stuck at 97% because the remaining two trophies of each one are close to impossible.

Spelunky is a game that I think is awesome but I sort of push back on it being in the conversation of "perfect games" largely because I can't seem to get better at it. I've seen enough streams that I know exactly what to do for an optimal run but out of all the REILLs I play the execution of the mechanics in this game just eludes me for whatever reason.

Recently I've been playing Neon Abyss while listening to podcasts. It's pretty good and stylish as heck though not quite in the league of my aforementioned favorites. There's definitely room for improvement like oh I don't know, having a guide or archive of what items do before you pick them up. I've dabbled a bit with Hades and that game is so freaking phenomenal in the first hour or so that I want to wait for it to be finished.

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laughingman

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These are some great recommendations, everyone. Thanks for them, I've added most to the list. I'm pretty excited about Hades, since I've played and loved just about everything Supergiant has done.

Has anyone played Neon Chrome? It's a twin stick shooter in a dystopian cyberpunk setting. It's got a lot of Rogue Legacy in its design, with randomized characters on each run and persistent upgrades you can purchase. There's a lot of variety in the weapons and equipment you can find, and a surprising number of secrets within the levels. Check it out if you're into that sort of thing.

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norm9

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I've been knee deep in rogue type games lately.

On the Switch, Ive been mostly playing Chocobo Mystery Dungeon.

On xbox one, I just found out Pathos Nethack app (inspired by Nethack) is available for free on the xbox store creators collection section so I spent a few hours the other day running through the dungeons. I also like Unexplored (even though the main character looks weird as heck) for it's smooth dungeon crawling and environments. Oh, I do like Enter the Gungeon on gamepass (and Jupiter Hell on pc) even though I generally prefer melee based roguelikes.

Finally, on mobile it's COnquest of Elysium 3 and Yodanji.

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laughingman

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@norm9: Oh man, Conquest of Elysium is such a good series. I think I have the 4th one installed on Steam. I may give it a few runs now that you've reminded me of it. There's so much hidden depth to each faction, and they play so differently from each other. I think the Burgermeisters were always my favorite to play, but I was also partial to the Necromancer.

Chocobo Mystery Dungeon is one my Wishlist, but for some reason I've never purchased it. I enjoyed the Demo, maybe I'll put it on the "get this one next" list.

I started up One Step From Eden, and after a few hours with it I think it's both immensely fun and frustrating. I can consistently get to the 4th or 5th out of 8 worlds, where the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly and the bosses tend to wreck my run. I think I'm starting to understand some of the meta-strategy of card and artifact combinations, but there's a lot of luck involved in finding ones that work well together. I'll admit that my poor reflexes are holding me back just a bit. There's a lot to react to on the screen and I take too much avoidable damage. Still, I keep coming back to it for one more run.

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Ulfhedinn

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Never liked roguelikes tbh but when I saw Hades and being a fan of Supergiant Games I decided to give it a go.

What an amazing game, it just makes experiencing with different approaches fun and challenging.

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theonewhoplays

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The only rouge-like I've ever enjoyed is Griftlands. Got 20+ hours out of it so I was more than happy with my purchase. The only negative was that the beginning of every chapter would essentially have the same dialogue every time which grated after a while. It's in EA so they can probably find a fix before release. Do you think Enter the Breach or Monster Train would work for me as well?

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SethMode

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@theonewhoplays: Personally, having played both, I'd recommend Slay the Spire before Monster Train. Monster Train is kind of shallow the more you get into it, although I do love the concept and most of the aesthetic (some of it feels shamelessly aped from Hearthstone but whatever).

I love Enter the Breach, but a big part of whether you will like it or not is how much you enjoy solving puzzles. Enter the Breach reminds me of chess in a lot of ways, in that success, especially with some of the later mechs, requires you to not only be aware of what will happen this turn, but plan several turns ahead and try to interpret what your enemies will do. The game sort of got to difficult for me with some of the later mechs, but I still had a ton of fun with the first 3 or so.

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Sanity

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#30  Edited By Sanity

I played a bit of Hades and am looking forward to the final release to really sink my teeth into it. great voice acting and its so smooth! Will also get Rouge Legacy 2 at some point.