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What are the best roguelites?

Grildon Tundy

Grildon Tundy

Gold Member
I like roguelites and am in the mood for a new one, but not sure what other ones are out there. What are the best, in your opinion? I prefer the ones that give you significant persistent upgrades; where so long as you keep grinding it out, you WILL succeed. Some roguelites don't have enough of that, in my opinion, and starting over ends up feeling like...starting over from scratch.

Roguelites I've played:

Returnal (My favorite)

Dead Cells (Excellent)

Darkest Dungeon (Fun and compelling, but the grind is too long, imo - if anyone knows of a mod that makes progression faster/more satisfying, lemme know.)

Spelunky (It's aight)

Slay the Spire (It's crack cocaine)

Vampire Survivors (It's morphine)

Into the Breach (It's Adderall)

Enter the Gungeon (It's Bud Light)

Hades (Combat not deep enough to support the dozens of runs needed to complete)

Deathloop (It's not Dishonored)

Crypt of the Necrodancer (Not enough persistent progression for me)

FTL (Too easy to get to the end fight; End fight is a ridiculous difficulty spike)

Noita (Didn't click)

Invisible, Inc (Purdy good X-Com-like)

Binding of Isaac (One of the indie roguelite revolution OGs)

Cultist Simulator (The point is diving into the occult, but even knowing that going in, it's too obscure and abstract)
 
nikos

nikos

Member
Played this on Game Pass yesterday and it's a ton of fun but I'm not sure how its "Roguelite Elements" compare to other games in the genre. I've tried a bunch of Roguelites but have only played a few of them extensively.

 
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T4keD0wN

T4keD0wN

Member
Of the ones that werent named already: Risk of Rain 2, Deadlink and Roboquest are my favourites, curiously all shooters, but the best one ive ever played was definitely Hades and its mostly because it has an actual story.

Monster Train, Griftlands, Breach Wanderers, Everspace, Curse of the dead gods were pretty good. Ive also liked extra roguelike modes in Severed Steel and also Project Wingman.
 
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Werewolf Jones

Werewolf Jones

Gold Member
Used to play One Way Heroics back in the day if that counts as one, would Vampire Survivors be a good thing to try if I fucked with OWH?
 
ChoosableOne

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
OP provided both the question and the answer.

For me:

Returnal(not just for the roguelite mechanics though)
Rogue Legacy 2(definitely better than RL 1)
Into The Breach
Darkest Dungeon
Void Bastards
Monster Train(Slay the Spire-like, with an interesting twist)
Dead Cells
Spelunky(if it counts)
Hades
Wizard Of Legend
Risk Of Rain 2

...in that order.

Games on my radar;
Tiny Rogues
Warm Snow
Enter The Gungeon
The Last Spell
Darkest Dungeon 2

If you like Returnal, check Nex Machina out too. It's not a roguelite? but it's an awesome game from the same company. It's a little bit short though.
 
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Con-Z-epT

Con-Z-epT

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
The Last Spell (Tactical Turn-based RPG Rogue-lite)

While it does feature meaningful META progression you still have to learn to play the game properly. No grind will save you here because it is hard. Very hard and satisfying.


 
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TheStam

TheStam

Member
Deckbuilder - Slay the Spire, It's the king as far as I'm concerned, I've tried so many other deck builders and nothing really comes close even if there are good ones like Monster Train.
3D action game - Returnal - Really cool game, the best Playstation game released on PC that I've played.
Platformer - Dead Cells. Not really my genre, but I enjoyed Dead Cells. So many unique weapons, skills and so on.

Against the Storm is pretty cool as it's a city builder although I haven't really put too much time into it yet.
 
Heisenberg007

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Rogue Legacy 2. It's amazing.

If you liked Returnal, you would love Hades too. The combat is great and offers a lot more variety than even Returnal, IMO. Both are 10/10 and on my list of all-time favorite games.

I'd suggest giving Hades another try. Maybe watch some YouTube videos for build ideas.
 
M

MagnesD3

Member
Monster train is probably my favorite, theres so much build variety and its a ton of fun to overcome the challenge shards.
Others I really like are Binding of Isaac, Slay the Spire and Hades. I also like Returnal but the roguelike part is the weakest aspect. Love Inscryption too but it is more than just a Roguelike, Id argue its more of a Power Fantasy.
 
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Holammer

Holammer

Member
I have 441h in Noita, unlike OP it clicked super hard for me.


Played this for a little bit, so consider this a very shallow recommendation or a warning. The controls are abysmal and actively work against you and there are no M+KB controls. But the pixel-art is neato and you can unlock a Curly Brace skin for the first character, so pretty cool.

Haven't put enough hours into this one, but it's well received on Steam and plays well.

You could dismiss it as a discount Spelunky, but the difficulty is more fair and I enjoyed it a lot. I prefer it over Spelunky 2 and love the developers other roguelike games.

Actual discount Hades, very competently put together with good music, art and overall presentation.

 
bender

bender

What time is it?
Men_in_Boxes said:
Returnal is the worst roguelite because the run variety is dog ****.
Click to expand...

Not to mention the mid-way point reset.

Spelunky is easily my favorite and one of the my favorite games of all time. A fun challenge with a nice ramp up and with a ton of secrets.

I liked Enter the Gungeon but I don't like the ramp up as it starts off way too slow.

I liked Tiny Rogues before the end of the year update which I haven't tried yet. The downside with it is that it is pretty easy.

I just completed Brotato which is pretty fun but even though the itemization is good, there just isn't enough variety to enemies, especially when you are always in the same room.

Others that didn't click for me: Binding of Isaac, Hades
 
Hohenheim

Hohenheim

Member
Binding of Isaac was always the best by miles for me.
I tried new ones all the time, hoping to get that same amazing experience, but evrything else felt like a huge step down.
Until Returnal came along.

Now Returnal AND Binding of Isaac is my favourites, miles ahead of everything else.
Hades in third place.

I've tried hard to get into lots of other games in the genre, from Dead Cells and Risk of Rain 2 to Roboquest and Rogue Legacy, but it's not the same as that pure perfection in BOI and Returnal for me. Hard genre to get right!
 
A

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
2 games that are relatively unknown that I really like:
Samurai style roguelike with different presets but deep (very deep, maybe nebulous) move customization
And
Although it is still an early access it has lots of wands in which you put spells at will as well as effects that will drasticaly change your spells depending on where they are put.

They may not be the best but I really liked them.
 
lughnasadh123

lughnasadh123

Member
The ones I love most are those that make me forget my hate of roguelikes.

Returnal is god tier.
Dead Cells is amazing.
Even Deathloop, while not the best of the genre or even that studio, has it's charms.

Still haven't tried Hades yet though. Someday!
 
FoxMcChief

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
I’ve been noticing that VR is a great place for roguelites. I just found one that I am loving. It’s called Compound. Dungeons of Eternity is another.
 
TexMex

TexMex

Member
AV said:
Oh man, Rogue Legacy 2.

Some may disagree but you can totally just jump straight to 2, it does everything 1 does but better from what I recall. RL2 was in my top 4 for 2022.
Click to expand...

This is my answer.

It’s also free on PS+
 
NightmareFarm

NightmareFarm

Member
Of all the Roguelites I have played:

Hades - 8.5/10.

Dead Cells - 8/10.

Rogue Legacy 2 - 7.5/10

Warm Snow - 7/10

Astral Ascent - 3.5/10

Have a Nice Death - 3/10
 
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Reactions: GHG
NightmareFarm

NightmareFarm

Member
lughnasadh123 said:
The ones I love most are those that make me forget my hate of roguelikes.

Returnal is god tier.
Dead Cells is amazing.
Even Deathloop, while not the best of the genre or even that studio, has it's charms.

Still haven't tried Hades yet though. Someday!
Click to expand...
Deathloop isn't really a roguelite, although it incorporates some of it's elements.
 
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killatopak

killatopak

Member
Roguelites is probably one of the genres I have little interest in but I still had great fun with Binding of Isaac.
 
Svejk

Svejk

Member
yansolo said:
i couldnt get into it, felt like there was too much going on, maybe ill give it another crack
Click to expand...
It took me several tries, even dropping it at one point to get past the frustration (that 3rd biome)... Once it clicked, it was all over. I see it as the ultimate 3D Contra shooter with a Metroid twist to it.
Definitely suggest to adjust some HUD settings to keep things in your peripherals better.
 
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