The action roguelite thread

Thanks, that’s quite a summary.

I did stop playing playing Dead Cells a couple of years ago so that explains a few things. I remember the boss cells 1-4 being absolutely brutal.

Regarding your trainer thought. I absolutely agree. I don’t like it when games are balanced the meta progression.

I purchased skul but my controller doesn’t work in game. I’ve tried everything usual - tweaking the steam controller settings to no avail, and I get something in game about a controller config being loaded when it fires up but nothing. The keyboard controls are awful. I’m on the verge of returning it.

@Scotch_Lufkin I played Ratropolis. I have ultimately come down on the side of not liking it. Some interesting ideas, I suppose, but there’s just not a ton of variety in run outside of chosing which commander person to use before the run (and they do different from one and another by giving you different types of cards that can show up as well as an active power, but there is a base set of cards everyone gets). The game balance is super weird, and not helped by the fact that what variety does exist in a run can lead to you being totally incapable of handling the monsters at wave 21 (where you need some aoe and possibly some elite troops with huge hp totals to have shown up to make it all work, and it’s just possible none of this will have happened).

I think the problem is that class cards are gated behind the meta progression. As the class cards get unlocked you find what you mentioned isn’t the case.

Once you unlock all the cards, the commander dictates the game entirely. I don’t use units for Builders and Scientist wins and the game becomes more of a tower defense game.
Leader power management is essential for Shaman and Navigator and money management is essential for the Banker. Each Leader usually have 2-3 strategies to win so you can pivot when needed.

I agree that is a problem but unlocking them doesn’t really change enough for me. Waves and bosses are fixed for the most part. The in run events aren’t that varied. The advisors being mixed are nice. But I don’t find the card RNG dictaging my strategy (at times) changes up things enough to make things more interesting in the classes I have gone deep upgrading.

And then there’s the run itself. The goal is. . . just leveling whatever commander/class/whatever you are running? Hitting 30 the first time felt like fun but then the run can continue with a forced class change (slightly odd) and there’s nothing to be gained after, it seems, but the pleasure of making it as far as you can (you stop collecting class experience). The only real enemy variety comes from choosing which area to do the run in (some events can have a small impact here, but they are few and far between), but you still face the same waves over and over, as opposed to something being more varied. Or using a mechanic like you find in the Gemcraft series where you can do things to amp up difficulty in run for greater reward.

I wish some QoL features for Skul, like auto-attacking holding the button, instead of smashing it, or having two choices of skulls at the end of the level (of the same tier), instead of one, to be able to avoid one I don’t like.
Also, the same levels and same bosses are starting to get repetitive after the first dozen hours, but then again, it’s a 14€ game.

So I just finished 2 games with 100% achievements. This is just a quick AAR/review of the sort.


I’m happy I did not play this right after Hades. This game isn’t a 3D action RPG. This game is a 3D beat’m up. I didn’t know if at first. I played it like Hades, Zelda, etc and I died before the end of the first level. Then it clicked. I played it like I would play Final Fight if I wanted to 1CC it.

Treat every hit like a touch of death (or touch of 1/4 of your life gone) because it can be. Never get surrounded. Use the dodge like one would use jump in FF since there’s no I-Frames in WoL’s dodge. Most importantly, the game treats stun like a beat’m up. Basic attacks can stun lock most enemies, Bosses you can stun but you have to understand it’s pattern to do so.

I ended up getting 100% achievements in this game around the 16 hours mark. Which is great because if it weren’t for that I’ll probably still be playing it non-stop.

This game is the opposite of Wizard of Legend. IS looks like a roguelite beat’m up but it’s actually more inline with an action RPG with a different view.

You can’t go toe to toe with enemies pass the first Boss and win. There isn’t really a stun mechanic in the game. you have to weave in and out of combat via the invincible roll. You can have a huge inventory, different skills, powerups, pets, etc.

This is a great game but you will be very angry if you play it like a beat’m up because you will have a hard stop on the third level.

Both have lots to unlock and is made for people who like to experiment with builds and figuring out mechanics.

Based on your “review” here I picked up WoL and just poked at it. I guess when you buy arcana during a run they don’t carry over? You have to buy them before the run for that?

Only the ones you get from bosses carry over. If you haven’t already, buy a new cloak with your initial funds or save up and get one.

The starter cloak(s) do(es) nothing, I take it?

Nope unfortunately. The buffs aren’t too big of a deal usually 10% or so.

Has Gods Will Fall been discussed, yet? It releases tomorrow.

No, first time I see it. Interesting, at this point I am accostumed to all these game being released in Early Access, but this won’t be. And it’s in 3d engine, unlike most the popular ones (Dead Cells, Hades, Rogue Legacy, BoI, etc).
Visually, it has some tradeoffs, even if it’s 3d, it doesn’t have the detail of AAA 3d games. I don’t think this looks good:

https://i.imgur.com/RdRua6H.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/wXLjGK2.png
https://i.imgur.com/IfOUQ27.jpeg

But of course that’s the trailer that shows things much closer than in normal gameplay. I guess it will be fine when playing it normally.

It also irks me that the game isn’t out but they have already a day 0 DLC where they have split off the content of the game, 2 classes and 3 locations are exclusive to the DLC.

edit:

How is this a good idea?

Back on the island, you can choose to have another try—essentially gambling another of your Celts—or go and see what’s behind another door. The latter might be the smart choice, thanks to difficulty levels that vary hugely from god to god—but you never know which ones will be harder or easier, because they’re randomised for each playthrough.

I just read the PC gamer review. Looks like there’s platforming in this game and each run will take 8 hours. With the 0 DLC and the randomized difficulty, I don’t think I’m sold on this.
Anyone taking the plunge?

Looks really good. It also have a free prologue for download

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1455590/Sword_of_the_Necromancer__Prologue/.

At some point, somebody will have to study how many of the best rogue-lites are 3d. So far, I think all of the best ones do not use a 3d engine. Is it because generating random content in 3d is harder? Because the genres these games utilize are almost all traditional?

Gods Will Fall having day-0 DLC seems odd. DLC usually has a lower attach rate. Why would they give up price on their biggest sales period? Or, as they’re doing it, offer two SKUs at such a close price point?

Simon Carless’ thoughts on DLC from the middle of last year: “It’s all about increasing $ yield smartly for the ‘long tail’ of sales, and for post-launch players finding the game for the first time… I think it works particularly well for in-depth strategy or simulation games where you can build out new ‘level packs’ and scenarios, and for cases where you can stack DLC so the ‘complete pack’ is 1.8x to 3x the normal game cost.” https://gamediscoverability.substack.com/p/the-surprising-way-that-paid-dlc

Gunfire Reborn update is out. But I was thinking on making a thread about the game later. Wait a bit.

edit: here it is

I find curious they had the budget for a well animated cinematic

and later the game looks like this


https://i.imgur.com/2M5Ej43.png

I think adapting that kind of visual fidelity to all the game’s assets would have been a Herculean task for what I’m guessing is a small team. It’s funny because Going Under’s recent animated update trailer reflects the game’s visuals nicely.

Atomicrops’ looks totally different but Toby Dixon’s pixel art is so good it still looks amazing.

And Hades is the rare game where the in-game visuals look better than the animated trailer’s.

Oh, and Risk of Rain 2. I dig the in-game visuals more than the higher fidelity Edge of Tomorrow-style cinematic trailer:

I don’t pretend the game looking like the trailer, lol. I was more questioning why invest in doing that trailer in the first place, precisely because they seem to a very small indie team.