So yesterday, I talked a bit about cRPGs/dRPGs. Another sub-genre of a RPG popular back in the 80's is roguelike. Unlike cRPGs where the player builds a party of 3-6 characters traveling through labyrinths in a first-person perspective and going into random battles for combat, Roguelikes are generally characterized by its top-down perspective view on randomly generated levels, permanent death, and turn-based movements. The player would take control of one character and build them in numerous ways if the game allows it. Some games will have set classes for the player to choose from, or they'll have different skills to pick to make their own class, or they won't have anything at all and become whatever they do more of (melee attacks, ranged attacks, spell casting, etc.). Similar to cRPGs, Roguelikes never did die out throughout the decades and has always attracted a niche group of gamers. Also similar to cRPGs is the fact that most Roguelikes are unforgiving with a very steep learning curve along with risk-reward mechanics that often leads to death and starting over a real drag for those unfamiliar with the genre. Those familiar with the genre often find themselves enjoying the game for its infinite amount of replay value in randomly generated levels, high risk-reward satisfaction, tactical and strategic know-how to conquer stick situations, and the sheer amount of content it provides the player to experiment with. Lastly, another similar trait cRPGs share with Roguelikes is its popularity in Japan.
Roguelike Games in the West
Source: Youtube Channel IGN
Rarely do I ever see a Western developed rogue-like in this day and age. I did see a few throughout high school and early college made by fans as mods or original ideas they were working on, but they never see the light of day or evolve into much past hitting a few enemies and dying in some way. And then all of a sudden, in the past two years, we get Dungeons of Dredmor, The Binding of Isaac, FTL: Faster Than Light, and Sword of the Stars: The Pit. Despite all of them being indie developed, these games have the heart and concept of rogue-likes that reawakens the interests of fans of the genre and captures the attention of gamers of the new era. Although these games are a bit more talked about in the gaming community, they're still pretty niche. Honestly, it's very difficult to portray why a rogue-like is so much fun in a video (although the Japanese developed ones seems to be able to do so).
The first time I saw Dungeons of Dredmor, I thought it looked really boring. It looked slow, shallow, and boring. But it had a sale and I didn't mind spending $2.49 just to see what this game was all about. I played the demo and was thinking that there were way too many things going on and the tutorial music was starting to annoy me. So to finalize trying out the game, I decided to play on the hardest difficulty and leave permadeath on since I didn't think I'd play the game for very long anyways. To my surprise, the game was incredible! Rather than choosing one class, the player was able to select various skills to match the play style that they wanted, and each skill provided abilities and perks to make their character stronger. Unlike the tutorial music, the in-game music is unique, somewhat atmospheric, and quite memorable. As I collected more items, got stronger, killed various enemies, I started appreciating all the spontaneous and random events that could happen with every step and behind every door. The humor also made for a light-hearted adventure rather than a dark and serious one that most western developed dungeon crawlers seem to have. After about 5 hours of playing and eventually dying, I played another round. Needless to say, I really enjoyed the game and tried my best to let my friends know how great of a game it was. Unfortunately, not everyone that tried it enjoyed it, but roguelikes are like that: you love 'em or hate 'em (or just not care too much for them).
The Binding of Isaac isn't strictly a rogue-like, but it has many elements to the genre. The game utilizes permadeath and cannot be saved mid-game and must be completed in one run. Levels, rooms, and items and randomized every playthrough, so all sorts of events can happen throughout each playthrough. The player's character gradually becomes stronger by acquire different items, buffs, and companions. Combat and gameplay is not turn-based, but rather action-based and played like a twin-stick shooter (like Robotron 2084 or Geometry Wars). The game contains a lot of crude humor, lots of poop, and a nasty difficulty curve. But the game usually doesn't take up more than one hour per playthrough which makes it a great game for those looking for instant gratification as most rogue-likes do take a decent amount of planning and preparation. Another roguelike that doesn't take too much time to play is FTL: Faster Than Light. This game is also not strictly a rogue-like, but has many elements of one. Lastly, Sword of the Stars: The Pit is currently being developed and is set to launch on the Steam platform. All of these great games can be found on Steam.
There is one other rogue-like that I have played in the past 2 years called "Hack, Slash, Loot (HSL)", but it is one game I cannot recommend even to the most hardcore of fans. Roguelikes are known for their difficulty because of how random some events, enemies and levels can be, but they still require skill to play. And a skilled player can turn situations around in a rogue-like. In "Hack, Slash, Loot"; however, everything is based on luck. True, other roguelikes require a fair amount of luck for item drops, enemy engagement, and crits, but combat shouldn't be such a hassle. HSL is solely based on luck. If you can't find the equipment to improve your character, you will die. If you happen to run into the wrong enemy right around the corner, you will die. These sound pretty common. But the fact that your character will have a low rate of landing an attack? That's just absurd! Nearly every character/class I played had difficulty killing enemies because they almost always miss their attacks. The only class that I had somewhat of a chance with was the Amazon as her default bow allows her to build up hit chance % for each kill. And even then, enemies would still randomly kill her in 1-3 hits. The only way to get the other classes was by dying, a lot. For a game to revolve its content and gameplay around dying and luck shouldn't considered to be a game much less a roguelike. I was sorely disappointed with HSL. This is not to be mistaken for Hack Slash Crawl. It's a diablo-esque dungeon crawler with many roguelike features played in Flash. THAT game is just amazing, and free for the most part.
Roguelike Games in Japan
Source: Youtube Channel AtlusUSA
I'm not certain what was my first rogue-like game I've played, but one of the games I first noticed for its unique game mechanics was Izuna: The Unemployed Ninja. At first, I was sad to find out that the game wasn't an Action-RPG. Everything getting one turn per action meant getting hit multiple times per movement or attack. Dying meant losing all items that I had equipped and found. It was a daunting experience and I didn't play it after the first 30 minutes. But one night when I wasn't able to sleep, I tried playing it again and somehow found the flow of the game and how it worked. Being somewhat more forgiving than most Roguelikes, Izuna didn't have permadeath. Losing all your HP in a dungeon means getting knocked out and having people from the village carry you all the way back into town but can't carry all your items along with you back out. Unlike most Rogue-likes where the player has to focus on stats, classes, feats and such, Izuna focuses on character level only and equipment acquisition. This allows the player to focus more on items and combat and not have to worry about builds, class types, preparation, stat balance and losing absolutely everything when they die. Still, the game was really tough and how I mainly played the game was always carrying a teleportation scroll (Kikan I think it was called) and advancing into a dungeon as far as I can before warping out when things got too difficult so that I would ensure getting money, good items and levels out of the run through the dungeon. I'm still currently playing the 2nd one whenever I'm not playing my other handheld games and it's somewhat easier than the first one with a lot more content, but still puts up a tough challenge.
The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon spin-off series takes many aspects of Rogue-likes, but are not nearly as difficult. One Japanese developed Roguelike I really enjoyed was ClaDun: This is an RPG. The player could create and customize their own characters and combine them with other characters to enhance a stat to ridiculous proportions. It gets to a point where a character can one shot enemies, zoom past them at incredible speed, or cast a spell so devastating that a boss wouldn't be able to take a hit. It took out turn-based movement and battle for an Action-orientated combat mechanic but kept difficulty, randomness and high risk-reward aspects to the game for all sorts of shenanigans. ClaDun 2 was eventually released both for PSP and even for PC on Steam, which I have bought but have yet to find the time to play. Another Action-orientated Rogue-like I sadly never got to try is Baroque. It was originally launched for the PS2 but has also been released for the Nintendo Wii and Apple iOS iPad. Like many roguelikes, it's unforgiving and causes the player to start over if they die. Strange enough, I heard that some events can only be triggered by dying. Although roguelike games aren't made very often, there's one on its way to America this year.
Source: Youtube Channel MMediaEntertainment
Supposedly a spiritual successor to "Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman" for the PSP, The Guided Fate Paradox will be a Roguelike RPG with a vast amount of customization, content, and craziness. Being developed by the team who worked on Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, you can expect the skill animations to be flashy, colorful, and totally over-the-top. The game should be out sometime this Fall, but delays can happen.
Source: Youtube Channel Ew Ae
The game I want to talk about most, and the game responsible for spurring the idea of writing this post, is a Japanese indie developed game called "Elona". Most people are probably familiar with the popular flash game "Elona Shooter" which was developed by the same person to promote "Elona". The game had been released back in 2007 as a freeware game and I had known about the game but did not try it. As my friends and I were talking about Roguelikes, one of them mentioned Elona and I had remembered the game mostly because you can be a Pianist as a class in the game. He described his experience with the game and highly encouraged me to try it out. So I eventually did and was already enraptured by the game through its character creation. There's a wide selection of races, classes, builds, perks, appearances, nicknames, and equipment quality that the player can roll for. Once the game starts, everything is up to the player. The game is open-world rather than being dungeon-only levels but still randomly generate levels inside caves and buildings. Hunger, thirst, fatigue, backpack weight, diseases and curses all play part in the adventure. The player doesn't lose their characters after dying, but rather lose some money, drop some items, and reawaken back at their home. When a player dies, they can leave a message that is sent out to the text feed of other players playing the game that announces where they died, who killed them, and their message. Does this sound familiar? It reminded me of Demon's Souls where players don't directly interact with each other (although they can in Demon's Souls when summoned) but can leave messages and blood stains when they die to warn other players. It also kind of gives it an involving feeling when you see messages of other players deaths and realize that you're not the only one getting killed and having struggles. Despite not being able to see and play with other players, players can make Moon Gates which is a rift that the player can go through to go to other player's houses. Some may contain riches and items that can help the player while others may be a sick joke by the player where it's ridden with high level monsters everywhere. The game is progressive and does have a story. And with the amount of content is provides, I imagine this game can last a very long time.
Roguelikes have a unique charm to them that no other genre really has. But they attract a niche group of gamers and are not widely popular as other RPG genres in the market. Even turn-based JRPGs are starting to become a niche in the RPG sector as Action-RPGs become more popular. It can be difficult for newcomers to get into Roguelikes, and there aren't that many easy ones to get into. If you are new to Roguelikes and want to try to get into it, I would recommend Dungeons of Dredmor above all the other ones I've mentioned as it is the easiest to pick up.
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