Roguelike is almost never really used properly, as it should be a turn based, procedurally generated dungeon crawler with permadeath and no permanent upgrade system that makes the game slowly easier.
There’s maybe like three games from the last decade that actually fit the definition.
Which is why it mostly changed to be Roguelite which pretty much just means “there’s ‘permadeath’ but you gain exp/money to unlock buffs and you repeat until you manage to finish a run”. It’s used to very quickly explain the main gameplay/progression loop of any genre of game it’s attached to.
Kinda like how we use FPS because calling them all doomclones makes no sense - we just didn’t pick a better name this time.
It certainly makes it hard for me, as a fan of actual games like Rogue, to find said games when the genre is so flooded with literally every other game out there.
I mean it is turn-based, procedurally generated, with permadeath, and the only thing persisting is higher difficulty, unless you count the first unlocked cards or relics.
Roguelike is almost never really used properly, as it should be a turn based, procedurally generated dungeon crawler with permadeath and no permanent upgrade system that makes the game slowly easier.
There’s maybe like three games from the last decade that actually fit the definition.
Which is why it mostly changed to be Roguelite which pretty much just means “there’s ‘permadeath’ but you gain exp/money to unlock buffs and you repeat until you manage to finish a run”. It’s used to very quickly explain the main gameplay/progression loop of any genre of game it’s attached to.
Kinda like how we use FPS because calling them all doomclones makes no sense - we just didn’t pick a better name this time.
Roguelike just means Arcade-like nowadays. The mechanic of using currency or experience to boost the next run is only sometimes present
That’s the weird thing is that what people call a “roguelike” now is just what pretty much every game was back in the day.
It certainly makes it hard for me, as a fan of actual games like Rogue, to find said games when the genre is so flooded with literally every other game out there.
Same, I love Rogue. Saw a game claiming to be Roguelike, all excited unitl install and first play…wtf is this shit??
I wonder if Slay the Spire counts or not
Traditionally, no. Under this new umbrella term, anything can count if you squint your eyes right.
I mean it is turn-based, procedurally generated, with permadeath, and the only thing persisting is higher difficulty, unless you count the first unlocked cards or relics.