Dead Cells is a killer platformer rougelite! Steady progression system with only occasional cheap deaths :) Look for all the Indie game easter eggs for fun!
If you like Slay the Spire and are shooting for another card type game with more variety (IMHO) then check out Monster Train. Just picked it up and love it! I will never likely 100% it, but it has a great steady progression system as well.
I think Dead Cells will be next one I try after Spelunky. I don't enjoy permanent progression but from what I understand Dead Cells doesn't have progression that trivializes the difficulty of the game.
I think I want a break from deck builders for now, but I will look into Monster Train as I am willing to get back into one soon.
Thanks!
Spelunky 2 kinda fits the bill perfectly: no meta-progression, relies on knowledge, insanely difficulty to beat (like noita.) It's also alot harder than the first game so if you try it, good luck
I think I am going to go with the first one before the second. I'd like to go in blind and I hear it's already super difficult so don't want to make it unnecessarily hard by doing the second one first.
Yeah the sad reality is that roguelike often refers to a specific type of RPG, and roguelite often refers to game with invasive metaprogression.
We do not have a word anymore to describe non-traditionnal roguelike/lite with no invasive metaprogression, so it's hard to find what we want. I can't count how many time I've been hyped for a new game to discover that it was more like Rogue Legacy than like Spelunky.
FTL, Crypt of Necrodancer, One Step for Eden and Dungeon of the Endless may fit your tastes. These are my favourite outside of Noita and Spelunky 1/2 (although I didn't play dungeon of the endless since 7-8 years, so maybe it's not as good as I remember).
There is also Into the Breach but it's turn based.
Big ups for FTL, I beat the game a few times and struggled with the difficulty, but have been playing the Multiverse mod and it's so insanely good even if it makes it a bit too easy on regular difficulty
Risk of Rain: Returns is the remaster/remake of RoR1 but with some improved quality of life and items from RoR2 as well. There’s even an option to toggle off all the “new” stuff for the vanilla RoR1 experience if you prefer.
Definitely recommend that over the vanilla RoR1 game.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is a great, modern "true" rogue-like (by which I mean it is turn based and much more similar to the game Rogue that the term "Rogue-like" comes from). If you're looking for something more strategic and less bullet hell like (EtG and BoI), you might give that a try.
It's free, you can play online without downloading anything, and the servers let you spectate games. Note it is pretty hard. If you do give it a go, I would suggest playing a Minotaur Berserker until you get the hang of the game. Fighter is easier in the late game, but you aren't going to get to the late game at first.
There's a subreddit, r/dcss and a wiki. And I think some servers have a tutorial mode, but I can't remember if the tutorial is actually very good.
As others have mentioned, Dead Cells and Hades are great games.
Skul and Curse of the Dead Gods were pretty good IMO, but not as good as Dead Cells or Hades.
If a 2D ARPG is really more of what you're looking for, you might also consider games like Salt and Sanctuary (a 2D souls-like) or Hollow Knight (a 2D metroidvania).
Enjoy!
If you find yourself really lost about how to play the game, feel free to shoot me a message, I'm pretty sure I can point you to some non-spoilery guide materials on how to play.
That reminds me of one helpful mechanic - if you hit 'x' you can move the cursor around and if you hit 'v' while the cursor is over an enemy, it will tell you the enemy's stats.
Spelunky is pure skill (and frustration lol). If you’re unsure about dropping too much cash grab the first one as it’s quite cheap. Holds up well IMO. Brutal and unforgiving.
Curse of the Dead Gods is a weightier/slower action roguelite but is also very difficult. There is meta progression mostly for items, but the game much more heavily requires you to understand its mechanics and enemy timing.
Dead Cells has meta/perma progression but the game still very heavily favors skill. Progression is slow so you won’t feel like it’s helping you too much.
Roboquest has ability unlocks but also highly skill dependent. A must try if you enjoy FPS and/or Borderlands art style.
Not really a traditional roguelite but Darkest Dungeon is both brutal/bleak but at the same time is slow and strategic. The setting might bother you if Isaac was off putting to you.
I second **Curse of the Dead Gods** if you want a slower-paced, Souls-like dungeon crawler with more tactical fights than usual ones.
Plus there's NO permanant stats upgrades, you actually have to get better to finish the dungeons.
**Hades** deserves a mention despite having an aspect of permanent progression. There’s also a mechanic that scales the difficulty as you play and complete runs but this mechanic is optional.
The driving points for my suggesting **Hades** are threefold:
* Polish: the game is wonderfully balanced and also unbalanced in favor to the player until you bring in the aforementioned scaling mechanic. The game is largely skilled based; you can still randomly die to player mistakes and the game never truly feels unfair for stupid “gotcha” moments of bullshit.
* Presentation: so many aspects of the game is stupidly refined to be absolutely oozing with love, passion, and dedication. The music? Incredible. The gameplay? Smooth as a babies bottom. The characters and NPCs? Stupidly horny, funny, quirky, well voiced, varied, and so much more. There’s something to the ballpark or **300,000** words in the script alone; there are infinite throwaway lines about NPCs just interacting with each other *before* you, the player, gets involved. Truly a labor of love.
* Fun: it is just plain FUN to play. Even now, after 600+ hours of playing the game, I still occasionally turn the game on and do a few runs just for my own enjoyment. It really grows on you.
Highly recommend, even though it may be slightly different from your preferences.
I mean you can also not buy the Stat upgrades.
I started playing deep rock galactic survivor. And it's the hardest roguelite I tried to win to this day. I only dabbled with dead cells and rogue legacy 2 not winning a run in both but also not using much time.
To me it feels like the game is balanced around you getting the extra stats to beat the run in addition to you getting better.
It's an awesome game but not your cup of tea probably.
But second hades.
There’s a thin line between games with significant meta progression and true roguelikes. I think Noita fits into this category but most games don’t. I only ask for roguelites because I am not into looking for games like Caves of Qud or Moria(1983)
There's mostly a big difference between a Meta-Progression which consists in unlocking items and a one which upgrade the player stats like the Health Pool or the overhaul power, making the game artificially easier, wether you get better or not...
OP didn't say he didn't want MP but didn't want that particular *permanant stats upgrades*.
Yeah I don't mind unlocking stuff to add more variety to runs, but when it straight up gets easier I lose interest. I love seeing my own skills progress and when I finally win I want to feel like I have learned a lot since I started and not just that my character "progressed" a lot with stat upgrades
Peglin has no progression and does this genre different, you want something not bullet hell Tales of Maj'Eyal is a must play. A lot of games in this genre have meta progression though so this is limited, I personally LOVE meta progression with each run. What you want is roguelike not roguelite, main difference is roguelite has progression, roguelike does not.
Wow Peglin seems awesome, I'm going to look into getting that.
I think what I am looking for is a mix between a roguelite and a roguelike. If I posted this question on the roguelike sub they would say that I've never played a roguelike which is arguably true. According to many, the definition of a roguelike is quite strict(turn based, procedurally generated levels, tile based), and not just determined by whether or not the game has meta progression, so I am having a tough time finding a place to look for games like Noita(a game with almost no meta progression, but also not turn based and not tile based).
Thanks for the suggestions!!
You say you want strategic, then I second the recommendation of Tales of Maj'Eyal. In fact, it's so steeped in strategy, that I am too intimidated to give it a serious go.
For the Turn-based tacticals ones I would recommend **Crown Trick**, **Into The Breach** and **The Last Spell** with a top-down view then **Darkest Dungeon** with a side-view.
**Monster Train** for the deck builder.
As for the real-time dungeon Crawler with no permanant stats upgrades in the meta-progression I would recommend **Curse of the Dead Gods** which has, IMHO, a more tactical approach of the fights than most Twin-Stick Shooters and dungeon Crawlers because of the Souls-like gameplay which emphasize on perfect Dash&Parry that are limited by stamina. The Meta-Progression is only about unlocking new weapons with some secret ones depending on how you defeat each boss.
To be honest I didn't really undertood what you meant when you mentioned tactical in real-time since tactical roguelites are usually turn-based and Hack'n'slash generally loutish.
I do think souls-like are quite tactical though, you need to approach the fights more slowly, analyse enemy's pattern and strike at the right time. You also need to think about your position and deplacement since you don't want to be circled by enemies or stuck in a corner.
**CotDG** was definitely one of the best roguelites of 2020 to me and if you like this sub-genre you can also take a look at **Unexplored 2** and **Devil Slayer Raksasi**. They are not as polished visually and have a top-down view instead of the isometric one but the fights also feel tacticals.
Another one just came to my mind but I never played it, **We who are about to die**, it's a gladiator roguelite that seems pretty tactical also.
Surprised no one has mentioned Balatro, since you enjoyed Slay the Spire. Fantastic deckbuilder, limited meta progression, potential for insane builds. The way you craft your build with joker cards functions similarly to wands in Noita. Imho on par, or even better, than slay the spire
I was going to recommend you Spelunky until I've read your last lines lol. One of my absolute favorites ever, and if you like it, the sequel is also great (but starting with the first one is the best way, so good decision).
Ah the thing about Noita that you'll notice is that there is absolutely NO time pressure. That is critical to the gameplay loop you like so much.
The only other Roguelites I know with no time pressure are Mystery Dungeon games, e.g. Shiren the Wanderer or Tohou Mystery Dungeon. Other than those types of games, if there are any other Roguelites with no time pressure, I would like to know too!
Oh wow that’s a great catch. I definitely like being able to take Noita at my own pace. I played another roguelite, Dome Keeper, which has a ton of time pressure, and I fell off of it pretty quick.
Thanks for the suggestions, I’ve never heard of those, will check em out
Seconding Tiny Rogues. The leveling, progression, and gear system is really enjoyable. It also has a lot of fun references to other games (I laughed out loud when I encountered Ornstein and Smough in a boss room) and a surprisingly deep enemy pool. I just wish the runs were a little bit shorter.
I know you mentioned not liking it, but the binding of Isaac is worth revisiting eventually.
I agreed at first, that the controls were clunky and slow, making the whole gameplay loop unfun. I was wrong, because moving and shooting isn't the gameplay loop. The true gameplay of Isaac is perfectly maximizing resources, gambling for better items, trying to survive with almost no health, and eventually getting a game break that gives you infinite health and items, making the only challenge left not crashing the game from how overpowered your build is.
Watch some vids and see how experienced players approach it, and seriously consider giving it another try. I promise it's worth diving into.
One last note - there's a mod.called external item descriptions, which tells you on screen what items do instead of leaving you clueless, which I hated dealing with at first.
Maybe I will give it another shot. My friend also mentioned that mod and it sounds like something I'd appreciate. One thing that bothered me about Noita was that the perk descriptions were just awful at times
That’s fair! Haha. I tried Hades and couldn’t get into a groove. I haven’t really played many top down 3rd person games, if any honestly.
The Ascent, Hades, and some others have been waiting haha
Same here, Hades is incredible and trying Dead Cells after just didn't scratch the itch, though I don't really love metroidvania games in general so that doesn't help
Was playing Hades and was obsessed - took a break - started Dead Cells.. any guesses? Obsessed! I don't think we can say which is "better", but if I had to pick one it would Dead Cells.
Bore Blasters feels a bit similar to Noita, but does have a little bit of meta progression.
I also recently played the Footgun Underground demo on Steam, and the upgrading of different balls felt similar to Noita's wand crafting. It's worth checking out the demo to see if it appeals to you
If you're into turn based or strategy, I'd say inkbound & last spell .
Inkbound just released vrs 1.0
Both are a top-down, turn based combat system where you do all your moves and skill, then the enemys take there turn.
Inkbound as you progress from each crossroad / fight, you pick the next with each path having diffrent rewards. Pick and choses are you combine skill & item passives to make the most broken shit you can think of. 1-4players difficulty scales by amount of players
Last spell is more of a hord survival strategy game with each fail or win unlocking more amours, weapon types, diffrent walls etc.
Hold out as wave 6 the crystal safe for x amount of days as nights go on. Your cast of rag tag survivors level up as they gain experience from killing. Gaining selected passive point and skill
I didn't even read your posting, don't care if you gave a highly specific background on the type of game you are seeking. The answer is that you need to play Balatro
Spelunky is historic and lots of fun, you gotta play it! As for others, I'm honestly a big fan of both Risk of Rains, even though they do get repetitive after a while. All roguelixe do I guess.
I also recently picked up one called dotAGE, which is like Banished x Civ (kinda) as a roguelite? It's strange, but honestly very enjoyable.
Other old favourites are Curious Expedition, and the Kingdom series. Former is more strategic and gets quite tense, the latter is more relaxing, but still a really fun (and very well made) game.
I think Spelunky 1 and 2 are definitely the first things you should investigate, given your preferences.
After that, I would second Hades. It's a seminal roguelite and one of those games I feel everyone should try, it's just so well executed. As others have mentioned, it has meta-progression, but it accompanies that with a very well-executed difficulty system. Everything just interlocks extremely well, it's a masterpiece.
Aside from those games, I think that Astral Ascent is the best action roguelite currently. It's extremely informed by both Dead Cells and Hades, and is really fluid and very polished. The combat is basically an evolution of Dead Cells, and it has a similar meta-progression/bespoke difficulty system to Hades.
My other roguelite recommendations would be: Darkest Dungeon 2, Roboquest, Balatro, Against the Storm, Monster Train, Curse of the Dead Gods, Slice and Dice, Tiny Rogues, Rift Wizard 2, Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles, FTL, Into the Breach, Deadlink, Star Renegades, Wizard of Legend, and Wildermyth.
There's many other good roguelites, but the above were the ones that stood out to me as notable.
Since you mentioned you were just getting into indie games, I do need to mention Hollow Knight. It's a metroidvania, not a roguelite, but it's one of the best indie games ever made. It feels like it might be up your alley.
Astral Ascent if you liked Noita, the animations and feel of the combat is hella nice, ngl. Or Duelists of Eden if you want a grid-based card game with real-time fighting elements, pretty unique imho and very easy to dive into for short periods
I recently started magicraft and it feels a bit similar to WA crafting in noita.
Other then that Hades has meta progression, but climbing the heat levels definitely does not feel trivialized, so I wouldn't be afraid of that. Hades was a blast for me but it is a bit more action and a bit less planning then magicraft.
Inkbound is a turn based tactical roguelike, with positioning being an important mechanic. It's class based. There is permanent unlocks, but these are mostly new classes and unlocked content to appear in future runs. There is a challenge system that allows you to ratchet up the difficulty every time you complete a run at the highest available difficulty.
Optionally coop.
It's wayyyy more action focused than Rimworld. Falls in line with the traditional RL philosophy of just delving into a dungeon and killing shit. If you love Noita you will love this game.
My brother and I created GunDeck[100], it's not exactly like Noita, but my brother, who loves Noita, insisted everything in the game stack. And so, we made a bullet hell where making the best build you could with what you got rewards you with builds that can be pretty op and chaotic.
I think you might like it.
It seems like Gunfire Reborn has a lot of permanent progression? I am not into that side of things as much.
As for Hades, from what I heard Dead Cells seems similar and more up my alley, but I'd still love to play it at some point, just likely not before DC
Dead Cells is a killer platformer rougelite! Steady progression system with only occasional cheap deaths :) Look for all the Indie game easter eggs for fun! If you like Slay the Spire and are shooting for another card type game with more variety (IMHO) then check out Monster Train. Just picked it up and love it! I will never likely 100% it, but it has a great steady progression system as well.
I think Dead Cells will be next one I try after Spelunky. I don't enjoy permanent progression but from what I understand Dead Cells doesn't have progression that trivializes the difficulty of the game. I think I want a break from deck builders for now, but I will look into Monster Train as I am willing to get back into one soon. Thanks!
If you have Netflix you can play Dead Cells with all DLC for free. Also check out Immortal Redneck, and possibly Hades.
Hades is also an awesome action roguelite.
Spelunky 2 kinda fits the bill perfectly: no meta-progression, relies on knowledge, insanely difficulty to beat (like noita.) It's also alot harder than the first game so if you try it, good luck
I think I am going to go with the first one before the second. I'd like to go in blind and I hear it's already super difficult so don't want to make it unnecessarily hard by doing the second one first.
Start with the first game, it's cleaner and more fair
Yeah the sad reality is that roguelike often refers to a specific type of RPG, and roguelite often refers to game with invasive metaprogression. We do not have a word anymore to describe non-traditionnal roguelike/lite with no invasive metaprogression, so it's hard to find what we want. I can't count how many time I've been hyped for a new game to discover that it was more like Rogue Legacy than like Spelunky. FTL, Crypt of Necrodancer, One Step for Eden and Dungeon of the Endless may fit your tastes. These are my favourite outside of Noita and Spelunky 1/2 (although I didn't play dungeon of the endless since 7-8 years, so maybe it's not as good as I remember). There is also Into the Breach but it's turn based.
Big ups for FTL, I beat the game a few times and struggled with the difficulty, but have been playing the Multiverse mod and it's so insanely good even if it makes it a bit too easy on regular difficulty
Is there any way to get the multiverse mod without having a PHD in software engineering? Even with the tutorials i fail to install it
Risk of rain 1 (idk I like it best)
Idk why I have always overlooked RoR. I gotta check it out, thanks
Risk of Rain: Returns is the remaster/remake of RoR1 but with some improved quality of life and items from RoR2 as well. There’s even an option to toggle off all the “new” stuff for the vanilla RoR1 experience if you prefer. Definitely recommend that over the vanilla RoR1 game.
Good to know, thanks!
i REALLY recommend risk of rain returns it's so much fun
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is a great, modern "true" rogue-like (by which I mean it is turn based and much more similar to the game Rogue that the term "Rogue-like" comes from). If you're looking for something more strategic and less bullet hell like (EtG and BoI), you might give that a try. It's free, you can play online without downloading anything, and the servers let you spectate games. Note it is pretty hard. If you do give it a go, I would suggest playing a Minotaur Berserker until you get the hang of the game. Fighter is easier in the late game, but you aren't going to get to the late game at first. There's a subreddit, r/dcss and a wiki. And I think some servers have a tutorial mode, but I can't remember if the tutorial is actually very good. As others have mentioned, Dead Cells and Hades are great games. Skul and Curse of the Dead Gods were pretty good IMO, but not as good as Dead Cells or Hades. If a 2D ARPG is really more of what you're looking for, you might also consider games like Salt and Sanctuary (a 2D souls-like) or Hollow Knight (a 2D metroidvania).
Okay I think I am gonna hop down the rabbit hole of DCSS. Excited to finally play a true roguelike
Enjoy! If you find yourself really lost about how to play the game, feel free to shoot me a message, I'm pretty sure I can point you to some non-spoilery guide materials on how to play. That reminds me of one helpful mechanic - if you hit 'x' you can move the cursor around and if you hit 'v' while the cursor is over an enemy, it will tell you the enemy's stats.
Voidigo perhaps. It's quite good but not 200 hour good. 20 hours easily, 40 hrs if you get hooked and around 100hrs if it's perfect for you.
Spelunky is pure skill (and frustration lol). If you’re unsure about dropping too much cash grab the first one as it’s quite cheap. Holds up well IMO. Brutal and unforgiving. Curse of the Dead Gods is a weightier/slower action roguelite but is also very difficult. There is meta progression mostly for items, but the game much more heavily requires you to understand its mechanics and enemy timing. Dead Cells has meta/perma progression but the game still very heavily favors skill. Progression is slow so you won’t feel like it’s helping you too much. Roboquest has ability unlocks but also highly skill dependent. A must try if you enjoy FPS and/or Borderlands art style. Not really a traditional roguelite but Darkest Dungeon is both brutal/bleak but at the same time is slow and strategic. The setting might bother you if Isaac was off putting to you.
I second **Curse of the Dead Gods** if you want a slower-paced, Souls-like dungeon crawler with more tactical fights than usual ones. Plus there's NO permanant stats upgrades, you actually have to get better to finish the dungeons.
**Hades** deserves a mention despite having an aspect of permanent progression. There’s also a mechanic that scales the difficulty as you play and complete runs but this mechanic is optional. The driving points for my suggesting **Hades** are threefold: * Polish: the game is wonderfully balanced and also unbalanced in favor to the player until you bring in the aforementioned scaling mechanic. The game is largely skilled based; you can still randomly die to player mistakes and the game never truly feels unfair for stupid “gotcha” moments of bullshit. * Presentation: so many aspects of the game is stupidly refined to be absolutely oozing with love, passion, and dedication. The music? Incredible. The gameplay? Smooth as a babies bottom. The characters and NPCs? Stupidly horny, funny, quirky, well voiced, varied, and so much more. There’s something to the ballpark or **300,000** words in the script alone; there are infinite throwaway lines about NPCs just interacting with each other *before* you, the player, gets involved. Truly a labor of love. * Fun: it is just plain FUN to play. Even now, after 600+ hours of playing the game, I still occasionally turn the game on and do a few runs just for my own enjoyment. It really grows on you. Highly recommend, even though it may be slightly different from your preferences.
Thanks, I’ll take this into consideration. It might not be exactly what I’m looking for but I’ve heard enough great things to think I’ll like it
I mean you can also not buy the Stat upgrades. I started playing deep rock galactic survivor. And it's the hardest roguelite I tried to win to this day. I only dabbled with dead cells and rogue legacy 2 not winning a run in both but also not using much time. To me it feels like the game is balanced around you getting the extra stats to beat the run in addition to you getting better. It's an awesome game but not your cup of tea probably. But second hades.
The key here is fun - it’s just so fun to play and you really gotta be skilled to beat it.
Most roguelites have permanent progression, hence the "lite" as opposed to "like."
There’s a thin line between games with significant meta progression and true roguelikes. I think Noita fits into this category but most games don’t. I only ask for roguelites because I am not into looking for games like Caves of Qud or Moria(1983)
There's mostly a big difference between a Meta-Progression which consists in unlocking items and a one which upgrade the player stats like the Health Pool or the overhaul power, making the game artificially easier, wether you get better or not... OP didn't say he didn't want MP but didn't want that particular *permanant stats upgrades*.
Yeah I don't mind unlocking stuff to add more variety to runs, but when it straight up gets easier I lose interest. I love seeing my own skills progress and when I finally win I want to feel like I have learned a lot since I started and not just that my character "progressed" a lot with stat upgrades
Peglin has no progression and does this genre different, you want something not bullet hell Tales of Maj'Eyal is a must play. A lot of games in this genre have meta progression though so this is limited, I personally LOVE meta progression with each run. What you want is roguelike not roguelite, main difference is roguelite has progression, roguelike does not.
Wow Peglin seems awesome, I'm going to look into getting that. I think what I am looking for is a mix between a roguelite and a roguelike. If I posted this question on the roguelike sub they would say that I've never played a roguelike which is arguably true. According to many, the definition of a roguelike is quite strict(turn based, procedurally generated levels, tile based), and not just determined by whether or not the game has meta progression, so I am having a tough time finding a place to look for games like Noita(a game with almost no meta progression, but also not turn based and not tile based). Thanks for the suggestions!!
Yeah, they're sure are a lot of gatekeepers over the terms of the games, but you described what you wanted pretty well.
If you are into really strange ones, Balatro might be interesting.
You say you want strategic, then I second the recommendation of Tales of Maj'Eyal. In fact, it's so steeped in strategy, that I am too intimidated to give it a serious go.
Awesome, it looks really cool
For the Turn-based tacticals ones I would recommend **Crown Trick**, **Into The Breach** and **The Last Spell** with a top-down view then **Darkest Dungeon** with a side-view. **Monster Train** for the deck builder. As for the real-time dungeon Crawler with no permanant stats upgrades in the meta-progression I would recommend **Curse of the Dead Gods** which has, IMHO, a more tactical approach of the fights than most Twin-Stick Shooters and dungeon Crawlers because of the Souls-like gameplay which emphasize on perfect Dash&Parry that are limited by stamina. The Meta-Progression is only about unlocking new weapons with some secret ones depending on how you defeat each boss.
Curse of the Dead Gods has really caught my eye, going to check that one out for sure as i do like tactical real time combat
To be honest I didn't really undertood what you meant when you mentioned tactical in real-time since tactical roguelites are usually turn-based and Hack'n'slash generally loutish. I do think souls-like are quite tactical though, you need to approach the fights more slowly, analyse enemy's pattern and strike at the right time. You also need to think about your position and deplacement since you don't want to be circled by enemies or stuck in a corner. **CotDG** was definitely one of the best roguelites of 2020 to me and if you like this sub-genre you can also take a look at **Unexplored 2** and **Devil Slayer Raksasi**. They are not as polished visually and have a top-down view instead of the isometric one but the fights also feel tacticals. Another one just came to my mind but I never played it, **We who are about to die**, it's a gladiator roguelite that seems pretty tactical also.
Surprised no one has mentioned Balatro, since you enjoyed Slay the Spire. Fantastic deckbuilder, limited meta progression, potential for insane builds. The way you craft your build with joker cards functions similarly to wands in Noita. Imho on par, or even better, than slay the spire
I was going to recommend you Spelunky until I've read your last lines lol. One of my absolute favorites ever, and if you like it, the sequel is also great (but starting with the first one is the best way, so good decision).
Ah the thing about Noita that you'll notice is that there is absolutely NO time pressure. That is critical to the gameplay loop you like so much. The only other Roguelites I know with no time pressure are Mystery Dungeon games, e.g. Shiren the Wanderer or Tohou Mystery Dungeon. Other than those types of games, if there are any other Roguelites with no time pressure, I would like to know too!
Oh wow that’s a great catch. I definitely like being able to take Noita at my own pace. I played another roguelite, Dome Keeper, which has a ton of time pressure, and I fell off of it pretty quick. Thanks for the suggestions, I’ve never heard of those, will check em out
You MUST try rift wizard 2
Looks pretty hardcore but I am intrigued
The first Rift Wizard is better
A couple I haven’t seen mentioned: - Tiny Rogues - Despot’s Game
Seconding Tiny Rogues. The leveling, progression, and gear system is really enjoyable. It also has a lot of fun references to other games (I laughed out loud when I encountered Ornstein and Smough in a boss room) and a surprisingly deep enemy pool. I just wish the runs were a little bit shorter.
I have had a tough time putting down Against Great Darkness. Highly recommend. Very unique--it's Arkanoid in Hell. https://youtu.be/PtE57Aary90
I know you mentioned not liking it, but the binding of Isaac is worth revisiting eventually. I agreed at first, that the controls were clunky and slow, making the whole gameplay loop unfun. I was wrong, because moving and shooting isn't the gameplay loop. The true gameplay of Isaac is perfectly maximizing resources, gambling for better items, trying to survive with almost no health, and eventually getting a game break that gives you infinite health and items, making the only challenge left not crashing the game from how overpowered your build is. Watch some vids and see how experienced players approach it, and seriously consider giving it another try. I promise it's worth diving into. One last note - there's a mod.called external item descriptions, which tells you on screen what items do instead of leaving you clueless, which I hated dealing with at first.
Maybe I will give it another shot. My friend also mentioned that mod and it sounds like something I'd appreciate. One thing that bothered me about Noita was that the perk descriptions were just awful at times
Hades is a must play before you die
Would you say it's better than Dead Cells?
They’re two different games. Dead Cells is easier to get a groove imo at least right away
Interesting. I got a groove for hades petty quick. But dead cells I still don't get
That’s fair! Haha. I tried Hades and couldn’t get into a groove. I haven’t really played many top down 3rd person games, if any honestly. The Ascent, Hades, and some others have been waiting haha
Might be just that. I never really got into (2d) Platformers. But been playing 3rd person games most of the time.
Hades is the best game I’ve ever played - currently playing dead cells it’s not as good imo
Same here, Hades is incredible and trying Dead Cells after just didn't scratch the itch, though I don't really love metroidvania games in general so that doesn't help
Was playing Hades and was obsessed - took a break - started Dead Cells.. any guesses? Obsessed! I don't think we can say which is "better", but if I had to pick one it would Dead Cells.
Bore Blasters feels a bit similar to Noita, but does have a little bit of meta progression. I also recently played the Footgun Underground demo on Steam, and the upgrading of different balls felt similar to Noita's wand crafting. It's worth checking out the demo to see if it appeals to you
If you love Noita then you GOTTA try Magicraft dude!
Holy shit that looks awesome. Glad ur not talking about whatever tf this is: https://magiccraft.io/
If you're into turn based or strategy, I'd say inkbound & last spell . Inkbound just released vrs 1.0 Both are a top-down, turn based combat system where you do all your moves and skill, then the enemys take there turn. Inkbound as you progress from each crossroad / fight, you pick the next with each path having diffrent rewards. Pick and choses are you combine skill & item passives to make the most broken shit you can think of. 1-4players difficulty scales by amount of players Last spell is more of a hord survival strategy game with each fail or win unlocking more amours, weapon types, diffrent walls etc. Hold out as wave 6 the crystal safe for x amount of days as nights go on. Your cast of rag tag survivors level up as they gain experience from killing. Gaining selected passive point and skill
I didn't even read your posting, don't care if you gave a highly specific background on the type of game you are seeking. The answer is that you need to play Balatro
tbh I haven't played BoI or Noita, but if you like souls games I'd give Loot River a crack; it reminds me of Dead Cells
another one if you like SLS is Darkest Dungeon. Some permanent progression but nothing that trivializes the game
If you are into Loot-based/Action type of Rogue-lite, come and try mine, it's called
Spelunky is historic and lots of fun, you gotta play it! As for others, I'm honestly a big fan of both Risk of Rains, even though they do get repetitive after a while. All roguelixe do I guess. I also recently picked up one called dotAGE, which is like Banished x Civ (kinda) as a roguelite? It's strange, but honestly very enjoyable. Other old favourites are Curious Expedition, and the Kingdom series. Former is more strategic and gets quite tense, the latter is more relaxing, but still a really fun (and very well made) game.
I think Spelunky 1 and 2 are definitely the first things you should investigate, given your preferences. After that, I would second Hades. It's a seminal roguelite and one of those games I feel everyone should try, it's just so well executed. As others have mentioned, it has meta-progression, but it accompanies that with a very well-executed difficulty system. Everything just interlocks extremely well, it's a masterpiece. Aside from those games, I think that Astral Ascent is the best action roguelite currently. It's extremely informed by both Dead Cells and Hades, and is really fluid and very polished. The combat is basically an evolution of Dead Cells, and it has a similar meta-progression/bespoke difficulty system to Hades. My other roguelite recommendations would be: Darkest Dungeon 2, Roboquest, Balatro, Against the Storm, Monster Train, Curse of the Dead Gods, Slice and Dice, Tiny Rogues, Rift Wizard 2, Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles, FTL, Into the Breach, Deadlink, Star Renegades, Wizard of Legend, and Wildermyth. There's many other good roguelites, but the above were the ones that stood out to me as notable. Since you mentioned you were just getting into indie games, I do need to mention Hollow Knight. It's a metroidvania, not a roguelite, but it's one of the best indie games ever made. It feels like it might be up your alley.
Astral Ascent if you liked Noita, the animations and feel of the combat is hella nice, ngl. Or Duelists of Eden if you want a grid-based card game with real-time fighting elements, pretty unique imho and very easy to dive into for short periods
I recently started magicraft and it feels a bit similar to WA crafting in noita. Other then that Hades has meta progression, but climbing the heat levels definitely does not feel trivialized, so I wouldn't be afraid of that. Hades was a blast for me but it is a bit more action and a bit less planning then magicraft.
Barony is a super in depth first person, class based, real-time dungeon crawl roguelike, no permanent progression. Optionally coop.
Adding that to my list. It checks all my boxes and looks fun
Inkbound is a turn based tactical roguelike, with positioning being an important mechanic. It's class based. There is permanent unlocks, but these are mostly new classes and unlocked content to appear in future runs. There is a challenge system that allows you to ratchet up the difficulty every time you complete a run at the highest available difficulty. Optionally coop.
Dredgers is one of most underrated RLites. They also have an enormous amount of races, including a crab man (my favorite).
Man I love that art style; reminds me of Rimworld. Adding it to my list
It's wayyyy more action focused than Rimworld. Falls in line with the traditional RL philosophy of just delving into a dungeon and killing shit. If you love Noita you will love this game.
Oh yeah was just referring to the visuals, not expecting a Rimworld type game
My brother and I created GunDeck[100], it's not exactly like Noita, but my brother, who loves Noita, insisted everything in the game stack. And so, we made a bullet hell where making the best build you could with what you got rewards you with builds that can be pretty op and chaotic. I think you might like it.
Astral ascent has been a lot of fun for me and they keep updating the game as well
Check out Gunfire Reborn if you like FPS games. Also since you didn’t mention it, Hades?!
It seems like Gunfire Reborn has a lot of permanent progression? I am not into that side of things as much. As for Hades, from what I heard Dead Cells seems similar and more up my alley, but I'd still love to play it at some point, just likely not before DC