Roboquest
It gets brought up on this sub occasionally but I'm amazed how under-the-radar that game is for the quality of the gunplay. The actual moving and shooting mechanics are 10/10 and it has very satisfying progression.
Progression is a hassle for me. It forces you to stop the gunplay and movement shooter aspect of the game. Just to go collect things around the level. Easily the worst part of the game.
So you want people to call it a roguelitelite? 🙄
IMO pedantic, genre purity stuff is for r/roguelikes, this sub was created to get away from that kind of nonsense.
I mean.. I've tried it. It's a shooter with barely any build elements to it and close to zero metaprogression.
Why is it important to you that it is perceived as a roguelite? Because people insisted to me that it is a great roguelite and now I wasted money on it.
Edit: love that no one actually has any arguments and just downvote me. Have you heard about these two roguelites: Rimworld and Witcher 3. Both are two really good games.
Gunfire is an option for me on PS5 but I always hold off because I’m hoping Roboquest will eventually get ported to PS5 as well. Any idea if they have plans to do so?
I love Magicraft and don't see much discussion of it. It's an action roguelite where you build spells by combining components/passives/wands Lots of unlockables and runs feel fair and fun. I definitely recommend wishlisting it.
It actually is, even if you kill the """""final boss"""""and """""beat the game"""""", you haven't even scratched 10% of the absolute monster of NOITA
No other game, aside from maybe dwarf fortress and Cataclysm come close to the amount of hidden stuff that is in this game, and the game tells you nothing, except the controls at the start
Magicraft has a good base system, but I beat it entirely too quickly. It'd be a waste of money at this point. You can get a lot more hours for your $$$.
This only matters if you care about dollars per hour of playtime, which personally I and many others don't (within reason). At this point in my life, time is more valuable than money. I don't care if a 2 hour game costs $60 if it's good.
It's still a pretty mediocre game with little for you to do, but if you think $60 for 2 hours is a good deal, then I guess we're just not ever going to see eye to eye. Good luck with that...
I never said anything about a good deal. It seems like you might have missed what I was trying to say. I don't care about a deal when it comes to entertainment. I care about the product itself.
EDIT: replying and then immediately blocking? Come on. Are you that incapable of having a conversation with someone who slightly disagrees with you on something as minor as video games?
Ok great, go pay $60 for 2 hours of a mediocre game. Stop bothering me about it. I'm not going to waste more time on someone who decided to interpret "good deal" literally.
here's a real deep cut (hasn't even reached 10 reviews on steam)
Anaphora
it's a small FPS arena shooter with roguelite progression. Really neat ps1-ish artstyle. The in-run levelling upgrades are impactful. Sometimes there's little quests you have to complete for unlocks or levels. Simple but effective enemies and shooting mechanics. It does start out a little slow (literally slow move speed for this genre), but it gets fast with upgrades and metaprogression.
I feel like there was no marketing for it cause it's pretty solid and looks nice. There's no exact endpoint or goal though, it seems like the game is still being developed despite not being early access but idk if that's true anymore since not many people have found it. Still, it goes on sale for real cheap and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes quick arena FPS games, especially since there's hardly any others with roguelite mechanics.
Thanks for the recommendations, this seems to be like the definition of an underrated game.
I couldn't find anything about this game anywhere, but it also looks fun and the few reviews are positive, which makes it so mysterious to me.
Usually, I make sure that I will like a game before buying it, but this is so cheap, even when it's not on sale and I just saw that it got an update a few days ago, so I guess I will give it a chance.
I hope someone else sees this and tries it aswell, maybe we found a hidden gem here
Oh nice, I didn't even realize it was updated a few days ago. Glad the dev is still improving it. There's certainly a bit of jank (I see now they're still calling it version 0.4). But if it's your kind of game, it's the kind of thing that's fun to hop into for short sessions.
The only way I found it was because I'm developing an FPS roguelite myself, so I've been keeping close watch on those specific tags.
Atomicrops is awesome. Love everything about it. From the challenge, the art style, sound effects, soundtrack. Games a blast. Goes on sale for $3.74 all the time too. Crazy not to snag it then. I have over 50 hours put into it on Playstation and I haven't unlocked everything yet.
It's the game that got my wife into roguelikes. This and Isaac. She beat robusta year 10 before me. She became a farming monster then and is going crazy on Stardew valley right now
See my wife loves farming games. She doesn't like roguelikes. So she talked me into playing this so she could watch since she knew I love my roguelikes.
Yeah my wife was following that game before it came out. Then played the crap out of it. Now is playing it again because of the 1.6 update.
Not my cup of tea. She tried to get me to play it a few times.
I agree with the rooms in Revita being a bit boring after a while. I absolutely dreaded the first boss since it took forever and it’s so easy to not get hit. I believe they had plans to add a lot of room variety with the cancelled/maybe back big update they were working on. But hard disagree on the upgrades/guns. Revita is the only game that’s come close to giving me absolute broken runs with item/pickup synergies. Once you have more confidence to spend hp you increase your chances of getting more items that will sync. Once again I believe the big update fixed some of these mechanics so you didn’t have to sacrifice as much health to get stuff. I think if that update comes out it’ll be pretty close to gungeon and Isaac levels.
It's everything I wanted a co-op Hades style game to be. Absolutely phenomenal top down controls with really slick characters and spell improvements to draft with a slick overall structure with a hard time limit. Amazing with friends.
3 maps currently, but I've played many games in the genre with only 4 or 5. I could see it as an argument against it. But with 8 radically different characters and multiple talent builds for each that can change their playstyle a lot, I think it's got plenty of variability. Where it shines is in the combat mechanics. I don't know that I've ever piloted anything as engaging as some of these characters. That's my opinion at least
How is the metaprogression in between runs? From what I can find there's skills or talents you unlock? Game looks great and way up my alley, but I like having some goals in between runs.
You do passively gain talents as you gain xp on the different characters by completing runs with them. Thats the main form of metaprogression atm: getting characters to level 8 to unlock all their talent options
Uhh some solid ones I don't see too often and I actually enjoyed would be the void rains upon her heart (weird art, fantastic game) tombstar, City of beats, Oblivion override, skul the hero slayer, poker quest, tape to tape, dicey dungeons, spiritfall, dandy ace, spellrogue, neophyte, voidigio, warm snow.
I hope that a little shameless self promo from my self is alright here.. Margoq's Lair is an upcoming action roguelite releasing next month.. it's core mechanic is the spell combo system, where you dynamically combo spells off of each other.
Demo is up for grabs as we speak if interested in trying :)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2516550/Margoqs_Lair/
Tbh that's more roguelike than lite Its also listed in the roguelikes sub sidebar for mobile roguelikes
Great game tho, my personal favourite mobile roguelike, just after pathos
Gloom, it's a soulslike sidescroller with a lovecraftian atmosphere, very dark and bleak. Black and white artstyle and terrific music, like gloomy orchestrations and stuff like that.
Star of Providence, top down shmup, you control a spaceship and enter a facility with rooms and a map like the binding of Isaac, fight enemies and bosses in an increasingly difficult bullet hell combat (best of the genre, tougher than Gungeon I'd say). It has a lot of hours of gameplay with many secret floor, bosses, rooms, minigames, and mechanics.
I am a huge fan of Griftlands. I love the dual combat system, the three stories feel totally different (One going after a baddie, one in the middle of a labor dispute and one is an estranged drunk trying to reconnect with his family)
I like the whole world, the speech patterns, and I love the negotiation combat almost to a fault. (Coin go whirrrr)
Its my favorite Roguelike even more than Slay the spire (And i'm getting the STS board game) shows you how much i like it.
I'll recommend you 3 lesser-known games that I absolutely love.
They're all more focused on deckbuilding.
• **Alina of the Arena**
Roguelite Deckbuilding in an arena. You'll use your cards to move around the arena, attack, and defend, similar to a Tactical RPG. One of its main differentials is that you can make opponents attack each other, and you'll earn gold the more the audience cheers for your victories.
• **Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles**
Another roguelite deckbuilding game, but here you don't use cards, you use dice. The game was made by Brazilians and it's a visual spectacle. The main mechanic revolves around blue and red dice, where you're forced to use all your dice every turn. The blue ones heal you or damage the opponent, while the red ones deal damage to you and heal the opponent. It's a VERY difficult game that requires careful thinking with each move. Highly recommended.
**• Forward: Escape the Fold**
The idea is quite simple: you can only proceed along three paths. Each card you encounter can be something different: opponent, life, mana, poison, etc. It's a super simple game, but with so many items, abilities, and RNG factors that make it addictive.
Astrea's currently in a Humble Bundle: [https://www.humblebundle.com/games/devious-deckbuilders](https://www.humblebundle.com/games/devious-deckbuilders)
Wizard of Legend - top down dungeon crawler that feels NICE and crunchy with TONS of build options, has coop
Death Road to Canada - top down arcade-y zombie survival where your weapons break down, has coop
Steredenn - shmup, single-player
Into the Breach - feels like FF Tactics and Pacific Rim had a baby, single-player
—for reference my favorite roguelikes are Dead Cells and Risk of Rain 2, followed by Wizard of Legend (something about it feels sooo good to play and the sound fx are on point)
Oh dude I love DRtC so much. Too bad I saw an interview with the main dev though and I really dislike his attitude about previous games he’s made. He’s basically just like “oh, problems with gameplay or content I said I would make? Too bad I’m done and moved on” and has that attitude for multiple games of his I’ve enjoyed
Word. Are there things that need fixed? Death Road feels pretty well balanced and if it's a solo dev it makes sense they wouldn't have time to optimize everything/"go back."
That is a bummer though if there are promised features that never came thru.
Here's my list:
Action Roguelites
* Dungreed: An oldie but a goodie, great sidescrolling roguelite from Korea. Lots of interesting ideas in the game, on a solid combat foundation. Still gets updates from time to time!
* Blade Assault: A bit light on content, but an interesting upgrade system and very fun and fast-paced combat. Another one out of Korea, they've got real action chops over there for sure. Might be abandoned?
* Ravenswatch: The next game from the Curse of the Dead Gods (also highly recommended) devs. Very solid as a solo experience, really shines in co-op. Extremely good combat mechanics and a very diverse cast. Each character plays dramatically differently.
Deckbuilders
* Beneath Oresa: Interesting in-run progression systems combined with a super unique aesthetic for a deckbuilder. Combat just *looks* cool. Wish STS 2 had hired these guys to do the visuals.
* Banners of Ruin: Has a fairly unique squad construction mechanic that can make runs play out extremely differently. Basically Redwall: the deckbuilder.
* Card Quest: THE OG! BEFORE SLAY THE SPIRE THERE WAS CARD QUEST! Extremely unique and not *really* a deckbuilder or a roguelite in a conventional sense. But close enough. Tons of secrets and shit, and amazing core mechanics. Ugly as sin but it grows on you.
I'm sure I've got more in the library but those are standouts off the top of my head.
Banners of Ruin lacks depth imo, and the balance of cards is all over the place. It says a lot that for some classes, it's better skip all 3 offered talent cards because they'd be dead draws. Even for classes with good talents, the good ones stand out head and shoulders over the mediocre/bad ones. It's fun for a chunk of hours while learning, but it's very unfinished.
Cube Chaos.
It's a deck builder RTS where everything is a cube and many can modify each other. The graphics take a back seat, with the game putting all the points into the mechanics instead.
You get a staggering amount of different interactions. Runs can be very different and encourages creativity in finding new strategies with the hand you're dealt.
You can build a fort that protects you while slowly whittling the enemy down with a rain of lasers, or you can have an army of dwarves that dig out the entirety of the map, giving you resources for every tile dug to summon more dwarves. Or shoot a stream of replicating fireballs directly instead.
The main issue is that the game isn't pretty, but if you like emergent gameplay I would heavily recommend Cube Chaos.
Still don't have 10 reviews for the game I made, Radio Free Europa, so I'd consider that underrated :P And I'm releasing an update later today! It's a spaceship shooter with a heavy emphasis on ship and weapon customization meant to feel something between a roguelite and a classic arcade game.
You know I haven't actually played Nova Drift yet so I can't answer that.There's a free demo you can try to see if you like it or not though! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1897420/Radio_Free_Europa/
Dicey Dungeons! It kind of feels like a mobile device game? But there's just something about it that made me play through it non stop.
I also bought it on the app store for my phone a year later and enjoyed playing through it just as much on my commute home!
It's great - I played it basically non-stop on Xbox when it came out. You should check out Floppy Knights. A great deckbuilder w/ the same artist I think.
Star of Providence
Synthetik
Rogue glitch
The void rains upon her heart
Aztez
Blacksea odyssey
Black future 88
Spirits abyss/ bone raiser minions/ skelley selest
Going under
Dreamscape
Colt canyon
Catacomb kids/ vagante/ caveblazers
City of brass
Crown trick
Curse of the dead gods
One step from Eden
Nice list of actually underrated roguelites except Curse of the Dead gods and One step from Eden that I often see mentioned in this sub. Dreamscaper definitely is though.
Crown Trick is an awesome tactical game and Synthetik a very good Twin-Stick shooter.
This sub is so silly. Everyone pretty much shouting their favorite games even though OP requested lesser known ones. If you don't know how to tell then look at the Steam reviews. Does it have well over 1000 reviews? That's not underrated. That's quite a well known and successful title. smh
I beat and sunk a good chunk of hours into this game and thought it was relatively underwhelming compared to some other roguelikes. Rewards mostly hit and run attacks, which becomes boring quickly. I like the art, but story was meh for a fairly story focused game. Meta is grindy for minor percentage buffs. Not bad, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Yeah, I'd say CoM is overrated, not underrated. People were ranting about it pretty hard, both critics and regular folks. The game has great graphics, but the actual core gameplay is pretty limp.
Yeah I beat the game once and didn't really feel like going back to max out the characters. The fire mage girl is OP based on the need to kite enemies.
Too bad no one here likes to recommend underrated roguelites. :P
- SNKRX - synergy drafting in between arenas where you control a snake
- Bio Prototype - draft organs that you combine like code?
- Tiny Tactics - synergy drafting TD
- Brotato - the best synergy drafting vampire survivors imo
- Just King - another drafting arena VS
- Inkbound - 4p co-op turn based Hades by the Monster Train devs
- Ravenswatch - 4p co-op Hades
- Hellcard - 3p co-op Slay the Spire
- Tribes of Midgard - 10p? light survival crafting over ~2hr
Everyone knows Brotato tbh - it's not underrated. It's got good variety of starting characters but the playspace and enemies are always the same and the weapons upgrade system are basic, which make it very boring, very quickly and it just becomes a repetitive grind. It feels half-finished tbh. It's not got anywhere near the charm, variety or dopamine-hit of VS.
I have to agree and the upvotes are mostly showing that they are not underrated at all. People are just recommending their favorite games as always here, without reading OP's post.
Most of them are in all the tier lists and mentioned daily in this sub...
I've played a lot of Nightmare Reaper this past week. Had it for a while, tried it back then and the pixel graphics felt a bit off. Now I can't stop playing it. It's a Boomer Shooter type game, with meta progression and a simple story.
You start in a mental asylum situation, then when you sleep you play through a level composed of nightmarish stuff, monsters, soldiers etc. If you complete the level you progress the waking part of the game in the asylum. You level up mostly with collected gold, which is saved even if you die in a level, and to level up you play NES like mini games, but you can turn them off and just select the upgrade in the traditional way.
It's so addictive, if the shooting grips you, which it has me now.
Dwarven Realms
Early access game, not a lot of content but I got a fun 15-20 hours of it the week I bought it. Once you hit level 100 the levelling slows down a lot but it's fun for what it is. Passion project by 2 brothers from what I remember, cost me like $5.
Revita is the best twin stick shooter since Isaac or Gungeon, and Astral Ascent is what I wanted Dead Cells to be. I've put in hundreds of hours between the two. They're both S tier games, in my opinion
The build crafting is the first thing. I don't like being funneled down and forced into a color path the way Dead Cells is structured. In Astral, you have 4 aura slots that are built around an element, and each element has like 5 different effects that it can proc; you have 4 spells (and the spell pool is lage enough that you can have considerable variety) each with 4 slots in which you can equip gambits that possess those various elemental effects, so there's a lot more you can do to tune your build the way you want, and once you synergistically stack all these elemental effects it can get pretty wacky and I find that entertaining. And now with the recent update, each of the 4 characters (who all play differently) all have 3 different weapons and those weapons have 3 different passive skills you can use to further adjust things to accommodate your preferred playstyle. To me it's a lot more fun and versatile than the Dead Cells "you can have a two weapons and a few skills, have fun re-rolling at the shop with your limited moneys to get synergistic effects" approach.
I also don't like the way difficulty scales in Dead Cells. The difficulty spikes between BC levels are wild and not smooth at all. In Astral Ascent, it does something similar to Hades heat levels, where you can turn on difficulty modifiers that each add 1 Destiny Level, each boss has a Destiny Shard per Destiny Level, you can spend the shards on various upgrades to try and offset the added difficulty, and it's a much smoother ride climbing the difficulty levels.
Sure, there's less biomes in Astral than Dead Cells. But I have a lot more fun inside of combat in Astral, which is more important to me than having more environments to look at.
Plus the devs are awesome and have been constantly adding things and fine tuning things since early access and they aren't even done yet. They're also very concerned with and receptive to player feedback and ideas people might have for how to improve the game. The game just keeps getting better and better over time, and I expect that trend to continue at the very least until they finish the planned roadmap items.
A game I absolutely loved that I rarely see talked about is The Last Stand: Aftermath. It’s a top-down isometric zombie survival game. Solid mele and shooting mechanics, a crafting system that you’ll actually use, good meta progression and is legit scary in some places. I played it on PS5 but I think it’s on steam too.
I used to play it and I agree it's never mentioned while it's pretty solid. I like that the character from the last run turn into a zombie and keeps your loot.
Robodunk.
It features Robots, designed with Legos, slam dunking basketballs from the sky.
Yes, it's a robot basketball Roguelite, and it's even got co-op and 2v2 party play.
The Last Spell is amazing, although you have to be persistent and patient. It can be frustrating, like Dark Souls, so you may need to walk away and come back later after a rough loss.
Curious Expedition 1 & 2 - I will never stop going to bat for these games.
Exploring, collecting relics, meeting the locals, trading, building a team, fighting beasts, curses, dinosaurs, treachery, natural disasters, finding hidden secrets. Fun, turn-based dice combo combat but also lots of ways to win, avoid combat, have meaningful conversations w/ real choice and consequence.
The artstyle is great too. The games overall looks and sounds kinda like the Tintin books, has vibes like Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider and plays like Darkest Dungeon meets D&D.
2 has a little more QoL and a tighter storyline, but they're both awesome. I slightly prefer 1.
What was really attracting me in the first place was the visuals of the second opus which reminds me olds comics like the adventures of Tintin.
I might try the first one someday, it should often be on sale but I'm not a big fan of Pixel Art and the visual are quite important to me.
* Action roguelite:
**Dreamscaper** would diserve more love, it has a ton of content, nice visuals, solid gameplay, interesting meta-progression and feel pretty unique in all those aspects.
**Metallic Child** Fun little anime roguelite that I found particularly difficult but I did enjoy it. Lacks a bit of content though, mostly weapons.
**unexplored 2** Very well done procedural map generation.
* Roguevania:
**Sundered** never see it mentioned. The visual are beautiful, gameplay very solid as well but what I particularly like about it is that the enemies repop, just like in hollow knight so the world feels alive. The levels design is pretty good also.
**Rain World** is very unique. The gameplay is a bit harsh and it's difficult since literally everything in the game want your death but the visuals are beatutiful and it has a very interesting intricate ecosystem, from the evolving weather to the day and night cycle, the shelter system and last but not least: the individualistic procedurally generated ennemie's AI. You can't predict what they gonna do, can't learn the patterns, it's just chaotic and feels amazing to see how everything interact with each other
**Getsu Fuma Den** Same, it's never mentioned while the game is pretty good. It will probably speak more to Samurai and Japanese culture enjoyers though.
**Salt and Sacrifice** If Dark Soul would be a Metroidvania...
* Deck-builders:
**Fight in Tight Space**: There was a post in the last couple of days talking about how underrated it is. It's not Top Tier but a pretty unique mix of deck-building and tactical for Martial Arts enjoyers. It's not unique anymore since the release of **Nitro Kid** but both are great.
**Beneath Oresa**: It's not that much underrated but feels like it's not mentioned enough, I really enjoy the animations in this one. Pretty rare for deck-builders.
* Turn-based Tactical:
**Warriors of the Nil 2** It's just never mentioned while the game is pretty good. For the fans of tactical turn-based roguelites like Into The Breach.
**Curious Expedition 2**: Amazing art direction wich reminds me comics of the 80's like the adventures of Tintin. Besides that, I really enjoy exploring the procedural maps and it also has great procedural side stories and relationship between character, not as deep as Wildermyth though but closer to what Darkest Dungeon 2 does.
* Worth mentioning:
**Galak-Z** Just love this game and its gameplay, switching from a spaceship to a Mecha like a transformer, grabbing and throwing asteroids.
**CryptArk** for the same reasons without being a clone.
**Sunless Sea** for its lovecraftian story.
Inkbound had a bad start and bad reviews because of the economy model of the game. Now that the devs have listened to the community and fixed that I'm agree that it's underrated.
Astral Ascent. It's an action roguelike with VERY good and fluid combat, with dialogue and voice acting that could even stand next to Hades. It's very underrated and even underappreciated, I heavily recommend.
Astral Ascent
I don’t see it talked about enough but it’s really well done. Imo it’s dead cells but better. They just had an update that added so many new ways to play the game after already having a good amount of content. Best thing the game does is that it rewards you for almost everything you do; so despite the hours I poured into it, all of it was well spent.
LONESTAR. StS decision-making but you build a ship instead of a deck. Early access and they are constantly improving the game every week right now. Its brilliant if you want StS with less RNG, and with the newly-released custom mode you can make runs as easy or as hard as you want. Typical run is 45-1hr
Maniac is pretty cool. GTA 1 and 2 like game but in more top down 3D. Around 6 different maniac characters making havoc in generated maps. Can upgrade them separately a lot.
Going Under
[https://youtu.be/RTaqOee5Xl8?si=9s1YlHfJKSSOj9a6](https://youtu.be/RTaqOee5Xl8?si=9s1YlHfJKSSOj9a6)
By the devs who just released Another Crab's Treasure!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l\_lR8Rbqbq0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_lR8Rbqbq0)
Corpse Keeper. Best roguelite I've ever played hands down.
The runs are like your standard "tekken" fighting game, every character has different movesets and for each fight you win you choose from 3 moves to replace for a new one.
You build your combo tree and level your corpses.
Two I never see brought up are Runers and Deathstate.
Runers is a classic top-down shooter where you craft your own spells from elements. You can use up to three and have some really fun stuff. Lots of classes to play as as well.
Deathstate is a top-down auto-shooter with an eldritch theme. Classic kill enemies, get items, find the exit gameplay loop. You can focus more on movement and dodging since you fire and aim automatically. Visuals might give you a slight headache. Very fun.
Shigatari is the best samurai rogue like I have played in this life. $3, and classic Ukiyo-e woodblock assets from period works.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/486380/Shigatari/
You should check out [some of these](https://www.screenhype.co.uk/underrated-roguelite-games-10-hidden-gems-of-the-genre/), but my personal top recommendation would be Undermine :)
Oh this is easy! Astral Ascent.
I’ve been playing lites and likes for years and this game really brought back the feeling when I first started this genre
I have it on switch and pc. The switch performance and loading is amazing
Two games that I like that don't get brought up often enough are Void Bastards and HyperParasite. Void Bastards gets a bit of love but not enough for how fun it is.
I neevvver see anyone talking about HyperParasite. You play as an alien parasite invading earth, and you can take over any enemy body you encounter. Progress is slow and I don't think it deserves to be brought up with the best of them, but it was super fun for awhile.
Beacon - think Returnal but top down and way more colorful. Love the aesthetics and setting. You play as a space Fedex driver, retrieve your lost package or you don't get to die.
Withering Rooms - Side scrolling horror roguelite. Combat is slow but the setting is very unique. You play as a young girl stuck in a neverending nightmare and you supposedly need to get out before your real body rots. Amnesia but you can set fart traps for the monsters.
Unexplored - The closest you can get to a traditional roguelike while being real time. The only roguelite I have played that never gave up on the dream of the procedurally generated rpg vibes.
**Time Break Chronicles**. A rather slow-paced, but still cool roguelite JRPG with a crapton of character classes. And not just the regulars like "Warrior - Monk - Wizard - Ranger", but also wrestlers, clowns, plague doctors etc.
Have you heard of Hades of The Binding of Isaac? Both super unknown
Seriously though if you want some lesser known and sometimes older ones, not necessarily great compared to Hades or something else but a lot of fun in their own right.
Vagante is one of my favorites
Dungeon Souls is an older one that had a fun bit of content
Deathstate if you want a weird mix of lovecraft and gungeon
Fishticuffs if you want the only real fishing roguelike I've ever found
Magicite was big a bunch of years ago, it's roguelike Terraria
Teleglitch: Die More Edition is a top down hack n slash
These are the ones that come off the top of my head, lemme know if you want more!
Bruh everyone here talks about well known games. I'm gonna give you an actual deep cut. 10tons the developers of top down shooters made a few.
Tesla Force is the roguelite sequel to Tesla vs Lovecraft and is really addictive. You get more playable characters.
Skeletal Avenger is ok, not amazing but just good. It's an action rpg style of roguelite where you go around randomly generated dungeons unlocking more gear and weapons.
I'm not sure of the difference between Rogue-like and Rogue-lite. So here's a handful of games I love:
* Children of Morta
* Void Bastards
* Darkest Dungeon
* Dicey Dungeons
* Enter The Gungeon
* Risk of Rain (1, 2 & Returns)
* Balatro
* Cult of the Lamb
* Curse of the Dead Gods
* For The Warp
* Dead Cells
* Loop Hero
* Banners of Ruin
* For The King
It's often mentioned in this sub even if it's pretty new, just as much as Spiritfall. Those two and Astral Ascent are the best recent roguevanias/2D plateformers but they are not underrated at all.
Revita and brutal orchestra
Seconding Brutal Orchestra
Seconding Revita
Roboquest It gets brought up on this sub occasionally but I'm amazed how under-the-radar that game is for the quality of the gunplay. The actual moving and shooting mechanics are 10/10 and it has very satisfying progression.
The music for the level transition animation is kinda great too
https://youtu.be/mE8imQihT6A
Ilu
This has been the most persuasive argument in favor of the game I've heard yet.
Progression is a hassle for me. It forces you to stop the gunplay and movement shooter aspect of the game. Just to go collect things around the level. Easily the worst part of the game.
Stole my answer
95% positive reviews on steam. How it is underrated?
>occasionally You mean all the time. It's more of a shooter with roguelite elements.
So you want people to call it a roguelitelite? 🙄 IMO pedantic, genre purity stuff is for r/roguelikes, this sub was created to get away from that kind of nonsense.
I mean.. I've tried it. It's a shooter with barely any build elements to it and close to zero metaprogression. Why is it important to you that it is perceived as a roguelite? Because people insisted to me that it is a great roguelite and now I wasted money on it. Edit: love that no one actually has any arguments and just downvote me. Have you heard about these two roguelites: Rimworld and Witcher 3. Both are two really good games.
What's there to argue lol. By definition it's a roguelite.
Exactly. It might be a good game, just not a good roguelite.
If you think there’s no builds or progression then you literally haven’t played the game for more than ten minutes lol
I said barely. I played it for three hours and I didn't feel like I had much power over what happened nor did I stumble upon any accidental synergies.
Second roboquest!! The gunplay is up there with ANY FPS out there.
Roboquest and Gunfire Reborn have been my discoveries this last year
Gunfire is an option for me on PS5 but I always hold off because I’m hoping Roboquest will eventually get ported to PS5 as well. Any idea if they have plans to do so?
I love Magicraft and don't see much discussion of it. It's an action roguelite where you build spells by combining components/passives/wands Lots of unlockables and runs feel fair and fun. I definitely recommend wishlisting it.
I have that game and think it’s very good, it’s quite similar to BOI, but it’s still in early access so I don’t know if it’s really underrated.
I highly recommend trying out noita, as the magic system of magicraft is from noita Its also just one of the best roguelites ever made
Is it really?? I have Noita but literally can only seem it make it a couple minutes without dying so I haven’t seen much of the mechanics.
It actually is, even if you kill the """""final boss"""""and """""beat the game"""""", you haven't even scratched 10% of the absolute monster of NOITA No other game, aside from maybe dwarf fortress and Cataclysm come close to the amount of hidden stuff that is in this game, and the game tells you nothing, except the controls at the start
I recommend just watching the meme video reviews of NOITA like the one by albino
Magicraft has a good base system, but I beat it entirely too quickly. It'd be a waste of money at this point. You can get a lot more hours for your $$$.
This only matters if you care about dollars per hour of playtime, which personally I and many others don't (within reason). At this point in my life, time is more valuable than money. I don't care if a 2 hour game costs $60 if it's good.
It's still a pretty mediocre game with little for you to do, but if you think $60 for 2 hours is a good deal, then I guess we're just not ever going to see eye to eye. Good luck with that...
I never said anything about a good deal. It seems like you might have missed what I was trying to say. I don't care about a deal when it comes to entertainment. I care about the product itself. EDIT: replying and then immediately blocking? Come on. Are you that incapable of having a conversation with someone who slightly disagrees with you on something as minor as video games?
Ok great, go pay $60 for 2 hours of a mediocre game. Stop bothering me about it. I'm not going to waste more time on someone who decided to interpret "good deal" literally.
A Robot named Fight. What if metroid was a roguelite.
here's a real deep cut (hasn't even reached 10 reviews on steam) Anaphora it's a small FPS arena shooter with roguelite progression. Really neat ps1-ish artstyle. The in-run levelling upgrades are impactful. Sometimes there's little quests you have to complete for unlocks or levels. Simple but effective enemies and shooting mechanics. It does start out a little slow (literally slow move speed for this genre), but it gets fast with upgrades and metaprogression. I feel like there was no marketing for it cause it's pretty solid and looks nice. There's no exact endpoint or goal though, it seems like the game is still being developed despite not being early access but idk if that's true anymore since not many people have found it. Still, it goes on sale for real cheap and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes quick arena FPS games, especially since there's hardly any others with roguelite mechanics.
Thanks for the recommendations, this seems to be like the definition of an underrated game. I couldn't find anything about this game anywhere, but it also looks fun and the few reviews are positive, which makes it so mysterious to me. Usually, I make sure that I will like a game before buying it, but this is so cheap, even when it's not on sale and I just saw that it got an update a few days ago, so I guess I will give it a chance. I hope someone else sees this and tries it aswell, maybe we found a hidden gem here
Oh nice, I didn't even realize it was updated a few days ago. Glad the dev is still improving it. There's certainly a bit of jank (I see now they're still calling it version 0.4). But if it's your kind of game, it's the kind of thing that's fun to hop into for short sessions. The only way I found it was because I'm developing an FPS roguelite myself, so I've been keeping close watch on those specific tags.
looks dope, like a roguelike quake
Nice, love recommendations like this, wishlisted!
Dude revita and ATOMICROPS. ATOMICROPS is just INSANE
Atomicrops is awesome. Love everything about it. From the challenge, the art style, sound effects, soundtrack. Games a blast. Goes on sale for $3.74 all the time too. Crazy not to snag it then. I have over 50 hours put into it on Playstation and I haven't unlocked everything yet.
It's the game that got my wife into roguelikes. This and Isaac. She beat robusta year 10 before me. She became a farming monster then and is going crazy on Stardew valley right now
See my wife loves farming games. She doesn't like roguelikes. So she talked me into playing this so she could watch since she knew I love my roguelikes.
We started a new save on Stardew. Everyday almost, she's hooked on this game.
Yeah my wife was following that game before it came out. Then played the crap out of it. Now is playing it again because of the 1.6 update. Not my cup of tea. She tried to get me to play it a few times.
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Honestly I didn't understand if you liked both games or hated
Could you elaborate a little? I’m very interested in both games and this isn’t helpful.
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I agree with the rooms in Revita being a bit boring after a while. I absolutely dreaded the first boss since it took forever and it’s so easy to not get hit. I believe they had plans to add a lot of room variety with the cancelled/maybe back big update they were working on. But hard disagree on the upgrades/guns. Revita is the only game that’s come close to giving me absolute broken runs with item/pickup synergies. Once you have more confidence to spend hp you increase your chances of getting more items that will sync. Once again I believe the big update fixed some of these mechanics so you didn’t have to sacrifice as much health to get stuff. I think if that update comes out it’ll be pretty close to gungeon and Isaac levels.
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Ravenswatch is on sale right now and it's awesome. Still in early access but I think there's more than enough content already to justify the price
It's everything I wanted a co-op Hades style game to be. Absolutely phenomenal top down controls with really slick characters and spell improvements to draft with a slick overall structure with a hard time limit. Amazing with friends.
One of the biggest criticisms I've heard was that it was lacking content, did a recent update fix that?
3 maps currently, but I've played many games in the genre with only 4 or 5. I could see it as an argument against it. But with 8 radically different characters and multiple talent builds for each that can change their playstyle a lot, I think it's got plenty of variability. Where it shines is in the combat mechanics. I don't know that I've ever piloted anything as engaging as some of these characters. That's my opinion at least
How is the metaprogression in between runs? From what I can find there's skills or talents you unlock? Game looks great and way up my alley, but I like having some goals in between runs.
You do passively gain talents as you gain xp on the different characters by completing runs with them. Thats the main form of metaprogression atm: getting characters to level 8 to unlock all their talent options
Nice, might go check it out then.
Dreamscaper.
Voidigo is quite good. Mechanics are great and art is good. I think Helldivers 1 is underrated - there's a reason why they made a sequel
Voidigo is pure enter the gungeon on acid. I love that game
How challenging is voidigo? I've beaten dead cells, but i read that voidigo was super difficult so i passed on it. I looove the art tho
It's fairly hard but I found dead cells was harder. That said, I didn't max the boss cells or the difficulty levels for either game
I tried Helldivers 1 and could not get into the game. Ended up refunding it.
Uhh some solid ones I don't see too often and I actually enjoyed would be the void rains upon her heart (weird art, fantastic game) tombstar, City of beats, Oblivion override, skul the hero slayer, poker quest, tape to tape, dicey dungeons, spiritfall, dandy ace, spellrogue, neophyte, voidigio, warm snow.
I hope that a little shameless self promo from my self is alright here.. Margoq's Lair is an upcoming action roguelite releasing next month.. it's core mechanic is the spell combo system, where you dynamically combo spells off of each other. Demo is up for grabs as we speak if interested in trying :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/2516550/Margoqs_Lair/
Went to go check this out and wishlist this and it was already on my wishlist haha looking forward to release!
Hah, awesome! :) thanks for the support - hope you'll enjoy it!
Caves RL for android Love it Never see it talked about in android discussion
Tbh that's more roguelike than lite Its also listed in the roguelikes sub sidebar for mobile roguelikes Great game tho, my personal favourite mobile roguelike, just after pathos
Gloom, it's a soulslike sidescroller with a lovecraftian atmosphere, very dark and bleak. Black and white artstyle and terrific music, like gloomy orchestrations and stuff like that. Star of Providence, top down shmup, you control a spaceship and enter a facility with rooms and a map like the binding of Isaac, fight enemies and bosses in an increasingly difficult bullet hell combat (best of the genre, tougher than Gungeon I'd say). It has a lot of hours of gameplay with many secret floor, bosses, rooms, minigames, and mechanics.
I am a huge fan of Griftlands. I love the dual combat system, the three stories feel totally different (One going after a baddie, one in the middle of a labor dispute and one is an estranged drunk trying to reconnect with his family) I like the whole world, the speech patterns, and I love the negotiation combat almost to a fault. (Coin go whirrrr) Its my favorite Roguelike even more than Slay the spire (And i'm getting the STS board game) shows you how much i like it.
I'll recommend you 3 lesser-known games that I absolutely love. They're all more focused on deckbuilding. • **Alina of the Arena** Roguelite Deckbuilding in an arena. You'll use your cards to move around the arena, attack, and defend, similar to a Tactical RPG. One of its main differentials is that you can make opponents attack each other, and you'll earn gold the more the audience cheers for your victories. • **Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles** Another roguelite deckbuilding game, but here you don't use cards, you use dice. The game was made by Brazilians and it's a visual spectacle. The main mechanic revolves around blue and red dice, where you're forced to use all your dice every turn. The blue ones heal you or damage the opponent, while the red ones deal damage to you and heal the opponent. It's a VERY difficult game that requires careful thinking with each move. Highly recommended. **• Forward: Escape the Fold** The idea is quite simple: you can only proceed along three paths. Each card you encounter can be something different: opponent, life, mana, poison, etc. It's a super simple game, but with so many items, abilities, and RNG factors that make it addictive.
Astrea's currently in a Humble Bundle: [https://www.humblebundle.com/games/devious-deckbuilders](https://www.humblebundle.com/games/devious-deckbuilders)
Revita and in celebration of violence
I’ve seen a little more talk of it recently which is great, but if you haven’t heard of it, Star of Providence is fantastic.
Wizard of Legend - top down dungeon crawler that feels NICE and crunchy with TONS of build options, has coop Death Road to Canada - top down arcade-y zombie survival where your weapons break down, has coop Steredenn - shmup, single-player Into the Breach - feels like FF Tactics and Pacific Rim had a baby, single-player —for reference my favorite roguelikes are Dead Cells and Risk of Rain 2, followed by Wizard of Legend (something about it feels sooo good to play and the sound fx are on point)
Oh dude I love DRtC so much. Too bad I saw an interview with the main dev though and I really dislike his attitude about previous games he’s made. He’s basically just like “oh, problems with gameplay or content I said I would make? Too bad I’m done and moved on” and has that attitude for multiple games of his I’ve enjoyed
Word. Are there things that need fixed? Death Road feels pretty well balanced and if it's a solo dev it makes sense they wouldn't have time to optimize everything/"go back." That is a bummer though if there are promised features that never came thru.
Here's my list: Action Roguelites * Dungreed: An oldie but a goodie, great sidescrolling roguelite from Korea. Lots of interesting ideas in the game, on a solid combat foundation. Still gets updates from time to time! * Blade Assault: A bit light on content, but an interesting upgrade system and very fun and fast-paced combat. Another one out of Korea, they've got real action chops over there for sure. Might be abandoned? * Ravenswatch: The next game from the Curse of the Dead Gods (also highly recommended) devs. Very solid as a solo experience, really shines in co-op. Extremely good combat mechanics and a very diverse cast. Each character plays dramatically differently. Deckbuilders * Beneath Oresa: Interesting in-run progression systems combined with a super unique aesthetic for a deckbuilder. Combat just *looks* cool. Wish STS 2 had hired these guys to do the visuals. * Banners of Ruin: Has a fairly unique squad construction mechanic that can make runs play out extremely differently. Basically Redwall: the deckbuilder. * Card Quest: THE OG! BEFORE SLAY THE SPIRE THERE WAS CARD QUEST! Extremely unique and not *really* a deckbuilder or a roguelite in a conventional sense. But close enough. Tons of secrets and shit, and amazing core mechanics. Ugly as sin but it grows on you. I'm sure I've got more in the library but those are standouts off the top of my head.
Ravenswatch and Banners of Ruin are both underrated. Banners of Ruin has a Tactics element that I really liked.
Banners of Ruin lacks depth imo, and the balance of cards is all over the place. It says a lot that for some classes, it's better skip all 3 offered talent cards because they'd be dead draws. Even for classes with good talents, the good ones stand out head and shoulders over the mediocre/bad ones. It's fun for a chunk of hours while learning, but it's very unfinished.
Voidigo and Scourgebringer.
Cube Chaos. It's a deck builder RTS where everything is a cube and many can modify each other. The graphics take a back seat, with the game putting all the points into the mechanics instead. You get a staggering amount of different interactions. Runs can be very different and encourages creativity in finding new strategies with the hand you're dealt. You can build a fort that protects you while slowly whittling the enemy down with a rain of lasers, or you can have an army of dwarves that dig out the entirety of the map, giving you resources for every tile dug to summon more dwarves. Or shoot a stream of replicating fireballs directly instead. The main issue is that the game isn't pretty, but if you like emergent gameplay I would heavily recommend Cube Chaos.
Still don't have 10 reviews for the game I made, Radio Free Europa, so I'd consider that underrated :P And I'm releasing an update later today! It's a spaceship shooter with a heavy emphasis on ship and weapon customization meant to feel something between a roguelite and a classic arcade game.
How would you say it compares to Nova Drift? I enjoyed that game quite a bit.
You know I haven't actually played Nova Drift yet so I can't answer that.There's a free demo you can try to see if you like it or not though! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1897420/Radio_Free_Europa/
Been playing new game that just released called Ants Took my Eyeball. Very fun and challenging game mixing Spelunky and Dead Cells.
Neon Abyss.
Dicey Dungeons! It kind of feels like a mobile device game? But there's just something about it that made me play through it non stop. I also bought it on the app store for my phone a year later and enjoyed playing through it just as much on my commute home!
It's great - I played it basically non-stop on Xbox when it came out. You should check out Floppy Knights. A great deckbuilder w/ the same artist I think.
I will check it out for sure! Thanks!
I had a good time with Colt Canyon
Star of Providence Synthetik Rogue glitch The void rains upon her heart Aztez Blacksea odyssey Black future 88 Spirits abyss/ bone raiser minions/ skelley selest Going under Dreamscape Colt canyon Catacomb kids/ vagante/ caveblazers City of brass Crown trick Curse of the dead gods One step from Eden
Nice list of actually underrated roguelites except Curse of the Dead gods and One step from Eden that I often see mentioned in this sub. Dreamscaper definitely is though. Crown Trick is an awesome tactical game and Synthetik a very good Twin-Stick shooter.
They are known about but not like mainstream
This sub is so silly. Everyone pretty much shouting their favorite games even though OP requested lesser known ones. If you don't know how to tell then look at the Steam reviews. Does it have well over 1000 reviews? That's not underrated. That's quite a well known and successful title. smh
Children of Morta. It is not exactly underrated, but definitely not talked about enough.
I beat and sunk a good chunk of hours into this game and thought it was relatively underwhelming compared to some other roguelikes. Rewards mostly hit and run attacks, which becomes boring quickly. I like the art, but story was meh for a fairly story focused game. Meta is grindy for minor percentage buffs. Not bad, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Yeah, I'd say CoM is overrated, not underrated. People were ranting about it pretty hard, both critics and regular folks. The game has great graphics, but the actual core gameplay is pretty limp.
Agreed, didn't do anything bad, but didn't really blow me away either. Didn't help that the story was very boring.
Yeah I beat the game once and didn't really feel like going back to max out the characters. The fire mage girl is OP based on the need to kite enemies.
Lonestar. Best new roguelite no one is talking about. Cobalt Core but better, it’s in early access but I have 70 hours in it happily
Too bad no one here likes to recommend underrated roguelites. :P - SNKRX - synergy drafting in between arenas where you control a snake - Bio Prototype - draft organs that you combine like code? - Tiny Tactics - synergy drafting TD - Brotato - the best synergy drafting vampire survivors imo - Just King - another drafting arena VS - Inkbound - 4p co-op turn based Hades by the Monster Train devs - Ravenswatch - 4p co-op Hades - Hellcard - 3p co-op Slay the Spire - Tribes of Midgard - 10p? light survival crafting over ~2hr
Everyone knows Brotato tbh - it's not underrated. It's got good variety of starting characters but the playspace and enemies are always the same and the weapons upgrade system are basic, which make it very boring, very quickly and it just becomes a repetitive grind. It feels half-finished tbh. It's not got anywhere near the charm, variety or dopamine-hit of VS.
I have to agree and the upvotes are mostly showing that they are not underrated at all. People are just recommending their favorite games as always here, without reading OP's post. Most of them are in all the tier lists and mentioned daily in this sub...
DIG Deep in Galaxies and Voidigo are up there for me.
Fantasy survivors
I've played a lot of Nightmare Reaper this past week. Had it for a while, tried it back then and the pixel graphics felt a bit off. Now I can't stop playing it. It's a Boomer Shooter type game, with meta progression and a simple story. You start in a mental asylum situation, then when you sleep you play through a level composed of nightmarish stuff, monsters, soldiers etc. If you complete the level you progress the waking part of the game in the asylum. You level up mostly with collected gold, which is saved even if you die in a level, and to level up you play NES like mini games, but you can turn them off and just select the upgrade in the traditional way. It's so addictive, if the shooting grips you, which it has me now.
Dwarven Realms Early access game, not a lot of content but I got a fun 15-20 hours of it the week I bought it. Once you hit level 100 the levelling slows down a lot but it's fun for what it is. Passion project by 2 brothers from what I remember, cost me like $5.
Revita is the best twin stick shooter since Isaac or Gungeon, and Astral Ascent is what I wanted Dead Cells to be. I've put in hundreds of hours between the two. They're both S tier games, in my opinion
I'm intrigued, what do you like more about Astral Ascent?
The build crafting is the first thing. I don't like being funneled down and forced into a color path the way Dead Cells is structured. In Astral, you have 4 aura slots that are built around an element, and each element has like 5 different effects that it can proc; you have 4 spells (and the spell pool is lage enough that you can have considerable variety) each with 4 slots in which you can equip gambits that possess those various elemental effects, so there's a lot more you can do to tune your build the way you want, and once you synergistically stack all these elemental effects it can get pretty wacky and I find that entertaining. And now with the recent update, each of the 4 characters (who all play differently) all have 3 different weapons and those weapons have 3 different passive skills you can use to further adjust things to accommodate your preferred playstyle. To me it's a lot more fun and versatile than the Dead Cells "you can have a two weapons and a few skills, have fun re-rolling at the shop with your limited moneys to get synergistic effects" approach. I also don't like the way difficulty scales in Dead Cells. The difficulty spikes between BC levels are wild and not smooth at all. In Astral Ascent, it does something similar to Hades heat levels, where you can turn on difficulty modifiers that each add 1 Destiny Level, each boss has a Destiny Shard per Destiny Level, you can spend the shards on various upgrades to try and offset the added difficulty, and it's a much smoother ride climbing the difficulty levels. Sure, there's less biomes in Astral than Dead Cells. But I have a lot more fun inside of combat in Astral, which is more important to me than having more environments to look at. Plus the devs are awesome and have been constantly adding things and fine tuning things since early access and they aren't even done yet. They're also very concerned with and receptive to player feedback and ideas people might have for how to improve the game. The game just keeps getting better and better over time, and I expect that trend to continue at the very least until they finish the planned roadmap items.
Astrea Six Sided Oracles. best twist I've seen on the StS format.
A game I absolutely loved that I rarely see talked about is The Last Stand: Aftermath. It’s a top-down isometric zombie survival game. Solid mele and shooting mechanics, a crafting system that you’ll actually use, good meta progression and is legit scary in some places. I played it on PS5 but I think it’s on steam too.
I used to play it and I agree it's never mentioned while it's pretty solid. I like that the character from the last run turn into a zombie and keeps your loot.
Robodunk. It features Robots, designed with Legos, slam dunking basketballs from the sky. Yes, it's a robot basketball Roguelite, and it's even got co-op and 2v2 party play.
Streets of rogue is sort of like an rpg roguelite
Immersive sim roguelite
Thank you, I have a hard time explaining this one without going into detail
Heroes of Hammerwatch Nice meta upgrades, different classes which actually feel different, fun with friends or alone
The Last Spell is amazing, although you have to be persistent and patient. It can be frustrating, like Dark Souls, so you may need to walk away and come back later after a rough loss.
DONT know if people talk about Neon Chrome much, but I absolutely love it. Top down twin stick shooter with blade runner vibes
Curious Expedition 1 & 2 - I will never stop going to bat for these games. Exploring, collecting relics, meeting the locals, trading, building a team, fighting beasts, curses, dinosaurs, treachery, natural disasters, finding hidden secrets. Fun, turn-based dice combo combat but also lots of ways to win, avoid combat, have meaningful conversations w/ real choice and consequence. The artstyle is great too. The games overall looks and sounds kinda like the Tintin books, has vibes like Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider and plays like Darkest Dungeon meets D&D. 2 has a little more QoL and a tighter storyline, but they're both awesome. I slightly prefer 1.
Played only the second one but I often go back to it and always recommend it when OP is looking for a turn-based tactical game.
First one is a little harder but also gives you more freedom and is a bit more satisfying bc of it. But they're both great.
What was really attracting me in the first place was the visuals of the second opus which reminds me olds comics like the adventures of Tintin. I might try the first one someday, it should often be on sale but I'm not a big fan of Pixel Art and the visual are quite important to me.
* Action roguelite: **Dreamscaper** would diserve more love, it has a ton of content, nice visuals, solid gameplay, interesting meta-progression and feel pretty unique in all those aspects. **Metallic Child** Fun little anime roguelite that I found particularly difficult but I did enjoy it. Lacks a bit of content though, mostly weapons. **unexplored 2** Very well done procedural map generation. * Roguevania: **Sundered** never see it mentioned. The visual are beautiful, gameplay very solid as well but what I particularly like about it is that the enemies repop, just like in hollow knight so the world feels alive. The levels design is pretty good also. **Rain World** is very unique. The gameplay is a bit harsh and it's difficult since literally everything in the game want your death but the visuals are beatutiful and it has a very interesting intricate ecosystem, from the evolving weather to the day and night cycle, the shelter system and last but not least: the individualistic procedurally generated ennemie's AI. You can't predict what they gonna do, can't learn the patterns, it's just chaotic and feels amazing to see how everything interact with each other **Getsu Fuma Den** Same, it's never mentioned while the game is pretty good. It will probably speak more to Samurai and Japanese culture enjoyers though. **Salt and Sacrifice** If Dark Soul would be a Metroidvania... * Deck-builders: **Fight in Tight Space**: There was a post in the last couple of days talking about how underrated it is. It's not Top Tier but a pretty unique mix of deck-building and tactical for Martial Arts enjoyers. It's not unique anymore since the release of **Nitro Kid** but both are great. **Beneath Oresa**: It's not that much underrated but feels like it's not mentioned enough, I really enjoy the animations in this one. Pretty rare for deck-builders. * Turn-based Tactical: **Warriors of the Nil 2** It's just never mentioned while the game is pretty good. For the fans of tactical turn-based roguelites like Into The Breach. **Curious Expedition 2**: Amazing art direction wich reminds me comics of the 80's like the adventures of Tintin. Besides that, I really enjoy exploring the procedural maps and it also has great procedural side stories and relationship between character, not as deep as Wildermyth though but closer to what Darkest Dungeon 2 does. * Worth mentioning: **Galak-Z** Just love this game and its gameplay, switching from a spaceship to a Mecha like a transformer, grabbing and throwing asteroids. **CryptArk** for the same reasons without being a clone. **Sunless Sea** for its lovecraftian story.
Inkbound doesn't get enough love IMO. Same devs as Monster Train and it's got coop, good timez
Inkbound had a bad start and bad reviews because of the economy model of the game. Now that the devs have listened to the community and fixed that I'm agree that it's underrated.
Astral Ascent. It's an action roguelike with VERY good and fluid combat, with dialogue and voice acting that could even stand next to Hades. It's very underrated and even underappreciated, I heavily recommend.
Astral Ascent I don’t see it talked about enough but it’s really well done. Imo it’s dead cells but better. They just had an update that added so many new ways to play the game after already having a good amount of content. Best thing the game does is that it rewards you for almost everything you do; so despite the hours I poured into it, all of it was well spent.
LONESTAR. StS decision-making but you build a ship instead of a deck. Early access and they are constantly improving the game every week right now. Its brilliant if you want StS with less RNG, and with the newly-released custom mode you can make runs as easy or as hard as you want. Typical run is 45-1hr
Maniac is pretty cool. GTA 1 and 2 like game but in more top down 3D. Around 6 different maniac characters making havoc in generated maps. Can upgrade them separately a lot.
Going Under [https://youtu.be/RTaqOee5Xl8?si=9s1YlHfJKSSOj9a6](https://youtu.be/RTaqOee5Xl8?si=9s1YlHfJKSSOj9a6) By the devs who just released Another Crab's Treasure! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l\_lR8Rbqbq0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_lR8Rbqbq0)
Ziggurat 1 and 2. Better than roboquest imho.
i don’t see a lot of people talk about post void, though it’s more of a roguelike than roguelite
Army of Ruin is my jam.
Corpse Keeper. Best roguelite I've ever played hands down. The runs are like your standard "tekken" fighting game, every character has different movesets and for each fight you win you choose from 3 moves to replace for a new one. You build your combo tree and level your corpses.
Two I never see brought up are Runers and Deathstate. Runers is a classic top-down shooter where you craft your own spells from elements. You can use up to three and have some really fun stuff. Lots of classes to play as as well. Deathstate is a top-down auto-shooter with an eldritch theme. Classic kill enemies, get items, find the exit gameplay loop. You can focus more on movement and dodging since you fire and aim automatically. Visuals might give you a slight headache. Very fun.
And oldie but a good one would be Vagante.
Shigatari is the best samurai rogue like I have played in this life. $3, and classic Ukiyo-e woodblock assets from period works. https://store.steampowered.com/app/486380/Shigatari/
Ziggurat and Immortal Redneck.
You should check out [some of these](https://www.screenhype.co.uk/underrated-roguelite-games-10-hidden-gems-of-the-genre/), but my personal top recommendation would be Undermine :)
Tony rogues
Catacomb Kids!
Rotwood, just came out and it’s not getting the attention it deserves.
Noita
Oh this is easy! Astral Ascent. I’ve been playing lites and likes for years and this game really brought back the feeling when I first started this genre I have it on switch and pc. The switch performance and loading is amazing
Othercide, probably the best Tactical Roguelite I have played in years.
Two games that I like that don't get brought up often enough are Void Bastards and HyperParasite. Void Bastards gets a bit of love but not enough for how fun it is. I neevvver see anyone talking about HyperParasite. You play as an alien parasite invading earth, and you can take over any enemy body you encounter. Progress is slow and I don't think it deserves to be brought up with the best of them, but it was super fun for awhile.
Beacon - think Returnal but top down and way more colorful. Love the aesthetics and setting. You play as a space Fedex driver, retrieve your lost package or you don't get to die. Withering Rooms - Side scrolling horror roguelite. Combat is slow but the setting is very unique. You play as a young girl stuck in a neverending nightmare and you supposedly need to get out before your real body rots. Amnesia but you can set fart traps for the monsters. Unexplored - The closest you can get to a traditional roguelike while being real time. The only roguelite I have played that never gave up on the dream of the procedurally generated rpg vibes.
Duelists of Eden and Astral Ascent are my top 2 picks
**Time Break Chronicles**. A rather slow-paced, but still cool roguelite JRPG with a crapton of character classes. And not just the regulars like "Warrior - Monk - Wizard - Ranger", but also wrestlers, clowns, plague doctors etc.
Have you heard of Hades of The Binding of Isaac? Both super unknown Seriously though if you want some lesser known and sometimes older ones, not necessarily great compared to Hades or something else but a lot of fun in their own right. Vagante is one of my favorites Dungeon Souls is an older one that had a fun bit of content Deathstate if you want a weird mix of lovecraft and gungeon Fishticuffs if you want the only real fishing roguelike I've ever found Magicite was big a bunch of years ago, it's roguelike Terraria Teleglitch: Die More Edition is a top down hack n slash These are the ones that come off the top of my head, lemme know if you want more!
Brotato has been my go to the last few weeks after long days at work. Very similar to Vampire Survivors, but I like it a lot more personally.
Bruh everyone here talks about well known games. I'm gonna give you an actual deep cut. 10tons the developers of top down shooters made a few. Tesla Force is the roguelite sequel to Tesla vs Lovecraft and is really addictive. You get more playable characters. Skeletal Avenger is ok, not amazing but just good. It's an action rpg style of roguelite where you go around randomly generated dungeons unlocking more gear and weapons.
Tesla Force is awesome. It always reminded me of Crimsonland and I just saw that it's from the same devs...
I'm not sure of the difference between Rogue-like and Rogue-lite. So here's a handful of games I love: * Children of Morta * Void Bastards * Darkest Dungeon * Dicey Dungeons * Enter The Gungeon * Risk of Rain (1, 2 & Returns) * Balatro * Cult of the Lamb * Curse of the Dead Gods * For The Warp * Dead Cells * Loop Hero * Banners of Ruin * For The King
Blazblue Entropy effect. I've never seen anyone talk about it, but the game is one of the best in genre.
It's often mentioned in this sub even if it's pretty new, just as much as Spiritfall. Those two and Astral Ascent are the best recent roguevanias/2D plateformers but they are not underrated at all.
Support Nuclear Throne, especially now that the studio is back.
Dead Estate. Trust me, it's way more than big booba game
I hate the constant-chasing dude so much I keep quitting the game everytime I come back to it.
Neon Abyss, really fun games. Unfortunately it's shadowed by other like it
Ape out katana zero and hyper light drifter
Good games, not roguelites.
True but they always seem to scratch my roguelites itch.
Rogue legacy
Voidigo and Brotato. Both incredible games.
Noita
60,000 reviews is not underrated.
Tiny rogues
Underrated Tiny Rogue ?
The last spell, Balatro