Question What's your all-time favorite roguelite/roguelike?

[mikeisekim]

Simple as the question says: what's your all time favorite roguelite/roguelike?

It's a genre that's been very dear to my heart since I picked up The Binding of Isaac: Wrath of the Lamb when it was the latest version. I've fallen away a bit from it but it always tempts me back.

I'm inclined to say that it should be TBOI:Repentance - as it's the one I have the most hours in, but I'm curious as to what games you guys have played and enjoyed within the genre. Bonus question: what's the best example of an FPS/Roguelite hybrid you've seen? I remember a bunch having promise but none of them truly popped out at me - but this was years ago.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Closest I get are Slay the Spire and FTL. Which are run based, but maybe not exactly Roguelike/Lite?

Out of those two Slay the Spire I've easily spent way more time in.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played Angband and Frogcomposband for a while. I think Angband is generally better, but Frogcomposband is a lot more fun to mess around in once you get tired of Angband.

I've played FTL and Rogue Legacy and didn't care much for either. I do love Don't Starve: Together, but with the multiplayer it becomes more of a roguelite, at most.

On Android, there's Pixel Dungeon, Desktop Dungeons and Caves, of which Caves held my attention the longest.

I've also played Crying Suns, which is described as a Roguelike but doesn't feel like one to me. For one, you only have to redo a single run if you fail and the runs are pretty short, so I wouldn't consider that proper permadeath.

 

[Zloth]

NetHack - though I haven't played it in years.

I de-rogue it, though, by copying my save off and restoring it if I die. (I thought that was part of the game, and why they called it "Hack" way back when I first played it!)

 

[Mazer]

For a period of almost a year, some time ago and due in part to a hopelessly outdated PC I used to struggle by with, I almost exclusively played ZangbandTK, a variant of Angband with mod-cons like drop-down menus and robust mouse control options. It just had so much variety of classes and races, you could be a Mindflayer-Mindcrafter to double up on Psionic abilities and mind control half the monsters on each dungeon level, or a Beastman-Chaos Warrior who gains multiple random mutations every level and ends up with bird-feet and laser-vision, or a Fairy-Paladin flying around in a tiny set of plate-mail absolutely rinsing the undead with light magic. One of my longest lived characters was a Skeleton Warrior named Slim Jim with immunities to most of the status effects in the game and no food requirements, who finally fell in battle with a group of Ents.

The other roguelike to take up a lot of my time was Risk Of Rain. The relatively few class abilities were made up for by their interplay and the far more interesting skills you got from item pickups. Haven't played the second one yet but it's on my to-do list.

 

[mikeisekim]

Haven't played the second one yet but it's on my to-do list.

Oh man, how did I forget about ROR2. Maybe the one bright spot of quarantine was that game soaking up all my time. Great game.

 

[McStabStab]

Into the Breach.

Honorable mention goes to Slay the Spire. Also playing Hades now which is a blast.

 

[mikeisekim]

Grabbed Into the Breach free on Epic and haven't launched it yet. HDD recently just died so as soon as I swap it I'm installing it and giving it a go.

Also playing Hades now which is a blast.

One friend of mine is absolutely begging all of us to play it, so it may actually be a toss up.