r/roguelites

Guys astral ascent is on sale for 10 dollars and white snow for 12...which is better if I want a challenging game with amazing build variety and good parrying....as I have seen astral ascent videos, the art style just did not vibe with me

..is it still good..

TL;DR

I want recommendations for more action oriented roguelites where you don't rely on builds, where the game is always challenging and engaging, with little to no downtime, and that focus more on their core gameplay to the point where even if the game didn't have RNG it would still be awesome.

So, I'm not really into roguelites that much. I've completely bounced off some of the most beloved games in the genre like Dead Cells, Hades and Skul, and even for most of the games that I did like such as StS and Into the Breach I didn't get quite as much out of them as others seem to have. With those two I and some other games I play and enjoy them, but after a couple dozen hours I start rapidly losing interest, then I force myself to play them to feel like I got my money's worth and around the 100~ hour mark I stop playing them.

There are three main exceptions to this rule: Downwell, Crypt of the Necrodancer and especially Spelunky 2, which became one of my favorite games ever and by far my favorite roguelite and will be the game I focus on in this post. For a while, I've been wondering what made Spelunky 2 click so well with me compared to most other games in the genre, but recently I've gotten into arcade shmups and realized that the reason I liked Spelunky 2 so much is because it shares some characteristics with many arcade games:

No builds: In Spelunky 2 there are no builds. The main risk/reward decisions are in the moment to moment gameplay itself, and whether an item you found would be better than the item you already have in that slot, but you never really try to make one cohesive and synergistic build, instead, you just have a variety of individually powerful items.

- Base strength: Partially due to the above, by the end of the game you're not much stronger than you were at the beginning. Your mobility might be better, you might have some fancy weapon, maybe even 99 health, but you can still be easily one shot out of nowhere, and your weapons can be just as dangerous to you as they are against your enemies. Due to this, the game always feels nicely challenging and engaging, and you never feel like you need a lucky drop to win.

- Gameplay density: There's little to no downtime. You're pretty much always doing something engaging throughout the run.

- Core gameplay: The core gameplay is really fun and we'll made, even without any items, to the point that even if all RNG was removed from it, I'd still like it.

Additionally, they should be action games.

I also prefer no meta progression, but I can tolerate meta progression as long as the game you're suggesting has the other elements.

They also don't need to have the characteristics I mentioned perfectly, they just need to have them to a high extent.

Some games I am particularly curious about and want to know if they would fit my tastes:

- Operation STEEL, Steredenn, and The Void Rains Upon Her Heart: Since this epiphany about my tastes was caused by arcade shmups, it's only natural that I'd be interested in shmup games in this genre. These are the ones I know of, but feel free to recommend others if you think I'd like them.

- Star of Providence: I'm interested about this one because Jaimers (probably the most famous shmup superplayer from the west) has a video where he clears the game in the highest difficulty even though 99% of his videos are him clearing shmups, so clearly he likes it a lot, which is a really good sign. Other than that I've also heard some things about the game that make me think it could be a good fit.

- Spirit's Abyss, Catacomb Kids, Towerclimb, and Vagante: Since Spelunky 2 is my favorite game in the genre I'm naturally going to be curious about other games that atleast look similar to it in a surface level.

- Tower of Guns: The levels in this one just look really interesting to me.

(Also just to get ahead of things because I know someone will bring these games up: Gungeon fits into the 100~ hours category because the weak and boring starting guns, the annoying ammo system and the level design which, especially in the earlier levels, feels kinda barren and dull eventually made me lose interest even though I really liked it for some time, and Nuclear Throne fixes most of the issues I have with Gungeon but I don't like how you end up relying on hit and run and cover abusing tactics to remain safe, but when the game forces you out into the open it's a lot of fun, but I'd say it fits more into the 100~ hours category for me as well).

In roguelites there are some stats such as Dodge, Dmg Reduction etc can majorly impact game feel, even break the game completely.

Devs need to figure a way out, here are some of the examples:

Brotato: Hard Cap at 70% (Exception for Ghost character 90%)
Risk of Rain: A curve gets close to 99.999% at inf dodge upgrade
League of Legends: A curve gets close to 99.999% at inf armor/mr

As rogueliters, which approach would you like and why?

Is there a roguelite RTS? i’m thinking like starcraft or age of empires or even a tower builder one like bloons?

I want suggestions for game like into the breach and fights in tight spaces but because they didn't really click with me.

So I am very much into the genre of roguelike/lites and even turn based games. That is very much not an issue but even then after putting in 6-15 hours into the above mentioned games. They didn't really click with me and I don't really know why.

Into the breach, I finished two islands consistently but it started feeling pretty same-y I think (it's been a long time). I never got into it to continue and had to drop it cuz of lack of interest. With FITS, it got really repetitive with time. I got to the final level multiple times but never beat the boss and similarly to breach, I ended up dropping FITS as well.

So I want to get more suggestions for similar games that could possibly change my mind. I agree if something doesn't click, that's just that and I don't have to force it but these are games I would like to see what they have to offer and I think they deserve another chance to change my mind.