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My biggest gripe is that the randomness of the weapons you find plays way too big of a role in your success. Instead of different weapons requiring different ga

My biggest gripe is that the randomness of the weapons you find plays way too big of a role in your success. Instead of different weapons requiring different gameplay skills, you either get crazy good stuff (combo'd with perks that have synergies) and effortlessly destroy anything in your path, or end up so weak that even simple mobs give you trouble. I think some of this could be solved, or at least mitigated, if there was "meta" progression, like in Dead Cells. That way, even bad runs could result in something worthwhile, rather than a total waste of time.

LegitShady 6y ago
I think the randomness leading to overpowered rounds and weak rounds is sort of true for every rogue lite I've played.
klmadfejno 6y ago
I've played through a half dozen roguelikes to completion of the final (final) boss of whatever it offers. Off the top of my head, Dungeon Crawl, 20XX, Enter the Gungeon, Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain 1/2, Signal Decay, Dead Cells. It's an indie friendly genre in that it enables lots of gameplay with limited content. But the design trope you've mentioned is waning on me. Most of these games have compounding benefits of good play early in the game to game state near the end, an hour later. Most of these games are easy to play for the first 80% and then quite challenging for the last 20% (BUT, it's still easy to mess up and so early penalties feel really bad). And so it's really frustrating playing them if the first half of your run just feels ok because you're inclined to think it's better to just restart. Enter the Gungeon was the absolute worst offender. Rare health restores at every level meaning you need to play well even on easy early levels. Hugely important max hp boosts granted only for flawlessly completing each level boss. Items have no indicator for how useful they are unless you get a feel for them or look them up, then have a bunch of hidden synergies which are also unexplained; and even then you have no agency in getting other items to make your crappy loot more viable than permanent garbage. And lastly, a single rare item which doubles the length of a run but vastly increases your chances of long term success. People love rare OP combos but they kind of suck. I'd rate Risk of Rain 2, Dead Cells, and Dungeon crawl having the best implementations of this.
- trashcan 6y ago
  Dead Cells is my favorite game of all time. I've been playing it pretty much every week since it launched. Of the games you've played, could you recommend any in particular that might be similar?
  - vvanders 6y ago
    Nuclear Throne is by and far my favorite of the genre having played most of the ones listed above.
  - klmadfejno 6y ago
    Hmm, well Dead Cells is a roguelike castlevania and fairly unique in that regard. Rogue Legacy 1 and 2 are probably a good match. I'd put Risk of Rain down as the one of the best generic rogue action games to recommend. The first one is a 2D shooter. The second one is a 3D shooter and is especially good for online co-op. I would recommend starting with the second one.

LegitShady 6y ago

I think the randomness leading to overpowered rounds and weak rounds is sort of true for every rogue lite I've played.

klmadfejno 6y ago

I've played through a half dozen roguelikes to completion of the final (final) boss of whatever it offers. Off the top of my head, Dungeon Crawl, 20XX, Enter the Gungeon, Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain 1/2, Signal Decay, Dead Cells. It's an indie friendly genre in that it enables lots of gameplay with limited content. But the design trope you've mentioned is waning on me. Most of these games have compounding benefits of good play early in the game to game state near the end, an hour later. Most of these games are easy to play for the first 80% and then quite challenging for the last 20% (BUT, it's still easy to mess up and so early penalties feel really bad). And so it's really frustrating playing them if the first half of your run just feels ok because you're inclined to think it's better to just restart. Enter the Gungeon was the absolute worst offender. Rare health restores at every level meaning you need to play well even on easy early levels. Hugely important max hp boosts granted only for flawlessly completing each level boss. Items have no indicator for how useful they are unless you get a feel for them or look them up, then have a bunch of hidden synergies which are also unexplained; and even then you have no agency in getting other items to make your crappy loot more viable than permanent garbage. And lastly, a single rare item which doubles the length of a run but vastly increases your chances of long term success. People love rare OP combos but they kind of suck. I'd rate Risk of Rain 2, Dead Cells, and Dungeon crawl having the best implementations of this.

trashcan 6y ago
Dead Cells is my favorite game of all time. I've been playing it pretty much every week since it launched. Of the games you've played, could you recommend any in particular that might be similar?
- vvanders 6y ago
  Nuclear Throne is by and far my favorite of the genre having played most of the ones listed above.
- klmadfejno 6y ago
  Hmm, well Dead Cells is a roguelike castlevania and fairly unique in that regard. Rogue Legacy 1 and 2 are probably a good match. I'd put Risk of Rain down as the one of the best generic rogue action games to recommend. The first one is a 2D shooter. The second one is a 3D shooter and is especially good for online co-op. I would recommend starting with the second one.