Thread: Indie Games & Hidden Gems |OT| It's Not About Size
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Just began playing Path of Achra. This is perfect comfort food for me, as a longtime player of classic-style roguelikes:



The game is standard turn-based setup. There's a simple "overworld" where you select your next dungeon, then you dive through several floors, pick the next destination, rinse repeat. You can play each turn manually…

… or you can just hold down Right mouse or Tab and the game auto-battles for you. Level-ups and new equipment flood you constantly, kinda like a Vampire Survivor type game. I'd also compare it to Mullet Madjack. It's just stupid-simple and addictive. So many classes to unlock, it's crazy.

the idea is to make a build that auto-wins each stage. Things get progressively harder, enemies get tougher, synergies become more broken, all wrapped in lightning fast gameplay.
 
This looks like straight up crack-cocaine. Should be illegal lol

It's stupid fun. I just beat The Pyramid which unlocks the other maps/modes and I'm in the middle of a Slot Machine run. There's a pinball map, and two other maps but I can't tell what they are.
 
There are sites I check regularly to see whenever new stuff...hits the seas shall we say. I swear every time a new batch of games hits, there is always at least one roguelike. I wish I could drive a steak through the genre's heart. Fuck roguelikes and fuck the people who make them.
 
Not much of a hidden gem due to the fact it got featured during a Nintendo direct this year but I picked up Antonblast and it's well worth full price. Only 4 levels in so far and I'm loving it. If you enjoy Warioland, this is a no brainer. Seems to have a lot of speedrun run challenges too if that's your thing. I can see a lot of time + high score based speed running in the future. But I'm not doing any of that (probably won't either) and it's still a great time
 
Not much of a hidden gem due to the fact it got featured during a Nintendo direct this year but I picked up Antonblast and it's well worth full price. Only 4 levels in so far and I'm loving it. If you enjoy Warioland, this is a no brainer. Seems to have a lot of speedrun run challenges too if that's your thing. I can see a lot of time + high score based speed running in the future. But I'm not doing any of that (probably won't either) and it's still a great time

YEAH BOY! I liked it even better than Pizza Tower. Haven't bought the full game yet… hoping for a physical release
 
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There are sites I check regularly to see whenever new stuff...hits the seas shall we say. I swear every time a new batch of games hits, there is always at least one roguelike. I wish I could drive a steak through the genre's heart. Fuck roguelikes and fuck the people who make them.

It's literally the thing I detest most about games like Dead Cells and Hades. For all that is good about the games, I hate that they're procedurally generated and permadeath. The sense of progression is on the character and not the exploration.

I get that there are some really good games, mentioned above, that are based on that play loop, but it feels lazy and abused within the indie game community.
 
There are sites I check regularly to see whenever new stuff...hits the seas shall we say. I swear every time a new batch of games hits, there is always at least one roguelike. I wish I could drive a steak through the genre's heart. Fuck roguelikes and fuck the people who make them.

But I thought you like arcade-style games. Roguelikes are just the blending of arcade and "home console progression" e.g. same thing we saw in the 80s and 90s.
 
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It's literally the thing I detest most about games like Dead Cells and Hades.

I have to say Hades is by far the only roguelike that I came across where the rogue elements are 100% infused in the game's story and world. It almost felt like they were a byproduct of the story itself and weren't the main thing about the game. It felt very natural and not forced-in or half-assed.

Meanwhile for the rest of these mass produced indies, it feels as if they found the perfect scapegoat to keep pumping half-made games back to back. I know this isn't how it works, but it honestly feels like they just make 25% of a game, add the roguelike tropes and call it a day.
 
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I have to say Hades is by far the only roguelike that I came across where the rogue elements are 100% infused in the game's story and world. It almost felt like they were a byproduct of the story itself and weren't the main thing about the game. It felt very natural and not forced-in or half-assed.

Meanwhile for the rest of these mass produced indies, it feels as if they found the perfect scapegoat to keep pumping half-made games back to back. I know this isn't how it works, but it honestly feels like they just make 25% of a game, add the roguelike tropes and call it a day.

Seriously, and imagine if Hollowknight was released now and was like that. Imagine the whole world is procedurally generated, and dying sends you back to the start. "It's a metroidvania roguelike!!" lol

For a few games it really works, but that genre really ought to be so niche. It's basically a half-assed game where nobody could be bothered to build some levels by hand and playtest them for quality. There's no novelty about it. The fact you perma-die back to the start just means the game doesn't need to be as big because you're going to be playing those levels a bunch...
 
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But I thought you like arcade-style games. Roguelikes are just the blending of arcade and "home console progression" e.g. same thing we saw in the 80s and 90s.
In a really well designed arcade game, you die either due to a lack of skill or because you haven't learned the game well enough yet. In a roguelike you die because you haven't unlocked the thing that you need to survive yet. It's a genre where death is actually REQUIRED for progression. Whoever thought that was a good idea for a genre is literally insane.

Also, there's never any real progression in most of these games. No matter how many times you play through Metal Slug Tactics, your characters are never really getting stronger. Most of what you unlock as well as your levels disappears every time you start a new playthrough. Plus, most of the new abilities, weapon mods and stuff you get in the game only gives you slight boosts in power anyway. Nothing compared to how strong you'll get over time in a REAL strategy RPG.

Roguelikes are just one big scam, like a car salesman trying to sell you a lemon. I hate the genre the way liberals hate Trump.
 
In a really well designed arcade game, you die either due to a lack of skill or because you haven't learned the game well enough yet. In a roguelike you die because you haven't unlocked the thing that you need to survive yet. It's a genre where death is actually REQUIRED for progression. Whoever thought that was a good idea for a genre is literally insane.

I don't see it that way, but I agree there's a big distinction between "classic arcade" and roguelike randomness. The average arcade game will kill you dozens if not hundreds of times before you're consistently "good". Yes, there's the added advantage of learning the enemy layout and map (an advantage that roguelikes tend to yank away) but otherwise the bulk of your learning is how the underlying systems work. Increasing your knowledge of the game's system and practicing the mechanics is how your skill increases. This is true for an arcade game or a roguelike.

The skilled player who reaches the endgame in either a roguelike or an arcade game has invested a lot of time to learn that game either way. I don't see them as all that fundamentally different.

Also, there's never any real progression in most of these games. No matter how many times you play through Metal Slug Tactics, your characters are never really getting stronger. Most of what you unlock as well as your levels disappears every time you start a new playthrough. Plus, most of the new abilities, weapon mods and stuff you get in the game only gives you slight boosts in power anyway. Nothing compared to how strong you'll get over time in a REAL strategy RPG.

Roguelikes are just one big scam, like a car salesman trying to sell you a lemon. I hate the genre the way liberals hate Trump.

The market is saturated with them and personally, I skip 95% of them. However, I do like the "format". It's a good way to offer a quasi-arcade progression while still showing the player new content and new mechanics as they invest more time. Compared to the average arcade game where chasing a higher score is the only added challenge after beating the game, at least roguelikes offer a bunch of content for the skilled player to play.

Some genres, like shmups, really shouldn't be done in roguelike format because heavy memorization is a big part of the genre. Action games like beat em ups and top-down Gauntlet clones fits perfectly with the roguelike format. I mean…. Diablo series is just an action roguelike at the end of the day.

I also really like actual roguelike turn based RPGs and I've been playing those for years.
 
Interesting





Arnold Schwarzenegger Film GIF by Arrow Video
 
Not sure if this counts, but it flew under my radar:



Looks cool and really well reviewed across the board.

Only realized it came out because Prime Gaming gave away Ender Lilies for January, so I guess that had its intended effect.

Both are on my to play list now and have moved up.