They seem so popular, dozens of games coming out, and reviews often positive.
But
When I see “Roguelike” I imagine a game that’s too small to be a real game, so they made it so you can never win and just have to keep trying and you’ll get a decent number of hours out of it. With just enough progression each time that you start to believe it’s possible you’ll get somewhere meaningful.
When I see “Souls-like” I think of a game where the difficulty is only there to give people with too much time on their hands a sense of superiority.
I have roughly a thousand games in my various libraries and I have never played a game in either of these genres.
I feel fine being so unreasonable about this.
Not actually an unpopular opinion at all, or a particularly new or interesting one
Meh. I see this same response in every thread
Probably because it’s correct
Same for me with “deck builder”.
This is a truly unpopular opinion. Bravo.
Both genres are full of stinkers, because they’re practically buzzwords at this point, but there are some real gems in there that are definitely worth your time.
Personally, I prefer games that are 3D. The old school style graphics of “roguelike” 2D side scrolling games feels outdated.
I don’t like playing “souls-like” games either. I used to play much harder games when I had all the time in the world to play as a child. But as a working adult, I don’t have such luxury anymore. I still prefer some challenges but i don’t want to crank it up to “souls” difficulty, or even to arcade games difficulty.
So you don’t like pizza. Big deal. Move on with your life.
I hope one day you look back and see the irony of this comment.
Ok
Most games being called roguelikes now days should really be called Roguelites, as they tend to lack the depth, complexity, and replayability of more mature traditional roguelikes. Mileage varies. I’ve noticed that newer titles that have forms of permanent upgrades have more addictive gameplay loops - love Dead Cells and Hades - but they don’t offer the same degree of excitement that true permadeath rls do. When a game has tens of floors of dungeon, and after many attempts that fail at floor 5-8, you’re finally flying through levels 10, 11, 12, 13, and you know it can all end just like that - a very intense feeling emerges. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is one of my favorites for this.
For soulslikes, I’ve yet to play a game in this genre that has been as satisfying as FromSoft’s games themselves. Been meaning to get back into Elden Ring.
I think there’s a lot of fun to be had in mastering a game.
Some roguelikes are huge, too. Between Dead Cells and Hades 1 I spent over 500 hours playing. I won’t deny that there’s many I’ve gotten maybe 3-10 hours and stopped though. But theres some really good ones, and if you enjoy getting better they can be a blast.
Agree. I’ve blocked Rouguelike, Roguelite, and Deckbuilder tags on Steam.
I like roguelites but generally not soulslikes and not gonna try to convince you to like them…but reconsider some of your reasons why:
too small to be a real game,
Is Tetris a “real game”? Games aren’t defined by how much unique gameplay there is
so they made it so you can never win and just have to keep trying
Plenty of roguelites are winnable?? And I’m assuming all soulslikes. Can you win in Civ6?
a game where the difficulty is only there to give people with too much time on their hands a sense of superiority.
This is literally no different than ANY other genre lol
That’s because you arn’t a masochist!🤭
I am personally just confused about when rogue like and deck builder became interchangeable
When I see “Souls-like” I think of a game where the difficulty is only there to give people with too much time on their hands a sense of superiority.
Souls likes, despite their reputation, aren’t hard. They just require you to pay attention. (Well, when they’re designed well.) They ask that you engage with the game, it’s mechanics, and what it’s telling you. Bosses are generally either a test of skill or a test that you learned what the boss is weak to. Usually they can be trivialized. Traditionally it’s the world that’s difficult, but it’s mostly just about learning, being patient, and being observant.
Along with your definition of roguelike being wrong, I think you have some unfounded biases. You’re probably missing out on games you’d love because you made up your mind that you don’t like them without trying them.
Yeah, that’s pretty much the point I was making.
It seems to be a popular belief that Souls-Like games require players to have “too much time on their hands”. If I have 15 minutes to kill and I want to boot up a game, most Souls-Likes are a great option to kill the time. They are really designed to be picked up and put down at any moment.
I won’t try to change your mind on these genres, but it is kinda wild to me that people have these strong negative opinions about games they have never played. I’m not saying you need to try a game to know if you’ll like it or not, but it seems your understanding of these games is very uninformed.
That’s the exact opposite of my experience, souls-like require you to have a large chunk of time to put into the. Just looking at dark souls: you can be far away from a bonfire, have no idea where the next one is, dying means losing most progress, and you can’t pause.
Also, when facing bosses, taking a break in between can reset your rythmn meaning you lose some momentum if you put the game down.
Dark souls games can definitely be fun, but I think rouge lites are better for a pick up and play mentality since runs will range from 15-45mins typically (depending on the game).
Aside from being in the middle of combat you can turn off the game from anywhere and you’ll load back exactly where you left off. Bonfires aren’t checkpoints, you don’t have to be anywhere near one to save your progress and leave the game. Your point about losing momentum is dependent on the person playing the game, not an issue with the game itself. I’ve never had an issue with loading into a game for 10 minutes at a time. Someone else responded that boss fights are too long, but I cant recall one that took more than 5-10 minutes.
Strangely, your experience with Dark Souls is my experience with many rogue lites. You generally cannot leave in the middle of a run without losing all progress for it. You either have to win or die for it to count. And if you’re set on winning, then those games can last upwards to that 45 minutes you mentioned. The games I play (Spelunky and Vagante) do not allow you to resume your current game when you shut down and return later.
Wait if I turn off a darksouls game without stopping at a bonfire, I’ll pick back up where I left off?
Yes. Some people even do no bonfire challenges
Seems that way coz it is!
I came down a similar way. Though after years of hearing about the greatness of the genre, especially from FromSoftware games with their masterful design, I could no longer deny my interest, considering I try to be a curious and unbiased person. So I went with Elden Ring. I’ve dropped it several times, because I was bored and it felt like I was wasting time. I still did 100% out of spite, then buried it with no intent to touch it ever again. Still, I appreciate the game design, especially the enemies and the variety of viable builds. However I personally don’t care for these things at all in games, so it wasn’t really something that was meant for me to be enjoyed. I think it’s similar to many of the more popular games of the genre, so I usually skip them. I don’t mind the occasional rougelite to pick up and drop after a few hours though.
PS. I feel bad for FromSoftware. People praise their stuff to the heavens. I’ve seen a handful of people giving constructive criticism only to be met with hate. I’m pretty sure FromSoftware would prefer to receive the criticism to improve instead of being praised from all sides. But then again, I’m not deep enough in their rabbit hole, so that’s just what I see.
A few generations prior see us mashing buttons all day without any apparent effect. The rules of any game only make sense when you develop your gaming experience to accommodate them. Just like movies only make sense because we choose to believe in the mechanics of storytelling.
The best roguelite to try doesn’t appear to be a rogue-like game at all. It’s called Blue Prince.
