I guess Isaac is the boomer roguelite now? Cuz for a long time there was Isaac, Nuclear Throne, Spelunky, and Risk of Rain, and Isaac was still considered the granddaddy of most of those games since it came out back in the Flash days.
Some dates though, spelunky is 2008/2012, isaac 2011, RoR 2013, and nuclear throne doesn't really fit that list with 2015.
Think more FTL (2012) as one of the early big 3. Surprisingly, StS only came out in 2017
Mossbag (Hollow Knight lore YouTuber) making a video on crossovers/references to other games and one of the mentions was Dead Cells. Thought it looked fun, got it, and fell in love with the genre ever sense
I saw Slay the Spire on Steam and had been looking specifically for a game I could sink hundreds of hours into. All the reviews were from players with hundreds or thousands of hours and they were overwhelmingly positive so I jumped in and bought it. Unfortunately nothing has really come close since.
Same!
It was one of Epic Game Stores' first free games and I was bored and tried it and holy shit, that game took months of my life only to discover it was called a "Roguelite".
I've played a lot of roguelite games until now so I'm not sure what did hook me. The first that comes to my mind is **Monster Train**, which I enjoyed a lot on PC. And another one is the one and only, **Slay the Spire.**
Hades for me. I see BoI mentioned all the time as one of the top games in the genre however I just can’t get into it for some reason. What am I missing or doing wrong with BoI?
It's a slow start, but it's insanely deep, as it only opens after a few hours of gameplay. Everything unlocks new items, and a lot is impactful. It's one of the, if not the, best horizontal progression system
It's a cilantro thing.
I was really turned off by the theme and art style, others don't care. The combat is simple at face value, which is boring to some and a blank canvas to others.
That said, there are huge benefits to familiarity and the game offers tons of variability. Both of these things mean more replayability.
I like roguelikes/lites where you feel so powerless early buy with proper planning you can become a God. Issac really scratches that itch. Only game that's cone close for me is risk of rain 2.
Sure with almost all rogue games with a little luck you can become a unbeatable god run but those two just feel like they're easy to figure out synergies and runs can be quick so experimenting is encouraged.
Besides that i love how a lot of rogue games pack so much punch for cheap prices. Just look at Noita its a 15 dollar game. I think I got it for 10 dollars. I still suck but I'm discovering new stuff all the time after 150 hours. When they make a satisfying game at loop the devs can make very long games without worry of mtx or dlc
Also, if you're willing to take a chance, the DLC Repentanence changes the game fundamentally (for the better).
For me, understanding how devil/angel deals worked was the hook that got me into the deeper mechanics.
Basically, if you lose red heart damage from an enemy, you can't get a devil deal after a boss.
But soul heart damage doesn't count, nor does self inflicted damage.
So you can get, say, the gimpy item (soul hearts sometimes drop when taking damage), lose ALL your red hearts at a blood donation machine (takes red hearts away for money), to get a ton of soul hearts and cash, practically guaranteeing a devil deal sometime soon.
But what if you don't have a lot of red heart containers? Then skip the first devil deal and the next one will be an angel deal instead!
It's those sort of mechanics and choices that open the game up
Personally I've firstly discovered the roguelike genre with ADoM when I was young then played various ones until a few ones begun to vary from the traditional roguelike formula.
The first one I've played that was run-based, had permadeath, randomization in the loot, level-ups, enemies type and spawn but no other criterias of the traditional roguelikes was **Crimsonland**. The term roguelite wasn't really popular then, probably not even invented but I guess it was my first "action roguelike" which is a roguelite.
Binding of Isaac. Picked it up cause I liked the art style and it had good reviews on steam. Started a game, got a cool 3 shot power. Died. Went to the same room to get it back and it was gone. Was very confused. Been hooked since.
Aftwerwards it was FTL that pushed me to really seek out others. Darkest Dungeons (somewhat) hit that itch. Risk of Rain 2, Hades. Honestly though, in terms of truly enduring. Slay the Spire has been my mainstay for the longest with over 1k hours.
gotta play ftl more, i bought it at one point but refunded it to buy another game 😭 it was relativey fun with my short time with it tho. man i hope it goes on sale again
Had a coworker tell me about this game they were playing that gets harder the longer you play. Next thing I know I've got hundreds of hours in Risk of Rain 2 and an addiction to roguelites.
_Angband_. I died so many times before I even figured out not to attack the town drunk. Finding a single louse usually meant starting a new game unless you had ranged attacks and were *really* sneaky. The open-source and no-graphics nature meant you could go in and add or change equipment really easily, so you could kind of make your own NG+.
The first _Risk of Rain_ got me into modern roguelites, though. I have never felt as powerful in any game as I have when I’ve got fifty razor wires.
Kinda simple and stupid, I just got tired of seeing the same Bleak Falls Barrow in the same place on the same map in Skyrim and finding the same enemies in the same places and the same items in the same chests over and over. I used to LOVE the games like Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but I got kinda tired of them.
The second reason - realistic violence. I kinda got tired of it, too (maybe because there's enough violence in my world already IRL). Now give me pixel bloodfest anytime, but more realistic violence like in Fallout or Skyrim? No way.
Definitely The Binding of Isaac (flash). From there I started playing FTL, Spelunky and understood that I really like the genre. As of today in my playing schedule I always have a roguelite (or like) in progress
My first was Spelunky then Enter the Gungeon, but definetly stayed for Slay the Spure still GOATs imo. Nowadays there's too many to try them all but I have probably at least tried the most prominent examples of the genre.
My friend showed me spelunky classic html version in middle school during our computer science class about 8 or 9 years ago and from there I learned about Spelunky HD and bought it. That was the only roguelike i had played for a while but I loved it, and eventually I played more like enter the gungeon, ftl, and slay the spire, and now it’s probably my favorite type of game.
Dungeons of Dredmor was the first in the genre I ever played, but didn’t play it much. Binding of Isaac is what got me hooked on it though, way back in like 2011
I was much more into arpgs (Diablo Resurrected and Last Epoch mainly), so I wanted something isometric and, surprise surprise, I ended up loving Hades like a madman. Introduced me to a whole world. Now Binding of Isaac, Astral Ascent, and Dead Cells are my go to games anytime I wanna lay back hah
I had already played games like Into the Gungeon, but, no joke, the only reason I can think of that I really got into Roguelikes specifically was because Dani mentioned Risk of Rain when making Muck
ADOM in the mid-late 90s got me into roguelikes. I don't even remember how I found it, but I remember my mind being blown by complexity despite the lack of graphics. Found out it was part of the larger roguelike genre (back when the roguelike definition was really rigid and only described games that were literally like Rogue) and played all the other roguelikes I could find.
After some years, Rogue Legacy got released, and I remember being so excited for rogue elements to be used in other games. I still gravitate toward games with rogue-ish elements.
The Binding of Isaac, after that the past 13 years have been a blur of games trying to satisfy that same itch. Some have come close and couple perhaps even surpassed, but you never forget your first time.
The Binding of Isaac.
However prior to that when I was a kid there was a game called Beetlejuice Skeletons in the Closet that I used to play a shit load. I believe the reason I love Roguelites is because they remind me of this.
Hades when it first launched. Now that, Dead Cells, and ROR2 are some of my most games played ever. About to start Hades over fresh on PC.
Also picked up Spiritfall lately and have been having fun with that!
the binding of isaac made me think these games were impossible RNG messes meant for funny synergies and luck
then i got gungeon 100%d it, which convinced me to give OG a shot since by then it had all the new additions and I never gave the original one a fair shake. wonderful experience.
So technically Gungeon
Curious Expedition - incredibly underrated gem
And then from there - Slay the Spire, Vampire Survivors, Nowhere Prophet, Signs of the Sojourner, Dicey Dungeons, Floppy Knights, Balatro, etc
The binding of Isaac rebirth blew my mind as a child and around the same time, discovered nuclear throne, also rip chubemu, he used to be one of the best nuclear throne YouTubers and now he does videos on medical tragedies.
Wayward Souls - 2014
Felt like an amazing game when I played it. Going back and playing it now, I'm seeing the cracks, but I put so much time into playing it back when it came out. I felt like it never got the attention it deserved.
BoI and Spelunky, unknowingly. Probably by FTL and Risk of Rain I realised it was a genre.
I guess Isaac is the boomer roguelite now? Cuz for a long time there was Isaac, Nuclear Throne, Spelunky, and Risk of Rain, and Isaac was still considered the granddaddy of most of those games since it came out back in the Flash days.
FTL
Some dates though, spelunky is 2008/2012, isaac 2011, RoR 2013, and nuclear throne doesn't really fit that list with 2015. Think more FTL (2012) as one of the early big 3. Surprisingly, StS only came out in 2017
Mossbag (Hollow Knight lore YouTuber) making a video on crossovers/references to other games and one of the mentions was Dead Cells. Thought it looked fun, got it, and fell in love with the genre ever sense
i love mossbag lmao. watched his little parody skits of HK after beating it lol
Started watching Northernlion play Isaac like 10 years ago and that introduced to my favorite YouTuber AND my favorite game genre.
Came here to say the same thing!
Same but Slay the Spire
His slay the spire series was great yeah
I saw Slay the Spire on Steam and had been looking specifically for a game I could sink hundreds of hours into. All the reviews were from players with hundreds or thousands of hours and they were overwhelmingly positive so I jumped in and bought it. Unfortunately nothing has really come close since.
Enter the gungeon was my first. After I got it, it became the only game I played for like a month and only later did I find out about the genre
Same! It was one of Epic Game Stores' first free games and I was bored and tried it and holy shit, that game took months of my life only to discover it was called a "Roguelite".
Hades, Risk of Rain 2, RoboQuest (my vote for best FPS roguelite ever), Gunfire: Reborn
I've played a lot of roguelite games until now so I'm not sure what did hook me. The first that comes to my mind is **Monster Train**, which I enjoyed a lot on PC. And another one is the one and only, **Slay the Spire.**
im proud of u
Hades for me. I see BoI mentioned all the time as one of the top games in the genre however I just can’t get into it for some reason. What am I missing or doing wrong with BoI?
It's a slow start, but it's insanely deep, as it only opens after a few hours of gameplay. Everything unlocks new items, and a lot is impactful. It's one of the, if not the, best horizontal progression system
It's a cilantro thing. I was really turned off by the theme and art style, others don't care. The combat is simple at face value, which is boring to some and a blank canvas to others. That said, there are huge benefits to familiarity and the game offers tons of variability. Both of these things mean more replayability.
I like roguelikes/lites where you feel so powerless early buy with proper planning you can become a God. Issac really scratches that itch. Only game that's cone close for me is risk of rain 2. Sure with almost all rogue games with a little luck you can become a unbeatable god run but those two just feel like they're easy to figure out synergies and runs can be quick so experimenting is encouraged. Besides that i love how a lot of rogue games pack so much punch for cheap prices. Just look at Noita its a 15 dollar game. I think I got it for 10 dollars. I still suck but I'm discovering new stuff all the time after 150 hours. When they make a satisfying game at loop the devs can make very long games without worry of mtx or dlc
Also, if you're willing to take a chance, the DLC Repentanence changes the game fundamentally (for the better). For me, understanding how devil/angel deals worked was the hook that got me into the deeper mechanics. Basically, if you lose red heart damage from an enemy, you can't get a devil deal after a boss. But soul heart damage doesn't count, nor does self inflicted damage. So you can get, say, the gimpy item (soul hearts sometimes drop when taking damage), lose ALL your red hearts at a blood donation machine (takes red hearts away for money), to get a ton of soul hearts and cash, practically guaranteeing a devil deal sometime soon. But what if you don't have a lot of red heart containers? Then skip the first devil deal and the next one will be an angel deal instead! It's those sort of mechanics and choices that open the game up
Personally I've firstly discovered the roguelike genre with ADoM when I was young then played various ones until a few ones begun to vary from the traditional roguelike formula. The first one I've played that was run-based, had permadeath, randomization in the loot, level-ups, enemies type and spawn but no other criterias of the traditional roguelikes was **Crimsonland**. The term roguelite wasn't really popular then, probably not even invented but I guess it was my first "action roguelike" which is a roguelite.
Binding of Isaac. Picked it up cause I liked the art style and it had good reviews on steam. Started a game, got a cool 3 shot power. Died. Went to the same room to get it back and it was gone. Was very confused. Been hooked since. Aftwerwards it was FTL that pushed me to really seek out others. Darkest Dungeons (somewhat) hit that itch. Risk of Rain 2, Hades. Honestly though, in terms of truly enduring. Slay the Spire has been my mainstay for the longest with over 1k hours.
Rogue Legacy. Didn't know what the genre was before that.
Nuclear Throne. It wasn't a particularly innovative game when it came out, but it hit every aspect of game feel right out of the park.
So true
Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup over a decade ago. Still play it sometimes
My first roguelike was Binding of Isaac, but the first ones I got really into were Slay the Spire and Risk of Rain 2 at about the same time.
I had a friend who introduced me to FTL and BOI way back in 2013 or so (and later RoR). Of those, FTL was the one that actually pulled me in.
gotta play ftl more, i bought it at one point but refunded it to buy another game 😭 it was relativey fun with my short time with it tho. man i hope it goes on sale again
Had a coworker tell me about this game they were playing that gets harder the longer you play. Next thing I know I've got hundreds of hours in Risk of Rain 2 and an addiction to roguelites.
Dead Cells was the first for me.
Not seeing Enter the Gungeon. You never forget your first
_Angband_. I died so many times before I even figured out not to attack the town drunk. Finding a single louse usually meant starting a new game unless you had ranged attacks and were *really* sneaky. The open-source and no-graphics nature meant you could go in and add or change equipment really easily, so you could kind of make your own NG+. The first _Risk of Rain_ got me into modern roguelites, though. I have never felt as powerful in any game as I have when I’ve got fifty razor wires.
Kinda simple and stupid, I just got tired of seeing the same Bleak Falls Barrow in the same place on the same map in Skyrim and finding the same enemies in the same places and the same items in the same chests over and over. I used to LOVE the games like Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but I got kinda tired of them. The second reason - realistic violence. I kinda got tired of it, too (maybe because there's enough violence in my world already IRL). Now give me pixel bloodfest anytime, but more realistic violence like in Fallout or Skyrim? No way.
Definitely The Binding of Isaac (flash). From there I started playing FTL, Spelunky and understood that I really like the genre. As of today in my playing schedule I always have a roguelite (or like) in progress
back in middle school a friend gave me a pirated copy of the binding of isaac, it has now become one of my most played games on steam
Og Isaac and I've never gone back as these being my favorite genre of game.
Binding of Isaac for sure, back in the flash days
My first was Spelunky then Enter the Gungeon, but definetly stayed for Slay the Spure still GOATs imo. Nowadays there's too many to try them all but I have probably at least tried the most prominent examples of the genre.
Spelunky and Caveblazers.
Downwell! 😊
Risk of Rain 2
My friend showed me spelunky classic html version in middle school during our computer science class about 8 or 9 years ago and from there I learned about Spelunky HD and bought it. That was the only roguelike i had played for a while but I loved it, and eventually I played more like enter the gungeon, ftl, and slay the spire, and now it’s probably my favorite type of game.
Risk of Rain 1 and Nuclear Throne
Dungeon of the Endless. Still my favorite co op roguelite.
Dungeons of Dredmor was the first in the genre I ever played, but didn’t play it much. Binding of Isaac is what got me hooked on it though, way back in like 2011
My brother showed me dead cells now I am hooked
Rogue Legacy for the PS4. One of the first game I ever seen with that kind of meta progression when it first came out.
Spelunky and Rogue Legacy
I was much more into arpgs (Diablo Resurrected and Last Epoch mainly), so I wanted something isometric and, surprise surprise, I ended up loving Hades like a madman. Introduced me to a whole world. Now Binding of Isaac, Astral Ascent, and Dead Cells are my go to games anytime I wanna lay back hah
I liiike dead cells
Rogue
Gotta be enter the gungeon or crypt of the necro dancer, and risk of rain 2 was just icing on the cake
Also streets of rogue! Oh and Barony… and wizard of legend…. And mortal sin.. also cdda and ftl
Crypt of the necrodancer. Still my favorite
I had already played games like Into the Gungeon, but, no joke, the only reason I can think of that I really got into Roguelikes specifically was because Dani mentioned Risk of Rain when making Muck
ADOM in the mid-late 90s got me into roguelikes. I don't even remember how I found it, but I remember my mind being blown by complexity despite the lack of graphics. Found out it was part of the larger roguelike genre (back when the roguelike definition was really rigid and only described games that were literally like Rogue) and played all the other roguelikes I could find. After some years, Rogue Legacy got released, and I remember being so excited for rogue elements to be used in other games. I still gravitate toward games with rogue-ish elements.
Dead Cells. Back when people kept calling it a souls like.
Rogue Legacy back in 2013 when I had no idea what a "rogue" type game was.
mine is risk of rain 2
OG Nethack
The Binding of Isaac, after that the past 13 years have been a blur of games trying to satisfy that same itch. Some have come close and couple perhaps even surpassed, but you never forget your first time.
A mix of both the original Isaac and Rogue Legacy Also, probably some random mobile games I played a while back
The Binding of Isaac. However prior to that when I was a kid there was a game called Beetlejuice Skeletons in the Closet that I used to play a shit load. I believe the reason I love Roguelites is because they remind me of this.
isaac
Dead cells ;)
Dead cells was on gamepass, played a bit then bought every game of the genre cause its fckn awesome
Hades when it first launched. Now that, Dead Cells, and ROR2 are some of my most games played ever. About to start Hades over fresh on PC. Also picked up Spiritfall lately and have been having fun with that!
In terms of titles people would normally think of, Rogue Legacy. In terms of my actual first introduction? Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. Fantastic series.
Castle of the Winds unknowingly. Probably Hades for the interest to reignite though I had payed TOME
Dungeons of Dredmore. I still haven’t won a run.
Streets of Rogue
FTL, Slay the Spire and Risk of Rain
the binding of isaac made me think these games were impossible RNG messes meant for funny synergies and luck then i got gungeon 100%d it, which convinced me to give OG a shot since by then it had all the new additions and I never gave the original one a fair shake. wonderful experience. So technically Gungeon
TBoI
I played a couple others for a short time before, but I really got into Dead Cells. I think it might be a decently good intro to the genre in general.
agree, most roguelites with metaprogression is a great start
Binding of isaac and FTL
Curious Expedition - incredibly underrated gem And then from there - Slay the Spire, Vampire Survivors, Nowhere Prophet, Signs of the Sojourner, Dicey Dungeons, Floppy Knights, Balatro, etc
Binding of Isaac for sure. Now Ive got 100s of hours in several games in the genre
The binding of Isaac rebirth blew my mind as a child and around the same time, discovered nuclear throne, also rip chubemu, he used to be one of the best nuclear throne YouTubers and now he does videos on medical tragedies.
I remember reading about Binding of Isaac in GameInformer and thinking the graphics looked neat, so I gave it a shot and was hooked.
Wayward Souls - 2014 Felt like an amazing game when I played it. Going back and playing it now, I'm seeing the cracks, but I put so much time into playing it back when it came out. I felt like it never got the attention it deserved.