I’ve sunk probably a thousand hours into Slay the Spire, have beaten Hades, and just finished Cult of the Lamb. Looking for something else to scratch that itch- preferably on switch. Any suggestions?
As much as I want to love rogue light games, I just can’t get into most because I do not enjoy repeating the same thing over and over. It’s especially exhausting when you start doing 30-40 minutes runs and I am just like, nah, there’s no way I’m doing another run once I die. With that said, my favorite by far is also Slay the Spire because a run doesn’t take very long and is lighthearted, so it works perfectly. The other games I enjoyed were Dead Cells, and Children of Morta. Hades was great as well, but you mentioned that.
Having a lot of fun with Tony Rogues. It’s still in development, and will be for another year probably. However it has enough content for dozens of hours of fun!
Tony Rogues sounds like he would be friends with David S. Pumpkins
I’ll try to name some unusual ones I enjoy
Pokerogue - a Pokémon one that’s surprisingly well made but grindy
Rogue tower - tower defense
Peglin - pachinko roguelite
Backpack battles - a weird inventory game where you auto battle other peoples builds but it’s not really pvp so don’t worry if you’re not into that
Spelunky 2
While I also strongly recommend Dead Cells like others, I think it’s best if you first play Rogue Legacy. Let’s put it this way, if Rogue Legacy is like a good cup of coffee, dead cells is cocaine, or maybe crack.
In the style of Slay The Spire : Griftlands, Monster Train, Wildfrost, Accross The Obelisk, Dicey Dungeons (kinda)
More action oriented : Risk of Rain Returns, Risk of Rain 2 (both games are awesome and quite different), Rogue Legacy 1 & 2, Gunfire Reborn, Spelunky 1 & 2
Unique : Balatro, Noita, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Cultist Simulator, Ballionaire, Luck Be A Landlord
Feel free to search about any of these games or ask some questions about them.
Binding of Isaac is some OG classic stuff if you haven’t played that one, and Neon Abyss is a fun side-scrolling game on a similar vibe. Rogue Legacy 1 (very OG) and 2 and Dead Cells are also side scrolling , with a dash of Metroidvania.
If you like Slay the Spire, Astrea is the same thing but with dice, and Monster Train also scratches the same itch.
Dead Cells?
Emphasis, perhaps, on the “lite” part of Roguelite. But it does have that Roguelike run structure where the levels and the items you find therein are randomized. But with side scrolling platforming gameplay with a very distinct set of fast double-jump-dodge-roll-parry-combo mechanics that I think can best be summed up as ninja gameplay. And you will get killed… a lot. There is a permanent progression system of a sort in the form of unlocking more weapons and items (and later, to re lock items you don’t like), but your core stats remain the same. This is one of those games where the real progression is on your own personal quest to git gud.
I think it’s pretty unique in that it has no dud weapons or items whatsoever. Everything – literally everything – has the potential to be viable and can be absolutely deadly when wielded in the right hands. Even the joke items.
It also has not one, but two weapons which involve beating the shit out of your enemies with frying pans. What’s not to love?
There is indeed a Switch version.
Like most others said. Dead Cells and Binding of Isaac are the top dogs. No matter what else I play I always circle back to one of those two eventually and get sucked in again. But some other lesser known ones that are good are:
Cursed to Golf - 2d golfing roguelike, no combat or anything. There’s a bunch of different cards to make the ball do different stuff. From a rocket ball you control after hitting to an ice ball that’ll freeze water hazards to a drill so you can tunnel through walls.
Oblivion Override - 2d with fast combat and a lot of perks and weapons that change things up. Perks from different “trees” have synergies that are a lot of fun.
Rogue Prince of Persia - 2d parkour style combat made by the folks that did most of Dead Cells post launch updates, still in early access but still fun.
Soundfall - not a true roguelike, top down rhythm shooter with random loot.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect - 2d with a boatload of different classes, different elemental perks that synergize and each class has different perks to add new melee combos
Curse of the Dead Gods - isometric with slower parry based combat, has some mechanics with light and dark that some folks don’t like. If there isn’t a light source nearby you can’t see traps and take extra damage but you can pull a torch out to light braziers or enemies on fire to illuminate the area.
Ravenswatch - same people that made Curse of the Dead Gods. Isometric with different classes and online co-op.
Voidigo - top down shooter with unique art and sound design. Lot of weapons and four or five different characters with unique abilities.
Have a Nice Death - 2d melee with nice movement, mechanics don’t seem as deep as others but still fun.
Dandy Ace - isometric with ranged combat. Magician that throws cards around, good selection of abilities.
Patch Quest - top down, hard to explain this one, might wanna watch a video to see how it plays.
Devil Slayer Raksasi - top down with a lot of elemental effects. Haven’t spent much time with it though.
Well this got a bit longer than I meant but they’re all solid, not sure if they’re all on Switch though.
One more, not a roguelike at all but Switch exclusive and a surprisingly awesome game. Golf Story, check it out.
Roboquest.
And Crab Champions.
Highly recommended Roguelikes from personal experience or friend recommendations:
Binding of Isaac, FTL, Risk of Rain 2, Enter the Gungeon, Darkest Dungeon (my favorite)[not the second one], Monster Train, Crypt of the Necromancer (another favorite).
FTL is amazing, especially with the multiverse mod. Basically a fan-made DLC, maybe even a 1.5-quel.
Thank you! I have binding of Isaac wishlisted. I watched some gameplay of Risk of Rain and it didn’t grab me. I’ll check out the other recs.
It’s worth noting that Risk of Rain 1 and 2 are very different games (3rd person 3D vs. 2D side scroller), and both are good - so if 2 didn’t grab you, maybe check out 1 and see if that’s more your thing. (The remastered version has a lot of nice QOL stuff and some new game modes and items.)
I can vouch for nearly all of the suggestions in this thread, and suggest one I haven’t seen: Vampire Survivors. I’m not one much for anything to do with vampires, but the mechanics with this one are really pretty good.
If you’ve ever seen bullet hell games like Touhou, it’s kind of like that, but you are the bullet hell. You also only have one real control during the action part of the game and that is to move your character around the non-stop enemy swarms that come at you.
Your character has a weapon and automatically uses that weapon without any input from you, and as you kill enemies, you collect gems that allow you to upgrade that weapon that constantly fires. You also get chances for other item and weapons upgrades with the intent to learn their “unions” (a la The Binding of Isaac) where items work together to create fantastical “bullet heaven” screen-clearing destruction.
There’s probably a wiki about it, but it’s really pretty damn good.
I’ve beat all the levels of vampire survivors too! I forgot- I was OBSESSED when it first came out
Awesome! I also just started playing Hades, which you may want to check out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades_(video_game)?wprov=sfti1
I don’t think I saw anymore mention Brotato or Balatro. Both fantastic and worth every penny.
Seconding Balatro, if you loved Slay the Spire, you will love Balatro
If you love roguelike games, I suggest playing a great one that was directly inspired by the original: Nethack.
If you want fancier graphics, Shattered Pixel dungeon.
I’m not REAL into these, but every now and then I find one (usually much lighter than like) that clicks with me and I dump a few days into it before I get bored.
Dead cells was fun.
Children of Morta was pretty cool as you have a whole family to level up.
My son was playing Skul that looked fun.