Just One More Run…The Roguelike Thread

I’ve started to dive into Breach Wanderers and I agree that so far, so good. It doesn’t seem that the IAP does much other than maybe accelerate how quickly you grow your pool of cards and buffs and the such.

The only thing about it is that with the deck building it becomes a whole different beast than other games like StS and Dawncaster. It isn’t a complaint, but Breach Wanderers really isn’t as pick up and play for me as some others; this one requires a little more deliberate thought sometimes.

Once you get to level 3 or 4 with a character you can use drafting for the deck and that will make it a little easier.

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Ok, having played Breach Wanderers for a nice chunk of time over the weekend I can definitely see where the grind comes in to play. It is, of course, expected for a f2p game, and grind isn’t necessarily a bad thing, either, in roguelikes; but it looks to be heavy. I paid the $2.99 as well because the game seems solid and the gem boost means I’ll unlock characters faster. After that, though, there is another tier of boosts you can buy plus you can buy one of the currencies at any time.

None of this distracts from the core game, which is good. There are numerous things to unlock and upgrade, though, and the grind for the currency to do so is certainly looking hefty. The game gives you daily (hourly?) challenges to earn extra currency and has a quest system to work through as well, so there is plenty to do.

If this sounds like a complaint, at this point it is minor, other than the general statement that I would so much rather buy a premium game than pay for currencies, even if they end up being more or less the same experience; the latter just rubs me the wrong way.

I paid $10 for Slay the Spire, more for Dawncaster plus the expansions, and am happy to have done so. I’d so much rather have had this game cost $10 up front with a more reasonable grind than have it structured in a way where the grind looks to be such a slog that paying for currency boosts seems worth it.

All that said, this is a good one and since it is free to try, it is easy to recommend.

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What is funny is that it is the unlock grind that appeals to me most, as this is primarily a business travel game for me. Getting all classes to max level in Dawncaster is what led me to seek out something new to work on grinding out when I travel.

Oh, I agree that I like an unlock grind. I me stunned in that last that there are some good games - I think I mentioned Dicey Dungeon - that don’t have much of a progression system and my interest wanes a bit.

My point is just that this one seems a little heavy with, presumably, the intent to make you want to buy currencies.

It’s splitting hairs; it’s subjective; it’s not a game-breaker. I just find it a little more in your face and noticeable. C’est la vie.

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This one is beating on me. I can’t get past depth 3.

One of my bigger complaints is the sometimes overwhelming status adds. I can’t stand going in to some of the boss fights and having them dump 80 stacks of leech on me at the start and then piling on poison. I don’t know how to counter stuff like that and when I get a card with cleanse it takes away 1-2 out of a stack of dozens.

Maybe I’m doing something wrong but I’m definitely finding this harder than others like StS, Dawncaster, Monster Train, etc.

Was everyone else’s Dawncaster progress completely reset with the latest update?

Hmmm, yes. It looks like you can unlock everything agin on the Rewards screen

Yep!

I unlocked most of the gameplay aspect of a few characters.

This game really is peak STS-like for me

I only seem to have 100 credits, or whatever they’re called. I’ll fiddle around.

I picked up a Roguelike Humble Bundle a few weeks ago and have not really got to it yet, not to mention I picked up like 4 or 5 games in the Steam Sale that I have not tried yet - well because of a new job and a new Path of Exile season that I got a late start on because of new job.

So all that said -

I fired up Tainted Grail tonight and I have a question, is this game worth spending time on? It came in the Humble Bundle. But I have to say, being asked to actually walk around a deck building roguelike? Can’t I just have a tree? Do I really have to walk around and light candles? I know the answer is no, so what I want to know is - is it worth it? This game?

I think this is one of the things I love about Slay the Spire type trees. - There is no downtime of getting from one place to another. Even in MMOs, I don’t mind mindless fetch quests, I mind having to actually waste 10 minutes walking to get to them.

EDIT: And I literally just fell asleep in Chrono Ark’s tutorial battle.

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Thanks for that mini-review. I added Tainted Grail to my Steam wishlist cause I saw you were playing it and the description looked interesting; it’s off the wishlist for good now.

Somewhat unrelated: what’d you think of Dice Legacy, another game I saw in your Steam activity? Been on my wishlist forever and the “mixed” reviews have scared me off so far.

Playing a “cute” (?) little roguelike called Metal Unit on my switch for the past weeks. It was on a deep discount a while back. It has most of what I crave so it is perfect; PIXEL GRAPHICS, Sci-Fi setting, a plot, light Metroidvania elements, some light grinding for stats/gear and a difficulty curve made for braindead molluscs (I rarely search for challenges in my games aside from tactical round-based SRPGs).

I am intrigued by Hades Endgame but not for the higher challenges offered but for the morsels of character development of the excellent cast. It hurts me mentally to play it in white-knuckle-modus because my desire to experience more worldbuilding/lore/plot/character development clashes with its “big boys don’t cry” difficulty challenges “post-game”.

I still play Rogue Legacy 2 because it is a grinders dream and a good podcast game but that is also a different mindset for me…I gave up on RL2 plot early on. Too much mustache-twirling and navel-gazing. That is I game I really only play for its gameplay-loop.

It feels a bit crazy if I were asked to rank my overall TOP 10 Roguelikes and have a small Korean mid-tier game on top and a Supergiant game barely scraping by on the bottom…

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Dice Legacy is interesting, because it is more like a worker placement, dice drafting puzzle game.

I actually need to give it a little more time.

But my initial feeling is that it is hard - and it is hard because there are probably very specific optimized strategies, and trying to deviate from those is a mistake. I don’t think you have a lot of options if you want to be successful. Which makes it more of a puzzle game to solve than a roguelike.

And since I really just wanted draft dicing - I end up just going back to Circadian Dice when I need a dice drafting fix.

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Not that there isn’t a good selection of these roguelike games in iOS, but I really wish so many more of them came to mobile. STS and Monster Train show that a port is possible.

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I recently finished Breach Wanderers, meaning I’ve maxed every character, bought every pack of cards, and have beaten every depth. There were a couple quests that were beyond my abilities or patience but feel like I got my money’s worth (free, with a $3 resource booster). It was a good game with some good cards and a few interesting characters. It doesn’t reach the heights of some of my favorites but I think it is definitely worth a look if anyone needs a fairly standard roguelike deck builder. One neat twist is the ability to customize decks beforehand and select your possible reward pool. Give it a look.

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This Achievement took a lot of work.

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Yeah it did lol. Now try for the 5 times one lmao

Dawncaster continues to remain relevant - another expansion released?

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Wow. I’ll have to check it out. I think it is a great game but they lost me a little when they changed the progression up. I lost a ton of progress and what they compensated me with came nowhere close to putting me back where I was.

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