The fascinating roguelike genre has found itself a strong footing in the modern gaming world despite appeasing a relatively niche fanbase. Such games are exceptionally hard and are not everyone's cup of tea. Why? Because with every run, you're always starting from scratch in the face of defeat ad nauseam, which ultimately leads to rage quitting.
For starters, there's the common question: what games should I start with in the roguelike genre? To ensure that you never shy away from the genre, here are the 8 most forgiving roguelikes or, to say, "roguelites" to start with. The games listed below are highly entertaining, and each run will lower the difficulty curve, letting you delve deeper into their world.
8. The Binding Of Isaac
Holy Tears That Purifies Biblical Demons?
While the gameplay of Binding of Isaac isn't as overly annoying since everyone can pick it up, its overall concept and premise, on the other hand, are not for everyone. This game is about Isaac's battle with his faith, leading to the portrayal of many biblical creatures and demons, which Isaac has to beat with his tear projectiles.
Binding of Isaac strikes that rare balance where its brutal difficulty isn't a punishment due to its excellent randomized dungeons and seemingly endless content. With each run, you can feel Isaac behaving differently, making you keep guessing and adapting to new challenges.
7. Downwell
Descend Into A Neverending Well And Take On Formidable Monsters With Your Bullet-Shooting Boots
Downwell lets you live two of your wildest fantasies. First, it's wearing a pair of bullet-shooting boots. Second, it's the hypothetical idea of jumping into a bottomless well. This weird collaboration is a combination of a few different genres, including a shoot-em-up, platformer and roguelike. And what if we told you that the core gameplay is as simple as three buttons only?
With those three buttons, you must descend into the bottomless as you tread between 12 procedurally generated levels. The aforementioned boots are at your disposal, which are used to beat the threats looming around and slow down your fall. Despite the simple premise, you also have gun upgrades, modifications and the occasional shop to buy extra health and ammo.
6. Slay The Spire
Make Your Way Up The Ppire
Slay the Spire is a deck-building roguelike dungeon crawler that hasn't been seen before. With most Roguelikes, you get stronger with each failed attempt; however, the same can't be said for Slay The Spire. Instead, you get smarter and better as you take your hard-earned knowledge into your next run.
In this deck-tacular game (get it?), you start with one of the three different but equally exciting characters. Each character has unique card pools, and you start with a super basic deck. As you work your way up the Spire, the difficulty obviously increases, but at the same time, you acquire new powerful cards that improve your deck.
5. Dead Cells
Kill, Die, Learn and Repeat
Next on our list is Dead Cells, a game that will give you a run for your money. It's challenging, and you shouldn't expect yourself to reach the endgame zones before hitting at least 50 runs. However, players find themselves hooked, even so, that the newcomers can't put it down once they start it.
From the beautifully illustrated level to the staggering array of weapons to choose from and the breakneck gameplay, all these fuse into an engrossing loop. That said, you play as an armored carrion that charges forward through hordes of zombies and undead on a vain quest to find a way out.
With every run, you'll worm your way to certain areas, but you'll also die as you won't be able to go any further. However, you'll collect critical upgrades along the way, giving you more options to press further in the next run.
4. Rogue Legacy 2
A sequel That Doesn't Reinvent The Wheel
Rogue Legacy 2 is a sequel to the very game that kickstarted a whole new sub-genre called roguelites, like the incredible Hades. Nonetheless, Rogue Legacy 2 doesn't reinvent the wheel of its predecessor. Instead, it successfully modernizes its look, premise and overall gameplay mechanics to meet the modern-day standards of the genre.
Like every roguelites, when you die, you lose your progress save for the defeated bosses, unlocked portals and the loot you've banked on for upgrades during that run. This really helps in pressing further deep to explore new areas in the game. While initially challenging, you'll grasp its fundamentals within a few runs.
3. Cadence Of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer
Legend Of Zelda Meets Crypto Of The Necrodancer
In what appears to be a simple reskin of Crypt of the Necrodancer, Cadence of Hyrule is more than meets the eye. This game cleverly blends the rhythm and roguelike elements from Crypt of the Necrodancer and incorporates them into the vibrant kingdom of Hyrule. Of the two, Cadence of Hy(rules) as it's rather more polished and accessible to newcomers exploring the genre.
The combat is fairly simple. Each enemy attack has a set pattern that you have to memorize so you can intercept it. To do so, you time your movements to the beat of the music to counter them. Although you keep your key items and weapons once dead, you lose some temporary ones, adding to the thrill and tension of a roguelike.
2. Cult Of The Lamb
An Adorably Twisted Lamb
Devolver Digital's Cult of the Lamb has you play a… sacrificial lamb is given a second chance at life by an imprisoned entity. Since nothing comes for free, you start a cult in servitude of that entity to gain power and eventually free it from imprisonment. It's safe to say that Cult of the Lamb is a demonic version of Animal Crossing with a flare of Hades.
The gameplay loop is chaotic in the best way possible. Go on crusades; clear dungeons; rescue and convert followers; marry a follower; sacrifice your followers; resurrect them. What's more, you wouldn't expect yourself to shovel a follower's poop. While all this seems pretty hard to digest, rest assured the game mechanics are straightforward.
Long story short, Cult of the Lamb is not your usual roguelike but is instead a management sim roguelike, and honestly, it gracefully balances this hotchpotch of genres.
1. Hades
Zagreus, Hades' Heart-throb Son
There's no denying it; Hades is a masterclass of a roguelike. It reimagines a vivid underworld from Greek mythology in contrast to the gloomy iterations we've seen. Honestly, hell feels no different than home. In it, players take control of Zagreus, the rebellious son of Hades, determined to fight his way out into the mortal realm just to meet his mother, Persephone.
This is just the game to scratch your itch for roguelikes, and once you're in, you'll find yourself pouring hundreds of hours into it. That's just how good it is. But what makes Hades so good is not just the reimagined Greek lore and the snappy combat catering to 6 different playstyles but the actual NPCs in the underworld's hub.
You can feel Zagreus' strength flourishing with each failed run, and with every next run, the mortal realm feels just at hand. Not only that, but you also get to reveal new NPC backstories. That's also where Hades alienates from other Roguelikes, where every failed run isn't seen as part of the story.
