Anand said:

For those of you who hate Roguelikes, there's a progression system. For those of you who hate Roguelites, the progression system doesn't break the game, and you can still feel yourself improving with each playthrough.

Explain. Do you unlock permanent shortcuts to later areas or something? If so can you actually USE those shortcuts for legit runs? (I remember Spelunky had it so you could unlock shortcuts but if you actually used them you weren't nearly built up enough to have a serious chance at a solid run...)

I MIGHT give this one a shot despite my generally not being a very big fan of roguelikes.

@Zero
I haven't seen everything yet, but you unlock new weapons/abilities/skill slots/etc. Sort of like Rogue Legacy, but way less grindy. So far.

I think that you'd probably like it. The aesthetics are great and the area generation is pretty sweet. There's even hidden shit in the walls, like in the original Castlevania.

But you still have to start at the beginning every time you die?

I like what Crypt of the Necrodancer did where once you beat a level, you were done with it. The levels were LONG so it took some real effort to finally beat one, but once you did... no more replaying it a billion times! Could start at the next level next time!

I did sort of get into Rogue Legacy, but I eventually got bored of it for the same reason I always get bored of roguelikes... having to replay the same ol' stuff over and over. BUT THE PLACEMENT IS TOTES DIFFERENT EVERY TIME ZEROOOOOOO yeah but it's still the same stuff.

@Zero
Yeah, you still have to start over. But the level themes seem to shuffle around.

Rogue Legacy is kind of an insult to Roguelikes, to be honest. It's sort of addictive, though.

Maybe you'd like that Chasm game. It's apparently randomly generated, but then you just play in that world for, like, seven hours. How many people would ever even play it more than once?!

Dead Cells is really good and you should all play it.

I love the Dead Cells, so good!

I am sooooo friggin' bad at this game. Only beat the second level once in three hours. It's cool though... I'll get better even if I have to buy my way there with all the upgrades.

Got the credits to roll earlier! This is a really fun game that sort of reminds me of Diablo with how its structured. Of course there’s the permadeath thing but the overall feel of the grind, how you can build your character differently each run, different quality of items and how it progresses just feels great and really sets it apart from most roguelike games. And of course the Metroidvania feel of exploring and finding new areas is a great mix to it all. Very fun and addicting!

I so wanted to get this, but there are just too many damn games for me to play right now. Goddamnit, Nintendo, would one little drought kill ya?!

@r_hjort
It really does feel like we're drowning in good eShop games, with several notable releases coming out every week. I don't think this pace is sustainable, though. It seems that all of the best indies in recent years are elbowing each other out of the way to pan for gold at the river. Or wherever they panned for gold.

There should be a gold panning minigame in Mario Party, where you can sabotage each other. I guess that Kirby Battle Royale minigame was kind of similar...

@Anand
I'm scared that Nintendo's ambition to release 20-30 games every week is misguided and will make it harder to find the gems, but so far the good games seem to sell quite well in general, I think?

@r_hjort
Yeah, I was more saying that the disproportionate quality of those 20-30 games isn't sustainable. A lot of the Switch standouts have been indie All-Stars. Or maybe that's my misperception. I dunno. But my digital wish list is huge.

Speaking of which, buying a game doesn't remove it from you wish list. C'mon, Nintendoooo.

@Anand
Yeah, there's a risk that an increasing amount of these games will be crap. I'm hoping that Nintendo is prepared to curate the releases properly (I shouldn't hold my breath, I know) and that future indie classics will hit the Switch early on (which might actually happen).

Indies are definitely targeting the Switch as a lead platform now, so most anything new started within the last year or two should hit at the same time (or earlier) than it does on other platforms.

There are a LOT of games now though. I've been kind of loosely keeping track and it seems like every week brings around 15 or more new indie games. A naive me from a few years back thought "oh a new Nintendo system if I get my game ready for near launch it could stand out!" Naive in two ways, thinking I would have it ready near launch, and thinking it would stand out...

Damn, Dead Cells is so good! The combat is super-tight and the level generation is great. I love the little details, like the occasional 'oh, shit' elite enemy sprinkled among the fodder. And the Castlevania-esque hidden food.

The enemy attack patterns are so varied, too. The more that I play, the better it gets. (Letting go of my pride and choosing the one-time resurrection mutation helped, too.)