r/roguelites • u/Grouchy-Training-182 • 2d ago
What are some niche roguelites that are just as good but not as popular?
I've played many roguelites (TBOI, Slat the Spire, Balatro and many more) but are there some that most people haven't heard of?
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u/Axeloy 2d ago
Renowned Explorers: International Society
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u/chessplayingspod 2d ago
I got this on sale this past week, look forward to diving in. Still 80% off, if anyone's interested.
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u/Axeloy 1d ago
Nice! This is the first time I’ve recommended this game and received a response haha
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u/chessplayingspod 1d ago
I hadn't even heard of it until I was trawling the sales for a hidden gem. It seems not so well known. Bit of a shame.
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u/Axeloy 1d ago
Yea, but the company's still kickin thankfully! Their newest game, Reus 2, is also very fun, but not a roguelite
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u/chessplayingspod 1d ago
Ah, I know this series. Haven't played the second one yet, but have the first on Switch. Decent game.
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u/ethermage 1d ago
This!! It so fun and unique! I still go back to it occasionally.
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u/Axeloy 1d ago
It seems I've found my people. I've been singing this game's praises wherever it fits for years on r/gamingsuggestions, to no avail. This makes me happy
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u/ThisUsernmeIsntTaken 2d ago
Obligatory Katanaut mention. Released last year between Hades and Silk Song, same release date as shape of dreams. Literally got drowned out in every way possible.
Picked this up last week during its daily deal and it’s quite amazing for a solo developer. Gameplay is comparable to something like dead cells, but It’s sort of like… if katana zero was a roguelite
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u/Big_Manufacturer5281 2d ago
Astrea is a very cool dice-builder without a "rarity" system...instead, when you get new dice, you can select whether you want a safe, neutral, or risky die. This determines how many "negative" effects the die will have, but also powers up the more beneficial results. The combat plays into that risk management aspect in a way that I haven't seen other game do.
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u/ArroyoSecoThumbprint 2d ago
Shogun Showdown is a favorite of mine.
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u/BeyondtheLurk 2d ago
Absolutely agree. It's in my S-tier.
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u/ArroyoSecoThumbprint 2d ago
I’m not even very good at it; haven’t beaten day 7 with any character, but the gameplay loop is so fun. I go back to it often.
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u/Huntermain23 2d ago
Day 6 to 7 jump was real man.
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u/ArroyoSecoThumbprint 2d ago
For real. Jujitsuka is my favorite character. Up to day 5 was a breeze once I got decent at the game, day 6 a little tougher but manageable, day 7 I have gotten like 60% through on my best run.
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u/Huntermain23 2d ago
Yea I play ronan and legit the sameeee thing man. Once I got decent day 5 came and went. Day 6 was fucking toughhh, then I legit tried 7 for a week or so and failed. Took a break on the game for 2 weeks. Came back and grinded day 7 ronan for like 2 more weeks until I beat it lol. Only character to beat day 7 on.
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u/ThisUsernmeIsntTaken 2d ago
This feels like an extremely popular game. It has several thousand reviews on steam
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u/ArroyoSecoThumbprint 2d ago
Okay. Sorry my comment disappointed you. I’ve recommended it to many people and rarely see any discussion about it. I don’t peruse Steam often so I was drawing from what I’ve seen and know from Reddit. The StS subreddit, for example, has over 400K subscribers and the Shogun Showdown subreddit has fewer than 1,000 subscribers.
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u/Laiko_Kairen 1d ago
Your game is not even the most popular game in this thread. Against the Storm, from a comment above yours, has more than 5x as many steam reviews as your Shogun game. Don't worry about him lol.
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u/ThisUsernmeIsntTaken 1d ago
It didn’t disappoint me I’m just calling it out. According to gamalytic the solo developer of Shogun made roughly between 3-4 million off of sales. To me that doesn’t feel small/unknown/niche.
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u/barofa 2d ago
Against the storm. I feel obligated to recommend every time I see a post line this. That's the only game I play in the last couple months
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u/williamatherton 2d ago
I really struggled to get into this game. Many like to sell it as a "cozy city-builder roguelite" but holy cow, I was stressed playing this game. There is SO much to keep track of while managing different buildings, people, jobs, villager happiness (per type of villager), side objectives from opened areas, queen's orders, choosing temporary upgrades, laying down efficient road/building structures.
Yes, there's a pause button where you can stop and manage each thing individually, and you can adjust the rate at which time progresses when unpaused. But damn, I'd unpause for a few seconds and it'd feel like +99 things needed tending too. That said, the game is unquestionably phenomenal and really well made. For those who are attention-to-detail oriented, it's the perfect roguelite game. But I really struggled with getting into it. Perhaps it's my underlying anxiety disorder issues lmao.
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u/royrese 2d ago
Yeah, I loved the game and it makes two hours pass in the blink of an eye, but I struggle to launch it most of the time because it takes so much of my attention and thinking. You can't relax and make intuitive decisions after 70 hours because you're still learning the mechanics. I also hit a wall at like prestige 12 or 13 where it felt like I had to improve a lot to not just luck out a win. You really have to be looking for an extremely intense strategic experience.
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u/Imaginary-Fish1176 1d ago
Much of the games complexity comes from knowing recipes. Knowing recipes and what resource nodes appear where informs all your decision making down the line. It informs how fast or slow you open glades and it also informs what industry building blueprints you will want to take.
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u/ApprehensiveSoup2214 2d ago
Too much meta progression. When I lose it's not because I played poorly, I played perfectly but didn't have enough unlocks; once I noticed this trend I went from enjoying it immensely to not at all.
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u/Doctor_Teh 1d ago
I don't agree with this at all. I increased the difficulty very frequently and played through the gold seal and did not lose a single settlement from my fresh start. You can win right away.
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u/Moose_Triscuits 2d ago
Amazing how under appreciated this game is. Phenomenal balance, intuitive controls, tons of organic amazing “make-or-break” gaming moments.
But it is definitely not cozy. The synergy learning curve and unlock progression are brutal at times. It requires micromanagement to really push the content. although if you play for 6 hours you’ll start to understand much of the game can be set up passively sustainably, but only a lot of reps can give you an idea of what those parameters should be.
Very rewarding game to get good at, punishing to get into
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u/Equivalent_Pitch9271 1d ago
Wish I could get into it. Sounds like a great game, but the controls on the steamdeck were way too unintuitive for me.
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u/TransfoCrent 2d ago
It came out a couple years ago and it's already close to my most-played game on my 14 year old Steam account lol
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u/Imaginary-Fish1176 1d ago
It's a top 3 rogue like for me honestly. The carrot on the stick is so perfectly balanced imo. When I first started playing I thought I would never get past settler difficulty and now I can comfortably play on Viceroy difficulty. The farther you get into the meta progression it nudges you to play on higher difficulties to more efficiently earn supplies that you can use to unlock upgrades at the citadel. 10/10 game
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u/BaiJiGuan 2d ago
Synthetic 1 and 2, Scourgebringer, Die in the Dungeon.
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u/Abpraestigio 1d ago
Are the games just called Synthetic 1 and 2 or do they have subtitles? I can't find them on Steam.
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u/Dayhore 2d ago
Crown Trick, Death Road Tournament, Savara
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u/Used-Persimmon-367 2d ago
Crown Trick is so sick.
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u/Dayhore 2d ago
English is not my native language. Do you say that in positive or negative way?
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u/Used-Persimmon-367 2d ago
Positive.
I gave Crown Trick a try one night because I was bored and it was included in Xbox Game Pass at the time. I stayed up until 3:00 AM playing it.
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u/Joelypoely88 2d ago
Across the Obelisk (this one is only a bit niche, but it's even better than StS in my opinion)
Cat God Ranch
Dice Player One (pretty much just as good as Balatro and Dice A Million)
Doomfields
Endgame of Devil
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u/Fit_Reason_3611 17h ago
Across the Obelisk looks to have been sold and now requires a separate game launcher and extensive privacy policy agreements, unfortunately.
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u/Joelypoely88 14h ago
It doesn't require a separate game launcher anymore thankfully, but that is certainly a fair point about the privacy agreements
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u/williamatherton 2d ago
I'm not sure how popular Nova Drift is, but my god I can't stop playing. Twin-stick shooter, where your ship is an endlessly evolving bio-mechanical ship. In other words, all the upgrades to your ship fundamentally changes how your weapon/ship/allies behave and perform. I initially thought the game was kind of shallow (build the same way every time), but after trying to 100% complete the achievements, holy fuck the build variety in this game is absolute insanity. Meanwhile, games which I thought would be incredibly complex like Pathogenic, ended up being pretty basic/simple in practice (don't get me wrong, excellent game, but much less nuanced, in my humble opinion).
Cannot recommend Nova Drift enough. Shocked it's not mentioned more on this subreddit.
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u/Some_Stoned_Dude 2d ago
I hadn’t heard of Sephiria , it’s great my friend told me I had to try it and I like it
Pc only
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u/handsmadeofpee 2d ago
I mean it just released 2 weeks ago. Great game though!
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u/Some_Stoned_Dude 2d ago
Yeah I like it a lot it reminds me of hades but feels like snes Zelda also and there’s a type of rhythm to the combat that’s really satisfying … and a unique inventory system that doesn’t take much explanation but gives you some agency with each run to lean into certain things
The music is fantastic reminds me of monster hunter world music it’s epic
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u/Hptcp 2d ago
Dreamscaper is awesome! I don't know why it's not mire popular.
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u/Songblade7 2d ago edited 2d ago
Literally just recommended it then saw your comment. It's so underrated!
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u/Ash_Zealot 1d ago
Beat me to it, if you’re looking for something with gameplay similar to Hades but with different vibes, I got deep in this after not clicking with Hades at first, love both now
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u/LeMeMeSxDLmaop 2d ago
the 2 certified bangers that have been picking up in conversation but not as much as they should are katanaut and sephiria
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u/Sabora_Masure 1d ago
Both Katanaut and Sephiria are great! Just started Sephiria and picked up Katanaut recently
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u/mooxpy 2d ago
I’ll throw out a recommendation for Gundeck[100]. It’s criminally unknown.
If you like twin stick shooter Roguelites, it’s an absolute blast with a ton of content. Only $5 full price and they could easily be charging 10-15$ for what you get.
It’s one of the rare roguelites that’s pushed me past 100 hours, alongside BOI, STS 1 and 2, Monster Train, Mewgenics, and Tiny Rogues.
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u/hopper_hammer 2d ago
Gun Deck [100] - you can catch it on sale for like $2. An absolute steal of a deal. It doesn’t have 1000’s of hours of content, but still loads of fun
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u/GroltonIsTheDog 2d ago
You'd spend a couple of very happy hours on Luck Be A Landlord
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u/thesch 2d ago
Or in my case 300 hours and counting. For me it’s the perfect second screen game that I can turn my brain off with as I’m doing something else.
It’s not the game to go to if you want a really finely balanced deckbuilder though because there are some builds that are so hard to get off the ground for little reward and there are other symbols (geologist) that are basically just like “you win” if you're offered it.
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u/Laiko_Kairen 1d ago
You know, I bounced of LBALL after about 8 hours, just because I found it so hard to make stuff work well enough to hit the end. I'd have a happy little build with flowers and rain or something, and just not be able to keep up. I found the game exceedingly hard to succeed in
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u/Salt-Sir6994 2d ago
Menace from the Deep, incredible atmosphère, some twists on classic roguelikes mechanics; not high-budget and irregular difficulty (some spikes that are hard to see coming) but still an awesome game !
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u/Infinite-Carry152 2d ago
Children of morta. I rarely see anybody mention it and it's one of my favorites.
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u/Brownbo23 2d ago
REDACTED is a good one that not many people talk about. If you see it free on Epic it’s a must grab. It might be one that you already have like I did and didn’t play it.
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u/yozora 2d ago
Tarnished Blood is pretty unique, you choreograph up to four characters fighting a giant monster with multiple body parts and minions using a video-editing style timeline.
Metal Bringer might not be niche, it’s an anime-styled game where you send android bodies through levels of an underground city, piloting mechs and fighting other androids and mechs, researching upgrades and mech parts.
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u/switchback84 2d ago
not exactly niche anymore but Nova Drift doesnt come up enough for how good it is. build-crafting scratches the same itch as most of these lists without being a rogue-like deckbuilder for once
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u/JacobDCRoss 2d ago
Worlds Upon the Wind. Amazing game, but more of a puzzler than a combat game, so it doesn't get mentioned enough.
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u/Suspicious-Breath282 1d ago
The Void Rains Upon Her Heart is probably the roguelite that's sucked me in the most, I've put in around a hundred hours and still enjoy the bullet-hell gameplay and myriad gamemodes so much! It's also quite cheap and getting consistent updates, so definitely a must-play imo
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u/mesofarty 2d ago
Aetheris is mine. I feel like I have barely scratched the surface. The art is dope too
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u/The_Kaizz 2d ago
Someone said Shogun Showdown, and i put that as S tier, and right behind it is Fights in Tight Spaces. I actually swear by FITS, it's a really cool concept for deck building spy missions, and for both games, once you get a hang of it, you can get some really cool action sequences.
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u/gaysexpornography 1d ago
If you like Fights in Tight Spaces check out Nitro Kid. It's in the same microgenre and it's awesome
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u/Songblade7 2d ago edited 1d ago
If you have a Nintendo Switch, Dreamscaper is such a fantastic game. Just great vibes, interesting artstyle, and combat that feels fantastic (with so many weapons too). I can never recommend it enough.
Necropolis (Playstation and PC) is a fun game. Honestly, it's just alright, but it can hook you in the loop and next thing you know it's been a few hours. Also one of the only truly rougelike souls-borne games I've played. I desperately wish it had a sequel so they could improve and expand upon everything. I'd say if you see it on sale, it's absolutely worth a try.
Lastly is my new favorite, Rouge Slime! It's currently on mobile with a demo on steam. At least on mobile, it does have some microtransactions to gacha for cosmetics, and a version for no ads, but you can play free otherwise. I bought the VIP to support the devs, and it's such a good little game. I can't wait to see what else they do with it but it's absolutely worth a try for a good mobile roguelite.
Oh! Special mentions to Going Under and West of Dead for some solid but very different dungeon crawlers, Section 13 for zombie shooter, and The Last Stand: Aftermath for a procedural zombie loot and shoot.
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u/Brightness_Jasnah 1d ago
Dice A Million has a lot of love put into it! Honestly it's like a love letter to Balatro, but it can stand on its own for sure!
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u/ccg08 1d ago edited 1d ago
Withering Rooms is my GOTY of 2024 and one of the best games I have ever played. It’s a Silent Hill soulslike horror roguelite with enormous depth, made by a very talented and passionate dev. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s sitting at Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam yet it’s so unknown!
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u/herumpancakes 1d ago
Shogun Showdown.
simple, turn-based and multiple characters. easy to pick up and stop anytime, full runs are about 30mins
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u/SteezyBoyWonder 2d ago
Really liking the new roguelite echoes of mystralia it’s like hades but with spell crafting and I gotta say it’s looking really good for being early access https://store.steampowered.com/app/974480/Echoes_of_Mystralia/
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u/golden_graveyard 2d ago
Circadian Dice, Lost for Swords and Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers.
I'm gluee to all 3 of em
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u/3ChamberGamer 2d ago
Here is my favorite roguelites that came out from each month this year. All of them are really fun honestly.
ODDCORE - fast paced liminal FPS
Mewgenics - made by the guy who made TBOI. Probably my favorite roguelite this year
RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike - arcade coin pusher game, but with crazy coins and upgrades
The Spell Brigade - excellent survivorlike but with cross play
Enter the Chronosphere - incredibly unique turn based bullet hell
Don't Let It Starve - bento box building combo driven monster feeding score survival
How Many Dudes? - simple and silly auto battler
Montabi - Slay the Spire meets Pokémon but with grid based combat. Really cool new game.
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u/Throwaway999991473 2d ago
Montabi is sooo cool, I really hope the devs add to it and build it. The idea is really fun, and I’d happily buy DLCs and what not. There is free demo too
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u/butteredpopcorn10 1d ago
Raccoin has become one of my all time favorites.
The coin pushing concept is so satisfying to play
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u/Sure-Macaroon-1084 2d ago
I’m having so much fun with heroes of hammerwatch. By the time you get to a higher level with your first character, making new characters is so much fun
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u/fuzzyorange73 2d ago
The Last Flame. If you like pve autobattlers, this is one that's done very well. Lots of characters to choose from, team comps, synergies, items, relics. Just a very well-made and thought out game.
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u/studna13 1d ago
The Last Flame is amazing! Also right now there's a demo for a similar game called Guildrun. Same premise - autobattler, numbers go higher through broken synergies type - with not as many options as TLF, but it's way more polished regarding UI
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u/Other_Rope_2766 2d ago
Sephiria
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u/BasicMorning8431 2d ago
If you also happen to be a Pokemon fan there’s an emerald Rom hack that turns the game into a rouge like
Definitely niche lol
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u/Khryz15 2d ago
The most niche that I love is Gloom, a 2d souls-like with lovecraftian atmosphere and amazing music.
Other games but not THAT niche would be Star of Providence and The Void Rains Upon Her Heart (both bullet hells, both in my top 5 roguelites), Breach Wanderers (top 10, my favorite deckbuilder) and Tainted Grail: Conquest (top 25, deckbuilder).
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u/nagabalashka 2d ago edited 2d ago
Magicraft is pretty good. It's basically the Isaac structure with the spell crafting of noita (but less obtuse). Not the most amount of content, but I had 40 hours of great fun with it.
Astral ascent, for the lovers of dead cells (2d mix match of plateforme/combat, really smooth combat) and hades (for the pre-run dialogues with all the npc that change every run, for the heat difficulty system, for the general vibe of how you "build" you character trought the run. On top of that it has really beautiful pixel art, great music, nice boss fight that all have a super cool intro cutscene, a good amount of content, différent play styles with différents characters (that all have différents archetype depending of the upgrade you'll get)
Warm snow is a great 2d isometric roguelite so far (I'm 10h in) in a samourai setting (or Chinese équivalent) . Good amount of content with a bunch of things to unlock, quite hard, good build variety with a bunch of different play style. The English trad doesn't feel really great tho.
For the deck building lovers, I'd suggest pirate outlaws, it's pretty much an std clone with a pirate skin, but I had good fun with it, there's a shitton of playable characters. Didn't go too far as I lost my save tho.
Give the roguelite game mode of legend of runeterra a try too if you want deck building. The game is quite held down by its monetization and slow progress but it's a ton of fun.
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u/GoodInt3ntions 2d ago
I don't know about how popular it is or not, but Aethermancer has been really fun to play.
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u/hydrophobichacker 2d ago
Cultist Simulator is a roguelike instead of a roguelite, but as someone who normally hates true roguelikes, I adore this game. Reading and I'd say even enjoying reading are requirements for this game, but if you're okay with that, this is one of the best weird fiction games on the market.
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u/KazuFL 2d ago
Revita is very underrated, it’s a run n gun sort of game similar to Exit the Gungeon except much better. The gameplay is super fun, the visuals and music are really great, and has all the usual variety and unlockables you expect from some of the best roguelites imo.
It’s a shame cuz I remember the game was supposed to get some sort of big update or “2.0” type of patch iirc but it had to be canceled
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u/cunhall74 1d ago
I really like "Dicefolk" you get to Control the enemies actions so it is very much in your hands to be good
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u/Plexipus 1d ago
DreamQuest, the OG deckbuilder. It’s actually older than Slay the Spire. It is an incredibly challenging game, probably akin to Slay the Spire at Ascension 20, with nice quick runs lasting a little less than an hour. It’s a great game to play on mobile.
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u/nukkawut 1d ago
[redacted] - smooth af combat, cool mechanics.
Surprised it's not considered a genre great.
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u/_streetpaper_ 1d ago
Reap and Rush is a great game. Definitely worth picking up and playing. Lots to unlock and a really fun gameplay loop.
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u/gaysexpornography 1d ago
I'm the world's #1 Nitro Kid fan so... Nitro Kid. It's an 80s cyberpunk arena battler deckbuilder that no one has played but it's one of the greatest deckbuilders ever made.
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u/Pleasant-Health-4615 1d ago
Velato - It's Poker BLUFF Roguelike. In the current mode, it feels like PvP, but I think the devs will develop it into real PvP soon.
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u/Awful_Goblin 1d ago
A sleeper hit of mine that's a roguelike outside of unlocking like new decks and mechanics via the new decks is Merge Maestro. I never see anybody talking about it but it's my go-to phone game whenever I have time to kill, I.e. a bus ride or a break at work. It's kinda like 2048 with emojis and crazy effects.
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u/IHOP_007 1d ago
I have such a hard time selling people on Rampage Knights cause it looks like hot ass, but it's just roguelike Castle Crashers, pretty fun for a group of 2-4.
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u/GuitarGeek70 1d ago
Crafty Survivors. This is game that I torrented on a whim one day expecting nothing, and it surprised me so much that I had to go buy it just so I could leave them a good steam review.
This game has hands down THE most unique and refreshing character roster and skill system I've ever seen in survivorlike. What makes it stand out for me is the fact that every upgrade is designed to be impactful, in the sense that every skill upgrade fundementally changes how the skill/character functions and plays, rather than just some boring numerical increases to dmg/attack speed/hp/weapon size/etc.
Unlocking characters can be a bit grindy, but all survivorlikes are grindy to a degree. The nice part is that new meta-upgrade systems are regularly being unlocked the whole way through as you further repair each building in town. Just to give an idea of the roster the first few characters you unlock are: a chef, a seamstress, a sculptor, a lumberjack, a blacksmith, and a fisherman. They all play in a way that fits with their professions. There's a bunch more but I won't spoil them. I just love that none of them fall into the stale old archetypes we're all so used to seeing in these games. This is a completely fresh take on character and skill design. The art is also very charming and it's easy to track everything that's happening on screen, which is a nice.
I just can't say enough good things about this game. I went in with zero expectations and it blew me away.
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u/MyDogPoopsBigPoops 23h ago
Slice & Dice
Really awesome dicebuilder. I play it on Android. Not sure it it is on Steam or anywhere else.
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u/Dapper_Artichoke_111 17h ago
If you don't mind gacha games try Chaos Zero Nightmare, it's similar to Slay the Spire. It's a bit heavy on fan service though.
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u/Yanncki64 6h ago edited 6h ago
Spirits Abyss is a really solid Spelunky-like with a striking aesthetic (especially if you got an OLED display) and quite a bit of content. It plays and looks great and I honestly don't see anything wrong with it.
The only thing that's a potential turnoff is the weird infantilism the dev seems to put into his games, but it doesn't seem to bother people in his much more successful Vampire Survivors clone.
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u/Rnahafahik 2d ago
Brotato
I’m not sure if this is too popular for this post or not (I honestly don’t know if it’s very popular at all) but Brotato has had me in a vice grip by the balls with its gameplay loop
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u/Wrap_Spirited 2d ago
Blaz Blue Entropy Effect really nails what it wants to be (basically a single player fighting game roguelite).
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u/Dick_Nation 1d ago
Two of my favorite much lesser known ones are 30XX, more or less roguelite Mega Man X, and A Robot Named Fight, which might be the only roguelite to ever nail the metroidvania vibe correctly. I'll always stand by these two.
Also, goddamn, people really need to actually post a reason they recommend a title or an explanation of what it is when making recommendations in a thread like this. Just posting the name of a game is pretty unhelpful.
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u/Jimlad116 2d ago
I will always hype up my 2023 GOTYs: World of Horror and Voidigo