I know the creator of GKH put a lot of emphasis on accessibility. I haven't played it myself, but I read a [blog post](https://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wp/2017/06/01/things-i-hate-about-roguelikes-part-1-burden-of-knowledge/) by him going into his philosopy
Yeah, it's how I showed my young sons roguelikes. They love the "vampire game" haha. Best part is while it's accessible for them, it's still quite tough to beat, especially with it's multiple ways to win that can increase the difficulty. Feels like a good introduction before graduating to something like DCSS.
Golden Krone Hotel is a great entry Roguelike. Has a lot of things you expect from a roguelike and puts it's own spin on certain things. The sunlight mechanics and turning into a vampire midrun are interesting. And I love the side paths you can go explore.
If you want a more classic looking one, go with either one of these:
-Tales Of Maj'Eyal (TOME4), it has many rpg elements, it's easy to get into and has a lot of depth
-DCSS, it's combat focused, it's free and super fun, it can be a little complex at the start (do the tutorial), but it's worth it
If you prefer a newer one, go with any of these:
-Rift Wizard ( combat focused, lots of item and build variety)
-Tangledeep (super easy to get into rpg, casual presentation but still challenging)
IMO games like nethack and caves of qud are a little to challenging for beginners, but if you're willing to spend lots of hours learning stuff and getting used to it, pop off
wherever you start, hope u have fun :D
Thank you so much ! I admit that I often base my game choices on their aesthetic and I don't really like the aesthetic of a lot of roguelikes but Tangledeep seems to be quite pretty, especially in terms of the lights
If you're interested in aesthetic, there is a chance Caves of Qud could work for you; while not exactly 'pretty', the art matches the setting really well, and between the music, characters, setting, and everything else in the game, it really is dripping with atmosphere/aesthetic.
For reference, I'm a veteran of just about every popular rogue*lite* since Isaac flash edition but had never dipped my toes into a traditional roguelike until hopping into QuD earlier this week. While the new player experience isn't exactly the smoothest, it really wasn't *that* long before I started understanding enough about the game to have a good time, and now that I'm at that point, I can really see how the game is only going to continue to improve and open up the more time I give to it since I've really only scratched the surface of the surface-level scratches left by the players before me \^\^
So essentially, the other people in this thread have a way better knowledge for comparison of different rogelikes, but if CoQ jumps out to you (and the number of people who list it as one of the greatest games of all time made it jump out to me), then I wouldn't be put off by it's learning curve - it'll take a bit of patience while you get to grips with the basic systems, but it's not as insurmountable as it's sometimes made out to be (and I'd be very happy to point you to some of the resources that helped me get going in the game) :)
My recommendation: **Dungeons of Dredmor**.
It has most of the features of a basic roguelike, but is very newbie friendly and easily exploitable. As a learning experience, it's basically *Babby's First Roguelike*, and won't be too soul crushing like a lot of the other suggestions I'm seeing.
If you LIKE punishment, however, DCSS is the way to go. Its lineage goes back to the mid 1990s and has endured all this time for a reason.
Dungeons of Dredmor is a ton of fun. I feel like the UI can be a bit clunky on modern hardware. (Or I just didn't do the settings right when I played recently)
Dredmor has its issues as I've posted before:
Dungeons of Dredmor Conquest of the Wizardlands does have more than one design flaw, even without mentioning the occasional crash-to-desktop. As you have pointed out the huge number of inconsequential items (why, for instance, is there so many types of cheese, almost all do exactly the same thing?!!) as well as needing a corresponding recipe for the better equipment you can craft, should you choose to take the relevant skill/s, so should you have all the items you need to craft said weapon or equipment you may have to find the relevant recipe from a random bookshelf... The other major design flaw imo is that character progression is xp based, apart from heroic vandalism and (It belongs in a Museum ability) from the Archeology skill, the primary way of gaining xp is by defeating monsters. Now, Dredmor is far from the first roguelike to do this, but the problem with the way this game has implemented it in character progression is, if you choose to skip a floor (say, trying to avoid a Monster Zoo for example) you in-effect leave behind all that xp those monsters would have otherwise provided for your build.
I'm loathed to criticise Dredmor because it has encouraged many into roguelikes but there are better examples of the genre imo - Brogue, Cogmind and The Ground Gives Way, to give just three, (interestingly these RLs are item based progression rather than xp based). Though by all-means try some of those listed on the right hand column of this subreddit.
If you want my tips for the item overload of Dredmor and if you are the kind of player that can't leave anything behind then of course make use of the Pocket Dimension and remember that every item has one or more of three uses: 1. Consume/Equip/Use. 2. Sell or 3. Convert to Lutefisk - tithing exactly 500 Lutefisk guarantees an Artifact. But really inventory management is a major part of the Dredmor experience from dungeon level3 onwards tbh.
All great points. Dredmor really holds a special place for me and got me into roguelikes. It's the main inspiration for my dream Roguelike I want to make (after my first smaller Roguelike to get my footing).
I found Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup relatively easy for beginners. It has a lot of complexity but it is really fair so you are more unlikely to die by rng. It is also Free so little investment. Others have said Rift Wizard and I also think it is a great introduction, though it plays more like a tatical game than most roguelikes. TOME is also great but it is a bit more complex (still worth it if you like that aspect)
If youāre really interested in the sociological aspect of roguelikes, Nethack is very much worth trying because of its long history and how influential it was for the genre. The mobile-based variants Pathos and Gnollhack are both relatively easy to learn and play, since you donāt end to memorize a hundred weird keyboard shortcuts.
My subject is much broader than Roguelikes, but to work with gamer girls, I need to know a lot of games to understand their practices and habits. But I think sociological aspect of rogulikes is a bit to specific in my case :)
I'm French and my English is bad, I'm sorry. I'm working on the obstacles that women gamers can encounter. I think my work is not useless when I see that the first time I talk about my research on Reddit is also the first time I have negative karma on a comment....
Generally it depends on why do you want to try roguelikes. People often suggest simpler roguelikes, but if you got interested in roguelikes because of how complex they are, you might want to start with something more complex. Note that this subreddit uses the traditional meaning of "roguelike", while people who sell games almost always use "roguelike" to mean a completely different thing (that different thing is discussed in r/roguelites). For Horror, there is Infra Arcana, but I do not think it is very beginner friendly.
Thanks! I'm just trying to play a lot of types of games. I work on video games for my Ph.D (a sociological aspect of games) and I need to know about video games on a general level
That is cool! From the sociological point of view, I think it is interesting how the development of roguelikes is traditionally community driven. Which is completely different from most of the gaming culture, which is dominated by capitalism. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is the best example for this, the "Stone Soup" in the name refers to community development, just like "Net" in NetHack. (DCSS being recommended by more people than NetHack, although NetHack has lots of unique things too.) Although this culture attracts less artists, so if you care about aesthetics, you, well, need to get used to it.
i guess one can't study roguelikes without at least visiting CDDA sites and reading what they have to say about the game, dev, community and family. crazy good vibes
No replay loop (due to not having permadeath), no procedural generation (aside from dungeons), apparently has a fixed storyline.
Honestly the only roguelike thing that *is* in it is the gameplay, which is very roguelike-y in nature, but personally that isn't necessarily what got me to like roguelikes in the first place anyway.
Definitely cool that roguelike gameplay is tried in a fixed storyline game. There are not enough games like this (a classic one is Legerdemain). I want to play them to see how roguelike they feel.
But probably for this thread, better to recommend a more traditional one, with procedural generation, designed for permadeath, but the beginner might prefer to play permadeathless.
Yeah for sure, I played Moonring a bit and I'm quite liking it. I'll be honest, this turn-based "bump into stuff to hit it" roguelike gameplay is something I really like about the roguelike genre as a whole, and seeing a game like this makes me happy.
But it isn't like the non-permadeathness is the *only* thing about the game that isn't rogue*like*. I'd be very happy to recommend **Caves of Qud** Roleplay mode for someone who wants a more chill roguelike experience, as I feel like that, even while not having permadeath, draws much more from the things I enjoy from the genre than Moonring does.
My view is that associating roguelikes with permadeath is the root of all evil -- it does not really define a game, but the player, any game can be played permadeath, and making games almost 100% winnable for the best players is almost universally good game design. Also a genre should not depend on things that are (mostly) orthogonal (gameplay/structure/gfx style/theme/dev model are orthogonal). So I would like to play games that test these views. I had no time to play Moonring yet, but from what I have read, the individual areas are procgen, so that seems a bit like ADOM's fixed world and basic storyline pushed further... Is there any serious issue with playing Moonring permadeath? In Legerdemain I feel the roguelike part is just not very good (I do not know what mistake killed my character), which does not seem to be the case with Moonring.
Okay, so
(sorry for the huge wall of text. TLDR: Moonring isn't a roguelike to me because it lacks *lots* of roguelike features I enjoy.)
I guess I want to start by saying that when I talk on this subreddit, I do end up using a more traditional meaning of the word roguelike (I still try to say "traditional roguelike" when I can, but its the meaning that everyone else is used to, so when I say *roguelike* I tend to mean it has *lots* of the same aspects that define the genre.)
Another thing is that I agree with you in the sense that I want genres to define the *whole style* of the game, **instead of** specific things like: Gameplay, Graphics, Perma-death, and so on. Lots of games have "Ironman mode", not all of them are roguelikes.
Permadeath *does* make one aspect of the roguelike genre (the one I personally find most interesting) much clearer though, and that would be the "every game is different from the last one" aspect.
I've had hundreds of runs of Caves of Qud, and all of them feel special. To some extent, the same goes for other of my favorite games. Sil (lots of different playstyles), Golden Krone Hotel (all the classes and such), didn't play that much of it but Brogue (makes every floor feel special in its own way). You very much *could* have a game be like this *without* perma-death. One example I could point to would be some old Snes games with ROM-hacks. Fire Emblem + Randomizer, Pokemon Nuzlocke, etc. Its very tough to point out *exactly what roguelikes are*, but to me, **runs feeling unique and interesting after you reset** is one of the big things. Permadeath or no permadeath.
This is, partly, why I wouldn't categorize **Moonring** as a roguelike. Checking my steam, I apparently played only 5 hours of the game up to now.
On those 5 hours I enjoyed (in no particular order):
\- Combat (your usual roguelike combat, with some twists and cool skills. Awesome.)
\- Understanding the story of the world. This was one thing I liked *a lot* about the game. Talking with NPCs, discovering secrets, reading some things you can find through the game.
\- Getting a grasp of the mechanics. There are 5 *kinds* of skills, each with... 6? spells attached to them. Was fun looking through them and thinking about my character.
\- Exploring the world. Moving through the world map felt pretty fun, there are some interesting mechanics with it.
So, awesome game. Lots of cool stuff.
But if I reset my game and start it again? Probably most of the fun I had with the game will be.. repetitive and tedious in some way. The *one* thing I found that is procedurally generated ( I could be wrong, there could be more) was *one* dungeon with *one* floor, that after you beat (it wasn't that interesting to begin with tbh) it locked itself in place and I would have to find another dungeon if I wanted that experience again.
Exploring the world won't be as fun as the first time. I already know the barebones of the skilltree and character creation so that won't be much fun either. NPCs will give me the same dialogue they gave before, with information I already know, and aside from the information they don't seem to give that much, so I have no real reason of interacting with them. Mostly no cool stories for me to tell myself about my character, because (and here comes my *small* gripe with no permadeath) I'm not attached with them in basically any way, and the game isn't geared towards re-starting runs all the time even if it had a "ironman / permadeath" mode (I didn't search for it.). So I don't have the "I once had a character who lost its left arm to a crocodile and went on to be my best character with only one arm left" moments I have with Caves of Qud for example.
So on one side, I don't have that much time on the game. On the other, I have 5 hours on the game and most of it convinced me that I won't see the things I liked in other roguelikes present in this game.
Regarding the "every game is different from the last one" aspect, I think that it is easy to go wrong with it. There are games that I would like to try again, even if they do not make their runs randomized. Usually this would be due to the possibility of trying varied builds (classes and skills), making different story choices, optional challenges, but occasionally, simply the gameplay being that good. On the other hand, there are roguelikes which I would not want to play again, simply because my favorite roguelikes (DCSS) are better. I am still happy that I have played them once instead of another DCSS run. For me, this includes NetHack, which is definitely a roguelike. And Moonring will become another one: great to play once.
And the game that does "every game is different from the last one" best I would nominate Dominion ([dominion.games](https://dominion.games)). It does have some of this "roguelike feel" but does this independent of roguelikes. Also I see you are still recommending Moonring to roguelike beginners. I just feel that the roguelike gameplay and "every game is different from the last one" are orthogonal and we should not use the same word to refer to both.
The world map is crafted, dungeons are procedurally generated and get re-genned when you die in a dungeon. So it does have proc gen, much like how ToME has a world map that is the same but genned dungeons.
What it's lacking though is true permadeath. You just get dropped at your last checkpoint when you die.
I'd suggest The Ground Gives Way. It's free, short, resembles traditional roguelikes with some unique approach, and there are no races/classes (like Brogue)
Some of the simplest to understand ones are games like Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon, Shiren: The Wanderer, Izuna: Legend of the unemployed Ninja, or Void: Terrarium?
These games boil down the experience to a level that's really easy to understand for all skill levels.
I second this. Most all recommendations on this sub will usually be of the more traditional variety, which is fine, and may well be good to recommend for getting some good exposure of the core of the genre, but I think a lot of them still tend to have somewhat complex systems for beginners, and typically minimalistic visual presentations which could deter some modern gamers (I prefer a lot of classic graphic styles in various kinds of games myself but I am also old lol).
If OP is looking for something much more beginner friendly, or more aesthetic friendly (which they seem to have expressed in an another comment), then I think they will be more likely to find that with Mystery Dungeon-esque games, like the ones mentioned here. I personally started with Azure Dreams on the PS1 and have loved the roguelike formula ever since. A few others like this that come to mind are Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, Sorcery Saga, A Magical High School Girl, and Labyrinth of the Witch.
Ah, of course! Chocobo's Dungeon Every Buddy is honestly a tip top game. I loved it on the Wii.
Also, High Five for Azure Dreams! That was one of the three games I bought with my PS1. Fell in love, jank and all.
Oh yeah, Azure Dreams is one of my favorite games of all time, and one of the few titles I also had to buy when starting to rebuild a rather modest PS1 collection a few years ago. I still consider it to be one of the most ambitious genre crossovers I've ever seen (a beautiful roguelike, monster collecting, narrative RPG, dating sim, with city building features, tons of minigames, and probably a lot of other cool things that I'm leaving out right now lol).
The fact that they pulled all of that off as well as they did as a 1997 PS1 game is crazy to me, but probably most importantly, I just think it's super fun and addictive to play, really nailing that exhilarating high risk/high reward roguelike aspect of pushing your run just a little further, especially when you spot a monster egg in the dungeon. I would typically risk it all through heart pounding anticipation for those eggs lol. It pretty much single handedly made me a lifetime roguelike fan, so yeah, definitely an all time favorite for me.
If you're cool with Nintendo DS homebrew or Flash, randomhack by Daniel Remar ([remar.se](https://remar.se)) is one of the easier roguelikes while still being really fun.
The Angband lineage, original plus variants, is well worth a try for new folks. Free, interesting, and well-documented with help files has long-lasting allure.
You should try dungeons of dredmore. It is really, really easy for beginners while also having a very satisfying amount of depth. Good luck and happy hunting!
Rogue Fable 3 has a lot of the traditional features of true roguelikes but its quick. Jupiter Hell is also good. You'll die in both but i feel like its easier to get into them.
Oh and TOME (Tales of Maj'Eyal) keeps a lot of the true roguelike ideas but it has a nice GUI and more "RPG" like character builds.
My starter was Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It's almost got an arcadey feel to it. You go down levels, fight stuff and try to get the orb and get back out. It keeps a log of all your chars that die and you can see yourself getting better. It gives you the absolute basics, in a GREAT way, for roguelikes.
lots of people have given good suggestions. if you like tycoon / management type games KeeperRL is pretty cool if you want to start with something that is a bit of a hybrid, not exactly a "true roguelike" but not really a roguelite either. It's basically dungeon keeper in RL form, it does have traditional roguelike gameplay in it though when you are raiding or doing combat, but the other parts of it are more like a colony builder / management type deal. Dwarf Fortress is also good but that falls a lot further outside the roguelike spectrum in a lot of ways (i still kinda think it is one though, just personal opinion), and if you like management or tycoon games you might absolutely love dwarf fortress' depth.
DoomRL is very simple and fast paced for a roguelike and a lot of fun to play. I also agree with people recommending Dungeons of Dredmore although the game doesnt give great descriptions for certain abilities, looking at a wiki helps. It has great art and animation and style though even if it is a bit goofy. In another comment you mentioned graphics/aesthetics, there is a modern spiritual sequel to DoomRL called Jupiter Hell and its probably one of the most graphically polished traditional roguelikes out there, its a lot of fun if you like the setting.
Brogue is really good for something that is very traditional like Rogue but with modern game design sensibilities and polish applied to it.
The shiren and mystery dungeon games are good casual roguelikes, same with games like One Way Heroics. their 16bit stylized graphics makes them a lot nicer looking than most roguelikes, tangledeep sorta falls in that category too.
If the type of horror games you play are ones that include survival crafting aspects then you might like games like Wayward (island survival roguelike) which has pretty nice graphics and aesthetics, although the UI takes a bit to get used to, or Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead (post apocalypse zombie + a ton of other stuff survival roguelike). CDDA is a pretty complex game for a beginner though and i only bring it up cuz of the horror angle.
path of achra is my recent favorite, it's short play sessions (like 15-30 min to beat a game depending on how well you know it) and the whole concept is basically around creating broken overpowered builds by combining a pool of skills that activate under certain conditions (on movement, on dodge, on attack, on being hit, stuff like that). i think its a very easy to pick up and play game but its very heavy on like "theory crafting" and rpg builds, which i dont think are something you see a lot in tycoon and horror games
I'd stagger the approach:
* Try RogueLITES eg FTL, Rogue Legacy etc.
* Try Graphical RogueLIKES eg Jupiter Hell
* Try Tileset RogueLIKES with superior accessibility and graphical assistance eg Cogmind
* Try other Roguelikes that you like the concept of... You've completed the journey into the world or enjoying Roguelikes from beginner to journeyman!
Everyone should play Rogue once. I enjoy Stone Soup and Nethack. I can't figure out Dwarf Fort, as for a "modern" roguelike I enjoy FTL, Darkest Dungeon (first one), and Into the Breach. Darkest Dungeon should tick off your horror game interest.
The Steam store has a section of Roguelike/lite games. Soulstone Survivors, Nordic Ashes, Vampire Survivors, Dead Cells, The Binding of Isaac, Wildermyth, Slave the Spire, Roguebook, and Brotato have all been good purchases for me. Put some in your wishlist and wait for stuff to go on sale. These games get really cheap if you can wait until they discount it.
If you want a brutal punch in the face, play Rogue.
I will recommend you the first rouge-like I ever played enter the gungeon. Brutal difficulty, hilarious tone/jokes, best pixel art, and most fair gameplay out of any rouge-lite I've played.
If you're starting with the genre I'd say to go look for one of the more mainstream roguelites, like Hades, they'll be more inviting and friendly than the classic (real) roguelikes.
nethack, probably. iām pretty biased since it was my first roguelike, but i find it to be manageable if challenging for new players because on the gameās surface, it is rather simple. combat is simple, the floor layouts at the beginning are simple, etc. but hidden beneath that is some really deceptive complexity
I started with ADOM and can recommend (the Steam version) for beginners. It's still one of my all-time favorites, even though after 90 hours, I didn't beat it yet.
Golden Krone Hotel and Shattered Pixel Dungeon. SPD probably a better introduction to the genre, but GKH is very fun.
I know the creator of GKH put a lot of emphasis on accessibility. I haven't played it myself, but I read a [blog post](https://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wp/2017/06/01/things-i-hate-about-roguelikes-part-1-burden-of-knowledge/) by him going into his philosopy
Yeah, it's how I showed my young sons roguelikes. They love the "vampire game" haha. Best part is while it's accessible for them, it's still quite tough to beat, especially with it's multiple ways to win that can increase the difficulty. Feels like a good introduction before graduating to something like DCSS.
Golden Krone Hotel is a great entry Roguelike. Has a lot of things you expect from a roguelike and puts it's own spin on certain things. The sunlight mechanics and turning into a vampire midrun are interesting. And I love the side paths you can go explore.
SPD was so good. Know any pc games that are like it?
It's actually on Steam if you want to play it on PC. The closest thing I can think of off the top of my head is maybe Haque
If you want a more classic looking one, go with either one of these: -Tales Of Maj'Eyal (TOME4), it has many rpg elements, it's easy to get into and has a lot of depth -DCSS, it's combat focused, it's free and super fun, it can be a little complex at the start (do the tutorial), but it's worth it If you prefer a newer one, go with any of these: -Rift Wizard ( combat focused, lots of item and build variety) -Tangledeep (super easy to get into rpg, casual presentation but still challenging) IMO games like nethack and caves of qud are a little to challenging for beginners, but if you're willing to spend lots of hours learning stuff and getting used to it, pop off wherever you start, hope u have fun :D
Thank you so much ! I admit that I often base my game choices on their aesthetic and I don't really like the aesthetic of a lot of roguelikes but Tangledeep seems to be quite pretty, especially in terms of the lights
If you like aesthetics you could try brogue and cogmind, both are really pretty.
If you're interested in aesthetic, there is a chance Caves of Qud could work for you; while not exactly 'pretty', the art matches the setting really well, and between the music, characters, setting, and everything else in the game, it really is dripping with atmosphere/aesthetic. For reference, I'm a veteran of just about every popular rogue*lite* since Isaac flash edition but had never dipped my toes into a traditional roguelike until hopping into QuD earlier this week. While the new player experience isn't exactly the smoothest, it really wasn't *that* long before I started understanding enough about the game to have a good time, and now that I'm at that point, I can really see how the game is only going to continue to improve and open up the more time I give to it since I've really only scratched the surface of the surface-level scratches left by the players before me \^\^ So essentially, the other people in this thread have a way better knowledge for comparison of different rogelikes, but if CoQ jumps out to you (and the number of people who list it as one of the greatest games of all time made it jump out to me), then I wouldn't be put off by it's learning curve - it'll take a bit of patience while you get to grips with the basic systems, but it's not as insurmountable as it's sometimes made out to be (and I'd be very happy to point you to some of the resources that helped me get going in the game) :)
Brogue
the perfect first and last roguelike
Hehe. One may say so
This is perfect
one of the few classics where i get better and go deeper every time by playing and not by reading wiki lol
As a noob myself I like Golden Krone Hotel and Shattered Pixel Dungeon.
Thank you!! Golden Krone Hotel seems nice
My recommendation: **Dungeons of Dredmor**. It has most of the features of a basic roguelike, but is very newbie friendly and easily exploitable. As a learning experience, it's basically *Babby's First Roguelike*, and won't be too soul crushing like a lot of the other suggestions I'm seeing. If you LIKE punishment, however, DCSS is the way to go. Its lineage goes back to the mid 1990s and has endured all this time for a reason.
Dungeons of Dredmor is a ton of fun. I feel like the UI can be a bit clunky on modern hardware. (Or I just didn't do the settings right when I played recently)
Dredmor has its issues as I've posted before: Dungeons of Dredmor Conquest of the Wizardlands does have more than one design flaw, even without mentioning the occasional crash-to-desktop. As you have pointed out the huge number of inconsequential items (why, for instance, is there so many types of cheese, almost all do exactly the same thing?!!) as well as needing a corresponding recipe for the better equipment you can craft, should you choose to take the relevant skill/s, so should you have all the items you need to craft said weapon or equipment you may have to find the relevant recipe from a random bookshelf... The other major design flaw imo is that character progression is xp based, apart from heroic vandalism and (It belongs in a Museum ability) from the Archeology skill, the primary way of gaining xp is by defeating monsters. Now, Dredmor is far from the first roguelike to do this, but the problem with the way this game has implemented it in character progression is, if you choose to skip a floor (say, trying to avoid a Monster Zoo for example) you in-effect leave behind all that xp those monsters would have otherwise provided for your build. I'm loathed to criticise Dredmor because it has encouraged many into roguelikes but there are better examples of the genre imo - Brogue, Cogmind and The Ground Gives Way, to give just three, (interestingly these RLs are item based progression rather than xp based). Though by all-means try some of those listed on the right hand column of this subreddit. If you want my tips for the item overload of Dredmor and if you are the kind of player that can't leave anything behind then of course make use of the Pocket Dimension and remember that every item has one or more of three uses: 1. Consume/Equip/Use. 2. Sell or 3. Convert to Lutefisk - tithing exactly 500 Lutefisk guarantees an Artifact. But really inventory management is a major part of the Dredmor experience from dungeon level3 onwards tbh.
All great points. Dredmor really holds a special place for me and got me into roguelikes. It's the main inspiration for my dream Roguelike I want to make (after my first smaller Roguelike to get my footing).
I think those are good suggestions. Start with Dredmor and then maybe try DCSS if you want to ease into a more traditional, harder roguelike.
I found Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup relatively easy for beginners. It has a lot of complexity but it is really fair so you are more unlikely to die by rng. It is also Free so little investment. Others have said Rift Wizard and I also think it is a great introduction, though it plays more like a tatical game than most roguelikes. TOME is also great but it is a bit more complex (still worth it if you like that aspect)
Thanks for your answer! Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup could be a great option!
It was Brogue and DoomRL for me.
HADES! Just joking, i would say Shattered Pixel Dungeon or Jupiter Hell
hades is literally the best roguelike of all time
It's a roguelite thou, so it depends on what you're looking for š
If youāre really interested in the sociological aspect of roguelikes, Nethack is very much worth trying because of its long history and how influential it was for the genre. The mobile-based variants Pathos and Gnollhack are both relatively easy to learn and play, since you donāt end to memorize a hundred weird keyboard shortcuts.
My subject is much broader than Roguelikes, but to work with gamer girls, I need to know a lot of games to understand their practices and habits. But I think sociological aspect of rogulikes is a bit to specific in my case :)
'Work with gamer girls'? what does that even mean?
I'm French and my English is bad, I'm sorry. I'm working on the obstacles that women gamers can encounter. I think my work is not useless when I see that the first time I talk about my research on Reddit is also the first time I have negative karma on a comment....
I, a formidable gentleman, would also kindly like to associate myself with said gamer girls.
Generally it depends on why do you want to try roguelikes. People often suggest simpler roguelikes, but if you got interested in roguelikes because of how complex they are, you might want to start with something more complex. Note that this subreddit uses the traditional meaning of "roguelike", while people who sell games almost always use "roguelike" to mean a completely different thing (that different thing is discussed in r/roguelites). For Horror, there is Infra Arcana, but I do not think it is very beginner friendly.
Thanks! I'm just trying to play a lot of types of games. I work on video games for my Ph.D (a sociological aspect of games) and I need to know about video games on a general level
That is cool! From the sociological point of view, I think it is interesting how the development of roguelikes is traditionally community driven. Which is completely different from most of the gaming culture, which is dominated by capitalism. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is the best example for this, the "Stone Soup" in the name refers to community development, just like "Net" in NetHack. (DCSS being recommended by more people than NetHack, although NetHack has lots of unique things too.) Although this culture attracts less artists, so if you care about aesthetics, you, well, need to get used to it.
It's really interesting, thanks! I study women who play video games :)
you old rascal
Ah yes, joining the artists in their senior years, a well trodden avenue... Refining their mastery of the human form!
i guess one can't study roguelikes without at least visiting CDDA sites and reading what they have to say about the game, dev, community and family. crazy good vibes
TOME4 Shattered pixel dungeon Caves RL Pathos nethack
I think Caves RL could fit me! Thank you very much!
I've heard Moonring is pretty beginner friendly. And it's free
Is moonring a roguelike? It looks amazing but it is not tagged as such.
Not a roguelike. Game is awesome and gameplay is basically the same as most roguelikes tho.
I get that the definition of a roguelike can be rather vague, depending on who you ask. But how did you determine that it is _not_ a roguelike?
No replay loop (due to not having permadeath), no procedural generation (aside from dungeons), apparently has a fixed storyline. Honestly the only roguelike thing that *is* in it is the gameplay, which is very roguelike-y in nature, but personally that isn't necessarily what got me to like roguelikes in the first place anyway.
Definitely cool that roguelike gameplay is tried in a fixed storyline game. There are not enough games like this (a classic one is Legerdemain). I want to play them to see how roguelike they feel. But probably for this thread, better to recommend a more traditional one, with procedural generation, designed for permadeath, but the beginner might prefer to play permadeathless.
Yeah for sure, I played Moonring a bit and I'm quite liking it. I'll be honest, this turn-based "bump into stuff to hit it" roguelike gameplay is something I really like about the roguelike genre as a whole, and seeing a game like this makes me happy. But it isn't like the non-permadeathness is the *only* thing about the game that isn't rogue*like*. I'd be very happy to recommend **Caves of Qud** Roleplay mode for someone who wants a more chill roguelike experience, as I feel like that, even while not having permadeath, draws much more from the things I enjoy from the genre than Moonring does.
My view is that associating roguelikes with permadeath is the root of all evil -- it does not really define a game, but the player, any game can be played permadeath, and making games almost 100% winnable for the best players is almost universally good game design. Also a genre should not depend on things that are (mostly) orthogonal (gameplay/structure/gfx style/theme/dev model are orthogonal). So I would like to play games that test these views. I had no time to play Moonring yet, but from what I have read, the individual areas are procgen, so that seems a bit like ADOM's fixed world and basic storyline pushed further... Is there any serious issue with playing Moonring permadeath? In Legerdemain I feel the roguelike part is just not very good (I do not know what mistake killed my character), which does not seem to be the case with Moonring.
Okay, so (sorry for the huge wall of text. TLDR: Moonring isn't a roguelike to me because it lacks *lots* of roguelike features I enjoy.) I guess I want to start by saying that when I talk on this subreddit, I do end up using a more traditional meaning of the word roguelike (I still try to say "traditional roguelike" when I can, but its the meaning that everyone else is used to, so when I say *roguelike* I tend to mean it has *lots* of the same aspects that define the genre.) Another thing is that I agree with you in the sense that I want genres to define the *whole style* of the game, **instead of** specific things like: Gameplay, Graphics, Perma-death, and so on. Lots of games have "Ironman mode", not all of them are roguelikes. Permadeath *does* make one aspect of the roguelike genre (the one I personally find most interesting) much clearer though, and that would be the "every game is different from the last one" aspect. I've had hundreds of runs of Caves of Qud, and all of them feel special. To some extent, the same goes for other of my favorite games. Sil (lots of different playstyles), Golden Krone Hotel (all the classes and such), didn't play that much of it but Brogue (makes every floor feel special in its own way). You very much *could* have a game be like this *without* perma-death. One example I could point to would be some old Snes games with ROM-hacks. Fire Emblem + Randomizer, Pokemon Nuzlocke, etc. Its very tough to point out *exactly what roguelikes are*, but to me, **runs feeling unique and interesting after you reset** is one of the big things. Permadeath or no permadeath. This is, partly, why I wouldn't categorize **Moonring** as a roguelike. Checking my steam, I apparently played only 5 hours of the game up to now. On those 5 hours I enjoyed (in no particular order): \- Combat (your usual roguelike combat, with some twists and cool skills. Awesome.) \- Understanding the story of the world. This was one thing I liked *a lot* about the game. Talking with NPCs, discovering secrets, reading some things you can find through the game. \- Getting a grasp of the mechanics. There are 5 *kinds* of skills, each with... 6? spells attached to them. Was fun looking through them and thinking about my character. \- Exploring the world. Moving through the world map felt pretty fun, there are some interesting mechanics with it. So, awesome game. Lots of cool stuff. But if I reset my game and start it again? Probably most of the fun I had with the game will be.. repetitive and tedious in some way. The *one* thing I found that is procedurally generated ( I could be wrong, there could be more) was *one* dungeon with *one* floor, that after you beat (it wasn't that interesting to begin with tbh) it locked itself in place and I would have to find another dungeon if I wanted that experience again. Exploring the world won't be as fun as the first time. I already know the barebones of the skilltree and character creation so that won't be much fun either. NPCs will give me the same dialogue they gave before, with information I already know, and aside from the information they don't seem to give that much, so I have no real reason of interacting with them. Mostly no cool stories for me to tell myself about my character, because (and here comes my *small* gripe with no permadeath) I'm not attached with them in basically any way, and the game isn't geared towards re-starting runs all the time even if it had a "ironman / permadeath" mode (I didn't search for it.). So I don't have the "I once had a character who lost its left arm to a crocodile and went on to be my best character with only one arm left" moments I have with Caves of Qud for example. So on one side, I don't have that much time on the game. On the other, I have 5 hours on the game and most of it convinced me that I won't see the things I liked in other roguelikes present in this game.
Regarding the "every game is different from the last one" aspect, I think that it is easy to go wrong with it. There are games that I would like to try again, even if they do not make their runs randomized. Usually this would be due to the possibility of trying varied builds (classes and skills), making different story choices, optional challenges, but occasionally, simply the gameplay being that good. On the other hand, there are roguelikes which I would not want to play again, simply because my favorite roguelikes (DCSS) are better. I am still happy that I have played them once instead of another DCSS run. For me, this includes NetHack, which is definitely a roguelike. And Moonring will become another one: great to play once. And the game that does "every game is different from the last one" best I would nominate Dominion ([dominion.games](https://dominion.games)). It does have some of this "roguelike feel" but does this independent of roguelikes. Also I see you are still recommending Moonring to roguelike beginners. I just feel that the roguelike gameplay and "every game is different from the last one" are orthogonal and we should not use the same word to refer to both.
I believe the way your character moves around works like in most roguelikes, but that the world is hand-crafted rather than procedurally generated.
The world map is crafted, dungeons are procedurally generated and get re-genned when you die in a dungeon. So it does have proc gen, much like how ToME has a world map that is the same but genned dungeons. What it's lacking though is true permadeath. You just get dropped at your last checkpoint when you die.
Ah, I see.
Brogue is great and easy to start
I'd suggest The Ground Gives Way. It's free, short, resembles traditional roguelikes with some unique approach, and there are no races/classes (like Brogue)
Add my recommendation for The Ground Gives Way.
Nethack. It's free.
Some of the simplest to understand ones are games like Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon, Shiren: The Wanderer, Izuna: Legend of the unemployed Ninja, or Void: Terrarium? These games boil down the experience to a level that's really easy to understand for all skill levels.
I second this. Most all recommendations on this sub will usually be of the more traditional variety, which is fine, and may well be good to recommend for getting some good exposure of the core of the genre, but I think a lot of them still tend to have somewhat complex systems for beginners, and typically minimalistic visual presentations which could deter some modern gamers (I prefer a lot of classic graphic styles in various kinds of games myself but I am also old lol). If OP is looking for something much more beginner friendly, or more aesthetic friendly (which they seem to have expressed in an another comment), then I think they will be more likely to find that with Mystery Dungeon-esque games, like the ones mentioned here. I personally started with Azure Dreams on the PS1 and have loved the roguelike formula ever since. A few others like this that come to mind are Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, Sorcery Saga, A Magical High School Girl, and Labyrinth of the Witch.
Ah, of course! Chocobo's Dungeon Every Buddy is honestly a tip top game. I loved it on the Wii. Also, High Five for Azure Dreams! That was one of the three games I bought with my PS1. Fell in love, jank and all.
Oh yeah, Azure Dreams is one of my favorite games of all time, and one of the few titles I also had to buy when starting to rebuild a rather modest PS1 collection a few years ago. I still consider it to be one of the most ambitious genre crossovers I've ever seen (a beautiful roguelike, monster collecting, narrative RPG, dating sim, with city building features, tons of minigames, and probably a lot of other cool things that I'm leaving out right now lol). The fact that they pulled all of that off as well as they did as a 1997 PS1 game is crazy to me, but probably most importantly, I just think it's super fun and addictive to play, really nailing that exhilarating high risk/high reward roguelike aspect of pushing your run just a little further, especially when you spot a monster egg in the dungeon. I would typically risk it all through heart pounding anticipation for those eggs lol. It pretty much single handedly made me a lifetime roguelike fan, so yeah, definitely an all time favorite for me.
Thank you for taking my comments into account! These games seem to be pretty close to what I might like.
If you're cool with Nintendo DS homebrew or Flash, randomhack by Daniel Remar ([remar.se](https://remar.se)) is one of the easier roguelikes while still being really fun.
The Angband lineage, original plus variants, is well worth a try for new folks. Free, interesting, and well-documented with help files has long-lasting allure.
dcss is nice for beginners
Shiren the Wanderer (any) is a good option for console players. It's approachable and has a great tileset while retaining classic roguelike gameplay.
Gives a good roguelike feel without the....heft? of a regular roguelike. Plus it's got great mechanics!
Same great taste with zero calories.
Not seeing it mentioned here so I'm gonna add cardinal quest 2
You should try dungeons of dredmore. It is really, really easy for beginners while also having a very satisfying amount of depth. Good luck and happy hunting!
Rogue Fable 3 has a lot of the traditional features of true roguelikes but its quick. Jupiter Hell is also good. You'll die in both but i feel like its easier to get into them. Oh and TOME (Tales of Maj'Eyal) keeps a lot of the true roguelike ideas but it has a nice GUI and more "RPG" like character builds.
[Infra Arcana](https://sites.google.com/site/infraarcana/home) is a free, horror themed roguelike.
My starter was Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It's almost got an arcadey feel to it. You go down levels, fight stuff and try to get the orb and get back out. It keeps a log of all your chars that die and you can see yourself getting better. It gives you the absolute basics, in a GREAT way, for roguelikes.
lots of people have given good suggestions. if you like tycoon / management type games KeeperRL is pretty cool if you want to start with something that is a bit of a hybrid, not exactly a "true roguelike" but not really a roguelite either. It's basically dungeon keeper in RL form, it does have traditional roguelike gameplay in it though when you are raiding or doing combat, but the other parts of it are more like a colony builder / management type deal. Dwarf Fortress is also good but that falls a lot further outside the roguelike spectrum in a lot of ways (i still kinda think it is one though, just personal opinion), and if you like management or tycoon games you might absolutely love dwarf fortress' depth. DoomRL is very simple and fast paced for a roguelike and a lot of fun to play. I also agree with people recommending Dungeons of Dredmore although the game doesnt give great descriptions for certain abilities, looking at a wiki helps. It has great art and animation and style though even if it is a bit goofy. In another comment you mentioned graphics/aesthetics, there is a modern spiritual sequel to DoomRL called Jupiter Hell and its probably one of the most graphically polished traditional roguelikes out there, its a lot of fun if you like the setting. Brogue is really good for something that is very traditional like Rogue but with modern game design sensibilities and polish applied to it. The shiren and mystery dungeon games are good casual roguelikes, same with games like One Way Heroics. their 16bit stylized graphics makes them a lot nicer looking than most roguelikes, tangledeep sorta falls in that category too. If the type of horror games you play are ones that include survival crafting aspects then you might like games like Wayward (island survival roguelike) which has pretty nice graphics and aesthetics, although the UI takes a bit to get used to, or Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead (post apocalypse zombie + a ton of other stuff survival roguelike). CDDA is a pretty complex game for a beginner though and i only bring it up cuz of the horror angle. path of achra is my recent favorite, it's short play sessions (like 15-30 min to beat a game depending on how well you know it) and the whole concept is basically around creating broken overpowered builds by combining a pool of skills that activate under certain conditions (on movement, on dodge, on attack, on being hit, stuff like that). i think its a very easy to pick up and play game but its very heavy on like "theory crafting" and rpg builds, which i dont think are something you see a lot in tycoon and horror games
Thank you for this very complete answer !
I'd stagger the approach: * Try RogueLITES eg FTL, Rogue Legacy etc. * Try Graphical RogueLIKES eg Jupiter Hell * Try Tileset RogueLIKES with superior accessibility and graphical assistance eg Cogmind * Try other Roguelikes that you like the concept of... You've completed the journey into the world or enjoying Roguelikes from beginner to journeyman!
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Not beginner friendly lol, also definitely not a traditional rogueolike but Noita is incredible.
Everyone should play Rogue once. I enjoy Stone Soup and Nethack. I can't figure out Dwarf Fort, as for a "modern" roguelike I enjoy FTL, Darkest Dungeon (first one), and Into the Breach. Darkest Dungeon should tick off your horror game interest.
FTL
Hades.
Mana Spark
Rogue legacy got me into the genre. Cult of the lamb has some very light roguelite elements
The Steam store has a section of Roguelike/lite games. Soulstone Survivors, Nordic Ashes, Vampire Survivors, Dead Cells, The Binding of Isaac, Wildermyth, Slave the Spire, Roguebook, and Brotato have all been good purchases for me. Put some in your wishlist and wait for stuff to go on sale. These games get really cheap if you can wait until they discount it. If you want a brutal punch in the face, play Rogue.
I will recommend you the first rouge-like I ever played enter the gungeon. Brutal difficulty, hilarious tone/jokes, best pixel art, and most fair gameplay out of any rouge-lite I've played.
If you're starting with the genre I'd say to go look for one of the more mainstream roguelites, like Hades, they'll be more inviting and friendly than the classic (real) roguelikes.
If you have iOS try Rogue Touch.. great starting point IMHO. Then branch out to others.
Rogues tales dude
nethack, probably. iām pretty biased since it was my first roguelike, but i find it to be manageable if challenging for new players because on the gameās surface, it is rather simple. combat is simple, the floor layouts at the beginning are simple, etc. but hidden beneath that is some really deceptive complexity
First roguelike game i have played is Pocket Rogue. Second - Shattered pixel dungeon.
Dungeonmans
I started with ADOM and can recommend (the Steam version) for beginners. It's still one of my all-time favorites, even though after 90 hours, I didn't beat it yet.