8/27/25
And no I do not mean rogueLITES. Binding of Isaacs and Balatros need not apply... What I mean is TRADITIONAL roguelikes! Turn-Based, dungeon crawling goodness......
Despite already playing it a lot earlier in the year, I've been growing hopelessly addicted to Elin again though this time to a much greater depth than early January. While it isn't exactly the closest game to most roguelikes, it's got me thinking about the genre *quite a bit*. Like how many of the most popular and deep roguelikes of today are all complete freeware: Nethack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, Brogue, Elona - All free!
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (DCSS) in particular was a huge favorite of mine back in high school. We were given macbooks meaning they couldn't run many games but I'd be damned if I wasn't constantly playing RimWorld and DCSS any moment there was spare time, it was how I got through a majority of that mess. In classic roguelike fashion I always felt like there was something new to learn and was constantly discovering new ways to play out different situations. This in particular is where the Elin/Elona connections come into play because these games are so unique with the most esoteric systems imaginable, not helped by the fact that the games are incredibly Japanese with a majority of the knowledgable playerbase speaking that language making the game even harder to learn as a foreigner. Somehow I view this as a good thing.
When the Elin addiction eventually dies down, I'll probably hop into related ventures like Elona or maybe even getting back into Cataclysm.....
For now you yourself should also look into playing The Classics™
(shamelessly stolen from /rlg/)
The modern indie roguelike slop machine forgot what makes an actual roguelike