Topic: Rogue-Lites/Likes for Nintendo Switch

So I've been playing Darkest Dungeon for a week now and confirm that is an excellent roguelite and might be one of my favorite games on the Switch. For those who haven't played it and are interested in the roguelike/roguelite genre, I thoroughly recommend it.

Since one of the things roguelike/lite fans like to debate endlessly is "is this game roguelike or roguelite?", I'll mention a couple of the ways DD is and isn't roguelike:

Turn-based and tile-based (rogueLIKE) but has graphical representation of gameplay (rogueLITE).

Has character permadeath (LIKE) but a persistent town that you build up to strengthen your characters (LITE).

Is a pure dungeon crawler (LIKE) but your characters spend some time in town for recovery and choosing different dungeons (LITE).

Sense of humor (LIKE): this isn't in any "official" list of criteria for roguelikes, but in my experience all the best roguelikes have a feeling of quirkiness and humor to them, and DD definitely has this quality. Starting from the hero selection screen, where the heroes available to you can exhibit quirks such as "deviant tastes" which prohibits them from using the brothel for stress relief, to the stress effects ingame which can make them paranoid (occasionally hits other PCs necause of imagined attacks), delusional (constantly gibbering about imaginary traumas, which increases the other PCs' stress levels), or masochistic (refuses to let your healers treat them, because PAIN IS GOOD).

Your characters will die a lot in Darkest Dungeon, often because those stress effects turned them into irrational weirdos without any redeeming hero qualities. They will charge headlong into fights they can't win, or they will refuse to fight when you need them most. They will pick up an impressive array of phobias, refuse to work with certain other characters, become alcoholic and generally just mess with your carefully laid plans.

But if they survive a dungeon run, you can send them to the tavern or the abbey for a quick bit of stress relief involving flaggelation or the comforts of the dice table. Of course, there is always a chance they will become addicted to these dubious pleasures, which creates a whole new set of problems. It's a very perverse game in every sense of the word.

But it's a LOT of fun.

(So yeah, this turned into a whole mini-review.)

I wasn't aware that liking turn based games made us weirdos... Pokemon, Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, Sid Meyers Civilization, Hearthstone, Pokemon TCG, several of my favorite games have been turn based.

@Heavyarms55 Well, obviously I love turn-based so my intention was not to insult your preferences, but I do think we're a small minority and getting smaller every year.

Personally I'm happy to have people think I'm weird, please don't take it as an insult.

@JasmineDragon I didn't either. I am confused, when did turn based games become weird? This isn't an idea I have run into before I saw your comment.

Has anyone tried Risk of Rain? I’ve heard really good things about it elsewhere, but nobody seems to be talking about it on NintendoLife. Currently, I am debating whether to get Risk of Rain, Wizard of Legend, or Death Road to Canada.

@Gungeonite Wait about 5 minutes and you'll get another 17 indie rogue likes on Switch...

Aside from the ones other folks have already mentioned, I really like Immortal Redneck. It’s a roguelite FPS.

Rogue Legacy is coming to Switch as well. Also a lot of fun.

Love Binding of Isaac, never thought i would, but can't help going back to it and trying to complete it with the different characters, wish they would bring out the other expansions for it.

Binding if Issac is a great game. It takes some work to figure out all the items and how they work together. At first the game can seem short, but only opens up more and more as you play. Not a big fan of the childish story and themes, but the gameplay is spot on. I literally have over 900 hours in the game. Beat one save only to start another. Seriously one of the best games on the Switch.

Darkest Dungeon is also worth a purchase. Very unique game with amazing artwork and a very dark and forboding lovecraftian atmosphere. Beaten this a few times and now they just released the Color of Madness DLC. Haven't had a chance to play it yet.

Rogue Legacy is coming out in Nov and comes highly recommended

The only Rogue likes I dislike are some of the survival games like Don't Starve. Love the artwork, but the constant digging through the menu to build over and over really made me grow tired with it. If the game paused while digging through that menu to figure out what resources you need and what to build I think I would enjoy it more. Right now you are better off searching the internet and making a list of what you need to build and the resources required.