Himuro said:
Roguelikes are pretty hard. They require that you learn the game before you can get better, and they're learning experiences but I don't think they're nearly as hard as 2d shooters, or anything because they're based on luck, chance. You never know when you'll get a zomg sword that'll last you all the way to floor 10. You know when some random factor will happen.
Good points all the way around but I can't help myself but disagree a bit here.
-One of the best tricks to Roguelikes is that said ZOMG Sword can often not amount to SHIT, even a full set of EQ, if not wielded with extreme precision AND allowances made for it to easily/quickly part from your hands leaving you to thrive, or perhaps even just survive, otherwise. You can feel/seem like an Uber force of nature at any given time in many a Roguelike, and that happens to many folks---but outside of a relative select few that have mastery approaching Go, Chess, etc master levels...said feeling usually portends doom and screaming loss.
-2D shooters on the other hand, are usually locked in pretty heavy to set patterns and very limited aspects of differentation from game to game within the same game. Learn the patterns/fixed order of things coming...and you've about got it. Where it gets interesting is games that buck this in unique ways like Summer Carnival 92' Recca and that one...name escapes me but I know folk here know it ( a few did this) where better play ramps the game's difficulty up in an impressive variety of ways versus average or "poor" play intentionally or otherwise.
So yeah, Roguelikes are all about strategy and understanding Luck and some manipulation thereof. Should the likes of Dicin' Knight and Baroque continue to evolve and improve, you'll even be able to add in many of the twitch based trappings into it. Should I get around to it or somebody else already beating me to the punch, (seems like maybe...) I'm convinced a meaningful Roguelike 2D/3D shooter can be wrought and also bring much to the table. Even bursts of great luck that would be homefree moments in most other genres can easily slip through your fingers if not turn on you outright without warning.
In other situations, you play a game of chess with Kasparov and he has a heart attack midway through which guarantees your victory on account of his death.
In a Roguelike, that same moment could bring about untold horror as Kasparov then rises from the slump of the chair as a Zombie on his next turn bent not only on destroying you within 5 more moves....but also eating your brain and leaving your lifeless husk as a Grim Ward to those that would dare to cross him.
