Roguelikes/Roguelites

[Refluxe]

Blueblob Absolute mega list there. Also heard good things about Darkest Dungeon and was close to getting it at one point. Out of interest what's your top 3 in the genre if you were forced to pick?

Damn that's tough. Well the third spot is tough, 1 and 2 are easily StS and Balatro respectively. Third spot probably goes to whatever I've more recently been playing, currently I'd go for either Hades 2 or the romhack Pokemon Emerald Rogue. Compressing a Pokemon game into about an hour run as a roguelite really gave that gameplay loop some zest

I will probably grab Balatro next week as I'm heading to Cornwall and my wife prefers driving, which works delightfully well for me in starting a new roguelike on the Switch.
I'll grab Hades 2 at some point as well, but I'm not in a huge rush. A Pokemon roguelite just sounds too dangerous. Haha.

Departed I couldn't get into Dead Cells, even though people really rave about it. Will have to check it out again properly at some point.

It took a while for DC to click for me too, to be honest.  But the more I unlocked, the more smooth the game felt to play, to where it has a really gratifying combat and traversal loop.  The main appeal for me is the fact that there is so much around every corner that it feels nary impossible to see everything and my desire to see more keeps me going.  That and the story starts to build some genuine intrigue.  

I still like Astral Ascent way more.  It would've easily been my favorite game of last year but after over 100 hours, the reward incentive started to feel very unbalanced.  Like to still get any shards for upgrades meant I had to make the game way too hard which started making it more frustrating.  Though a lot of updates have happened since then and some have fixed a lot of my previous issues with it and added so many new bosses and spells that it makes me eager to come back after I finish other games.  

Honestly, right now, besides Vampire Survivors, Astral Ascent is my current all time favorite roguelike.  If you can look past its more obvious anime vibes, it's such an insanely fun game once you become comfortable with its difficulty and how to maximize combat.

Yeah, fair. I think I struggle to get into the platformers quite as much, but probably just need a good one to help me break through into having them 'click'. Looks like Astral Ascent is on the Switch too, so will check it out at some point.

Looking up all these cool games and wishing I had more time...

Indeed, mate. Indeed.