The Differences Between Two Adjacent Genres and How to Dive In.
The Differences Between Two Adjacent Genres and How to Dive In.
(Adventure awaits!)
Everyone wants to be a hero. To answer the call to glory, being the brave soul who dares to explore expansive worlds, often doing battle with dangerous beasts and cunning thieves. Some may be joined by a colorful cast of characters, others simply go it alone. That’s the reason why many people play video games, to feel in control of a greater narrative, to have a sense of achievement for conquering difficult trials and slaying monsters to finish a great big story.
Few genres capture the nail-biting gusto and careful strategy that goes into a grand quest quite like the worlds of roguelikes and roguelites. At least, that’s what many people have presumably told you. You must be here wondering what the differences between roguelikes and roguelites could be. While there are certainly traits that differentiate them, the deeper you dive, the more blurred everything steadily becomes.
In this article we’ll be covering:
When comparing the two genres, it is best to talk about the roguelike genre first. The wonderful world of roguelikes is best defined by a small list of traits that can be referred to as the 3 P’s:
Levels, enemies, and/or items are randomly generated. This often results in no two playthroughs being the same, especially if the developers are smart about ensuring that items and enemies have different behaviors. Take for example an enemy that jumps around an area and takes breaks between movements. You could use the standard weapon you get upon starting the game, or you could pick up an item in another area that fires long ranged homing attacks at the slight risk of encountering a different enemy that isn’t weak to that. This provokes a lot of strategy based upon risk and reward.
As the name would suggest, yes, you can and will die. Death doesn’t simply mean a slap on the wrist, or just simply being launched back to the last checkpoint you had. Instead deaths hold serious consequences. It typically means losing all of your items from that run, but it could also mean other things such as losing certain abilities you may have earned early on. This trait results in a greater sense of anxiety and suspense, sitting at the edge of your seat and dreading the setbacks caused by death.
While some aspects of the game are random, not all of them should be. As you play and avoid death, not only will you find yourself being able to predict enemy behavior more easily and better strategize, but you will also see the randomly made levels change (such as getting new backgrounds/terrains). Enemies get tougher as you encounter bosses and find greater rewards.
A great example of this is the indie staple, The Binding of Isaac. Created by the same developers as Super Meat Boy, Issac has to fight for survival by delving into a twisted world of flesh demons, monstrosities oozing blood from their eyes, and sentient piles of feces. Players have to accomplish this by entering winding, procedurally generated corridors and mazes, collecting items to survive against the threat of losing all progress in order to work towards conquering the game’s bosses to accomplish one of many possible endings. This game is a perfect example of the 3 P’s, where every room is a gamble, suspense is high, and every strategy counts.
Wandering the depths, Isaac finds the Mutant Spider item. Image courtesy of Steam, where the game is available for purchase.
However, some say that The Binding of Isaac also has traits of roguelites. This carefully leads us into…
Explaining roguelites is a little more straightforward. The short answer is that it is an offshoot of the roguelike, but with a major change to either one of the three tenants or to the game’s very structure, most often removing the permadeath aspect. One of the more twisted and bizarre examples is Daniel Mullins’ horror deckbuilder, Inscryption. Without spoiling any major plot progression, the first chapter sees the player trapped in a cabin with a crazed old man who wants to play a game of cards with them with the prize being the loser’s soul.
What sets this horror game apart from being a true roguelike is the meta genre-breaking Mullins is known for in some of his other works. Not only does the story take a meta turn with cults, games within games, and a massive corporate conspiracy, but the gameplay also plays with the roguelike genre. You may lose the cards you have every time you die, but you still keep certain key items as they play into the escape room adjacent puzzles that allow players to progress through the story.
The mysterious old man in one of his trademark masks. Image courtesy of Steam, where you can purchase the game.
The chaotic yet creative approach that Daniel Mullins takes in his games takes us to the games that seem dead set on…
Frankly, the overlap between the two genres should be obvious with roguelites being an offshoot of roguelikes. That doesn’t mean that people don’t have somewhat fuzzy definitions of that, however. In fact if anything, the differences between the two have become less and less pronounced as the years have gone by.The discrepancies and fading lines between genres have even led to online discourse as to whether games like Cuphead should be considered a roguelite due to players having to restart a level upon death, but keep their items permanently. Some even consider The Binding of Isaac a blend between roguelike and roguelite.
Sometimes, the boldest of adventurers carve their own path away from the paved roads, and developers are as bold as to combine different genres entirely. Case in point, the game you likely thought about when clicking on this article, Cult of the Lamb.
Cult of the Lamb sporting its new two player capabilities. Image courtesy of Steam, where the game can be purchased.
In this game, you play as the titular lamb who ends up as the chosen one for Narinder, this world’s deity of death. As such, the player is appointed with both running the titular cult and slaying the Bishops of the Old Faith. Cult of the Lamb is a massive amalgamation of a roguelike dungeon crawler and a city development game, combining an assortment of resource management and strategy based mechanics.
Doing well on the dungeon crawls (or crusades as they’re called) increases the faith of your followers and provides you with resources, which makes running the cult easier. On the other hand, doing well on the actual running of the cult increases the faith of your followers, which provides you with coins that can be spent on dungeon crawls. Even then, this only scratches the surface of the multitude of mechanics in Cult of the Lamb with the diverging paths that require strategy, intense boss fights, and various upgrades and weapons that can be found all throughout the map.
All of this is to say that there are all kinds of video games out there. If the examples of roguelikes and rougelites here are a tad dark for your tastes, your search for the latest and greatest in roguelikes can start here.
Armed with this knowledge, you can now carve your own journey.
