It's definitely not bad, but I still never really could get into it. My favorite thing in Isaac is how vast the possibility space feels since so many of the items synergize in such interesting and unique ways. In Gungeon on the other hand I always felt like I just had a handful of discrete weapons that I could switch between. There was never that moment where you get Spoonbender + Tech 2 + Mulligan and those three relatively minor upgrades combine to make enemies melt as soon as you walk in the room.
They definitely don't synergize nearly to the extent that Isaac does, I'll give you that. What clicked for me was the movement and shooting feedback, which I liked much more than the floaty feel of Isaac.
I don't know how strict your spectrum of roguelikes is, but I've played Dwarf Fort, Necrodancer, and Dredmore which all sometimes count depending on who you ask. I'd like to get into the more traditional style but outside of downloading Brogue once I just haven't committed the time yet to learning.
Brogue's a good one to play for getting into the more traditional styles. It's complex enough to capture that improvisational emergent thrill while being accessible and simplifying certain aspects so it's not overwhelming
You might like 20XX: it's Mega Man X crossed with Dead Cells. 2 playable characters plus 2 more as DLC, all of which play differently. Levels are built from tiles like Dead Cells, and between runs you unlock items that get permanently added to the pool. Also it's got co-op and an easy mode that gives you 3 lives.
Busted. I admit I just didn't see it in the OP, so I reacted to that. Glad to see some appreciation for it! I should really go back and replay it as a magic user. I've only done minotaur fighter, which is basically the game's easy mode.
Pretty much everyone's already played them at this point but FTL and Into the Breach should fit the bill. FTL has a very impressive amount of playable ships that all play differently and encourage different sorts of builds. When I first played Into the Breach I stuck with the starting mech team for several hours and thought the game was so well balanced around them that I couldn't believe there were a bunch of other teams. They all play differently and synergize in very different ways. They're two of the best roguelites ever made, and my two personal favorite games in the genre (my other favorites being Spelunky, Monolith, and Unexplored).
How did you map all the commands to a pad? I can't imagine playing Qud with buttons but it sounds cool.
That's one of the remaining big ones I haven't dug into yet. I've got it sitting on my desktop for whenever I finally get to it. It sounds great from everything I've heard. Can't say I like the game's graphics but who cares.
I always thought of it as roguelikes being the traditional design (Cataclysm, Brogue, Cogmind, Caves of Qud, TOME, Unexplored, etc) and then it's a sliding scale from there. From traditional roguelike to "roguelike but other genre" (roguelike platformer = Spelunky and Catacomb Kids, tactical roguelike = Hoplite and Imbroglio, etc) to roguelite, which have elements of roguelikes like procedural generation and permadeath but lack key tenets like systemic improvisational gameplay (BoI, Ziggurat, Enter The Gungeon, Dead Cells, etc)
