Roguelikes for pussies?

Djiem

Hi, Penny-Arcade. I know a lot of you are into Roguelikes. I do like the random-dungeon concept and the get better 'till you die gameplay, but I just can't bear ASCII screens with no GUI or the ultra-hard permadeath system of most of Roguelikes.
A while ago, in another Roguelike thread, someone mentionned Lost Labyrith, which I really liked a lot. Somewhat graphical, a clear enough interface, and the possibility to save. Plus, it had a lot of customization and it was pretty fun.
I'm wondering, are there more games in this vein? Are there more Roguelikes that aren't pure hardcore Roguelikes but more like a randomly-generated RPG with no real end?

zilo

You're looking for Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. There's a thread on it around here somewhere that deserves resurrecting, too.

Burtletoy

Elona. Let me find the thread.

Burtletoy

Elona: Part Roguelike, part JRPG, part Morrowind :

Skulkraken

http://homepage3.nifty.com/rfish/index_e.html

Seconding playing Elona. The game has no permadeath, so it should be just right for you.

Djiem

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll be checking those games out.

TVs_Frank

Stone Soup is a fantastic entry to Roguelikes. I've tried Elona, but the gameplay seemed really unintuitive even for a Roguelike. Maybe I should give it another shot. There's also Shiren the Wanderer for the DS. I've heard good things about it and plan to buy it soon.

VThornheart

You can also "pussyify" (to use the terms of the thread title ) most games by creating a script or program that'll backup the save games between saves. That way you can revert to last save if you die.

I have a quick one I whipped up in like 3 minutes for ADOM when I started playing it. I can dig it up if you want it and don't have access to a compiler to make your own.

takyris

To add to this: how about all of the above but on the DS?

Djiem

Nice, Stone Soup doesn't seem to have a water/food meter. That's the only thing that pissed me off in Lost Labyrinth.

EDIT: Oops, loaf of bread. Is there a hunger and thirst death in Stone Soup or is it a curative item?

Zombiemambo

takyris wrote: »

To add to this: how about all of the above but on the DS?

The only DS RL I know of is Shiren The Wanderer, and it's anything but easy.

cj iwakura

Zombiemambo wrote: »

takyris wrote: »

To add to this: how about all of the above but on the DS?

The only DS RL I know of is Shiren The Wanderer, and it's anything but easy.

Izuna 1 or 2. They're lighter themed, and you only lose your equipment. Experience carries over when you die.

Both are also $20 or less now.

DeathPrawn

NetHack could work (hear me out) if you get a version with the tileset graphics and turn on explore mode (no death). It doesn't sound ideal for what you're looking for (it may not be ASCII but there's still no clear GUI, not at all easier than without explore mode), but those tweaks might push it into the realm of the playable for you.

TVs_Frank

Djiem wrote: »

Nice, Stone Soup doesn't seem to have a water/food meter. That's the only thing that pissed me off in Lost Labyrinth.

EDIT: Oops, loaf of bread. Is there a hunger and thirst death in Stone Soup or is it a curative item?

There's hunger, but its pretty fair about it IMO. I've had a lot of characters and I don't think I've lost a single one to hunger. I've been close though. There's items you can find that let you eat raw meat. Corpses = Infinite food. There's also a few classes that don't have hunger I think. There's at least one.

METAzraeL

Shiren the Wanderer gets tough, but it's not as crazy difficult/unfair as a lot of roguelikes. It's also completely fucking awesome, especially if you love SNES graphics. Aaand, if you do fuck up, you can get a few online rescues before you have to completely start over.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=52525

It's apparently $15 new now, so there's really no excuse for any gamer with a DS to not have it.

VThornheart

Ah, I didn't see that you didn't like hunger mechanics before... nevermind my ADOM suggestion... He's merciless with it. Probably 3/4 of the characters I've ever made for it ended up dying of hunger. Fun game once you find yourself a good source of food, but at the start it's almost like a race against time to get to a certain location (that you have to find out on your own ) that sells massive quantities of lightweight sources of food.

zilo

TVs_Frank wrote: »

Djiem wrote: »

Nice, Stone Soup doesn't seem to have a water/food meter. That's the only thing that pissed me off in Lost Labyrinth.

EDIT: Oops, loaf of bread. Is there a hunger and thirst death in Stone Soup or is it a curative item?

There's hunger, but its pretty fair about it IMO. I've had a lot of characters and I don't think I've lost a single one to hunger. I've been close though. There's items you can find that let you eat raw meat. Corpses = Infinite food. There's also a few classes that don't have hunger I think. There's at least one.

Ghoul. Ghouls are awesome. They prefer rotted corpse meat.

Djiem

TVs_Frank wrote: »

Djiem wrote: »

Nice, Stone Soup doesn't seem to have a water/food meter. That's the only thing that pissed me off in Lost Labyrinth.

EDIT: Oops, loaf of bread. Is there a hunger and thirst death in Stone Soup or is it a curative item?

There's hunger, but its pretty fair about it IMO. I've had a lot of characters and I don't think I've lost a single one to hunger. I've been close though. There's items you can find that let you eat raw meat. Corpses = Infinite food. There's also a few classes that don't have hunger I think. There's at least one.

Yeah, I've tried a game of Stone Soup, and the hunger's not too bad, they're not being cocks about it.

Zombiemambo

Frozen Depths is a Rogue-lite that features a heat meter. In order to stay warm you have to find warm clothes and make fires. It's not hard to find things to stay warm but breaks up the repetition in dungeon crawling.

seabass

Zombiemambo wrote: »

takyris wrote: »

To add to this: how about all of the above but on the DS?

The only DS RL I know of is Shiren The Wanderer, and it's anything but easy.

The DS port of nethack is ok too.

A duck!

I don't think I ever starved in ADOM. You can eat most corpses as most races, and sometimes you even get bonuses from it!

Other times you get sick and die. Que sera, sera.

zilo

Djiem wrote: »

TVs_Frank wrote: »

Djiem wrote: »

Nice, Stone Soup doesn't seem to have a water/food meter. That's the only thing that pissed me off in Lost Labyrinth.

EDIT: Oops, loaf of bread. Is there a hunger and thirst death in Stone Soup or is it a curative item?

There's hunger, but its pretty fair about it IMO. I've had a lot of characters and I don't think I've lost a single one to hunger. I've been close though. There's items you can find that let you eat raw meat. Corpses = Infinite food. There's also a few classes that don't have hunger I think. There's at least one.

Yeah, I've tried a game of Stone Soup, and the hunger's not too bad, they're not being cocks about it.

They find plenty of other things to be cocks about, I warn you. For extra fun, start a character who worships the Chaos God (X-something, it's been awhile).

VThornheart

A duck! wrote: »

I don't think I ever starved in ADOM. You can eat most corpses as most races, and sometimes you even get bonuses from it!

Other times you get sick and die. Que sera, sera.

lol Oh yeah, there was that too

A duck!

Most of the time it's a bad idea to eat Kobolds, but sometimes those Shamans give you magic powers. If you survive. Which you probably won't. The two best to eat were blink dogs for the random teleportation and giants, because those suckers gave stat bonuses like crazy.

tgbob

Castle of the Winds is roguelike lite with random dungeons, graphical interface with tiles, no food, save/load on death and a it even lacks a few things that'll kill you outright if you're not properly geared. Clicky!

Xagarath

Apparantly the Pokemon and Chocobo mystery dungeon games are fairly easy, though I've yet to try them.

JohnDoe

zilo wrote: »

TVs_Frank wrote: »

Djiem wrote: »

Nice, Stone Soup doesn't seem to have a water/food meter. That's the only thing that pissed me off in Lost Labyrinth.

EDIT: Oops, loaf of bread. Is there a hunger and thirst death in Stone Soup or is it a curative item?

There's hunger, but its pretty fair about it IMO. I've had a lot of characters and I don't think I've lost a single one to hunger. I've been close though. There's items you can find that let you eat raw meat. Corpses = Infinite food. There's also a few classes that don't have hunger I think. There's at least one.

Ghoul. Ghouls are awesome. They prefer rotted corpse meat.

I think Mummies don't need to eat - at the cost of not being able to drink potions.

VThornheart

True... but even then, you needed enough... what was it? It was either Survival or Food Preservation, I can't remember... one of those attributes made corpses drop more than rarely.

So many times I remember wandering in a dungeon, hoping someone would drop something until I finally starved.

But it is a GREAT game once you find a way to manage hunger. I can't diss ADoM too much, I love it to death.

His Corkiness

It's ASCII, but DoomRL is pretty simple to play, and individual games usually don't last very long.

ArcticXC

Running an Angband Borg is my favorite thing to do because it's pretty much like getting all the same results of a roguelike with zero effort!

Looks like he's been putting a lot of work into it lately too.

solsovly

Powder is pretty simple, still fairly hard and pretty fun.

Mahnmut

solsovly wrote: »

Powder is pretty simple, still fairly hard and pretty fun.

Seconded -- Crawl Stone Soup usurped its place in my heart, but it is damn good and a damn good introduction to roguelikes, too. Plus, it's got a great interface and has a port for DS homebrew.

Djiem

Well, that's a lot of great suggestions, now, let's shift the thread a little; Do you guys know any good CCGs (or just CGs maybe) that are kind of like Roguelikes, for one person? I have a game called Dungeoneer, which is 2-4 players, where the players go around in a randomly generated dungeon built with cards, they fight monsters, level up, etc. I want a game in that vein, but where you'd play by yourself. Does that even exist? If not, it should be made. That sounds better to me than Solitaire.

Zombiemambo

Djiem wrote: »

Well, that's a lot of great suggestions, now, let's shift the thread a little; Do you guys know any good CCGs (or just CGs maybe) that are kind of like Roguelikes, for one person? I have a game called Dungeoneer, which is 2-4 players, where the players go around in a randomly generated dungeon built with cards, they fight monsters, level up, etc. I want a game in that vein, but where you'd play by yourself. Does that even exist? If not, it should be made. That sounds better to me than Solitaire.

Well if it doesn't exist you should write something up and sell it.

Djiem

Zombiemambo wrote: »

Djiem wrote: »

Well, that's a lot of great suggestions, now, let's shift the thread a little; Do you guys know any good CCGs (or just CGs maybe) that are kind of like Roguelikes, for one person? I have a game called Dungeoneer, which is 2-4 players, where the players go around in a randomly generated dungeon built with cards, they fight monsters, level up, etc. I want a game in that vein, but where you'd play by yourself. Does that even exist? If not, it should be made. That sounds better to me than Solitaire.

Well if it doesn't exist you should write something up and sell it.

I was thinking of making one if I can't find one.

DeathPrawn

Zombies In My Pocket is pretty good for a free download-and-print-yourself game, and it looks like that link has a whole bunch of free variations as well.

wavecutter

DWARF FORTRESS

Djiem

wavecutter wrote: »

DWARF FORTRESS

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Dwarf Fortress the complete opposite of what I'm looking for?

zilo

That depends. Are you open to the idea of a game that will cut you while you're sleeping?

Faffel

DF is the only Roguelike I could get my mind around. Until I stopped using the guide, at least.

Arcibi

A duck! wrote: »

Most of the time it's a bad idea to eat Kobolds, but sometimes those Shamans give you magic powers. If you survive. Which you probably won't. The two best to eat were blink dogs for the random teleportation and giants, because those suckers gave stat bonuses like crazy.

Eating blink dogs gives you teleportitis, which sucks ass unless you have the teleport control trait

Then it makes a complete 180 and becomes one of the most useful abilities in the game