There’s a lot to love about Hades. From its diverse cast of memorable characters to its endlessly replayable gameplay, Hades is easily one of the best and most ambitious Roguelikes ever released. I’ve personally sunk over 120hrs into the game and have played more than 100 runs and I still have so much left to do. Despite all the time I’ve spent on the game, it still feels just as captivating as it did when I first picked it up in early access. You might be thinking that this is because of the game’s overwhelming amount of content, and sure, that’s a pretty big factor. But Supergiant actually uses one little design trick to help encourage you keep the game fresh.
Read moreWhat is a Roguelike?
So if many modern Roguelikes do not possess all these traits, does that mean that none of them are Roguelikes? I would argue no. Rather, I believe the problem is with the definition itself. The Berlin Interpretation was created over a decade ago, and since then the genre has changed and evolved. As a result, the definition is out of date and out of touch with modern Roguelikes and is written far too exclusionary. Many of its factors are either too arbitrary, too vague, or too specific. Additionally, the Non-Modal factor doesn’t even encompass ADOM, Angband, and Crawl, all games which it claims belong in the Roguelike canon. When taken together, this shows that the Berlin Interpretation doesn’t define what makes a Roguelike a “Roguelike,” but rather what makes the game Rogue “Rogue.” Because of this, we have no choice but to reject the Berlin Interpretation and instead find an alternative definition.
Read moreCadence of Hyrule II?: What I'd Want To See In A Sequel
Whenever you combine two games some of the original design elements aren’t going to work well together. As a result, some of these elements end up cut or scaled back. Cadence of Hyrule’s movement system is a pretty clear example of this. In classic Zelda games you can move fairly freely around the world, but in Crypt of the Necrodancer movement is locked to a grid and must be done in time with the music. Since these two movement systems are incompatible with each other, Cadence of Hyrule chose to ditch Zelda’s movement system in favour of Necrodancer’s.
But now that the core gameplay of Cadence of Hyrule has been created and tested (and we know that it’s excellent), I think that Brace Yourself Games should consider revisiting some of these design decisions.
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