The standards for roguelikes are ADOM, Angband, Crawl, Nethack, and Rogue.
The purpose of this definition is to help the roguelike community better understand what they are studying, not to impose restrictions on developers or games.
Excerpt from the Berlin Interpretation.
I Became a Character in a Roguelike Game.
Have you ever heard the term roguelike?
As far as I remember, it was a rather niche word that only a few people knew about until a decade or so ago.
When it came to games, the trend was to first determine if it was an RPG, RTS, or FPS.
Roguelike? Who cares about that?
However, at some point, the term roguelike started to pop up here and there.
Roguelike style, roguelike atmosphere, roguelike elements included.
When I looked into the reasons, it made sense.
As indie developers started to create their games, elements of roguelikes were added like the secret ingredient in a recipe, making the term so famous that gamers could not overlook it.
What exactly is a roguelike?
Roguelike. It refers to games styled like Rogue.
Back in the early days of computer gaming, there was a game called Rogue.
From today’s perspective, it’s ambiguous whether it was a game or an extension of program development, but it was undoubtedly a popular title.
With graphics using ASCII characters and a user-unfriendly style that was impossible to find convenience in, the gameplay was incredibly simple, with a playtime of just a couple of hours.
This game called “Rogue” was simple but revolutionary.
Many people became immersed in Rogue.
Rogue was fun.
They sought to refine and develop its unique gameplay to create better games.
Thus, sequels began to pour out.
NetHack, Tome, Dungeon Crawl, Weird Dungeon, and countless indie games tagged as roguelikes…
It was hard to tell whether these sequels were true successors to Rogue, spiritual successors, or simply copycat games, but they all claimed to be games similar to Rogue, that is roguelikes.
“Ouch…?
Wait a second. Let me flip the meat.
Ah. Right.
So, roguelikes focused on inheriting and evolving the systems of the early Rogue.
Suitable playtime, diverse interactions, and play styles, level structures focused on exploration and combat, etc.
Nowadays, many of the old roguelike elements have been trimmed away, leaving only the most distinctive qualities of roguelikes that are promoted as “roguelike games.”
One of the features of roguelike games is satiety.
In other words, there is a hunger meter.
“Phew~ phew~ it’s well-cooked.”
I carefully presented a piece of grilled meat with a bit of black ash on it.
Freshly cooked, it smelled appetizing.
When I took a bite, the mouthful was filled with the distinctive gameness of herbivores.
I could manage to eat it, but there would surely be many who couldn’t.
“Please, go ahead and eat.”
It’s a simple logic.
If you don’t eat, you’ll starve.
If hunger continues, you will die of starvation.
The satiety system, which starts from an extreme aversion to the grind typical of roguelikes and reflects realistic enjoyment, serves as a sort of timer.
Because of the limited food that appears within the dungeon, it imposes restrictions on gameplay.
In roguelikes where the system of eating corpses exists, it’s just an annoying element.
I tried to say it cheerfully, but it had no effect.
Noah and Yumi were looking like they were about to die.
The second characteristic of roguelike games.
“It would be wise to eat something now if we want to walk as soon as the sun rises.
We won’t have enough time to prepare breakfast.”
“That’s probably true…”
Permanent death of the player.
In Rogue, the appropriate playtime is only around two hours, so this feature was not burdensome.
If you die, you just start over.
However, subsequent games that borrowed roguelike elements turned this permanent death into an entertaining feature.
It became a device that adds mental pressure to the player, as a cherished character could be lost in an instant due to a single mistake.
There are four spots prepared by the campfire, but only three people are present.
Me. Noah. Yumi.
Just this morning, one person was still alive, but after leaving the dungeon, it was reduced to three.
How many convenient and wonderful systems are there, like resurrection halls priest resurrections, or players immune to death penalties?
Most of them at least have some sort of death return.
But why…
Why roguelikes?
In this damned world, resurrection did not exist.
A fantasy world without even priestly resurrection.
If you die, that’s it.
Only meaningless graves keep piling up in this world.
Amidst the noisy sounds of insects, we slowly chewed and swallowed the rotten-smelling meat.
It’s tasteless.
A luxurious meal that fills the stomach only with meat, but it’s just boring.
Right now, I have become a character in a roguelike game. So far, I’ve figured out the following facts.
First. This is so-called “another world.”
Another world. God world. King world.
This place is that chaotic world with a medieval fantasy style, or whatever it is.
“Status window!”
[Ha-jun (Lv 2, Human, Poor Equipment, Healthy)]
[Class: Necromancer]
[Traits]
Human
Necromancer
[Abilities]
Strength: 5
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 6
[Health]
Fatigue
Fullness
No Injuries
(Head, Upper Body, Arm (Left), Arm (Right), Lower Body, Leg (Left), Leg (Right))
[Equipment]
Head Scarf (98%, Dirty)
Cloth Armor (Upper, 88%, Dirty)
Leather Gloves (No Fingers, 68%, Dirty)
Cloth Armor (Lower, 87%, Dirty)
Leather Boots (95%)
Copper Claw (74%)
Rusty Corpse Saw (48%)
[Skills]
Melee Combat (2)
Saw
Claw (3)
Evasion and Defense (1)
Exploration and Awareness (1)
Spells and Magic (2)
Necromancy (2)
[Combat Style and Spells]
Click here for details.
Can you see it?
This enormous status window.
Doesn’t just looking at it make you feel dizzy?
“Why roguelike?”
Before being swept away by the ‘Dimensional Rift,’ I had played a roguelike RPG called ‘Dungeon Overseer.’
It was a game loaded with tags like strategy, RPG, pixel graphics, roguelike, and early access, but it suited my tastes so well that I played it diligently, even while being called a fool.
There’s a saying that once you get a taste for pixel graphics, you can’t escape.
I was one of them.
Early access.
Buying and playing an unlaunched demo at full price is one of the most foolish things you can do.
It’s because there are so many developers who polish the surface to lure gamers in and then vanish without a trace.
The update speed is not fast either, so every time the game is updated, it’s cumbersome and boring to play it again.
Still, I played ‘Dungeon Overseer’ obsessively.
It was a game that had just come out, so there was no wiki, no websites to gather information from—I learned by hitting my head against the wall.
How could I not know, then, that this miserable world shares the same lore as ‘Dungeon Overseer’?
“We should get some sleep and wake up at dawn.”
At my suggestion, my party members nodded weakly.
In ‘Dungeon Overseer,’ the protagonist is not the explorer entering the dungeon.
They are, quite literally, the overseer.
The protagonist is a middle manager who manages the various explorers entering the dungeon and achieves results.
If you ask me how to conquer the dungeon or what combination to form the party with, I could talk for three nights straight.
I’ve done it a lot.
But here I am, in the field.
I have to enter the dungeon myself, fight monsters, and achieve objectives.
When I first came to my senses here, I felt like I was going to go crazy.
Real monsters exist.
I fight those things.
People are dying.
The first time I saw myself, I couldn’t bear to look with my eyes open.
I’ve grown a little, like a rat’s tail, but growth is still growth.
At least I’ve gotten to the point where I won’t be shaken if someone dies.
“Ugh… Huh…”
At least those things still have some shortcomings to become explorers.
Can they break down so easily at level 2?
“Phew.”
Yumi, who had quietly started to cry, and Noah, who was comforting her.
I left the two women to do as they pleased and went to bed first.
If I don’t sleep now, am I the tired one? You guys are the ones who are tired.
“Yawn.”
The first mission we received was to collect relics from an unmarked grave.
It wasn’t even a grand tomb; it was just a shallow cave buried in the mountains, but unfortunately, one person died.
Was it Zeke or Jack? I can’t even remember his name properly.
No enemies appeared until we entered the graveyard.
Jack, laughing to himself, recklessly entered the tomb.
He ended up getting killed in one hit by a skeleton that was pretending to be a bone on the floor.
The skeleton itself wasn’t a particularly strong monster, so we rushed in and took care of it…
It seemed like Yumi and Noah were mentally shaken by it.
It wasn’t a proper fight; we lost one person to a trap-like ambush.
They didn’t say a word the whole way back to the city.
“Well then, let’s part ways here.”
“Are you not coming with us, Hajun?”
The party disbanded in front of the main building of the dungeon exploration team.
“There’s nothing for me to do if I go.”
I’m sure I’ll run into them often while continuing my explorer work, but at least for now, I don’t want to meet them.
For explorers, the most important thing is not skill or experience, but mental strength.
[Yumi (Lv2, Human, Poor Equipment, Healthy)]
[Health]
Fatigue (Extreme)
No Injuries
(Head, Upper Body, Arm (Left), Arm (Right), Lower Body, Leg (Left), Leg (Right))
Low Mood
[Debuff (Unlocked during Combat State)]
It’s natural for someone who has been through a little more than a fresh explorer to have better mental strength…
But that explorer Yumi seems to have serious issues, from the perspective of someone like me who is a veteran of ‘Dungeon Overseer.’
[Low Mood (Health)]
This is a measure of the will of sentient beings.
It changes due to various factors that occur during exploration, but the basic value is fixed.
+ Returned from Exploration
– Witnessed something horrific during Exploration
– A companion suffered serious injuries during Exploration
– A companion died during Exploration
– Negative (Acquired through Traits)
Did I lose my mental state?
This is just a simple mission like exploring a grave, but if it were an ambush in a situation where escape was impossible or a full-on assault like breaking through a dungeon, it would be a dead end.
For explorers like Yumi and me, it’s the same.
If a companion dies, the party falls apart.
Death? A permanent penalty. There’s no resurrection.
You just disappear forever.
That’s how roguelikes work.
“Well then…”
“I’m going to look for another mission.”
Yumi, being the party leader, must report the exploration results to the overseer.
I don’t have anything in particular to do, so I’ll just collect my reward and look for other tasks.
“Then would you like to go to the explorer’s rest area first? I’ll finish the report and head down right away.”
“Alright.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
With her shoulders slumped Yumi trudged into the main building of the exploration team.
