While thinking of something interesting I could do for Blaugust this year(interesting for me at least), I have come up with this idea to take the month to play and learn a complex game that I would typically bounce from and write about it along the way. My first thought was Crusader Kings 3, but I had played a number of hours of that already and I wanted something fresh to dive into. I scrolled through my library and passed Dwarf Fortress which I’ve never played but I didn’t know if I wanted something quite that complex for this. I was searching for something in that vein though that’s outside my normal gaming wheelhouse and might give me some good stories to tell.
I came across Caves of Qud, a roguelike with a science fantasy setting, some weird lore, and lots of procedural generation. It also plays out like an RPG rather than just a quick run type game. It seems complex enough for my idea but not too complex that I’ll get frustrated with it. Maybe dying over and over again will get to me, but there’s a Roleplay mode where there are some checkpoints to prevent permadeath.
With Caves of Qud in mind, I went down the rabbit hole to see what other “traditional roguelikes” were out there. Here’s what I found:
ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery)
Originally released in 1994, ADOM seems to be one of the biggest roguelike influences out there, well aside from Rogue that is. There’s a steam version with updated graphics (i.e not ACSII). According to the steam page, it’s most known for being the first roguelike with towns, NPCs, and a rich story. It could be a fun one to take a look at in the future. The map has graphics, the menus are still all DOS looking and text based which gives it an interesting flare. Sometimes it’s fun to go play an old game just to see how far things have come. It makes it a bit more enticing when the old game has had a graphical face lift as well.
I have played many, many hours of TOME and I am not even close to unlocking everything the game has to offer. This one is like a diablo dungeon crawl roguelike with tons of classes, races, skills and loot. So much loot. It’s also known for being the Steam game with 1700+ steam achievements. It’s an open source game, free to play here on it’s site but also available along with it’s DLC for purchase on Steam. It’s a fun game, but maybe not the right candidate for this idea. For one, I’ve already played it and it’s more of a tacticle dungeon crawl with less random RPG elements.
Another open source, free to play rougelike that always seems to pop up in recommendations as I’ve been searching to learn more about roguelikes. I downloaded it, since it’s free, and did the first tutorial, but I haven’t done much else. From everything I’ve read, it’s a very balanced game but, like TOME, more of a tactical dungeon crawl, as the name would suggest, rather than an RPG.
This one is more of a survival game than an RPG. It’s a post-apocalypse zombie/horror themed game where the goal is to survive in a procedurally generated world. It’s another game that I downloaded, ran a bit of the tutorial and put aside for now. It seems to meet the complexity requirement and the procedural storytelling element I’m looking for so it could be a candidate.
Elin is the sequel to a game called Elona. It’s an open world sandbox with a JRPG flavor and base management. You can play roguelike Stardew Valley or go out and be a standard adventurer. You can even be a piano playing snail…I played a bit of the demo and it seems like a strong contender for this little project. It seems like a mix or resource management, dungeon crawl, and sandbox RPG all in one, wrapped in JRPG graphics.
From everything I’ve read, Caves or Qud is going to be the closest to what I’m looking for in terms of complexity and procedural story telling while still being an RPG. It also has a unique theme and an interesting world full of things to discover. I have run through the tutorial and I am intrigued to see where this game goes. It’s probably going to be the winner here but I will try out a few of the others before I commit to the choice.
Out of all of these, Caves of Qud and Elin are my top contenders for this excersie. My idea is to go in blind and only use the information the game gives me. No guides outside the tool tips in game and the tutorial. I’m still leaning towards Caves of Qud, it’s got a weird setting and a unique look that intrigues me. But I also am a sucker for Elin’s JRPG style. I’ll play through the tutorial for both of these and decide when it’s time to start this thing!
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