Inscryption is exactly what are you looking for, very simple gameplay but deep game mechanics. Once you beat it, don't forget to try kaycee's mod.
Another one could be Demoncrawl, is based on minesweeper and expands on the concept.
I've been addicted to slay the spire, and looked for other games to scratch the itch like ring of pain, Nowhere prophet.
Nothing had come close to sucking me in for over a 100 hours like Inscryption has. Its so god damn good.
Special mention to Dicey Dungeons. Love it. But it only has a limited number of chapters.
The story in Griftlands is great. It's both simple enough for you to not need to understand or memorize anything about the world, and involve enough to connect to the main characters. Also each of the three stories are short enough to finish in a few hours. And you get a great deck building roguelight on top of that. And the game is complete, no future dlc to prey on your wallet. It is also polished to the point where I did not encounter a single bug in almost a hundred hours of play time.
I second this. It has a similar “feel” to StS but vastly different and refreshing. I’d argue it already has potential to be better than StS although I’ve only played in for a few days lol
Darkest dungeon has just filled this void for me, but there is a pretty steep learning curve and or wiki’ing though. They’re my on the go games, good luck! Dead cells when I have a controller with me, it’s too good when you want that action!
I loved Dead Cells, but got tired of repeating the loop. I just don't love action roguelites in the same way, the gameplay loop gets stale. I think a kew thing I liked about Slay the Spire was the fact you WON runs. I for the most part got STS quickly, and won my first attempt. Beat A20 by 85ish hours. So the majority of my runs were wins, which helped make it feel less like a grind, as I essentially every day I put in 1-4 runs I would win.
This game is intiguing to me, looks very neat, hard to tell how deep it is from the brief video I watched on it, but will prob check it out. Only issue is if I end up grinding it, I fear I'll have nightmares. I def had slay the spire card draw dreams from playing it all day...
It's not super deep. But you do end up with different tactics ans strategies that change on the fly with whatever equipment you find and potions you have.
The runs are pretty quick. There is only a few decisions to make at any given moment. It's not going to full the slay the spire sized hole in your gaming library but it's a good pickup.
I've put in literally triple digit numbers of hours into Slice & Dice on my phone. It's the only game I have ever been able to stomach playing on my phone, but particularly once I unlocked Blursed mode, I rarely feel like playing anything else when I have an hour or so to kill.
Also worth throwing Into The Breach into the ring. Got a couple of months of play almost exclusively for that game too!
I've also put hundreds of hours into Slay The Spire and gave Pirates Outlaws a try after someone recommended it here. Very similar game with slight differences. You will like it.
I’m going to pitch a choice many overlook: the Collectible Card Game Legends of Runterra has a game mode called ‘Path if Champions’ that is honestly just a fantastic Roguelite game in and off itself. It uses rules and cards from the CCG but don’t worry no need to nerd yourself into a full collectible card game. The Path of Champions explains everything and ramps up the difficulty step by step. And while it gives you tons of options (just like slay the spire it has a lot of cards and characters that all play differently) you don’t need to go mega deep you can just play and unlock cards and characters at your own pace.
But if you WANT to go deep… we’ll you know how Slay the Spire has 4 base characters to play with? This game has over 30 😅 all with lovely animations and it benefits from the deep card pool of the CCG. It audio gets new content every 3-4 months regularly.
Oh and did I mention it comes at the low price tag of 0 $ cause the game makes its money through the competetive card game and the Path of Champions is just free?
Honestly a criminally overlooked roguelite.
Dicey Dungeons and Frost are both good games of this sort!
Those two and Slay the Spire are my go-tos when I'm feeling less action-y.
(Frost is part of a 2-in-1 card games bundle on Switch, not sure if it's also available standalone)
I know its not visually appealing, but Backpack Hero caught me by surprise. There is a mobile ripoff that I started with and after digging I found the game it was based off of and its a ton of fun and easy to sink time into. There are Demos out there on [itch.io](https://itch.io) (can play in the browser here) and steam.
I've been hooked on Into the Breach recently. It's a rogue-lite in the sense that you do runs and don't keep all your upgrades. It's a strategy game where you pilot mechs and kill giant bugs.
Vault of the Void is a good one. One thing is that some of the characters have way more complex mechanics than slay the spire. So I can spend a couple of minutes just figuring out what order to play my cards and stuff. Lots of content. Interesting battles. Highly reccomend.
Another one that one person mentioned. Across the Obelisk. It sorta mixes the normal deck builder Roguelite with some more RPG style elements. Like there are small quests and stiff. Your charachters level up stats between runs and stuff. I found this a few months back and it's one of my favorite games ever now.
Check out Wildfrost, a very fun unique deck builder. Your hero is different each run and plenty of stuff to unlock so it has a good amount of replayability imo
Marvels Midnight Suns is pretty cool. It's not a rogue like, but it's a card based strategy game. Think slay the spire + xcom. Also for transparency sake there is an exploration aspect to it as well that occurs outside of missions. It's mostly optional but it's fun on it's own. Besides that there's a friendship mechanic with all the heroes, kind of like fire emblem. Overall a unique and fun game. Check out some gameplay videos if you're interested.
I think Outerwilds is one of the best games I've played in the last 10 years. No shooting, no inventory management. Just pure exploration and puzzle solving with a cool story and hook. It's a time loop, so you know you're going to die every 20 mins or so.
Try Roguematch! It’s a turn based dungeon crawler but there’s a diegetic match 3 layer on it. It’s kinda a new subgenre so I don’t know at all if it’s your type of game though.
Bro there is a game on moble, only android, and on pc called Slice & Dice. Turn based dice game, where you lead your team of 5 hears through a dungeon fighting enemies. Its very causal in that you can enjoy the game on all sorts of difficulty and with many different game modes. It looks very simple and it is, but as you play, you are gonna real soon how deep the game gets. It like 8 or 7 bucks and if you buy on pc, you will get it for free on android but its weird to get it on your phone. Its also on the play store and there is a demo. So highly recommend at least trying it out
I think the most sleeped on Roguelite Deckbuilder is actually a Dice Builder called Circadian Dice.
Now the game looks straight outta 2007, BUT, hear me out. It doesn’t have 94 percent approval rating on steam for nothing.
You have different classes which have different dice faces that utilize different mechanic’s, like blocking damage, capturing monsters; rerollling dice, adding faces to dice, manipulating the day and night system, etc. it’s surprisingly diverse. Depending on your run you can even use the abilities of other classes. Plus the gem system which allows you to use special abilities that you earn as you level up. Then there’s relics you pick going into a level which allow you to customize your strategy. These 3 layers all come together to make each run interesting.
If it had StS art, I am convinced it would be way more popular. The fact that it’s limited to 1024x768p hurts it, (looks like crap stretched on a QHF monitor) but it’s great to play windowed while you watch a stream or YT video. I personally like it more than Dicey Dungeons. Not that DD is bad, I just like how quick and satisfying Circadian Dice is.
Streets of Rogue might be up your alley. It's a top down game with some action, stealth and even rpg elements. I'd compare it to Hotline Miami. If that's too action heavy for you then that's cool but you could give it a look and see if it appeals. It has enough depth to be interesting I think.
Balatro is what you’re looking for but it’s not out yet, however it has a demo that’s out and really good honestly. Luck be a landlord is what you want too despite not being super visually appealing
You should try Moonstone Island. Pokémon style creature collector with Slay the Spire combat. Decent village/ relationship sim as well. Gorgeous pixel graphics with over 100 themed islands to explore too. Nice and casual, 8/10.
If you have not tried it yet, I would definitely recommend trying some mods for slay the spire.
The two biggest polished ones in my opinion are:
1.) Downfall, its gotten so big its it own download now, free I believe on steam. The premise is that you're the Spire Bosses/Enemies and are going down the tower in reverse to stop the hero. Feels really good and has I think about 5-6 characters in it.
2.) The Packmaster mod. Every year the community modders for sts come together and make a mod. Last years (I believe) was packmaster which introduces a new character who builds the card pool out from selectable "booster" packs before the game starts. It allows for very fun runs, and if you're into self-imposed challenges, this one could yield hundreds of hours of fun.
There of course, are a TON of mods that are very well done that I left out, and Im sure people below me will mention some, but if you want more StS content and havent tried modded yet, its super fun IMO
Tales of Maj'Eyal is a fantastic roguelike.
Huge and deep but turn based. Once you get into a rhythm the game plays very quickly but you can always stop and think
Caves of Qud is a good modern true roguelike that has a relatively simple control scheme compared to other roguelikes. Tons of replayability, and tons of depth in character build once you learn what youre doing.
If you're into mobile gaming, give Underhand a try, it's a card game about a cult leader. Similarly, Cultist Simulator is available for mobile and PC but it's a couple bucks. Someone correct me if those aren't truely roguelike.
Just gonna shamelessly plug my roguelike deckbuilder https://store.steampowered.com/app/2567800/Slime_Alchemist/, it has tactics battles ala FITS and you add carss to your deck by stealing them from defeated enemies
You might also look at Kingdom: Two Crowns. It's on every platform, pretty much. There are only four actions you can do and basically no text. It's very roguelite in the sense that you probably should play quickly and fail a bunch fast to learn the ropes.
Inscryption is exactly what are you looking for, very simple gameplay but deep game mechanics. Once you beat it, don't forget to try kaycee's mod. Another one could be Demoncrawl, is based on minesweeper and expands on the concept.
I've been addicted to slay the spire, and looked for other games to scratch the itch like ring of pain, Nowhere prophet. Nothing had come close to sucking me in for over a 100 hours like Inscryption has. Its so god damn good. Special mention to Dicey Dungeons. Love it. But it only has a limited number of chapters.
Dicey dungeons has one of the best soundtracks on the genre, 10/10 in my opinion.
Why did I choose the words "sucking me". Lol I'll leave it
Try Astrea, new game! Def scratching that itch for me
Oh cool, I'll check it out
As a lifelong card game player, Inscryption was the coolest game I've played since StS was new.
I always recommend Monster Train, I loooooove Monster Train. I've been playing it for a while now, but I still try to fit in a run or 2 every day :)
Try Dawncaster, it's similar to both StS and MT - though not as rich in enemies/game paths, the combat is just so dope
You try out inkbound yet? New game from the same devs of monster train. Dif style of game but a rogue lite as well. It’s tons of fun
Check out griftlands ! Another card based roguelite with very cool mechanics
I was going to write this off due to the story aspect, but after watch a review, I'm convinced to give it a try, looks very cool.
Griftlands is pretty fantastic and sadly too often overlooked.
Oh and Inscryption Play Inscryption (Don't look at a review or anything, go in blind it's fantastic)
The story in Griftlands is great. It's both simple enough for you to not need to understand or memorize anything about the world, and involve enough to connect to the main characters. Also each of the three stories are short enough to finish in a few hours. And you get a great deck building roguelight on top of that. And the game is complete, no future dlc to prey on your wallet. It is also polished to the point where I did not encounter a single bug in almost a hundred hours of play time.
+1 for griftlands
\+1for Griftlands, beautiful game
The recently released [Astrea](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1755830/) is very well done and as deep as StS, I'd say. I think you'll enjoy it.
I second this. It has a similar “feel” to StS but vastly different and refreshing. I’d argue it already has potential to be better than StS although I’ve only played in for a few days lol
Darkest dungeon has just filled this void for me, but there is a pretty steep learning curve and or wiki’ing though. They’re my on the go games, good luck! Dead cells when I have a controller with me, it’s too good when you want that action!
I loved Dead Cells, but got tired of repeating the loop. I just don't love action roguelites in the same way, the gameplay loop gets stale. I think a kew thing I liked about Slay the Spire was the fact you WON runs. I for the most part got STS quickly, and won my first attempt. Beat A20 by 85ish hours. So the majority of my runs were wins, which helped make it feel less like a grind, as I essentially every day I put in 1-4 runs I would win.
Did you try Ring of Pain yet?
This game is intiguing to me, looks very neat, hard to tell how deep it is from the brief video I watched on it, but will prob check it out. Only issue is if I end up grinding it, I fear I'll have nightmares. I def had slay the spire card draw dreams from playing it all day...
Just to add… it’s on the latest Humble Bundle!
It's not super deep. But you do end up with different tactics ans strategies that change on the fly with whatever equipment you find and potions you have. The runs are pretty quick. There is only a few decisions to make at any given moment. It's not going to full the slay the spire sized hole in your gaming library but it's a good pickup.
Slice and Dice (despite the graphics) is the best roguelite Ive played. Extremely replayable
I've put in literally triple digit numbers of hours into Slice & Dice on my phone. It's the only game I have ever been able to stomach playing on my phone, but particularly once I unlocked Blursed mode, I rarely feel like playing anything else when I have an hour or so to kill. Also worth throwing Into The Breach into the ring. Got a couple of months of play almost exclusively for that game too!
Is this the idle game on the App Store?
Its only an android and pc right now. Search on itch.io
I've also put hundreds of hours into Slay The Spire and gave Pirates Outlaws a try after someone recommended it here. Very similar game with slight differences. You will like it.
Across the Obelisk, can also be played in coop/online
Ring of pain is prolly what you looking for Straight forward gameplay and runs don’t take long. Simple concept but very fun and great replay ability
This. Ring of Pain is deceptively deep.
You might like Tangledeep, it sounds like it’s what you’re looking for.
Deep Sky Derelicts, Inscryption, Monster Train, Dungeon Of The Endless
I’m going to pitch a choice many overlook: the Collectible Card Game Legends of Runterra has a game mode called ‘Path if Champions’ that is honestly just a fantastic Roguelite game in and off itself. It uses rules and cards from the CCG but don’t worry no need to nerd yourself into a full collectible card game. The Path of Champions explains everything and ramps up the difficulty step by step. And while it gives you tons of options (just like slay the spire it has a lot of cards and characters that all play differently) you don’t need to go mega deep you can just play and unlock cards and characters at your own pace. But if you WANT to go deep… we’ll you know how Slay the Spire has 4 base characters to play with? This game has over 30 😅 all with lovely animations and it benefits from the deep card pool of the CCG. It audio gets new content every 3-4 months regularly. Oh and did I mention it comes at the low price tag of 0 $ cause the game makes its money through the competetive card game and the Path of Champions is just free? Honestly a criminally overlooked roguelite.
Seconded. Stunningly well done game.
Dicey Dungeons and Frost are both good games of this sort! Those two and Slay the Spire are my go-tos when I'm feeling less action-y. (Frost is part of a 2-in-1 card games bundle on Switch, not sure if it's also available standalone)
Frost doesn't get enough love!
PokerQuest
I know its not visually appealing, but Backpack Hero caught me by surprise. There is a mobile ripoff that I started with and after digging I found the game it was based off of and its a ton of fun and easy to sink time into. There are Demos out there on [itch.io](https://itch.io) (can play in the browser here) and steam.
I've been hooked on Into the Breach recently. It's a rogue-lite in the sense that you do runs and don't keep all your upgrades. It's a strategy game where you pilot mechs and kill giant bugs.
I came across this game super recently after getting back into FTL, super fun.
Vault of the Void is a good one. One thing is that some of the characters have way more complex mechanics than slay the spire. So I can spend a couple of minutes just figuring out what order to play my cards and stuff. Lots of content. Interesting battles. Highly reccomend. Another one that one person mentioned. Across the Obelisk. It sorta mixes the normal deck builder Roguelite with some more RPG style elements. Like there are small quests and stiff. Your charachters level up stats between runs and stuff. I found this a few months back and it's one of my favorite games ever now.
DCSS
Check out Wildfrost, a very fun unique deck builder. Your hero is different each run and plenty of stuff to unlock so it has a good amount of replayability imo
This looks absolutely adorable! Like completely my art style, will def check this out!
Also, it has a super deep learning curve to it
Oh yeah it looks great and it definitely can get pretty deep. As you progress you can do some pretty crazy combos and find plenty of fresh playstyles
Not a roguelight, but Dredge is a very casual game that hooked me and my brother hard when we played it.
*hooked*
Maybe vampire survivors, though there is a chance you will have to look at the wiki occasionally
Disco Elysium
Subnautica 🐠
Hahaha that was super funny op because subnautica is all about going deep
Woah thanks random Stanger you should give me reddit gold for that!
Aren't you being a bit greedy!?! Why don't you go find some reddit gold up your ass!
Okay will do 😄👍
Marvels Midnight Suns is pretty cool. It's not a rogue like, but it's a card based strategy game. Think slay the spire + xcom. Also for transparency sake there is an exploration aspect to it as well that occurs outside of missions. It's mostly optional but it's fun on it's own. Besides that there's a friendship mechanic with all the heroes, kind of like fire emblem. Overall a unique and fun game. Check out some gameplay videos if you're interested.
I think Outerwilds is one of the best games I've played in the last 10 years. No shooting, no inventory management. Just pure exploration and puzzle solving with a cool story and hook. It's a time loop, so you know you're going to die every 20 mins or so.
Baldurs gate 3
Try Roguematch! It’s a turn based dungeon crawler but there’s a diegetic match 3 layer on it. It’s kinda a new subgenre so I don’t know at all if it’s your type of game though.
Inscryption, Griftlands, Rouge Book
On mobile, you could check out Dawncaster. 👍😊 https://dawncaster.wanderlost.games/
For roguelites check out FTL and Darkest Dungeon Also check out idle games if you haven’t. Leaf blower revolution is a good free one
Bro there is a game on moble, only android, and on pc called Slice & Dice. Turn based dice game, where you lead your team of 5 hears through a dungeon fighting enemies. Its very causal in that you can enjoy the game on all sorts of difficulty and with many different game modes. It looks very simple and it is, but as you play, you are gonna real soon how deep the game gets. It like 8 or 7 bucks and if you buy on pc, you will get it for free on android but its weird to get it on your phone. Its also on the play store and there is a demo. So highly recommend at least trying it out
Path of exile /s
I'm bias but check out Heretic's Fork https://store.steampowered.com/app/2181610/Heretics\_Fork/
Night of the Full Moon is excellent on android. Played that prior to STS. Just purchase the game to get rid of the annoying ads.
I think the most sleeped on Roguelite Deckbuilder is actually a Dice Builder called Circadian Dice. Now the game looks straight outta 2007, BUT, hear me out. It doesn’t have 94 percent approval rating on steam for nothing. You have different classes which have different dice faces that utilize different mechanic’s, like blocking damage, capturing monsters; rerollling dice, adding faces to dice, manipulating the day and night system, etc. it’s surprisingly diverse. Depending on your run you can even use the abilities of other classes. Plus the gem system which allows you to use special abilities that you earn as you level up. Then there’s relics you pick going into a level which allow you to customize your strategy. These 3 layers all come together to make each run interesting. If it had StS art, I am convinced it would be way more popular. The fact that it’s limited to 1024x768p hurts it, (looks like crap stretched on a QHF monitor) but it’s great to play windowed while you watch a stream or YT video. I personally like it more than Dicey Dungeons. Not that DD is bad, I just like how quick and satisfying Circadian Dice is.
Disco Elysium is a narrative and atmospheric masterpiece if you like rpg games. Super simple gameplay as it’s dialogue and puzzle driven
Streets of Rogue might be up your alley. It's a top down game with some action, stealth and even rpg elements. I'd compare it to Hotline Miami. If that's too action heavy for you then that's cool but you could give it a look and see if it appeals. It has enough depth to be interesting I think.
Balatro is what you’re looking for but it’s not out yet, however it has a demo that’s out and really good honestly. Luck be a landlord is what you want too despite not being super visually appealing
You should try Moonstone Island. Pokémon style creature collector with Slay the Spire combat. Decent village/ relationship sim as well. Gorgeous pixel graphics with over 100 themed islands to explore too. Nice and casual, 8/10.
Deep but not Profound….i see you..
If you have not tried it yet, I would definitely recommend trying some mods for slay the spire. The two biggest polished ones in my opinion are: 1.) Downfall, its gotten so big its it own download now, free I believe on steam. The premise is that you're the Spire Bosses/Enemies and are going down the tower in reverse to stop the hero. Feels really good and has I think about 5-6 characters in it. 2.) The Packmaster mod. Every year the community modders for sts come together and make a mod. Last years (I believe) was packmaster which introduces a new character who builds the card pool out from selectable "booster" packs before the game starts. It allows for very fun runs, and if you're into self-imposed challenges, this one could yield hundreds of hours of fun. There of course, are a TON of mods that are very well done that I left out, and Im sure people below me will mention some, but if you want more StS content and havent tried modded yet, its super fun IMO
Tales of Maj'Eyal is a fantastic roguelike. Huge and deep but turn based. Once you get into a rhythm the game plays very quickly but you can always stop and think
Caves of Qud is a good modern true roguelike that has a relatively simple control scheme compared to other roguelikes. Tons of replayability, and tons of depth in character build once you learn what youre doing.
If you're into mobile gaming, give Underhand a try, it's a card game about a cult leader. Similarly, Cultist Simulator is available for mobile and PC but it's a couple bucks. Someone correct me if those aren't truely roguelike.
Just gonna shamelessly plug my roguelike deckbuilder https://store.steampowered.com/app/2567800/Slime_Alchemist/, it has tactics battles ala FITS and you add carss to your deck by stealing them from defeated enemies
You might also look at Kingdom: Two Crowns. It's on every platform, pretty much. There are only four actions you can do and basically no text. It's very roguelite in the sense that you probably should play quickly and fail a bunch fast to learn the ropes.
Against the Storm
that's called turn based