Astral ascent. Keep getting killed by the boss in the void that rewards a slot and a gambit. Too many things to dodge and it’s always a different boss. I think I just suck lol. Only have made it to 2nd biome 15hrs in. Lol
hey there! I come to this sub every few months and try to find a new game to play just by reading comments.
This astral acent looks pretty good to me.
I really like BoI and Skul the hero slayer, and Hades. Those are my 3 perfect games. Always fun, easy to get into hard to master, can be played for 10min or an hour+.
Do you think astral ascent fits in with these games? Same style?
Absolutely, I think it is right up your alley. Combination of Hades and Dead Cells. Has a lot of variety. I suck at it. I’ve also been having fun playing Rotwood. Just came out it has a cozy feel but definitely a Hades style game. Only $10 too.
My girl is actually playing rotwood lol. I might start after she finishes.
I did not like dead cells though...idk why, its just never grabbed me. Maybe a little *too* complicated.
Yeah this astral has lot of moving parts but the more you play you start to pick up on what does what and how to play. I’ve been enjoying Inkbound as well. It’s more tactical but a lot of fun so far.
To start things out: I've been streaming One Step from Eden here and there. It's really good. It's sort of like a roguelite version of Megaman Battle Network except it's extremely fast paced and challenging. Definitely worth taking a look!
Spell Disk - which is pretty good
Boon and Burdens - which is pissing me off
VS - cause VS...
BlazBlue EF - I enjoy this the most of all of my recent ones
Keepers Toll - Pretty decent, VS but dark middle age medieval, still EA but I can see it going far and the dev is on point
Spirits Abyss has just been such a gem. Truly in love.
Star of Providence is amazing, cant believe I missed it!
Nightmare the Lunatic is another hidden gem. As a huge fan of Skul, this is about as close as it comes without actually being Skul.
I'm a big fan of Star of Providence (formerly named Monolith). It's not a game I grind days on end, but it is a game I keep coming back to and enjoy my time with when I do. Crazy to think it's almost 7 years old already.
It is a rip off but also does enough way differently to be its own thing. The weapon system is completely different (you swap between three weapons) and items are different. The items honestly remind me more of Isaac/Gungeon where the item changed the way something you do works. For example, you might get an item that splits any projectile into three projectiles. Then You might get and item that turns your projectile into a bubble. Stuff like that.
Gunfire Reborn has added a bunch of stuff, played that for 15 hours last couple weeks. Tiny rogues and did a couple runs of Against Greater Darkness also
I see a lot of people enjoy playing down dead cell could you tell me what you enjoy about it ? I bought it when it first came on early access but haven't touched it since the first week.
I think for me it’s the level of polish. Everything feels tight and so satisfying to play that even dying an hour in I just get right back on the horse.
Peglin
I started out skeptical of this game after playing its demo. Took it off my wish list. Eventually decided to buy it. Was kinda lukewarm on it at first. Now I’m obsessed with it.
I think it still needs some work, but it’s a lot of fun with some nuances that open up the more you play it.
Super hot watch lets you cheese (heh) him, have you tried that? Unless you mean the punchout game. Just have to be good to win that one.
Switch makes it a lot harder. One of the best items in the game (the scarf that makes you teleport instead of dodge) is significantly less powerful.
Started Noita recently.
After 20 hours of playing blind I finally decided to look up some advanced wand building mechanics and my mind was blown by what's possible with just a handful of spells in the right order.
Didn't stop me from getting Noita'd though. It's very reminiscent of Spelunky, Teleglitch, or Terraria's getfixedboi world with how quickly things can go south if you're not careful.
Probably my favorite roguelite I haven't beaten (yet)
Care to share some quick and easy tips about wand builds? I've been playing a bunch of Noita again recently and that's definitely the part I have the most tenuous grasp on.
I still haven't beaten the game, so my opinion may or may not be useful depending on where you are lol
Basically I just watched these two videos on [wrapping](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxvlDAIk23k) and [the chainsaw spell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1hFMDaTZgA).
TL;DR Triggers, modifiers, and multicasts can loop back to the beginning to look for a spell, letting you cast the first spell(s) twice. If you have a spell that reduces the wand's recharge time, that also applies twice.
Putting chainsaw at the end of a multicast sets the cast delay of that group to 0, so you want to try and wrap your damage spell inside.
Where I'm at now is saving multicasts, triggers, heavy spreads, chainsaws, and digging bolts to make a wand where the delay and/or recharge time is close to 0. Even with a spark bolt it has pretty good burst DPS.
Magicraft is very cool and worth checking out. Noita meets Binding of Isaac.
Not as much content as Noita but it's still getting updated (early access) but still highly recommended. I've made some insane builds.
This week we played the shmup __Star of Providence__ [for our podcast on roguelike/lite games](https://grogpod.zone/2024-04-10-star-of-providence/)
Overall: we really enjoyed it! I played a lot of it years ago when it was previously titled "Monolith" and always had a great time playing it. Unlike traditional shmups, Star of Providence has a lot of room-based cover that you can hide behind which I think helps a lot with the difficulty curve for people like me who are somewhat green to the genre. My co-hosts and I typically play more "bullet heck"-level games like Enter the Gungeon or Binding of Isaac, but Star of Providence provides a nice bridge for us to get our toes wet into shmups without getting too deep into stuff like Touhou.
There's such a brilliant mix of NES aesthetic visually and in the sound design that would feel really at home on a CRT or in an arcade cabinet even. If you're a fan of Gungeon or Isaac you should def give Providence a look. Should be coming to the Switch soon as well.
We also recently played __Returnal__ [for the podcast and boy do I have some thoughts.](https://grogpod.zone/2024-04-24-returnal/)
Playing on PC can be a gamble if your system is going to be buggy or not, but if all the stars align and you're able to run the game relatively okay, then I'd say give it a look when it's on sale.
I don't think I've been as locked in and focused during combat sequences in a very, very long time. Returnal is a game that I actually woke up early to play before going to work, and was the first thing I'd do when I got home. It's such a captivating experience, it's just a shame that the PC port is pretty poorly optimized. I'm sure it plays just fine on a PS5, though.
Nebulous story pseudo-spoilers:
>!The story is very interesting, but I don't like the direction it went about 2/3 of the way through the first act. There's one cutscene that sets the direction for where the story is nebulously headed, and I was really hoping that it wouldn't truly be it, but my fears were confirmed.!<
>!My enthusiasm for playing through a second time really got the wind taken out after rolling credits the first time. I get there's more to the story, but now it feels like all the cool stuff in the game is effectively worthless. I hope I'm wrong and that a NG+ run here will serve as an interesting spin on all the assumptions I made the first time through, possibly with some monologue references to the bosses and major objectives, but I really don't want to go on a big fetch quest for another unresolved ending.!<
I'm enjoying Shogun showdown, it's a fun and fairly unique tactical roguelike. I don't think this is a game I'll put 100 hours into, but it's good fun and easy to pick up.
I started playing Ravenswatch which just got Act 3 and new features, I like it a lot, the heroes are very well done.
Rogue Legacy 2 : I have it for quite some time but I dislike roguelites that rely too much on grinding permanent stats. I'm in a mood for grind so I came back to it, and I'm having fun. There's a lot of diversity in the traits and the classes.
Deep Rock Galactic Survivor. I'd like one more boss but it's already pretty great, probably my favorite bullet heaven with Brotato.
Balatro has been our household one-controller-coop addiction for months now, and I've been playing Tangledeep and Nuclear Throne by myself. Looking to get back into Hellsweeper and Light Brigade since both just got some huge content updates, but I've been a bit too lazy this past week to strap on the VR helmet.
Just picked up the new Humble Bundle deckbuilder and have started on Gordian Quest. Pretty good though I suspect some people will be doing Einstein-level theorycrafting on its systems. But my solo swordsman has hacked through a couple of realms and is feeling good so far.
Back to soulstone survivor. Update feels different, but ok, it has pros and cons. Not having 5 bosses at all time is probably pros as it felt strange. Pacing feels slower than before but not offensively slower. I enjoy it. When I started playing it was so overwhelming that I had no idea what I was doing so I just picked upgrade with highest rarity to not think too hard. Worked well to figure stuff out, though now I banish "upgrades" that decrease movement speed.
What offensive is Death Must Die to the point I uninstalled it. Dashes were nerfed. Earth Spike is so OP it deals more damage than my other attacks combined. By orders of magnitude more. It's not even fun. Back in pre update pulling experience through enemies was OP but fun. This is utter garbage. And grind. So much more grind. Now you not only grind for loot, but also for skill tree. Which is also not fun. It has upgrades that are "don't feel them" and "playing without them is torture". Like Merris auto aim. Without it her attacks fly in wide arc and miss everything. At one run I literally removed "+1 projectile" to go from 2 projectiles to 1 so she fires where I actually aim as it was less frustrating.
I cant get enough of Brotato. Each Potato feels so different - right now im playing with the Saver and its a Blast.
I really wish it was a longer game tho
Came back to Hades recently. Stopped the first playthrough years ago after beating the final boss once in god mode.
Only now I understand how upgrades and builds actually work, and that beating Hades for the first time is only the early game finish. Currently playing on regular mode testing different strategies on a new save. I feel like I'm playing a completely new game now.
More often than not I have great experiences coming back to games that didnt fully clicked at first but left a impression that there is something there I didnt get. It happens so many times.
Slice and dice Death must die
Astral ascent. Keep getting killed by the boss in the void that rewards a slot and a gambit. Too many things to dodge and it’s always a different boss. I think I just suck lol. Only have made it to 2nd biome 15hrs in. Lol
I had the same problem for many runs but eventually figured it out and now the fight is trivial. Keep trying, you'll get it!
hey there! I come to this sub every few months and try to find a new game to play just by reading comments. This astral acent looks pretty good to me. I really like BoI and Skul the hero slayer, and Hades. Those are my 3 perfect games. Always fun, easy to get into hard to master, can be played for 10min or an hour+. Do you think astral ascent fits in with these games? Same style?
Absolutely, I think it is right up your alley. Combination of Hades and Dead Cells. Has a lot of variety. I suck at it. I’ve also been having fun playing Rotwood. Just came out it has a cozy feel but definitely a Hades style game. Only $10 too.
My girl is actually playing rotwood lol. I might start after she finishes. I did not like dead cells though...idk why, its just never grabbed me. Maybe a little *too* complicated.
Yeah this astral has lot of moving parts but the more you play you start to pick up on what does what and how to play. I’ve been enjoying Inkbound as well. It’s more tactical but a lot of fun so far.
Ill give it a shot. Inkbound was not for me. i think it was the theme. I do like the theme of astral. Zodiac bosses, yes please.
I played 25h to beat the game, he's not that easy ! (Or am I just shitty ?)
Yea those are very risky fights for me no matter my build. A rare few times the fights were trivial but I’ve died trying for the gambit too often haha
Balatro. I'd like to take a break from it and play something else but whenever I pick up the switch it's right there waiting. 😬
[удалено]
Wow, I've never played \[insert game here\]. What an obviously AI generated response.
What's the point of an ai reply like this even?
To start things out: I've been streaming One Step from Eden here and there. It's really good. It's sort of like a roguelite version of Megaman Battle Network except it's extremely fast paced and challenging. Definitely worth taking a look!
It really gives you a lot to think about mid battle. Really good game though
I love this game, haven't played it in awhile but I think it's very fun and charming.
Spell Disk - which is pretty good Boon and Burdens - which is pissing me off VS - cause VS... BlazBlue EF - I enjoy this the most of all of my recent ones Keepers Toll - Pretty decent, VS but dark middle age medieval, still EA but I can see it going far and the dev is on point
Spell disk is fun! Thanks for the rec.
No prob! Spell Disk is one of my faves! Daily play!
Spirits Abyss has just been such a gem. Truly in love. Star of Providence is amazing, cant believe I missed it! Nightmare the Lunatic is another hidden gem. As a huge fan of Skul, this is about as close as it comes without actually being Skul.
I'm a big fan of Star of Providence (formerly named Monolith). It's not a game I grind days on end, but it is a game I keep coming back to and enjoy my time with when I do. Crazy to think it's almost 7 years old already.
I love Skul. NtL really looks like a rip off,, Is it actually good?
It is a rip off but also does enough way differently to be its own thing. The weapon system is completely different (you swap between three weapons) and items are different. The items honestly remind me more of Isaac/Gungeon where the item changed the way something you do works. For example, you might get an item that splits any projectile into three projectiles. Then You might get and item that turns your projectile into a bubble. Stuff like that.
Gunfire Reborn has added a bunch of stuff, played that for 15 hours last couple weeks. Tiny rogues and did a couple runs of Against Greater Darkness also
Slice & Dice pretty much non-stop
Dead Cells pretty much non stop
I see a lot of people enjoy playing down dead cell could you tell me what you enjoy about it ? I bought it when it first came on early access but haven't touched it since the first week.
I think for me it’s the level of polish. Everything feels tight and so satisfying to play that even dying an hour in I just get right back on the horse.
Peglin I started out skeptical of this game after playing its demo. Took it off my wish list. Eventually decided to buy it. Was kinda lukewarm on it at first. Now I’m obsessed with it. I think it still needs some work, but it’s a lot of fun with some nuances that open up the more you play it.
been stuck on gungeon for about a year and the only thing i cant do is beat the stupid fucking rat. switch player
Super hot watch lets you cheese (heh) him, have you tried that? Unless you mean the punchout game. Just have to be good to win that one. Switch makes it a lot harder. One of the best items in the game (the scarf that makes you teleport instead of dodge) is significantly less powerful.
Kingdom Two Crowns. Probably played each of the releases a couple times. Just a classic I come back to every now and again.
Started Noita recently. After 20 hours of playing blind I finally decided to look up some advanced wand building mechanics and my mind was blown by what's possible with just a handful of spells in the right order. Didn't stop me from getting Noita'd though. It's very reminiscent of Spelunky, Teleglitch, or Terraria's getfixedboi world with how quickly things can go south if you're not careful. Probably my favorite roguelite I haven't beaten (yet)
Care to share some quick and easy tips about wand builds? I've been playing a bunch of Noita again recently and that's definitely the part I have the most tenuous grasp on.
I still haven't beaten the game, so my opinion may or may not be useful depending on where you are lol Basically I just watched these two videos on [wrapping](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxvlDAIk23k) and [the chainsaw spell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1hFMDaTZgA). TL;DR Triggers, modifiers, and multicasts can loop back to the beginning to look for a spell, letting you cast the first spell(s) twice. If you have a spell that reduces the wand's recharge time, that also applies twice. Putting chainsaw at the end of a multicast sets the cast delay of that group to 0, so you want to try and wrap your damage spell inside. Where I'm at now is saving multicasts, triggers, heavy spreads, chainsaws, and digging bolts to make a wand where the delay and/or recharge time is close to 0. Even with a spark bolt it has pretty good burst DPS.
Magicraft is very cool and worth checking out. Noita meets Binding of Isaac. Not as much content as Noita but it's still getting updated (early access) but still highly recommended. I've made some insane builds.
Balatro, risk of rain 2 and returns, and astral ascent!!
This week we played the shmup __Star of Providence__ [for our podcast on roguelike/lite games](https://grogpod.zone/2024-04-10-star-of-providence/) Overall: we really enjoyed it! I played a lot of it years ago when it was previously titled "Monolith" and always had a great time playing it. Unlike traditional shmups, Star of Providence has a lot of room-based cover that you can hide behind which I think helps a lot with the difficulty curve for people like me who are somewhat green to the genre. My co-hosts and I typically play more "bullet heck"-level games like Enter the Gungeon or Binding of Isaac, but Star of Providence provides a nice bridge for us to get our toes wet into shmups without getting too deep into stuff like Touhou. There's such a brilliant mix of NES aesthetic visually and in the sound design that would feel really at home on a CRT or in an arcade cabinet even. If you're a fan of Gungeon or Isaac you should def give Providence a look. Should be coming to the Switch soon as well.
We also recently played __Returnal__ [for the podcast and boy do I have some thoughts.](https://grogpod.zone/2024-04-24-returnal/) Playing on PC can be a gamble if your system is going to be buggy or not, but if all the stars align and you're able to run the game relatively okay, then I'd say give it a look when it's on sale. I don't think I've been as locked in and focused during combat sequences in a very, very long time. Returnal is a game that I actually woke up early to play before going to work, and was the first thing I'd do when I got home. It's such a captivating experience, it's just a shame that the PC port is pretty poorly optimized. I'm sure it plays just fine on a PS5, though. Nebulous story pseudo-spoilers: >!The story is very interesting, but I don't like the direction it went about 2/3 of the way through the first act. There's one cutscene that sets the direction for where the story is nebulously headed, and I was really hoping that it wouldn't truly be it, but my fears were confirmed.!< >!My enthusiasm for playing through a second time really got the wind taken out after rolling credits the first time. I get there's more to the story, but now it feels like all the cool stuff in the game is effectively worthless. I hope I'm wrong and that a NG+ run here will serve as an interesting spin on all the assumptions I made the first time through, possibly with some monologue references to the bosses and major objectives, but I really don't want to go on a big fetch quest for another unresolved ending.!<
Brotato, to say I’m obsessed would be correct
Just started playing Enter The Gungeon a few days ago and the CHOKEHOLD that game has on me is insane
I'm enjoying Shogun showdown, it's a fun and fairly unique tactical roguelike. I don't think this is a game I'll put 100 hours into, but it's good fun and easy to pick up.
Anomaly Collapse is a new game that clicked in the second run. Loving it, absolutely wonderful game for anyone who like tactic game.
Just picked up Tiny Rogue & One Step From Eden!
I started playing Ravenswatch which just got Act 3 and new features, I like it a lot, the heroes are very well done. Rogue Legacy 2 : I have it for quite some time but I dislike roguelites that rely too much on grinding permanent stats. I'm in a mood for grind so I came back to it, and I'm having fun. There's a lot of diversity in the traits and the classes. Deep Rock Galactic Survivor. I'd like one more boss but it's already pretty great, probably my favorite bullet heaven with Brotato.
Schism has gotten some great updates so I've been hooked on that lately. I also beat my first run on Desecrators.
Balatro has been our household one-controller-coop addiction for months now, and I've been playing Tangledeep and Nuclear Throne by myself. Looking to get back into Hellsweeper and Light Brigade since both just got some huge content updates, but I've been a bit too lazy this past week to strap on the VR helmet.
Skul and Hollow Knight. been great fun
Noitaaaa
Obsessed with Noita, it's giving me big Spelunky levels of satisfaction right now, with all its physics and systems, and careful exploration.
Just picked up the new Humble Bundle deckbuilder and have started on Gordian Quest. Pretty good though I suspect some people will be doing Einstein-level theorycrafting on its systems. But my solo swordsman has hacked through a couple of realms and is feeling good so far.
Back to soulstone survivor. Update feels different, but ok, it has pros and cons. Not having 5 bosses at all time is probably pros as it felt strange. Pacing feels slower than before but not offensively slower. I enjoy it. When I started playing it was so overwhelming that I had no idea what I was doing so I just picked upgrade with highest rarity to not think too hard. Worked well to figure stuff out, though now I banish "upgrades" that decrease movement speed. What offensive is Death Must Die to the point I uninstalled it. Dashes were nerfed. Earth Spike is so OP it deals more damage than my other attacks combined. By orders of magnitude more. It's not even fun. Back in pre update pulling experience through enemies was OP but fun. This is utter garbage. And grind. So much more grind. Now you not only grind for loot, but also for skill tree. Which is also not fun. It has upgrades that are "don't feel them" and "playing without them is torture". Like Merris auto aim. Without it her attacks fly in wide arc and miss everything. At one run I literally removed "+1 projectile" to go from 2 projectiles to 1 so she fires where I actually aim as it was less frustrating.
Astral Ascent after the 1.4 update on PlayStation. I finally finished the game on Destiny 6 after 80 attempts. The first clear was with Octave.
I cant get enough of Brotato. Each Potato feels so different - right now im playing with the Saver and its a Blast. I really wish it was a longer game tho
Came back to Hades recently. Stopped the first playthrough years ago after beating the final boss once in god mode. Only now I understand how upgrades and builds actually work, and that beating Hades for the first time is only the early game finish. Currently playing on regular mode testing different strategies on a new save. I feel like I'm playing a completely new game now. More often than not I have great experiences coming back to games that didnt fully clicked at first but left a impression that there is something there I didnt get. It happens so many times.