| A roguelike prominently and predominantly features some combination of most of the following: 1) Run based (re)play, typically starting from a weak state and moving into a strong state. Then restarting at that weak state many times. 2) Randomization of the run in upgrades, powers, environment, or choices. Thinking on your feet and dealing with the random. Typically, environmental randomization is necessary. 3) Permanent death within a run. No save scumming - if you die in a run you'll have to start another run 4) Some sort of meta progression, whether that's a home base the player returns to, or just the increased knowledge of game systems (like in Nethack) 5) A community consensus that the game is a roguelike. 6) Emergent gameplay from multiple overlapping systems, often interacting in unexpected ways 7) Exploration or selecting paths through an environment where progress in the game usually requires leaving familiar areas and entering unfamiliar ones So rogue and Nethack meet all of those, absolutely. But so does Hades and Spelunky and binding of Isaac and Hades and FTL. Some games have roguelike elements, but are probably not roguelikes, say Inscryption. |