I don't really like roguelites. At least I always thought. The only one I really tried was the Binding of Isaac. I never progressed far, I never really got the hang of it and had a lot of unsuccessful runs. I finally gave up on it. So I went for years without trying new ones. Until Hades. I played it quite a lot and had a lot of successful runs, but never fully beat the game.
I returned to it with the recent launch of Hades II into Early Access and finished (except a few achievements) my save. The gameplay and difficulty is very well-balanced for my skill level and it managed to motivate for several weeks. Overall I put over 100h into it and the pull was so strong, I got Hades II right away. I know not very patient of me. Another 40h later and I finished the content that is available so far. I can see myself diving back in for the 1.0 release or a big update.
Afterwards I looked for other well-received roguelites and picked up Dead Cells and all the DLC in a sale. Similar story here. 80h in, I made it to 2 BC and unlocked a most weapons and quite a big chunk of the outfits. My playstyle is rather slow and deliberate, but I enjoy the challenge a lot. 2 BC is kicking my ass a bit and I'm thinking about moving on again.
I'm currently thinking about what comes next. With the steam sale going on, I am considering Hollow Knight, even though I have very little experience mit Metroidvanias. Also Sekiro is a possibility. I never played a From Software game or our souls-like before. (Mostly) fighting human-sized enemies and a focus on parrying suits my preferences well.
If anyone has recommendations for other roguelites or games to jump to, please leave a comment.
I'm glad I tried a genre I had written off before. It resulted in a lot of fun playing hours. I recommend stepping out of your gaming comfort zone once in a while.
It has good replayability. Yeah it's having a surge of popularity but it's a solid game that's pretty unique with good longevity for those who enjoy it, I think it's going to be popular for quite a qhile and probably start getting people making inspired games in the "deckbuilding with real cards" space.
I'd liken it a lot more to FTL or STS than hades or dead cells. The skill is in the building and planning, not in the gameplay. Making do with the resources available to you, deciding on risking a suboptimal decision now that could payoff a lot more later, and thinking about how to make what you have into a successful run is the focal point here. Whereas with hades, sure perks are nice and add to your power as you play more, but the real skill in hades is your actual gameplay with the character. Both are perfectly valid, it just sounds like you're a person much more focused on direct action skill.
This isn't to say that the games I mentioned don't have that aspect too, but I find in general it's way easier to for example play a hand in slay the spire optimally or have a fight in FTL optimally than it is to clear a room in hades or a nasty section in dead cells optimally. The skill expression is just kind of focused on a different aspect of the game. Nothing wrong with you preferring one to the other, just wanted to mention that not everyone has the same tastes =D