We got a chance to play the original Rogue (1984) during our discussion and compare it to the other supposedly “rogue-like” games we’ve played this week. One of the hottest contentions during the in-class debate was centered around the notion of permadeath, our group for Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (2014) argued that Hades (2020) and Dead Cells (2018) were not rogue-like due to their post-death retention of player progress. Having played Rogue itself, I’m beginning to think whether our utilization of terminology is anachronistic. We thought of permadeath as a defining feature of a rogue-like, perhaps oblivious to the fact that permadeath used to be the de facto gaming modality.
There used to be no way of bringing in more pieces for the next round when you lost a game of chess, or more players into the team when you lost a sports game. For the longest time, games had a beginning and an end, with all players getting a tabula rasa for each round of play. Even for arcade games that Jagoda and Sparrow cited in class, gambling games, slot-machines, Pac-man, or Castlevania, “when you lost a game, you had to start over” (Isaac Berman, during Oct 8th discussion). Now, the notion of permadeath has become embedded in our critical game theory jargon because so many games save player progress in one way or another.
In a way, rogue-likes are defined by their ability to adapt an element of the original Rogue in a contemporary way. Hades and Dead Cells do it by allowing for small increments to player power/stats/abilities to be carried over from one run to another. Binding of Isaac and Hades do it by expanding on the primitive narrative structure of Rogue while keeping the narrative element as a driving force/ a prize for exploration that capitalizes player curiosity for increased game replayability. These neo-rogue-likes intend death to be a meaningful part of the gameplay loop, demonstrated by their recognition of the character’s death being reflected in the narrative or character stats. In that way, they are brining character death to the forefront of critical discourse, more so than Rogue does compared to its contemporaries.
Harkening back to Amory and the Hades debate team’s arguments in class on Thursday Oct 7th, perhaps the “exemplary example of a rogue-like game” should not be defined by its similarities to the original Rogue, but its differences. Neo-rogue-likes have “evolved beyond what the original Rogue was” and are therefore exemplary examples of a rogue-like. After all, it’s a rogue-like, not a Rogue-clone.
Kaan, there’s no wonder why you were able to take home the debate gold in class, for this post is such an insightful take on the true nature of rogue-likes! While contrary to the stances we had to take in class, the concept of genre has to be something malleable that is subject to change based on the perception of the public. Rogue-likes have definitely embraced this line of thinking within its genre for the acknowledgement or reward of death in games is the standard. A rogue-like in our modern climate that features a true permadeath mechanic would mostly be frowned upon, for it is taking the old arcade-like mechanics that were restricted by their times and doing nothing to implement the modern advancements that allow for greater game design to be implemented. Rogue-likes are an enticing genre to follow as they are the perfect synergy of the syzygy that is the past and future.