HALIBABICA'S PROFILE

Rogue RPGs are great! But they can be very frustrating to people who are more used to other types of games. Permadeath and losing all your stuff just for making a stupid mistake can easily turn people away, but picking yourself up and dusting yourself off are what these things are all about.

from slashphoenix
Is it possible to tell a traditional story through a roguelike?

It most certainly is! And one of the most enjoyable/impressive ones I've played is Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer. It was a Japanese SNES title that was translated and ported to the DS, which is where I played it. The elements of a roguelike are almost all there, but with some very interesting twists.

Dungeons are randomly generated, but follow the same progression of areas each time. For example, the forest is always first, then the riverside, a small town, ridge, mine, etc.

Dying causes all possessions to be lost, but along the way are warehouses where items can be stored between runs. What you store and where you store it can greatly affect your chances of success.

Along with that, though, there are NPCs with sideplots that develop more with every run of the dungeon. Each time you see them, you get a little more of their story, and some even join you as party members. It's very interesting seeing everyone's little plots develop and become part of the narrative as a whole, and that's what makes it a good example for this question.

from LockeZ
I definitely think action-rpg gameplay works better than turn-based gameplay for roguelikes. The game industry apparently agrees with me because that's the only kind they make any more.

Maybe the industry does, but there's this little indie gem called Doom RL that does turn based with a twist. In it, actions are all turn-based, but the turns and their length are determined by time passed. When you start out, most actions take 1 second to perform, and during that second, other elements of the map play out their roles. In the time it takes to walk one step, enemies can also walk one step. If you get heavy armor, it takes you longer to walk, so enemies can possibly both walk AND attack you in the time you took stepping. It sounds more complicated than it is, but if you specifically choose actions that take short amounts of time, you can get away with almost twice as many turns as your foes sometimes.

Shiren is also turn-based, and even likened to Chess in-game.

So I wouldn't say it's completely dead, but it's certainly been adapted from what it used to be.

And yes, both these examples do have RPG mechanics of leveling up. For Shiren, it's a simple gain in HP and strength with every level, allowing you to endure more pain and dish out more yourself. In Doom RL, each level-up lets you put a point in a specific trait. Each trait is significant in its own right, and combining them in different ways opens up more specialized/beneficial traits later on.

So yeah, it's an interesting genre that really isn't for everyone, meaning it's not specifically good OR bad.