The Top 10 Indiegames and Roguelikes of the Year

every year I like to Showcase what my top 10 games of the year are but my top 10 tends to be a little bit different because I don't lock it down to games that only came out in the current year but instead all of the new games to me that I played that year and it was a heater of the year one of the best in recent years so let's take a look at my top 10 games of 2023 I want to start with a couple of honorable mentions just because they're worth bringing up so that I don't have to answer the question in the comment section first we got Dave the diver so everybody is going to have Dave the diver in their top 10 list this year and for a good reason it's a it's a really fun game with some really good unique ideas but I'm going to be the one that drops it out of my top 10 for for two reasons the first is that I wanted to treat this list as a top 10 Rogue likes and indie games list and that game is neither of those but also I actually think that this game really spoiled itself in the second half of the game I found it to become a little grindy kind of annoying in its late game with a ton of Half Baked ideas that kind of took away from the Brilliance of a rogueish game during the day and then the management game at night but it's still a charming and beautiful game and it's definitely still worth playing 100% but I'm not going to include it in my top 10 and second we got beyond the long night which is a a brilliant little indie game that is an exploration adventure game that was disguised and advertised as a Rog likee and thus many people were frustrated with it because the Rog likee qualities in it are frankly pretty limited there's not a huge item pool there's not much enemy variety there's not much boss variety and the floors in the rooms are generally pretty similar between runs but what the game does provide is this beautiful unraveling storyline told through tiny mysterious gameplay elements and you personally exploring throughout the game game it's a perfect 10ish hour game with some mild Rog likee replayability and I highly highly recommend it so now we get into the actual top 10 and we're going to start with a simple little tower defense game that captured my heart Throne fall Throne fall takes the typical Tower Defense style and just kind of twists it a little bit by placing the control in the player to attack the enemies themselves and then using the money received to build defenses towers and frankly more money generators there's a lot of options for building your character in five unique Maps there's different weapons traits and difficulty modifiers one of the biggest complaints for the game is that it takes away decision- making from the player by handpicking the locations that you can build your towers and and put your defenses up uh and the maps don't change every time you play and while I agree that this is a a valid complaint for the game I don't think that it necessarily takes away from from the replayability of it uh and I still think the design of the game is pretty Sleek it's only $7 I think it's worth every penny at number nine we've got batro and it's wild that a demo can reach my top 10 games of the year but that's simply just how good batro is who knew that taking something as simple as poker and giving it a roguelike Twist would create a revolutionary game in the genre with tons of unique Jokers and abilities to manipulate the poker hands that you play batro quickly captured many hearts including mine uh as it was one of the most played Demos in the Rog leg genre in 2023 the full game releas is an early 2024 with even more content decks Jokers and and fun and I think the demo has been shut down now but there's another coming in January so I guess just wish list it for now and then uh buy it like I will immediately upon it releasing and number eight we've got below the stone which was my most anticipated game coming into 2023 and while it's not number one on my list it's still in my top 10 and I feel very confident about the game's future this Dwarven mining Rog lake has you going deep below the stone to complete Quests for collecting precious minerals and ores exploring Dungeons and fighting enemies there's tons of unique biomes enemies and loot to collect and upgrade your character across the runs and the current Early Access is a little limited uh in its content which is why I have it only at eight on this list the the runs are Sy the quests get a little bit repetitive but the foundation the game has created is going to give it great standing as it moves into its many planned content updates over the next year so keep your eye on it and number seven we've got endgame of devil which was definitely one of my big surprises of the year and a standout for strategy Rog likes this luck beia landlord style slot machine deck builder has you building an army of enemies to take out those pesky adventurers trying to sneak in and steal your loot so what makes endgame of devil a fascinating game and one worth having alongside luck beia landlord well it may not have that simplistic and easy to pickup charm that luck beia landlord has but what it does have is a significantly more expanded Synergy system with the cards having hundreds of builds that you can try across many different difficulty levels it it puts a lot more emphasis into the drafting in the deck building component of the game whereas I feel that luck beia landlord like the title says relies on a bit of luck sometimes to win runs if you're a fan of luck be a landlord and slot machine genres you should really check this one out I I think it's the best in the genre besides luck be a landlord which I still have a massive soft spot for and number six we've got Karma zooo which is both an infuriating and a lovely game at the same time this Cooperative platformer has you joining lobbies with nine other random people around the world to complete levels together each person has unique abilities that only their character can use and that ability will be needed at some point to complete the levels oh and you also can't communicate with any of these people except for like quick chat emojis on the screen it's infu ating because sometimes that tiger just won't stand on the button you need him to but then you realize that everybody's just kind of in this together and you all have the same goal you all just want more hearts and more completed runs so you can unlock more animals and then play even more runs it's easily the most unique game I've played this year and it's one that I craved playing more of each time I recorded it I promise it's way more wholesome and fun than you think at number five we've got Cobalt core and Cobalt core had all of the makings of an amazing game a simplistic deck building Rog likee with an FTL like turnbas tactical twist so what went wrong uh literally nothing actually um it's probably the most perfect game that I played this year it has the same polish of a slay the Spire where you play it and you just go wow this is this is perfectly designed so why did I put it at fifth on my list instead of putting it higher well for one the four games above it are just absolute powerhouses this was an insane year for games but also Cobalt core is a very safe game it doesn't try to do anything crazy it just does what it does and it does it really well and I think the game probably could have had more put into it more events more mechanics more bosses but they opted for a tight and well balanced release and I really highly respect it there's a mod Community already bubbling over for the game I think they're going to do a lot of good for it uh but I want to stress it's still a near perfect game for me and I want to find a place for it on the channel in 2024 cuz I did not play it nearly as much as I wanted to it's fantastic I had to really fight with myself for whether to put mosina at three or four on my list and I settled on four and here's why Molina is a chaotic and beautiful little game you're dropped into one of 200 some levels with three out of 20 some items and all you have to do is touch fruits and then Escape through the portal it's simple right sometimes sometimes it's much harder sometimes it's literally impossible and that's fine because when it's impossible you just start again there's no real goal there's no real consequence there's just you the fruits and the exit portal it's not a Rog likee there's no upgrades it's not a story game there's no progression it's just a simulator this little chaotic immersive simulator that twists your brain to think of unique and wacky solutions to the puzzles that it provides I think it's extremely charming and it's a game that I simply do not Tire of I load it up occasionally off camera which is a complete Rarity for me with games just because it's quick it's Snappy it's pure fun so why did I put it at four instead of three well something something three is a Powerhouse game but I also think that mosina has room for just a tiny bit more there's already so much replayability in it but I think that with even more items stretching into that like 40 to 50 range more levels and simply more Randomness mosina will forever stand as one of the most unique indie games of all time and if I know the dev well enough after chatting with him throughout mosin's launch he's going to get it there it's just $5 buy it and at number three void Reigns upon her heart yeah it's it's a Powerhouse okay void Reigns upon her heart is a bullet hell Rog likee akin to games like too but what you're getting when you buy this genius little game is hours and hours of content with eight playable characters over 100 boss fights hundreds of items countless achievements so many achievements in fact that it has now beaten Out The Binding of Isaac rebirth for total achievements at over 680 it's a very replayable game with quick 15 to 30 minute runs in multiple different game modes each game mode revolutionizing the way the game is played while maintaining its bull at hel core and every run you play you unlock new things for your next run including massive game mechanics that make you sit there and wonder what else the game could possibly throw at you it's been in development for over 5 years now and is still not in its 1.0 release but this was the first year that I got to sink my teeth into it and I have no doubt I'm going to lose more teeth playing it in 2024 so we move to number two and yeah okay I've got a real soft spot for brutal Orchestra it was one of the games that plucked me out of a huge slump on my YouTube channel and it's also one of those Rogue lakes that does just about everything you want intense strategic Brain Buster turns make you stare at the screen for minutes calculating Solutions yeah brutal Orchestra has that are you an Isaac player that wants wacky weird items that completely change the Run you're playing by creating game-breaking synergies yep it's got that maybe you're a lore guy you love meeting new characters unraveling storylines yeah it it's there and maybe you're just an achievement hunter you love unlocking new things in each run mastering the game as every character yeah brutal orchestra's got that too it's just the a game with very little flaws except for bronzo who is a flaw in among himself but I'll let you figure out who he is when you play the devs are sweethearts the community is genuinely one of the best I've ever been a part of and there's a robust modding Community with some of the highest quality mods I've ever played for a Rog likee game what more can I say it was my game in the year for genuinely like months until this silly little game came along so without further Ado number one My Game of the Year Dot age dot age is everything I want from a board gamey turn-based Rog like and a lot of people don't know this but I'm a huge Board Game Fan and my favorite style of board games are worker placement games which are essentially games where you're given a certain number of workers and then you assign those workers to locations to get you resources to expand your position get points and then eventually win dot age is exactly like this it's a worker placement board game but they expand upon that by giving you that chaotic Rim worldy world events colonists with unique quirks and mechanics in an everchanging world with tons of content and unlocks to explore what I love about dot age is how it masterfully implements meta progression into the game by giving you points to spend on new unlocks that then seamlessly integrate into your current existing run so each time you play you're learning new mechanics you're seeing new Fe features you're learning new things all while you're still balancing all of the chaotic and terrifying things the developer has created my only flaw with the game is that the runs are about 15 hours long and this is hardly a flaw when you need 15 hours to build the beautiful Colony you need to survive the apocalypse in the game and if you mess up and you don't produce enough food or maybe you don't have enough health during that plague or maybe there's not enough Heat during that snowstorm well you lose but you learned a little bit you unlocked a little more and you're back into another run it's a game that similar to civilization Masters the art of one more turn you just have to see what happens with that Doom event well now my tomatoes are almost grown ah but my baby is grown in another two turns so I'll just play Until Then pretty soon your entire night is gone but you've enjoyed every second of it play do age it's my game of the year I can't speak highly enough about it if you enjoyed this top 10 and you want to see more of all of these games you can find all of my series for these games Linked In the description down below it's been an awesome year and I'm excited to see what comes in 2024 see you guys then oh

Channel: Olexa

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Keywords: olexa, best roguelike games 2023, best roguelike games of all time, top 10 roguelike games, top 10 roguelite games, top 10 roguelikes, roguelike, top 10 roguelites, roguelikes, roguelike games, best roguelike games, roguelite, top roguelike games, best roguelite games, best roguelikes, top 10 roguelikes of 2023, top 10 best roguelikes, top 10 roguelites of 2023, roguelites, top roguelike, 10 best roguelikes, best roguelites, top 10 roguelike, top 10 rogue-likes, best roguelike

Id: Hi4oZ8bSwOw

Length: 15min 4sec (904 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 13 2024