Comments on: Thoughts: Jupiter Hell

By: Bobbington

Bobbington — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 18:51:05 +0000

My thinking is that about one hour is the “perfect” length for a roguelite run. It’s about as long as I can be expected to care for something if I have to start all over again if I fail. I just don’t understand “classic” roguelikes that last for dozens of hours, or even more. It all just seems like an elaborate form of torture, especially since these hours are usually full of tedium.

I guess it goes for other genres too. Losing 60 minutes of progress I can live with if the moment-to-moment chance of failure is fairly low or occasional (Hades), 5-15 minutes if the chance of failure is moderate (most action game checkpoints), 1-5 minutes if that chance is high (a Dark Souls boss) and less than 1 minute if that chance is very high (Super Meat Boy, and even then…).

In that sense, I like that you’ve highlighted in the review how much work they put into streamlining their game. Desktop Dungeons is another great game that turned the roguelike genre into a hyper-focused 15-60 minutes of puzzle-like decision making.

By: ilitarist

ilitarist — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 08:45:39 +0000

You might want to try Age of Wonders Planetfall. It’s a sci-fi empire building game with city management and tactical battles. Fully playable with gamepad. Of course it’s a big game with every map taking hours to complete.

By: branpanman

branpanman — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 15:59:19 +0000

Also, one more kudo for Jupiter Hell hat I wanted to add: the gamepad optimization is EXCELLENT, and is in fact one of my favorite things about the game.

This matters to me becayse there aren’t many turn-based strategy games, RLs or otherwise, that nail an optimized gamepad control scheme. But Jupiter Hell gets it right… which makes kicking back with the controller and gibbing demons at exactly your own pace a literal blast.

By: branpanman

branpanman — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 14:55:39 +0000

This is an excellent take. Thank you for the writeup! I’m really enjoying Jupiter Hell as both a nostalgic throwback and a lane-dominating modern realization of (the excellent) DoomRL. Over the weekend I successfully completed my first run, and while I agree that they take too long, it’s good fun and the game will probably remain installed for a while now, and I’ll probably mostly play the supposedly 50% shorter speed mode.

I also fully agree with your main point that the pacing of the modern RogueLITE has simply eclipsed that of the RogueLIKE, and this is where JH struggles, though it’s not really the game’s fault.

I also concur with Ilitarist: as I’m getting older too, game time is harder and harder to come by (just ignore what my Steam library says about Total War: Warhammer 2) and that Hades pulls off one of the greatest balancing acts in modern gaming. It’s superb.

And I too have tried for years now to get into BoI, as it’s practically a religion among many people whose gaming opinions I respect. But I’m really turned off by the art style. It’s just gross, and I can’t get into it!

By: ilitarist

ilitarist — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 13:20:59 +0000

I hear you about the need for shorter games as you get older. Nowadays I don’t even try to play games with complex save systems. Hades has a perfectly balanced pacing and I struggle to find anything like that. Recently I’ve tried Griftlands and it’s great, but it’s too long and taxing for your brain. They say Binding of Isaak is good but I can’t get over the disgusting art-style. Woe!