Golden Krone Hotel

It's a good roguelike and well polished by a developer who is obviously a solid student of game design, but regrettably I think it's just a little bit too short and lacking in depth to be satisfying for me as a "traditional" roguelike, speaking as a longtime fan of the genre. I understand this was no doubt an intentional design choice, but I must say I found myself missing the epic adventure part of rogueliking while playing Golden Krone Hotel even as I was very much enjoying not having my ass kicked quite so frequently as would be normal. You may find yourself missing this a little bit too if you are a fan of the oldschool. It's a title that's more approachable for a new generation and a new era, for better and for worse. The part that's better is the fact that it really is supremely approachable. The part that's worse is the reality that while you might be deluded into believing you've had a special little world generated for you in Golden Krone Hotel (as is one of the principle charms of the genre), the reality is that you are having an experience very much similar to many other players before you, the procedural generation is not quite deep enough for the principle game play experience to truly vary. To me it feels kinda roguelite minus the meta progression somehow, rather than a trad roguelike. If you are looking for a modern roguelike experience with a low barrier to entry, this will scratch the itch, but I don't think it's going to carve out a legendary space in anyone's lifetime gaming history like say the effort of getting into ADOM or ToME. So it's worth a look for fans of the genre, people interested but having a hard time "getting" it, and for students of game design. Doubtful it will take the place of one of the majors in the play rosters of long-term fans, but I also don't think there's anything wrong with that. Not every experience has to be one for a lifetime, and I think it's just the reality that this is more one of those titles that you play for a while and it's great fun but the inevitable depth trade offs surrounding a low barrier to entry also mean it doesn't quite have the secret sauce for the truly legendary moments that the more brutal and unapproachable titles do (nor, in very much a good way, the same frustrations). Definitely worth the price.

[h3]This game is a hidden treasure.[/h3] [u]A perfect execution of a traditional roguelike.[/u] Even people who don't know turn-based roguelikes can easily get into it. Optimization is also relatively well done. [i]It's a lot of fun to break through randomly generated dungeons.[/i] [b]You can have a lot of fun with relatively little focus.[/b] Definitely recommend.

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This is a very pleasant and simple traditional roguelike. It takes many of its levels and enemies from other traditional roguelike classics, but adds interesting vampirism and daytime cycle mechanics to the formula, which give it a distinct character and individuality. Straightforward controls, no inventory management, no wands to worry about, best equipment autoequips, and the usual potion identifying minigame is much more manageable due to the game showing you three potion types that any particular unidentified potion could possibly be. Fun and easy to git gud at, at least on the normal difficulty. An easy recommendation, especially at its price. Some negatives: the lorebooks, while numerous, are not very interesting; it is sometimes difficult to see items behind other items, for example, potions behind window panes along the bottom of the map; normal difficulty feels too easy after a few runs (i feel i could get long winstreaks pretty easily), while "despair" difficulty feels too hard (only won once after dozens of attempts) -- i wish there was something in-between; and despite there being a website that keeps track of all the high scores, including weeklies, getting a high score does not seem very fun: once you have a good enough character, you can seemingly grind for score forever.

A fun traditional roguelike that isn't afraid to twist some conventions to make a fresh and tight game. Great pixel art and theme, and who doesn't love vampires?

This is a fantastic roguelike with some truly unique and innovative mechanics that make it a novel standout in the genre. It simplifies a lot of the typical monotony of going through menus in favor of immediately equipping better equipment when you pick it up and auto selling inferior equipment to the merchant as well. The systems are very streamlined but at the same time every run feels completely different due to the different disguises giving totally different foundations for characters which will then be further differentiated by which grimoires you find for spells, the stat choices you make leveling up, which potions you find, etc. Juggling human and vampire form is a genuine task, there are many benefits to staying a vamp like being physically superior, healing off of enemy blood (so combat leads directly to your heal condition), not needing to worry about the limited food resource, not having the vampires attack you in the hotel, etc.. but all the humans will attack you, your HP slowly drains if you don't have blood, sunlight will RUIN you (and the game has a day / night cycle with looots of windows in the hotel) and you lose all access to your spells (though vamps can get their own abilities).. this all adds up to a constant tug-o-war between human / vamp form I really like in practice. You're always wondering if you want to waste a soul elixir to turn back human or just trudge on further, or panicking because you don't have an elixir and it's almost daybreak.. there's a timer that always ticks down bringing you closer to vamping out so you can't stay human forever. I really like how they implemented this mechanic, balancing your time between both forms is very important to success in this game which makes GKH stand apart from other roguelikes just by itself.. but there's a lot of other cool stuff going on under the hood. This isn't a super deep, complex roguelike that'll take you 500H just to beat once, but it has very engaging, fun and tactical gameplay with enough depth to keep it all together.. the gameplay loop of this one is probably one of the best I've seen in the genre and it always leaves you ready to start a new run when you die.. which you will be doing a LOT by the way as this game does not pull its punches. I'd give this one a solid 9.5/10, it's a phenomenal game.

I started playing this game because people on reddit recommended it as a traditional roguelike for people who are either unfamiliar with the genre, or who find the demands of learning a trad roguelike to be offputting (me). This game is streamlined in a beautiful way and while I'm sure it leads to its own issues, it's a very pleasant experience. You can use just keyboard, just controller, just mouse, or a combination. You don't need to micro-manage the items you pick up, the game manages them for you automatically. Reading bits of lore you pick up is purely optional. Engaging with the story is mostly done by talking to NPCs, which I largely skip but I like that A) the option is there for players who want to see more of the world and B) it's non-essential for players like me. This is clearly the work of a developer who loves the genre, understands what makes it fun, and wants to provide the easiest entry possible. I've played 14 hours and I've gotten a few wins so far, all on Easy, but it is a difficult game even then. Its difficulty challenges your decision-making in a way that feels fair and rewarding. I can't remember feeling like I've lost a run due purely to luck, it has almost always been some sort of mistake or misunderstanding on my part. I've encountered no bugs, everything just works. It's remarkably easy to get into and I would absolutely recommended it for anyone with an interest in this kind of game. If you're a hardcore traditional rougelike player, this game's systems may be less sophisticated than you're used to. That could be a deal-breaker for some but I still think, if you like the genre, this one is worth trying.

Good game. Really cool mechanics, approachable controls, nice animations, varied levels. The main unique mechanic is you turn into a vampire after X turns (or you can do it early if you want). You can change back with a common item. I like routing out when I want to be a vampire and when I want to be human, and I like how it changes up my playstyle as I go. I love the item identification and I think it should be in every game. I like how many areas there are, even though most of them are super deadly. The game is fairly short, which helps. I totally suck at the game but I like it

An excellent, approachable roguelike that does not sacrifice dynamism or tactical depth. Not the largest variety, but what variety that is there combined with the many classes is enough to sustain many hours of fun.

You can tell the dev understands exactly what makes roguelikes good. Accessible and fun, meant to be a "coffee break" game. It gets incredibly cheap on sale, worth picking up.