Serpent's Gaze

Can do improved initial standard attack build here too

Very fun co-op soulslike roguelike. While at the surface the game plays like a soulslike, controls are similar, boss fights are similar etc, the games pace and story is much more like a roguelike, think Rogue Legacy or Risk of Rain, where your first playthrough is ultimately knee-capped, but as you play you unlock new starting classes and weapons to begin your run with next time. The level design however feels quite different than Dark Souls, or Elden Ring, where those worlds and environments tell a hidden story, the level design in Serpents Gaze feels more like a reverse tower defense, you are clearing lanes or mazes of enemies, to unlock shortcuts to get to the bosses. While the shortcuts are very much darksouls like, I find that there is less of a world that seems layered with history and story, and more of just ancient architecture laid out in a way that funnels you through lanes of enemies. That being said, as a co-op game this is much better than inviting random summons to help you in dark souls, the game is fully co-op you join up in a hosts game and each run when your team dies you're brought back to the same starting town to choose your loadout and do another run. The runs themselves feel more like Risk of Rain than playing darksouls, because the enemies are somewhat randomized and the special power-ups you receive are random as well, although the upgrade points you interact with give you the Vampire Survivors sort of 3 card choices to apply. So even with the same starting class, and weapon, 3 runs in a row can vary and feel like very different runs because the powerups you get might stack with your builds in very lucky ways or for certain runs you might not get as many amazing choices, an area might be full of lesser mobs, and another time they might have less mobs but have stronger archers or large units. Ultimately the roguelike elements makes the game immediately more fun as a coop game, because even if my friends play more or less than me, the powerups you collect during your run together really make or break the run, and less so the initial build you choose, or what weapons you have individually unlocked. The game right now isn't very long, while there are plans in the roadmap to add another domain (4 levels, 4 bosses), but at 20$ CAD I don't regret my purchase, it is quite good price for how much replayability there is, there are still lots of classes for me to unlock, and I am curious what the areas and bosses I haven't made it to yet have in store. It might seem like quite a small amount of content compared to say vampire survivors when you consider how many characters, upgrades and levels there are in that game at its price compared to this, but I can see how much more time has been put into animations, building out interesting levels, etc there is in Serpents Gaze and I think its an appropriate amount of content from an indie studio for a game at this price. As long as you go in understanding that a traditional souls-like game will have you exploring searching for secrets, and tying to level up your build and equipment more as sort of "time fillers" this game strips away those things and focuses on a good epic run, where the action is pretty action pact the entire time, and you're not spending much time running back into areas, or farming souls to upgrade gear.