I beat Dungeons of Aether, both in the story mode and in the roguelike challenge dungeons mode that I didn’t realize was there at first. The story mode is structured more like an XCOM or Midnight Suns, with a home base to buy upgrades at between missions, while the challenge dungeon mode is more like the Slay the Spire structure that the game’s combat system sets expectations for. I wish I liked this one better. There are some decisions they made in late-game enemy design in the pursuit of adding challenge that I very much disagree with, where in lots of situations the game can just always react to what you do with the mathematically correct decision rather than allowing you to bait out attacks like the game teaches you to do. Also, one of the playable characters, Hamir, just seems way better than the other three. I beat the roguelike mode on my first try using Hamir. I got my money’s worth out of this one, and it’s got some really neat ideas, but it lacks the replay value you’d expect out of a roguelike. I think they need to take another go at this one and let it bake some more.

I then moved on to Backpack Hero, which I played in early access before they added its own story mode with a more macro structure, and I guess that’s just what the roguelike market is doing these days, huh? So far, I don’t think it’s quite as good as just doing a regular run, but this game does have that replayability that you come to a roguelike for. I’ll see the story mode through before moving on to the other games I’d like to finish before the year is done.