You're looking for actual Roguelikes then. That's what the genre originally was before it got bastardized.
Comment on Meta progression in roguelites was fun for a while, but it's starting to feel unrewarding
Dr_Nik@lemmy.world 8 hours agoOk, I’m intrigued. Any recommendations? I’d love to play ones where progression comes from learning about the game.
missingno@fedia.io 7 hours ago
SuperNovaStar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 hours ago
One of my all time favorite games is Cultist Simulator, but I’ll admit it’s not for everyone. If you like puzzle type games and don’t mind learning about the world by reading lots of little snippets of flavor text, it’ll be right up your alley.
Also definitely check out Rogue (the og) and the first wave of games inspired by it. The meta-progression stuff is kind of a new wave thing.
As for newer games, Balatro is really popular right now if you’re into more ‘puzzle roguelikes’. Most of the things you unlock make the game harder rather than easier, or give you a different angle from which to play the game. There are a handful of things you have to unlock via meta-progression, but so far they seem pretty unintrusive.