This doesnt work as an Roquelike because.....

[Brainpinker]

First of all, I love the aesthetics that are offered here. However, it doesn't really work. In a Roque like, you level up all weapons because you use them at the same time. Here, however, you have to decide which one to use. Which makes the XP invested in other weapons unnecessary. I know it's a general problem with the type of game, not a mistake by the developers. If I were to develop it, I would have all weapons fire at the same time. Then you could also drastically increase the number of enemies and it would be something completely new. That wouldn't make the autofire function so incredibly annoying. And don't come to me with "but it's unrealistic if you use a pistol, shotgun, machete and rocket launcher at the same time. Realism? Seriously? In a game like this, that should be the last thing the developers worry about.

[amok]

There are no definition on what a rogue-like is, what is included and what it cannot do.

I guess you are thinking about games like Vampire Survivors, which are top-down shooters with rogue-like elements? In that genre they tend to use all weapons at all times, yes. But this is only in that sub-genre.

However, the moniker "rogue-like" is used to describe many other very different games, such as FTL, Returnal, Darkest Dungeon, Hades, Dicey Dungeons, Loop Hero, Noita. Street of Rogue and so one and so forth. There is a large variations within the genre. The only thing they have in common is permadeath, procedural generated levels and usually some kind of upgrade system.

But even then, I did one run on the demo, and in there I ended up with 3 weapons that was shooting at the time - a shotgun, vengeful spirits and some hex mark on the ground. And I upgraded those to max, not a problem. So even if we ignore that rogue-like do not demand "all weapons" to be called a rogue-like, that would still work.

[Nitto]

Totally agree with op, i don't see any reason for weapon switching and upgrading anything other than the gun you're using + the auto firing skulls.

[Zwippie]

Hm... Well, not all roguelikes are like that. There are many different roguelikes out there and saying that the game is not a roguelike because you're not using all the weapons at the same time is not really an end to the argument.

The biggest difference between Bloodshed and other roguelikes is that it's using weapons as weapons and spells as spells while roguelikes like Vampire Survivor, Soulstone Survivor and others have one main weapon and then pick up other weapons that are all used at the same time BUT Bloodsheds weapons are more based on real weapons and reality while Vampire Surivor and others treat every weapon as a spell more or less.
Like you can upgrade a weapon to be firing in all directions or in a cone. Deep Rock Galactic Survivor is also an example of doing this were all weapons are active at the same time.

But roguelikes like Yet Another Zombie Survivors doesn't, there you upgrade your weapon and then after a few upgrades you gain a new weapon, upgrade that a few times and you gain a new one.
Greedland is another roguelike were you upgrade your weapon to become more effective. Firing more bullets, bouncing bullets and such things. And you also have some technological gizmos to help you defeat all the aliens in that one.

I don't care if the game is a realistic or not but this is the way they've chosen to go with. The thought of using all the guns at the same time plus the skills is an intriguing thought though, I have to say. Would be cool to see. There is one roguelike I've tested that had that but it was a rail shooter, didn't like it.

Just a quick question, I don't want to sound like an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ here but did you know that there is an option to turn off "auto shooting"? You can have it manual plus you can reload the weapon whenever you want. I'm only asking because it doesn't look like you've noticed that, I didn't notice it until I did the survey and it was mentioned there.

[Mr. No_Effs_Given]

Just played and had a blast, works fine as a roguelike.

[Umbaupause]

Originally posted by amok:

There are no definition on what a rogue-like is, what is included and what it cannot do.

I love this. I will die on this hill. 'Roguelike' used to be a term that was very strictly defined, to categorize games which were like the actual, existing video game 'Rogue'.
Then I guess Binding of Isaac happened, muddled the waters, Rogue Legacy Roguelited all over the place, everyone got confused, and anything that has even slightly varying gameplay and is split into distinct runs is a 'roguelike' now.
I. Love. It. What a garbage term it's become.

[Zwippie]

Originally posted by Umbaupause:

Originally posted by amok:

There are no definition on what a rogue-like is, what is included and what it cannot do.

I love this. I will die on this hill. 'Roguelike' used to be a term that was very strictly defined, to categorize games which were like the actual, existing video game 'Rogue'.
Then I guess Binding of Isaac happened, muddled the waters, Rogue Legacy Roguelited all over the place, everyone got confused, and anything that has even slightly varying gameplay and is split into distinct runs is a 'roguelike' now.
I. Love. It. What a garbage term it's become.

I don't about that. I find that all roguelikes have things in common. Using all weapons at the same time just isn't one them. The term did derive from a real game that is very old at this point but just like Souls-like, there are aspects of that original game that is what developers are going for.
Not all have random generated dungeons either.
What all roguelikes do share is the RNG being a big part of the game, one way or another. And the most likely thing to screw a player over.

[Ysen]

Regardless of what anyone thinks about the definition of roguelike, the point is that most of the level up options you see are useless because it doesn't seem like there's much reason to swap weapons.

I don't agree that having everything fire at once is necessarily the solution, though. Another way might be making ammo limited and having different ammo types for different weapons, which is what a lot of shooters do.

[Zwippie]

Originally posted by Ysen:

Regardless of what anyone thinks about the definition of roguelike, the point is that most of the level up options you see are useless because it doesn't seem like there's much reason to swap weapons.

I don't agree that having everything fire at once is necessarily the solution, though. Another way might be making ammo limited and having different ammo types for different weapons, which is what a lot of shooters do.

Hm... That's not such a bad idea. Though you could end up having to use a weapon that's still level 1 at the end if you're unlucky with ammo drop. Still an interesting idea.