this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2023
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Death penalties. Any game that seriously penalizes you for dying is just so frustrating for me. I understand that there has to be some form of reason to not die but please, at worst just reload an earlier save for me (and make sure you have frequent autosaves too).
If I lose all my items on death I'm just reloading a save. If I have to respawn at a checkpoint ten thousand years away I'm going to be very mad. If I have to listen to someone monologue to me every time I die I'm refunding your game.
That's what I love about roguelites. You'd think that "death == start over" would be a punishing and stressful mechanic, but paradoxically it's the opposite.
Playthroughs are short, so the stakes are low. And between runs, you unlock items, abilities, or characters that change the experience for future runs.
I especially love how Hades did it. In that game, routinely dying is actually essential to both progression and the story.
Soulslikes also remove much of the stress from death. You do lose your unbanked currency, but you have the chance to recover it if you can get to the spot where you last died. IMO, this adds just the right level of tension and excitement without actually being very high-stakes. Dying just becomes how you learn the game - new enemies, traps, etc.