Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (with Helen @gagther)

Risk of Rain returns and in threeeee deeeeee! One of the most popular rogue games ever closes out season 2 of our podcast this year by dropping into a chaotic swarm of low-poly, monster-infested lands backed by screaming synth guitar sounds. From multiplayer near-victories, to solo-play over confidence, Risk of Rain 2 is a Bundle of Fireworks to send us off into the holiday season for some Bison Steaks and Energy Drinks. Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music 1:42 - game stats 3:35 - one sentence description 35:24 - our story begins 1:14:20 - rankings and final thoughts 1:22:14 - similar games As discussed in the outro, Scott has recorded a bunch of tutorial videos with Caves of Qud youtuber BigSimple which you can find here! Stay tuned for our coverage on it next season! Next episode: Omegabowl 2: The 2024 GROGPOD Roguelike Playoffs Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Seatbelts - Tank! Outro music: Chris Christodoulou - …con lentitud poderosa

Clap! Bow! Clap! Clap! Bow! Not even 6 days of power outage can stop this week’s attempt at exorcising demons of the world, as we visit fictional 198X Japan’s World of Horror. We explore a manga-style 1-bit Shiokawa, where a spooky lighthouse is causing something strage in the neighborhood. Evil Eldritch gods are awakening to turn our shower water into black goo, the townsfolk into bloodthirsty cultists, and even our apartment neighbors against us! Together, we can help solve the mysteries of “Spine-Chilling Story of School Scissors”, “Freaky Feature of Found Footage”, and many other awesomely alliterative manga mystery thrillers. There’s very vew problems a crowbar and kicking can’t solve! Especially when they’re sourced from a happy Shiba Inu dog vendor. Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music 2:09 - game stats 3:35 - one sentence description 14:15 - our story begins 1:14:18 - rankings and final thoughts 1:25:39 - similar games Next episode: Risk of Rain 2 Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Pucho & The Latin Soul Brothers - Slippin’ Into Darkness Outro music: World of Horror OST - School Combat

Glitch or Treat! On the final day of Space Halloween we dive deep into an acidy nebula of warring factions in dire need of some liberation. The Foundry, The Glitchers, Offworld Security, and Sovereign are vying for control, but they didn’t account for one thing: you. Enter Heat Signature: the tense, tactical, real-time-with-pause puzzle shooter leveraging the use of teleporters, time-slowing devices, bullet-reflecting shields, and rusty pipe wrenches. Join us as we make embark on Mistake-level missions, crash some space ships (for liberation purposes that is) and stand in awe of the real legends exacting their revenge with only 10 minutes to live! Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music 1:16 - game stats 3:29 - one sentence description 17:39 - our story begins 1:01:51 - ending spoilers 1:14:52 - rankings and final thoughts 1:21:51 - similar games Next episode: World of Horror Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Horace Silver - Liberated Brother Outro music: John Halpart - Quantum Immortality

The dead walk! It’s after midnight and something evil’s attacking your town in Terminus: Zombie Survivors. A turn-based, grid-based, permadeath RPG with open-world survival crafting, Terminus turns the spook factor up for this ghoulish episode with Walkers galore. Barracade that door, cover the windows with some bloody rags and cozy up in a corner of a pharmacy with your favorite roguelike podcast! And though you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver! For no mere mortal can resists, the evil of the Terminus! (Vincent Price laughter) Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music 1:29 - game stats 2:40 - one sentence description 9:00 - our story begins 1:21:04 - rankings and final thoughts 1:33:55 - similar games 1:35:00 - pokemon smash or pass stream with previous guest Daniru17 Next episode: Heat Signature Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Artemis - Lights Away From Home Outro music: Terminus in-game bgm

Bam! It’s listener request week again and this time we’re blowing the dust out of our SNES cartridges to play Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer! A game with a long legacy of nostalgia and fanning the flames of the Mystery Dungeon franchise from a Dragon Quest spinoff, Shiren also comes in a dual-screen form for the Nintendo DS. So for our first console-exclusive we talk about the 1990s landscape of traditional roguelikes, pokemon mystery dungeon games, dirty cheating by route of save states, and really celebrate the first official foray into the Mystery Dungeon franchise for the podcast. That little monster ringing the bell sound you hear is the summoning for us to cover some more of these games in the future for sure! Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music 2:02 - game stats 4:38 - one sentence description 18:54 - our story begins 30:09 - dungeon clearing strategy 41:37 - metaprogression 45:00 - ending and late game, NPCs 1:00:28 - pokemon mystery dungeon 1:05:42 - item strategy 1:11:55 - Fay’s puzzle dungeon 1:18:20 - Shiren 6 1:28:04 - rankings and final thoughts 1:46:30 - similar games Next episode: Terminus: Zombie Survivors Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Joanne Brackeen - Mountain Flight Outro music: Koichi Sugiyama - Canyon Hamlet

(Play along for now) Ah yes Inscryption! A completely normal game of deckbuilding between you and a crazed lunatic in a desolate cabin. A winner of numerous game awards for … totally normal reasons … we celebrate the end of Spooktember with sacrificing squirrels for blood to feed our science experiment grizzly bears. (Hit the download button) You’re also looking at your podcast feed thinking “ah but this isn’t a roguelike game!” You might be right, but at least a solid third of this game is, and we felt it important and interesting enough to round up to being an honorary inclusion in the conversation. (Rate the podcast 5 stars) That being said, this is a completely spoiler heavy episode! So if by some happenstance you haven’t played it, we strongly recommend you do so before listening. Don’t fiddle with that shackle around your wrist, we have some Transcending to do! Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music 3:45 - game stats 5:50 - final warning for spoilers!!! 6:44 - one sentence description and honorary roguelike candidacy 15:19 - act 1: our story begins 34:28 - act 2 55:58 - act 3 and finale 1:24:11 - rankings and final thoughts 1:36:00 - similar games Next episode: Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Dan Wilson - Vessels of Wood and Earth Outro music: Jonah Senzel - Deathcard Cabin

Oy, Gary! Is that you? Join us this week as we rehydrate some prisoners for derelict spaceship looting zaniness with Void Bastards! A 2.5D space shooter with more mutated freaks than the typical bus stop in Yoker, we try to appease the voice from the Stanley Parable with some bureaucratic busywork in the form of gun shooting. All the while fending off space pirates, space whales, and assessing if that gas station sandwich you just spent your credits on is or is not going to give you a parasite to start talking with a Glaswegian accent, aye? Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music 1:19 - game stats 2:33 - one sentence(?) description 10:45 - our story begins 1:03:48 - rankings and final thoughts 1:12:37 - similar games Next episode: Inscryption Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Chip Whickham - Space Walk Outro music: Ryan Roth - Walk the Plank!

Caw caww!! It’s almost every episode that we reference Slay the Spire in some way, so what better time to finally cover it for the podcast than on our 50th episode spectacular?! Listen in as some Spire pros educate some Ascension 0 players on skills, powers, potions, relics and attacks. Every card is a block card if you try hard enough in this episode, but is Claw, in fact, Law? Who watches The Watcher? Why didn’t my Fairy Bottle trigger? With about 1,200 hours of gameplay under our Champion Belts, surely we can Slay these questions along with the beating of that hideous Heart! But will this game be the one that finally ascends the Spire that is our rankings list? You’ll have to tune in to our longest (and therefore highest quality) episode to date! Or just skip ahead to the rankings timestamp with those fancy Wing Boots of yours. Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music 2:24 - game stats 3:33 - one sentence description 12:37 - our story begins 23:32 - the characters and archetypes 47:20 - general gameplay 52:00 - ascension mode 1:03:00 - ideal win percentage 1:08:00 - Slay the Spire 2 wishlist 1:11:52 - Downfall 1:16:00 - music and art 1:18:50 - victory…? 1:26:46 - rankings and final thoughts 1:44:57 - similar games Next episode: Void Bastards Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Dave Brubeck - Take Five Outro music: Clark Aboud - Exordium, The Guardian Emerges

Hey everyone look, an old man is talking! This week we feel the weather change via our bones as we play the turn-based colony sim roguelite dotAge, created by solo developer Michele Pirovano! Listen in as we battle omens on the horizon of time and try to swiftly shuttle our pips and pippins to ward off the impending evils that await the village. And remember: the gift quote must be met, as Santa won’t accept ANY excuse! Now where was I? Oh yeah! The import thing was: I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn’t find any white onions, because of the war. The only thing we had were those big yellow ones… Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music 2:06 - game stats 3:02 - one sentence description 22:50 - our story begins 1:10:03 - rankings and final thoughts 1:27:58 - similar games Next episode: Slay the Spire Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Marian McPartland - I’m Old Fashioned Outro music: Luigi di Guida - Je Vivroie Liement

It is a good day to dice! This week we polish up some D6’s for the dungeon crawler Slice & Dice and throw them against all sorts of hideous monsters. We’re talking goblins, zombies, exploding skeletons, bloodthirsty fanatics, and so many more. In a game with modes on modes on modes, we try to navigate being cursed, blessed, and blursed while slaying dragons, succubi and undead samurai. Can our party of housecats and an over-levelled wizard save the day or will all of our dice be turned to stone and we get swarmed by imps? Ready to roll out! Custom RSS Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Music 1:46 - game stats 3:27 - one sentence description 18:00 - our story begins (??) 1:02:39 - rankings and final thoughts 1:10:04 - similar games Next episode: dotAge Contact us at [email protected]! https://grogpod.zone Intro music: Thelonius Monk - April in Paris Outro music: Louigi Verona - Ancient Books of Magic