GROGPOD Roguelike Podcast Scott V. Burger
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- Leisure
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The GROGPOD Roguelike Podcast is a bi-weekly show about four friends talking about a featured Roguelike game. We cover the full spectrum of titles, from the more modern, action-oriented games like Binding of Isaac and Hades to the traditonal roguelike designs of games like Cogmind and Caves of Qud. Join us each episode as we unpack what makes a roguelike game fun (or not) and then rank it against the compendium we've compiled thus far.
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Barony
Chip chap chipchipchap! For our listener-requested episode this week, we are dungeon diving through Barony: the voxelized roguelike with split-screen co-op! Listen to our encounters with horrible gnomes, armies of human villagers, and Pac-Man ghost scouts. There’s a lot to unpack from a game with just one axis of movement, be it spellcrafting, hunger management, commanding your army of the Zap Brigade against the minotaur, and navigating halls of rolling boulders. Lucky for you there’s a robust tutorial system…if you survive! Drop in and listen or we’ll drop you into The Underworld!
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1:09 - game stats
3:00 - one sentence description
6:50 - our story begins
1:07:48 - rankings and final thoughts
1:15:18 - similar games
1:16:36 - listener email from the Wildermyth developers!
Next episode: Lonestar
Contact us at grogpodzone@gmail.com!
https://grogpod.zone
Intro music: Billy Cobham - Red Baron
Outro music: Barony - Merchant’s Theme -
Returnal
Helios has been abandoned! This week we’re playing the multiple BAFTA Award-winning Triple-A roguelite shooter Returnal. We continue bullet hell/heck month with swarms of huge colorful orbs, energy swords, and as many tentacled Matrix-inspired laser squids as you can shake your noodly appendages at! Join us in our foray into the first actual big-budget rogue-game of the pod with a game that had been locked behind Playstation 5 exclusivity like a gigantic interlocking metal door. We were able to just barely eek through the podcaster-sized hole in the bottom, but can we beat the boss that is…uh…well the first boss even??? Aim assist to maximum!
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2:10 - game stats
4:53 - one sentence description
5:30 - all devs go to heaven warning (sort of)
16:22 - our story begins
55:00 - story spoilers discussion
1:04:05 - rankings and final thoughts
1:14:30 - similar games
Next episode: Barony
Contact us at grogpodzone@gmail.com!
https://grogpod.zone
Intro music: McCoy Tyner - Search For Peace
Outro music: Bobby Krlic - Hyperion -
Star of Providence
Ghostly squeal! This week we’re descending the floors of an ancient facility filled with ghosts, mages, machines, talking cats, and bullets! So, so many bullets. What else would you expect from the bullet hell game that is Star of Providence? A charming, NES-inspired modern throwback, Star of Providence puts us to the test with harrowing boss fights, secret endings, and more guns than you can shake a sword that shoots bullets at!
Team D-13 were kind enough to give a quick Q&A on how Star of Providence came about for us. Give it a look-see here!
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1:52 - game stats
2:52 - one sentence description
19:20 - our story begins
1:07:47 - rankings and final thoughts
1:17:24 - similar games
1:20:25 - upgrade terminal podcast shoutout
Next episode: Returnal
Contact us at grogpodzone@gmail.com!
https://grogpod.zone
Intro music: Time-Lapse City - GoGo Penguin
Outro music: Tonal Dissonance - garoslaw -
Into the Breach (with Woody Ciskowski)
We did it listeners, we saved the city! This week we revisit Subset Games with their hit mecha-tactics bug-squisher puzzle-roguelike: Into the Breach. Time travel shenanigans are at a maximum this time, as we push our recording date back a couple days to get everyone in here. Woody joins us once more to talk about balancing the destruction of apartment buildings with making sure the train gets to its destination on time. Jump mechs, swap mechs, science vesseles, weapons to surpass Metal Gear, bugs that think!?!? Into the Breach is a timeless gem of intense noodle-scratching thought, so drop in from the sky and help us save the corporate islands!
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1:39 - game stats
3:00 - one sentence description
14:21 - our story begins
1:15:49 - rankings and final thoughts
1:28:50 - similar games
Next episode: Star of Providence
Contact us at grogpodzone@gmail.com!
https://grogpod.zone
Intro music: Stanley Turrentine - June Bug
Outro music: Ben Prunty - Into the Breach -
Balatro
This week we’re drawing a straight with the recent smash hit poker-puzzle deckbuilder Balatro! Join our four-of-a-kind hosts to talk about who will have the last laugh between random card draws and overtly complicated computer simulations. But no adventure is complete without joker hats and joker feet! Many jokes and many quips have passed behind our funny lips. By poking fun and making merry, our podcasts won’t be half as scary. So don’t be timid, don’t be nervous - Joker’s here, at your service! Aheuhheuuehehhah!
Find a link to Will’s optimal hand play simulator here.
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1:18 - game stats
3:25 - one sentence description
13:20 - our story begins
1:17:15 - rankings and final thoughts
Next episode: Into the Breach
Contact us at grogpodzone@gmail.com!
https://grogpod.zone
Intro music: Lee Morgan - The Joker
Outro music: LouisF - Balatro OST -
Against the Storm
Lousy Smarch weather! Come in from the cold and warm up with an episode on the recent hit citybuilder roguelite Against the Storm. We’ve got biscuits and pie, jerky, and a nice dry roof to keep your resolve high. There’s lots to talk about between lizard happiness, a Queen that no one has confirmed exists or not, and everyone’s favorite topic: supply chain logistics! Man it’s wet out there. Check me through will you?
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1:19 - game stats
3:30 - one sentence description
6:20 - » all devs go to heaven warning «
9:30 - our story begins
1:06:00 - rankings and final thoughts
1:16:48 - similar games
Next episode: Balatro
Contact us at grogpodzone@gmail.com!
https://grogpod.zone
Intro music: Chad Lawson Trio - If I Only Had A Brain
Outro music: Mikołaj Kurpios - Forest Lights
Customer Reviews
Fantastic for roguelike fans
Thanks to all the hosts for their efforts planning and producing these great episodes!
I like that there tend to be a myriad of opinions from each of the hosts. Often I disagree, but I still love listening. They are harsh judges, but fair!
It's so fun to hear some of my favorite games being discussed and dissected. It's both a widespread but a niche subgenre, and these guys find some awesome deep cuts on Steam.
One of the hosts has quite bad mic quality and, to be brutally honest for the sake of this review, I don't look forward to hearing their opinions because of that fact. I hope this podcast continues to do well and continues for a long time - but with slightly better audio!
More turn based please
Really wish there was more free cus on turn based permadeath games. You guys did Cogmind dirty.