The creator of The Binding of Isaac, one of the most iconic roguelike games ever made, has said that he thinks his next game "will be seen as my best work."
In a tweet, Edmund McMillen sang the praises of his upcoming project, an isometric turn-based strategy roguelite called Mewgenics. Putting McMillen's signature s-cat-ological spin on proceedings, there's something of another roguelike hit - 2016's Into the Breach - about Mewgenics. Assuming, that is, Into the Breach had been about breedings cats rather than saving the city from giant monsters.
McMillen said that "personally I think Mewgenics will be seen as my best work," which is quite the claim from the developer of a game as enduringly successful as The Binding of Isaac, a game that helped cement the entire roguelike genre. To back up that claim, McMillen points to a recent blog post from co-developer Tyler Glaiel.
That post focuses on the abilities of the game's Fighter class, and while it doesn't go into much detail about the co-developer's legacy, if I had to guess why McMillen is making these claims in relation to this particular blog, it'd be because of the complexity of how some of these tools work together. There are, for instance, some relatively simple abilities on display, like a rush attack or a spin move that hits every nearby unit. Elsewhere, however, are tools that stack damage-increasing 'Bruise' debuffs, which further combine with passive abilities that increase your damage as your intelligence score drops, or buff the Fighter depending on how many adjacent enemies it's facing. There's a lot of different synergies to unpick (and that's without touching on upgrades or other classes), so there's the definite sense that McMillen's building on the work of games like Isaac.
Mewgenics has always been close to McMillen since its inception more than a decade ago. Since then, it's been through periods of inactivity, but its developer recently described it as the "most exciting game" he's ever developed, and outlined how he plans to correct the mistakes he made with The Binding of Isaac through this new title. Whether Mewgenics can live up to those lofty claims, we'll find out later this year.
All I'm saying is that Mewgenics has a long way to go if it wants to beat its older brother on our list of the best roguelike games.
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