They seem so popular, dozens of games coming out, and reviews often positive.
But
When I see “Roguelike” I imagine a game that’s too small to be a real game, so they made it so you can never win and just have to keep trying and you’ll get a decent number of hours out of it. With just enough progression each time that you start to believe it’s possible you’ll get somewhere meaningful.
When I see “Souls-like” I think of a game where the difficulty is only there to give people with too much time on their hands a sense of superiority.
I have roughly a thousand games in my various libraries and I have never played a game in either of these genres.
I feel fine being so unreasonable about this.
Im right here with you, I’ve given them a try and I don’t like them. Personally, I feel most rewarded in games that offer long term linear progression and reward my unique way of dealing with changes. Elder Scrolls and Fallout only get good after level 20. My favorite part about Minecraft is the part where I’ve amassed so much that I’m functionally playing creative with gravity and death. I prefer to use my years old character on valhiem, keeping all the stats and having to put away my perfect gear until i reqch the level i need to repair it but content that if the need arises the old armor is there. Skipping there loses the orgamic growth and experiences, but it isn’t truely fun until I get to that point.