The playtimes of roguelikes and roguelites are interesting. While they tend to be on the longer side because of how difficult they tend to be or how many things there are to unlock, an individual run, even a successful one, can be relatively short. Even doing a single run can be pretty satisfying, especially with roguelites since even if you start over, you make an incremental gain of power.
Related: Games With Great Challenge Modes
However, as the sessions pile on and you start feeling the losses more than the wins, even the sprightly roguelike/lite format can start feeling like a long campaign. If you need a break from the eternal struggle, consider some of these shorter roguelikes and roguelites that have either short campaigns (according to howlongtobeat.com) or short sessions.
7 Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate
Roguelike or Roguelite?
Roguelike
Session Times:
Short
Estimated Time To Beat:
1 Hour
Almost the whole plot of Shotgun King is given to you before the game even starts, so there isn’t really much more to learn as you shoot your way through the chessboard. You’re a lone King with a shotgun, and you’re angry. You’ll shoot your way to the end or die trying.
Successful runs aren’t long, and failed runs are common and very short. Being a roguelike, it's fairly straightforward with nothing in the way of meta unlocks. While this might lessen its replayability, it also makes the game easy to pick up and play at will.
6 Cult Of The Lamb
Roguelike or Roguelite?
Roguelite
Session Times:
Short
Estimated Time To Beat:
14 Hours
Part action game, part management sim, Cult of the Lamb game puts you in charge of a burgeoning cult as you slay your way through the ranks of rival heretic cults. Attempts are uniformly compact, putting you through a few levels before you fight a mid-boss or one of the Bishops of the Old Faith.
Building and managing your cult takes a good chunk of your time, but not nearly as much as a dedicated management sim. The amount of upgrades you can unlock through the management aspect is decently sized, but you’re likely to exhaust what it has to offer long before you get through even half the bosses. Outside of a little upkeep, once the management stuff is maxed out, you can just focus on beating the dungeon aspect over and over.
5 Dome Keeper
Roguelike or Roguelite?
Roguelike
Session Times:
Variable
Estimated Time To Beat:
5 Hours
Dome Keeper is a roguelike base defense and mining game hybrid where you face off against waves of progressively stronger enemies. In between waves, you mine for resources to improve your defenses and mining capabilities with the goal of finding and extracting a relic that will give you a new, permanent upgrade.
Related: Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting Dome Keeper
The session length of any run is determined by the map size, which you get to choose, with larger maps making for longer attempts. There isn’t really a plot to speak of, so your biggest incentive is unlocking new gadgets to outfit your Dome. If you’ve unlocked everything or just want a change of pace, you can also play Prestige mode, which is a high-score-focused game with a Leaderboard.
4 Gunlocked
Roguelike or Roguelite?
Roguelike
Session Times:
Short
Estimated Time To Beat:
3 Hours
An homage to arcade classics like Galaga, with a bit of Vampire Survivors’ DNA, Gunlocked is a top-down arcade shooter that has fighting off waves enemies with a variable and evolving arsenal.
True to its arcade roots, there isn’t a story or campaign to clear. Progression unlocks new pilots and game modifiers, as well as new levels. Each run is five minutes of increasingly difficult waves of enemies, punctuated by a boss fight that gets tougher as you encounter it in a run.
3 Vampire Survivors-Likes
Roguelike or Roguelite?
Roguelite
Session Times:
Short
Estimated Time To Beat:
Variable
This sub-genre of game was arguably invented in 2021 with the release of the surprise hit Vampire Survivors. Since then waves of games like it have been released at a steady pace and while they can vary in settings, they share strong commonalities.
Related: Games To Play If You Like Vampire Survivors
They tend to be top-down, pit you against hordes of enemies, and have you steadily get more powerful as you fight. Most of them are roguelikes that have you surviving for a set amount of time– between ten and 30 minutes, usually – and have plenty of meta-progression rewards to unlock. They also rarely have anything in the way of stories or campaigns outside of tidbits from item or character unlocks.
2 Children Of Morta
Roguelike or Roguelite?
Roguelite
Session Times:
Medium
Estimated Time To Beat:
14 Hours
This game is an action RPG in the vein of Diablo 3, putting you in control of the Bergson family as they combat the Corruption which threatens to overtake the world. Barring an early death, your average run takes a decent chunk of time, but the actual campaign isn’t super long.
You get plenty of plot and development on your attempts whether you succeed or fail, though you’re more likely to advance the story if you successfully beat an area. Beating the campaign is satisfying enough, but if you can’t get enough of the Bergsons, there’s plenty of lore you can unlock as well as the more traditionally roguelike Family Trials mode.
1 Wall World
Roguelike or Roguelite?
Roguelite
Session Times:
Variable
Estimated Time To Beat:
11 Hours
Kind of like a sideways Dome Keeper, Wall World tasks you with making your way to the top or bottom of an allegedly infinite wall in a mechanical spider. Gameplay consists of mining for resources to upgrade your ability to mine and survive the periodic waves of enemies.
Your runs will vary in length, but tend towards 20-minute increments, getting longer as you gain meta upgrades to your spider. Every 20 minutes, a boss shows up to test your abilities, and your ability to deal with them is the most important factor in how long your runs last.
Next: Games To Play If You Like John Wick
