turnbased roguelike - basically my favourite genre.
darkest dungeon didnt blow my mind. the town screen slowed things down and made me not want to do a run before Id performed all the optimising tasks.... so instead of doing either, i just stopped playing. but thats a bit of a me thing, I dont push through if something gets in the way of my fun. The actually gameplay was somewhat gruelling as well with all the 'take that' mechanics kicking your ass the whole time. If it could have been more like Slay The Spire but with a team and positioning mechanics that would be incredible.
Battle Brothers is an insane turn-based for detail. Each battle is on a grid map with multiple height layers and terrain modifiers and stuff. When you lose a dude, he's gone for good and you have to hire more and feed them and equip them and stuff. Its hardcore but I feel like you'd like it.
I loved X-Com 2 but again, the ship management screen is a painful interlude between battles and actually totally makes me not want to play it again which is a shame. Just let me level up my crew, give me some simple roguelike decisions to make which affect the build and playstyle, then let me fight. I really dont want to have to manage some kind of laborious colony scenario in between just to stay in the game.
quickfire, turnbased, strategies with deep synergies and super creative build options, thats what I want to see. Ultra Replayable. Each run feels like sculpting a new and exciting creation... you cant just lean in to the same build over and over because it doesn't always work out. thats what I love about Slay The Spire. It is the finest of all the turnbased roguelikes. And everyones hungry for more, but nothing quite lives up to it...
Tainted Grail is pretty awesome, I reckon you'd like that. Like StS its a deck building game, but a lot more narrative RPG vibes.
For The King was surprisingly fun and you could play multiplayer with 3 players commanding a different hero. That was enjoyable. The map itself was a turn based puzzle type explorer, then the battles were kind of traditional party based rpg.
Into The Breach - incredible simple effective design. Turnbased Roguelike puzzle game where your robots have to protect buildings from giant aliens. Understated masterpiece
I also want to mention Banners Of Ruin because its effectively a slay the spire type deck builder but with a max party of 6 and various positional mechanics. I keep coming back to it even though it isnt an astoundingly satisfying game, but somehow it feels closer to doing what I wish Darkest Dungeon did without all the annoying town management stuff.
Nowhere Prophet is a game that SHOULD be awesome but just isnt. I feel like you would appreciate everything its trying to put on the table....mid-sized turn-based battles with lots of expendable units and roguelike story decisions.....and yet somehow its just not that fun. Like with Banners of Ruin I would love to look at this concept and rework it with way more fun thrown over it. Plus they really didnt add enough story content to make the decisions feel replayable. I have some epic ideas for a game of this sort, although not with the deckbuilding element, but that would be a whole other lengthy comment ;p
You've probably already got the idea that I own a lot of deckbuilders, but Griftlands is an interesting specimen. As well as building a battle deck, you also build a diplomacy deck which you can use to argue, threaten and compliment other characters in to shaping the story for you. It plays out similarly to the battles, with the opponent using counter arguments and excuses and things. Pretty funny, and quite complex and tactical. In fact again, like with a few of these examples, the detail and mechanic are good/interesting but somehow the fun just isnt sustainable and I personally got weary of the gameplay. Lots to take inspiration from though.
Then I also had to mention frickin baldurs gate 3 and divinity original sin 2. I mean these are AAA turnbased battlers with all the fantasy storyline and glorious build mechanics. I assume you know of them so I wont bother explaining. Just had to be mentioned,
Ever tried Xcom -enemy unknown? Personally really liked the balance between the fights and managing the threats, squad and HQ in between. Way I remember it was that's just a short intermezzo and decision making about how much risk you want to take on in the next battle. Was really exciting and there was a lot on the line as you could really lose your valuable squad members in any fight..
Final fantasy tactics and advance wars on the gameboy advance were pretty cool turn based games from my youth too!