What are the best roguelike games on PS5? It's a type of video game that's only really come to the fore in the last 15 years or so, even if its origin does stem from Rogue, a game released in 1980. Still, they're super popular now, thanks to their highly replayable nature and varied interpretations.
Roguelikes are games that typically involve a run-based structure as you move through randomly generated levels, find random equipment, and upgrade your character in fun ways — but once you die, you start the process over again from the start. A perfect example of a roguelike is Spelunky; you start from scratch each time, explore new level layouts each time, and upgrade your character in varied ways, learning how to get through the adventure unscathed.
An offshoot of the roguelike genre is the roguelite, a term typically used to describe a roguelike that, instead of setting you back to zero upon death, gives you options for permanent progression. Rogue Legacy is a classic roguelite; the gold you bring back from each run can be used to unlock new characters, upgrade stats, and so on, meaning you're that little bit more powerful each time you go back.
Both versions of this core idea are very popular, and there are many examples on the market nowadays. What's great is that the roguelike framework can be worked into basically every genre of game; there are roguelike RPGs, platformers, puzzlers, horror, and lots more. The variety is part of the appeal, and seeing how roguelike elements are employed in each game is really interesting.
But which ones are the best? That's where you come in. As with all our lists, this feature on the best roguelike games on PS5 is ranked and rated by our Push Square community. By leaving user ratings on each game, you're directly contributing to this list, determining which games appear and in what order. If you want to have your say, use the below search bar to find some roguelikes and roguelites, and give them a rating.
Any game will need at least 10 ratings before it arrives on this page. If there's a game you feel is missing from this list, it's possible the title just hasn't been rated enough times.
Okay, enough talk. Here's our list of the best roguelike games on PS5, as determined by you.
10. The Persistence Enhanced (PS5)
Beginning life as a PlayStation VR favourite, The Persistence has gone from strength to strength as Firesprite Games adapted the title for normal TV play and then brought out this enhanced version on PS5. It was even good enough to see the studio snapped up as a Sony first-party developer. The survival horror rogue-like tasks you with preventing the spaceship you're aboard from falling into a black hole, but there is all manner of monsters that stand in your way. With PS5 enhancements like ray tracing and responsive haptic feedback from the DualSense controller, it makes great use of the console's power.
9. Dicey Dungeons (PS5)
Dicey Dungeons combines the strategy and character building elements of roguelikes with the luck factor of dice rolls. The result is an addictive concoction in which the numbers you roll impact the damage you deal, the abilities you can use, and so on. With six playable characters, there's plenty of variety in this highly replayable game, and it also helps that it looks lovely with its colourful, cartoonish aesthetic.
8. The Light Brigade (PS5)
Roguelikes may be dime a dozen, but they’re less commonplace in virtual reality. The Light Brigade proves that the format can work with PSVR2 to excellent effect, and while it does little to reinvent the genre’s well-worn wheel, it instead focuses on executing all of its ideas to an exemplary standard. The result is an almost immaculate shooter, with stunning gameplay and an outstanding reward loop.
7. Cult of the Lamb (PS5)
Cult of the Lamb is an ingenious blend of rogue-lite action and life sim that's devilishly addictive. Indebted to an imprisoned, malevolent god, you spend half the game vanquishing foes, gathering resources, and rescuing animals. Then, things flip, and your time turns to building up a cult with various buildings and structures. There's an element of strategy to this half of the game, but it's generally pretty breezy, while the action is nice and snappy. Both sides of Cult of the Lamb feed wonderfully into each other, and combined with the cute cartoon visuals, it's an incredibly fun, dangerously moreish treat.
6. The Binding of Isaac: Repentance (PS5)
The Binding of Isaac: Repentance is the ultimate version of this beloved rogue-like shooter. With creepy overtones and a cartoonish aesthetic, it's not to everyone's tastes, but the addictive gameplay and sheer variety of potential builds you can create make it an incredibly moreish prospect. There's a ridiculous amount of stuff to see and discover here, and you can enjoy it in local co-op with three buddies, too.
5. Vampire Survivors (PS5)
Probably one of the most moreish games on the market, Vampire Survivors is a fascinatingly fun roguelite. With attacks firing off automatically, all you have to do is avoid enemies and survive each 30-minute round, gathering XP and leveling up your abilities as you go. While it doesn't look like much in static screens, it'll surprise you just how chaotic things can get, and building your character to become a literally unstoppable force is satisfying every time. The sheer amount of unlocks and secrets to discover means practically every run gets you something, too. We can't recommend this one enough, but be warned — you might never play anything else again.
4. Returnal (PS5)
Not that it needed to, but with Returnal, Housemarque has proven itself an incredibly capable studio. This PS5 exclusive is a frantic, ultra-tight third person shooter dressed up with some rogue-like elements to add variety and unpredictability to the mix, and the result is wonderful.
Trapped in a loop on a hostile alien world, Selene is forced to relive her fateful crash landing each time she dies. There's an amazing sense of accomplishment as you slowly progress through challenging boss encounters and explore six diverse environments full of randomised weapons, perks, and power-ups. It feels amazing to play, especially with amazing support for the DualSense's features, and the addictive gameplay is complemented by an enigmatic story that will leave you guessing.
The best part is that's just the start. A slew of additional modes flesh out Returnal, giving you a few extra ways to play when you're done with the single player campaign. The daily challenge mode provides all players with a fixed loadout and room layouts, with the goal of amassing the highest score possible by exploring and playing skilfully. Beyond that is the Tower of Sisyphus, an endless arcade mode that similarly tasks you with getting the highest score you can, only there's more of a sense of urgency. You're rewarded not just for skilled play but for fast play — your multiplier will start to tick down if you loiter for too long. The Tower also contains additional story, adding more layers to the mysterious narrative the main game offers.
Finally, there's two-player online co-op. This allows you to join or invite another player and go through the main campaign with a companion, potentially alleviating some of the challenge. While it isn't the primary focus of Returnal, the co-op works splendidly; resources are shared between you, forcing you to make decisions on who gets what, and a revival mechanic lets you bring each other back into the fight. It's just as much fun taking on the world of Atropos with a friend as it is alone, if not more so.
Whether you're in it for the world class gameplay, the atmospheric sci-fi setting, the intentionally mysterious story, or the variety of extra modes, Returnal is among the most robust, rewarding, and addictive games on PS5.
3. Hades (PS5)
Bored of his immortal life in the Underworld, Zagreus takes it upon himself to escape the reaches of his godly father. In the brilliant roguelike Hades, you'll aid the prince in his attempts to reach the surface, engaging in countless runs through the ever-shifting realms. With each death comes plot development, however; a story is expertly interwoven with the gameplay loop, giving you a small taste of what each character has been up to before you dive back into the dungeons once more. With slick, fast-paced combat, an endless variety of perks and power-ups to try, and an escalating challenge for those that stick around, this is a fantastic action game that makes the most of its looping structure.
2. Dead Cells (PS5)
Dead Cells is a real classic of the roguelike genre. It successfully combines randomly generated environments with the typically very structured Metroidvania framework; there's a huge volume of meta progression to make as you endlessly replay it, slowly opening it up even further. The side-scrolling action is really slick and satisfying, and through a ridiculous level of post-launch updates, the amount of stuff to see and do here is off the scale. This is another roguelike you could happily play forever.
1. Balatro (PS5)
Balatro puts an ingenious roguelike spin on poker, and it plays unlike anything else. Each run has you using poker hands to score a points target, but the real fun comes when you start to build upon your deck of playing cards with an enormous variety of modifiers, upgrades, and augmentations. The ways that all its various mechanics intertwine create huge potential for outrageously powerful synergies, and watching the numbers tot up as your regular hand is boosted by special Jokers and card effects is incredibly satisfying. There's lots of stuff to collect, difficulty levels to conquer, and challenges to complete. There's a reason it's one of 2024's breakout hits — it's a fantastic, unique roguelike.
That's it for our list of the best roguelike games on PS5. What do you think? As mentioned, this page's ranking has been determined by the Push Square community. If you think something is amiss with the order, you can still contribute and make changes. You can rate games by either returning to the search bar at the top of this article, or by clicking the star next to any game name. Additionally, if you spot a PS5 roguelike or roguelite game that's totally absent from our PlayStation Games Database, please let us know. All that out of the way, give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
Comments 29
Returnal is the best game on this list by a long shot, IMHO, but I haven’t played everything on here. One or two I see listed I’d like to give a shot at as I very much enjoy a good Roguelike!
Also, just have to say, though it’s not a PS5 game, Prey’s DLC - Mooncrash - was an awesome Roguelike and really turned me on to the genre.
Dead Cells and Hades are the gold standard for me.
I didn't think I was a rogue-like guy but I love all the top 5 they are astounding games!
I must get back to Returnal at some point and really push on through. I absolutely suck at it though.
Returnal would be my number one as well but that's a really solid list.
Returnal is really in a class of its own. No disrespect intended to any of the other titles, but is the best PS5 game I have played so far. I also likeThe Persistence, I love Dead Cells and I really want to like Hades, but it sometimes feels unfair.
The Binding of Isaac is such an amazing synergy simulator. A little bloated on the number of items but still one of my favourite games. Years later and I still boot it up when I got 30-40 minutes to waste.
I'd have to agree with the top 5 in that order, some great games there.
Returnal >>> Balatro >>>>>>>>>>>> Hades. Everything else here bored me to tears (maybe I just really like Housemarque and played the ass out of Returnal because of that, not because it was a Rogue-like).
Returnal is absolutely nuts. Love that game!
The only answer is Returnal. Best game this gen for me. By far.
Balatro absolutely deserves that #1 spot. Vampire Survivors deserves a higher ranking, but that top is THE top 5. Balatro, Dead Cells, and Vampire Survivors are practically forever games for me much like Galaga, Centipede, and Root Beer Tapper.
Playing Cult of the Lamb at the moment. Good wholesome fun
I've put in over 600 hours in Binding of Isaac, 10/10 game. Recently been playing some 3-player couch co-op with my 2 kids, it's a hoot! Great rogue game too.
Hades is easily the gold, followed by Vampire Survivors in silver, Cult of The Lamb bronze, Returnal is overrated but still top ten.
How the hell has the persistence and dicey dungeons made this list but rogue legacy 2 hasn’t?!!
Skul: The Hero Slayer
Brotato
Nice list. I can’t believe Balatro hasn’t released on PlayStation in Japan yet!
This is horrible, #1 should be Dead Cells game made to this day for ppl like you who doing Rougelike lists. Without DC it would be nishe genre. Amen.
Dead Cells must be definitely #1! Returnal is #0 though, cause it’s so unique.
The genre I wish I could fall in love with. I'll never stop trying..
Number 1 is horrible.returnal.hades.dead cells.should at least be number 1.word up son
Risk of Rain 2 ?
3 & 4 need to change positions with 1 & 2.
1. Returnal
...
2. Hades
@XG4ever
Nope. Without Binding of Isaac it would be a niche genre
My favourite Rougelike game is Bastion. Even if it never received a Next Gen update. I prefer it to some if the above contenders.
Why can’t I see the name of most brilliant rougelike ever in the list?!
I’m talking about god of war ragnarok: Valhalla.
Are you really blind or what?
I’m sorry but putting Vampire Survivors ahead of The Binding of Isaac: Repentance is a perfect example of recency bias.
The only thing Vampire Survivors has on The Binding of Isaac is it’s a newer game and it’s way easier.
The Binding of Isaac has it beat in terms of enemy variety, amount of items to collect, weapon combinations and variety of builds, boss battles, characters, level variety, amount of secrets, interesting side content, I can go on. It has infinitely more depth to it than Vampire Survivors.
I just got 100% trophies in Vampire Survivors yesterday. Took me 89 hours for all 221 trophies. By the end of it you can really feel the limitations on the build variety after going through all the weapons multiple times over at that point.
For perspective it took me over 700 hours to legitimately 100% trophy The Binding of Isaac: Repentance and I was still surprised by weapon and item combos I discovered right until the end.
All this to say if anyone likes Vampire Survivors and want to try a much deeper and more rewarding roguelite experience, you cannot go wrong with The Binding of Isaac.
Returnal gave me a fun I've never experienced before.
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