@sketchturner This is because the term "roguelike" is often used incorrectly (including this article).
Roguelikes are a genre of games with common roots with computer RPGs, but which have evolved in a completely different direction. They have many features which make them completely different from typical games, and these features tend to only work great together — if you add one of these features to a typical RPG, you basically get a very badly designed game. For these reason the genre is named not after any of these features, but after Rogue (1980), the first influential game in this genre. The name is quite appropriate too — you do not play a hero with "I am a hero, I can't die" attitude, but rather a Rogue, an underdog. (Google for 'Berlin Interpretation' to know what exactly these features are. Actually they more sense if you add them to a turn-based tactical game, though — for this reason I consider them to be rather a subgenre of turn-based tactics where you play a single but extremely detailed character.) Great roguelikes are still created, but they do not seem to be very popular on consoles, probably for two reasons: (1) they are often best played on a big keyboard, (2) their 'do-it-yourself' culture which does not agree with the heavily commercial nature typical to consoles.
In more recent times, Spelunky has managed to successfully combine some aspects of roguelikes (procedural generation and permadeath) with the platformer genre rather than turn-based tactical RPG. After this, many other games have successfully managed to do so, with other genres. Some people who did not know what "roguelike" means have started referring to these as roguelikes, but they are not — a more correct term is "games with roguelike elements" or "roguelite". From the games mentioned in the article, none is a roguelike — Crypt of the Necrodancer is a borderline case as it is partially turn-based grid-based tactics (and it is a roguelike when played as Bard, although unfortunately an extremely simple one), Darkest Dungeon is turn-based but its tactics are completely different, and other ones are not turn-based in any sense AFAIK.
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Re: Feature: 8 Essential PS4 Roguelikes to Crawl Through this Hallowe'en
@sketchturner This is because the term "roguelike" is often used incorrectly (including this article).
Roguelikes are a genre of games with common roots with computer RPGs, but which have evolved in a completely different direction. They have many features which make them completely different from typical games, and these features tend to only work great together — if you add one of these features to a typical RPG, you basically get a very badly designed game. For these reason the genre is named not after any of these features, but after Rogue (1980), the first influential game in this genre. The name is quite appropriate too — you do not play a hero with "I am a hero, I can't die" attitude, but rather a Rogue, an underdog. (Google for 'Berlin Interpretation' to know what exactly these features are. Actually they more sense if you add them to a turn-based tactical game, though — for this reason I consider them to be rather a subgenre of turn-based tactics where you play a single but extremely detailed character.) Great roguelikes are still created, but they do not seem to be very popular on consoles, probably for two reasons: (1) they are often best played on a big keyboard, (2) their 'do-it-yourself' culture which does not agree with the heavily commercial nature typical to consoles.
In more recent times, Spelunky has managed to successfully combine some aspects of roguelikes (procedural generation and permadeath) with the platformer genre rather than turn-based tactical RPG. After this, many other games have successfully managed to do so, with other genres. Some people who did not know what "roguelike" means have started referring to these as roguelikes, but they are not — a more correct term is "games with roguelike elements" or "roguelite". From the games mentioned in the article, none is a roguelike — Crypt of the Necrodancer is a borderline case as it is partially turn-based grid-based tactics (and it is a roguelike when played as Bard, although unfortunately an extremely simple one), Darkest Dungeon is turn-based but its tactics are completely different, and other ones are not turn-based in any sense AFAIK.