Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 92.8

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/23/2023

The standard to which all other games on this list are held! We recognize that it's not just the basics of gameplay but also the depth of content and collectables that makes it addictive.

It's a simple casual game about moving towards some things and away from other things. And it's a complex hardcore build crafting systems game about over the top screen wiping action. It's a very influential game with an auto-fire design that isn't just replicating how weapons work without it, where as one dev on another game put it "every weapon makes you move in a different way." Many followers don't fully understand what it attempted to deconstruct and many attempt to do their own thing.

Also I just found out a full symphony orchestra was used for the DLC soundtrack - what the fuck!

We're not considering some more recently added features in our main scale, mainly just because they came out after the game had moved to DLC. The multiplayer is free, but the boom happened before it happened so we're just kind of leaving it in metadata for now. The new adventure mode is also linked to DLC.

It's totally possible, just annoying, to add more categories to the scale, but for now we're going on 'vanilla' Vampire Survivors circa 2023. It's easy to see which categories we are comparing, anyway, on the scale heatmap!

There isn't as in depth review notes here, but if you check out the explainer much of it is about breaking down what made Vampire Survivors so successful and seperated it from other similar games that came before. The scoring guide also will walk through how Vampire Survivors works for every category on the scale.

Note on other games: "Many of these games have campaign or dungeon crawling mode, but we're not really scoring that for or against them directly, just if they include the wave survival modes."

Longer reviews are sometimes for worse games: "I just write more when there are issues to note. Some are just more complicated. Just don't think a short review means it's bad, often it means there's little to complain about. Enjoy the scale!" - xoxomonstergirl

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 11.3

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/23/2023

An excellent choice to scratch your Vampire Survivors itch. This one is very inspired by oldschool Diablo 1 feel from graphics to enemy types and attacks. Great enemy patterns/AI, kind of beautiful sometimes to watch them move. Has options for Auto Aim and Auto Attack. Quick Toggle available at all times means it still gets high scores in those columns.

There is a prelude so you can try it out and see if you like the more downtempo vibe. I can see how some people complain about the graphics, but it's pure nostalgia for me! It's a great game, but I'm personally often looking for something a little more over the top and upbeat in this genre, which explains my lower playtime vs. some others.

I should write more on this at some point, it's one of the better games on the list, but I imagine it being up so far and already popular most people already know that. Like a few other games the detail of notes suffers because I played most of my time in it before I was making notes and they are already on my list to play a lot more of. That's generally a good sign, but I intend to revise the notes later.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 19.7

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/16/2023

This one was put in pretty early so the review will be fleshed out a bit later.

Options to play one handed with a mouse or to turn on auto-aim can make this feel more like VS. Contains an Endless Mode, but also "Rog's Mode" which has a map with multiple choices like some other Rogue-likes, with special challenges, bosses and bonuses along the way. A large amount of content, can be a little slow to get going but breaks your computer with overwhelmed screen eventually, like any good VS-like should!

There's no limit to amount of items/upgrades you can get, so that's pretty fun. Is a little different in that targeting matters, there is a dodge and some other abilities. One class manually fires. Cool art style with the charm of pixel art and hd 2.5d kind of like Octopath Traveler / Live A Live remaster.

I'll be honest, could bump up in my pure vibes rating a fair amount by offering some more gal characters (the Duelist is a femme but I didn't realize until the dev poked me.)

You might recognize this one as the game that donated us some high res assets to use as the sub background! Great responsive dev.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 5.8

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/18/2023

This game is notable both for being widely loved but also for being a firm twist on the genre by focusing on summoning (though plenty of other games on this list like Keeper's Toll have necromancer or summoner characters or skills.) This is not only one of the best VS-likes, though, it's also one of the best necromancer games ever! Also includes a card game mini-game that's totally optional accessed through your lair.

Lots of unlocks from characters to game modes and a lot of depth in a lofi presentation. Patches may have removed the ability to go infinite without amazing luck unfortunately. It's possible this won't scratch the itch for you if you want to see a lot of attacks/bullets come out of your character. You spend most of the time running away from, not into, mobs of enemies while your summons mop up.

This is one of the more unique and fully realized title on this list and also well supported with an active fandom.

Raring Review Notes: "It's a bullet heaven title with a heavy horde focus. While there are plenty of projectiles, it leans more into dodging large groups of mobs in melee range. While it is isometric depending on the map and the layout you choose through upgrades any map can and will feel different. Opposed to the likes of VS, it features (Mini)bosses with distinctive skills and high mobility. The various classes all have their unique playstyle and the game is not strictly build around weapons and passives."

"Controls are great. You only need movement keys and 2 trigger keys or your stick and 2 buttons"

Raring: "In its core outside of spell based classes it's still a necromancy game. You raise your minions and while you can support them, they will do most of the work for you. In earlier iterations the game used to be fairly hard and unlocking Bosses to raise them as minions felt very rewarding. Sadly my review score took a bit of a hit when it started to orient itself more on VS adding features that made difficulty redundant unless you kept looping for higher leaderboard scores."

"While it has become a tad too easy and as such the incentive of "one more run" has been lowered, it is still a solid recommendations. For less than 5 bucks you get an incredible bang for buck value if achievement hunting is your thing. It's still the best class/necromancy based horde survivor if pixel art is your jam."

Raring and I both came to the same pure vibes score: 8.5

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 2.6

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/5/2023

This is a survivors-like with a very cute SNES era RPG inspired vibe, complete with Nintendo Power themed menu and 4:3 ratio gameplay area. It's both more contemporary and more simplified in art style, but that's not a nitpick just an observation from a huge fan of the genre. It's overall very fun.

It's a nice find, very familiar to VS in the relaxing ways and just a little different thematically, enough that it feels new and worth exploring. In fact the little world map style exploring is a fun part of it, though minimalistic. Technically waves are announced in a scrolling box on the right sidebar but it's easy to not notice and still feels organic. The visual theme fits since it's little twist is you hire a "party" not just picking weapons or abilities. It's got aim enabled by default but can be turned off in the menu quickly, so we're giving it high partial points in movement only. Some characters have "on stop moving" abilities hence a tenth off in "no on attack movement penalty."

I have mixed feelings about "stats", sometimes preferring the more arcade style games, but I know many Brotato and RPG fans will appreciate more overt numbers on the screen. I think I do agree with the steam reviewer who prefers to not have borders on the screen, this also causes burn in on my OLED not just less immersion. I like a lot about the music but also it could relax just a little bit. I wish there were more lofi/relaxed options on start anyway. You can switch it at any time and for a bit I didn't realize I had it on shuffle, which was frustrating, using the trigger locks it to the track it's on.

But I do have a concern it may be too easy. Or at least too tilted towards the player in a way that makes the ramp odd. My first run in I got all the way until the end of run boss without much effort,then got stomped. I would have rather had a series of shorter runs feeling like I earned it and then a chance at winning with more upgrades. Also, it tells me to pick STR abilities for a STR character, then hands me all and only level ups with the ones I pick.

There's no way to make a badly optimized build or be forced to deal with a "bad draw". I imagine that comes later outside of my limited first look, but usually I encounter some of it quickly (that difficulty dropping down quick that rogue-inspired games are known for.) That challenge of high risk high reward is what draws me and makes me want to learn the new system. My hope is that I'll find more if it when I check back in on this early access title.

The data for this one is based on a dev submitted scorecard, my personal review and another review submitted by Silver721 earlier. Here's Silver's review note:

"Elemental Survivors wear's Vampire Survivors' inspiration on its sleeve, but distinguishes itself by incorporating Dungeons & Dragons and RPG elements to it. It features a party of characters with one main character, and each character has an array of stats like you would see in D&D. These stats influence which weapons are stronger with certain characters and allow for a wide variety of builds."

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 4.4

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/16/2023

Previously called "Soul Survivors"

A so-far solid single stick shooter in Early Access. VERY close in aesthetic style and design and actually keeps 1 handed movement focused play. Edit: Seems they are adding a dodge, so this will need to be re-examined.

Also very Dark Souls inspired visually with some fun subtle jokes for fans. Bumpin' music. Graphics an upgrade - especially on elite/boss animations - while still feeling pretty lofi.

Necro earns this a summoning game tag from me.

Classic inspired classes have their own unique weapon and move set, with some interesting twists like fighting style movement combo to activate a move for the monk. They also have their own money pile and upgrade tiers. Not a ton of maps, but a decent range of characters considering their depth - unfortunately no crazy crossover evolutions it seems.

It's still early access so I intend to check back in later for a real review. First impressions are pretty positive.

Includes a necromancer summoning class In Early Access so we'll see how much of a summoning game it is - very responsive developer!

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 6.8

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/19/2023

Waves are kind of unannounced but enemy spawns do have a red X before they show up, hence the tiny ding. Funny trivia but if you turn off enemy outlines the ones currently spawned will keep them until you kill them, while the new spawns show up without them. Don't really feel like it's a bug because it's fun. Appreciate when these games give you the option to make a run endless at the end, which this one does. Adds shrines to the mix.

I really love this one, but I would like to see it have more characters even if they're reskins only of the main character. I know the books are kind of characters, but both the books and the demons just feel like items to equip and my runs generally 'look' the same to me with her in the middle. I do like her a lot, don't get me wrong, but I enjoy making a new build with a different colored dot in the middle sometimes. Like maybe I can change her clothes and dye her hair or something, normal people do that. I'm not saying that has to be an actual gameplay mechanic, the hair dying.

Maybe has secrets? I wasn't able to find any info.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 3.4

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 11/16/2023

Underworldly anime styled survivors-like staring cute gals sweeping up baddies and operating out of a cafe hub world. First impressions are generally positive!

Enemies feel slow and awkward at first, because the less lofi art style kind of exposes that mechanic in the early game (some games do some great work to make the slower movement feel more natural, but I can accept it as a quirk.) It's not quite as bad as it is in some of the 3D titles and some characters like the bats feel animated quite nicely even while slowly drifting in. It's not something I spent too long worrying about as they can quickly overwhelm you. Map obstacles like lava on the ground add another level of complexity to dodging enemies.

You can save the game on quit which is pretty useful. There is a dash unlocked via in run ability selection (so possible to go without seeing at times). Sound effects are a little crunchy. There's a store in Endless Mode.

The translation issues were kind of persistent through the game, often confusing me as to basic mechanics. I think most of the meta upgrades are actually fairly typical of the genre, so the stumbling wasn't too bad, but when it came to the weapon related menus I admit I'm still not entirely sure what the options mean. I wish "drinks" (crafted difficulty modifiers) didn't limit other achievements and could be saved for later if the particular mix of positive and negative changes doesn't appeal for the next session.

I got the DLC for it, not really sure why honestly. I don't feel upset about it but it does feel a little silly in retrospect with a genre that's mostly about unlocking stuff in terms of giving you a reason for another run. Generally all the paid DLC and cosmetics and stuff is what has turned people off from other popular genres and lead them here - but it's worth noting that Vampire Survivors also has DLC now!

One reviewer seemed confused they couldn't "get the nsfw scenes" but I don't think there are supposed to be any haha. I didn't get the impression it's particularly horny. I like the art style but can't help wishing it was a pixel style or at least closer to the cut scene style in game. I hope it gets better localization and more descriptive stats, I'll be checking in to play more.

Free on Android, but with gacha transactions.

Scaling and Review Notes

Personal Hours Played: 2.1

Review Disclaimer

Every game ranked was played, but also scaled based on research, talking to developers & your feedback. The priority with the scale's initial design was to compare similarity on relatively objective features - so it doesn't claim to include reviews of the depth and clarity you'd get at a games journalism site, nor the intensive time played you might get from player reviews on steam. We try to incorporate and link all of that along with a 'review scale' that checks for bugs. See the heatmap and breakdown! Time played noted so you can take any notes with a big grain of salt! I can't get to high level gameplay in 850+ games so I heavily research every game. Over 80 game creators let me interview or survey them! I Hope to go back and refine. Please argue or submit your own scores and reviews to be incorporated with credit into the notes and score numbers.

Added or last checked on 10/24/2023

One of the earlier survivors-likes on the market, it's gotten a lot better since I first played it, though it still feels a bit generic. I gotta say, after playing a ton of these and starting off slow again every time, I appreciate the option to play at 3x speed without it reducing awards or changing any other gameplay!

Overall it's kind of what you'd predict, not particularly bad but not particularly creative. Pixel graphics are serviceable, though I don't love the first few characters. Solid music. Often confusing UI, feels cluttered. Three currencies - souls, gold, gems. In general I feel like I just need one in run currency and one metaprogression currency, I'm not sure why all these games complicate it, but I guess it's for the feeling of "rare drops".

In any case, the menus aren't very pretty but good range of difficulty mods, if not as fun challenges. It seems the devs are done with updating it and on to their next game, but it has an OK amount of content. The problem is it doesn't do a lot to differentiate itself. Dev said "endless mode wouldn't be fun" which.. well, you know.