>>3787013
>Imagine getting a good run, spending hours and hours building a character, and then just dying to some RNG and accomplishing literally nothing and unlocking literally nothing. What was the point of the run then?

I would say it's the fun you had along the way and what you gained was personal experience. To me what makes roguelikes a compelling genre is that sense of tension, that when you're in a tough situation everything you have is on the line.

Progression systems also inherently mess with the balance of the game. A well made roguelike is hard but beatable on your first try and on your hundredth time. If you make it so that after 100 runs you have unlocked skills or items or whatever that carries over it means the game has to be balanced to accommodate that. The Mystery Dungeon games for example are all balanced around the expectation that you are building up items and storing them in warehouses. The result is that the player has to self manage the difficulty to get a decent experience. Blind runs with no stored items are only winnable with very good luck and the right weather depending on the game. Where as with stored items the game can be a breeze no matter what.

To me that alone pretty much ruins the whole experience. And it's why permadeath is considered one of the pillars that defines the genre. Imagine going to play a game of chess where because one player had played a shit ton of chess they have perks to let them take extra moves, or let the queen jump or something, it would ruin the balance of the game. I see roguelikes as very similar in that regard. Unlocks ruin the whole experience.

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Is there any game with the same feeling of being an adventurer?