On Balanced Roguelites
I feel like I could talk in excessive rambling length about this but the pursuit of balanced, consistent meta-progression in roguelites really has stifled the genre for me, and has me continually going back to the GOATs like Isaac and Slay the Spire.
Hades was the first one to really hit me with the Pokemon-game realisation ("the numbers just get bigger no matter what I do") that usually precedes me losing motivation and dropping a game, but it's definitely becoming more common with stuff like Vampire Survivors getting impassioned "GOTY snubbed" calls.
These games are clearly great and I'm glad people are enjoying them, but it does feel like it's getting hard to find a solid roguelite with a new idea that actually wants me to play it for myself.