There’s just certain art styles that really grab me in video games. Rogue Loops has it. It feels inspired by Hades both in style and gameplay. The question is whether or not Rogue Loops, developed by FUBU Games, can hang with the likes of Hades or if it’s simply a knockoff of a fantastic entry in roguelikes.
Gameplay Elements
Rogue Loops has a fairly simple loop in gameplay. Rather than journey through multiple rooms for each level, such as Hades, there were only two separate rooms to go between. Meaning, you fight all the enemies in one room and then the other and journey back and forth until a boss level is unlocked. Perhaps that would seem a bit anemic at first, but now that I’ve played Rogue Loops for a bit, I like how it respects my time. It’s much quicker that way.
And the story, well, it appears there is a family who is battling to escape an endless loop they’re trapped in. There are four members of this family, all of which are playable in the full game. However, only one character is useable in this demo.
Your character, Aiden, is a sword and shield specialist with one of his main abilities being a shield to block and counter enemy attacks. There’s also a dash ability, which most will probably rely on heavily, but the shield countering feels great and satisfying when it registers. Truly, if you’re not using the shield ability because you can just dash to dodge, you’re missing out on a lot of the core gameplay. Further, Aiden uses various magic skills to unleash on each enemy. There is a regular cast and then a perfectly timed cast that will add more damage and various additional effects. Instead of being on a typical cooldown timer based on seconds, your ability cooldown is tied directly to physical attacks, meaning a cooldown of 12 would require 12 subsequent hits before you could use the ability again. That forces you to be a bit more aggressive, which, again, is an interesting layer of complexity.

When entering each room, you’re forced to choose between a buff and a debuff. One example would be gaining a new spell but now every enemy has a protective shield to break before any damage can be dealt. Or, maybe you gain a attack stat bonus but now a mini boss appears in that room for the rest of your run. There’s even a debuff that periodically changes you into a harmless sheep! These buffs and debuffs stack over time so you have to decide what to focus on for each run. It’s an interesting concept. Definitely adds a layer of complexity. Although, I’m not quite sure why I can only see a list of the debuffs. I’d like to be able to see my buffs as a reminder and also to help with whatever build path I’m pursuing for that particular run.

While you’re within your run, one can purchase upgrades with gold dropped from your enemies. Gold is used for various skill and health upgrades along with purchasing Blue Essence, the main permanent upgrade currency mentioned above. If you remember Charon’s Shop from Hades, that’s essentially what you have here.
The enemies aesthetically look great. They are a bit repetitive at times, but that could be symptomatic of it being a demo and playing the same stage over and over again. My hopes are there is more variety in the full retail game. Nevertheless, the engagements with them can be dramatically heightened based on the debuffs that you’re dealing with. The one boss battle at the end was interesting and satisfying to beat after a bit of pattern recognition but I doubt many would think it’s that difficult. In short, you’d probably find the individual rooms in Rogue Loops more difficult than Hades due to the debuffs but I think the the boss at the end of the first zone of Hades is more difficult.
Upgrade Paths
Then we have the upgrade paths. Before each run, there’s a central hub to acquire upgrades. It’s a camp of sorts with four characters to choose from, only one of which is available in the demo. There’s a creeper witch that looks unsettlingly just like your mom…and she unlocks permanent stat bonuses and abilities for each run once you collect enough Blue Essences. Then there’s a “Blessing of Omen” guy who upgrades your chosen character’s main skill. In this case, that skill was a shield that you could use to both block and counterattack. Lastly, there is a troll character who has a Relic Diary that tracks all of the potential skill and bonus drops that are in the available loot pool.
There’s a creeper witch that looks unsettlingly just like your mom…
Source: Everyone.

The only complaint I’d issue is there isn’t really any story content right there, which seems odd. I’m hoping there’s a lot of backstory and interactions fleshing out the world, much like in Hades. Otherwise, the dark and morose world will seem sterile. I did see that the game save from the demo will actually transfer over, but it’s making me wonder how that impacts the story.
Graphics & Sound
I cannot understate how great this game looks. The look and feel is a bit morose and dark but there are still vibrant-looking enemies and abilities. You couple that with the score and ambience in the background and the experience feels epic. Again, I’m a sucker for this art style but I think most will find it captivating.

Conclusion
Rogue Loops has a lot of things going for it. The art style mixed with fluid action and potentially interesting game mechanics could make this one to watch out for. Really comes down to how the other characters play, what the other worlds look like, and if there is a lot of backstory fleshing out the relationships and the world itself. We’ll find out more soon since Rogue Loops has a release date of Q2 2025.
