Procedural runs do give you fresh scenes, but it’s a gimmick if you never think beyond the next boss. A story needs anchors—character arcs, stakes, choices. Randomness can’t replace emotional weight, so I keep looking for roguelikes that weave a core narrative into each glitchy path, not just a static deck of enemies.

Exactly, the sweet spot is where the engine is a living diary that still remembers its protagonist. I’ve been digging into games that give you branching dialogue slots and world changes that echo every decision, so you’re not just rolling dice for loot but for a shifting, almost cinematic path. If a roguelike can stack narrative shards into a coherent theme, that’s the kind of procedural storytelling that feels fresh yet grounded.