Is Bastion a Roguelike?
Bastion is a video game well-known for its narrations, gameplay and atmosphere. Bastion (2011) was developed by Supergiant Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in 2011. Bastion has been praised for its unique storyline, immersive narration, action gameplay and unique experience. Considering that the developers of Bastion (2011), Superpergiant Games, also developed an action roguelike video game, Hades, players and roguelike fans may wonder whether Bastion is a roguelike video game.
Bastion is not a roguelike, but a story-driven action RPG, lacking most of the traditional roguelike elements.
Why Bastion Isn't a Roguelike
While the exact definition of roguelike has often caused debate among players, over the time a more general definition was established, which is often referred to as the Berlin interpretation. This interpretation established that, in order to be considered a roguelike, a video game must present many of the factors listed in this definition, and the overall score of this video game, in respect to these factors, will determine whether a video game is a roguelike or not. While the Berlin interpretation includes many factors, some of the high-value factors are procedural generation, turn-based gameplay, permadeath. These high-value factors are not present in Bastion (2011).
The reason why Bastion is not a roguelike is because it lacks many high-value factors of the Berlin interpretation, which measures how much roguelike a video game is.
Bastion (2011) is much more similar to other action RPGs, such as Diablo, Torchlight and Grim Dawn, than it is to traditional roguelike video games. Traditional roguelikes generally present a gameplay pace much slower than Bastion, especially due to their turn-based nature. Traditional roguelikes are often played as strategy video games, even though they are RPGs, due to the degree of complexity with which players are presented throughout the gameplay, being required to plan according to multiple gameplay systems at the same time. Bastion (2011), instead, is a hack-and-slash action RPG, in which the story-driven gameplay is directed at defeating enemies and progressing the story, and in which case defeat is not the end, lacking the permadeath characteristic of traditional roguelikes. In Bastion, if the player is defeated, the player may try again. In a traditional roguelike, defeat means the end of the playthrough, due to the permadeath gameplay mechanic of most traditional roguelikes.
Could Bastion Be Considered an Action Roguelike?
The Berlin interpretation measures how much a roguelike video game is, in respect to the definition of traditional roguelike. During the late 2010s and early 2020s, the roguelike video game genre saw a surge in one of its subgenres, the action roguelike. These are video games which generally feature some of the elements of a traditional roguelike, while often also presenting unique and different aspects if compared to the classic traditional roguelike video games. For example, some of these video games feature real-time hack-and-slash action gameplay, others do not feature permadeath, among other differneces. Due to these differences, it is often debated whether some action video games, especially hack-and-slash video games, could be considered action roguelikes.
Bastion (2011) is not an action roguelike because the playthrough is not reset after each defeat, which is one of the defining characteristics of the roguelike genre and also of the action roguelike subgenre.
The difference could become more evident if Bastion (2011) were to be compared by Hades (2020). In Bastion, if the player character is defeated, players can continue playing mostly at the same point they just left. In Hades, if the player character is defeated, the playthrough is reset, and players must restart the playthrough from the very beginning, even if at this time the character is stronger. Moreover, the characteristic of the roguelike genre and also of the action roguelike genre is restarting the playthrough after each defeat, even if some progress is retained. The difference is that in a traditional roguelike, there will be no progress retained, while in some action roguelikes and in some roguelite video games, there may be some progress retained.
Analysis - Possible Causes of Confusion
Bastion (2011) is a hack-and-slash action RPG video game. Quite often, action RPG video games have some features that are similar to some of the characteristics of classic traditional roguelike video games. It is quite possible that many action RPG video games have been inspired by traditional roguelike video games, as most roguelike video games also are, by principle, RPG video games. There is often confusion regarding, for example, whether Diablo (1997) is a roguelike video game, and whether its sequel, Diablo II (2000), is a roguelike video game. Some of these debates are originated in the similarities between these video games, including Bastion, and traditional roguelikes. However, while there may be similarities between action RPG video games and traditional roguelike video games, perhaps the most important distinction between these genres is whether in the video game the playthrough is restarted after each defeat or not. In most action RPG video games, the playthrough is not completely restarted after each defeat. There may be setbacks, such as respawning far away from the last point of gameplay, or losing some experience, or losing some items, but the player character will not restart the playthrough from the very beginning of the game. In a traditional roguelike, the playthrough will restart from the beginning of the game. In roguelites and in some roguelike video games, some progress may be retained even after this restart or reset.
In the specific case of Bastion (2011), when the player character is defeated, there are setbacks, but the playthrough does not restart from the very beginning of the game, which would be a characteristic of a traditional roguelike video game. In Bastion, if defeated, the main character respawns, even if with setbacks, to continue their journey again. This is a characteristic of an action RPG video game, not of a traditional roguelike video game, and is one of the defining characteristics that marks the main reasons why Bastion is an action RPG video game, and not a traditional roguelike.