If you're after a hardcore Pokémon experience, try PokeRogue. This game blends Pokémon with procedurally generated maps and encounters, challenging you to descend through levels filled with battles against Pokémon, bosses, and gym leaders. The catch? You risk losing everything if you die.
PokeRogue is a mix of Pokémon and roguelite. While you don’t lose everything upon death, the game changes each time, and you can only keep some upgrades. This setup, along with key items from the series, makes it an evolved form of Pokémon nuzlocke, with a less rigid rule system and a standalone game feel.
Though procedurally generated, PokeRogue features various biomes. The first two are always a town and plains with normal, bug, and grass Pokémon. Beyond that, you'll encounter diverse biomes. Rivals appear on floors 8, 25, and 55, and a boss or gym leader challenges you every tenth floor. The game’s logic adapts to each biome, featuring ice Pokémon in icy areas, fire Pokémon in fiery areas, and more.
It's incredible to see how popular PokéRogue has become. The /r/pokerogue/ subreddit already has 64k members and it appears to be a similar hit on YouTube. Videos such as "PokeRogue is the most fun I've ever had in a Pokemon game!" by zwiggo breezed past 600,000 views (thanks to zwiggo for the image at the top of this article). Or see the video embedded below at 1.7M views. And there are many, many more.
The developers are entirely anonymous, going by the name PageFault Games and hidden behind a bunch of pseudonyms, which is perfectly sensible given how litigious Nintendo are. What's more, the game is open source and built on Phaser v3.70. Find it all in their GitHub repo.