Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEVagante
Vagante is an action-packed platformer that features permanent death and procedurally generated levels. Play cooperatively with friends both locally and online, or adventure solo in this challenging roguelike-inspired game.
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Video reviews
Reviews and deep dives from YouTube and Bilibili, in every language. Open the original video to watch.
Other voices, for reference.
Archived third-party reviews and community material may refer to different versions. External opinions and ratings are presented separately; consult the original videos for their full context.
Community discussion
A dark-fantasy 2D pixel-art platformer roguelike from Nuke Nine with permadeath, procedurally generated caves, RPG classes and up-to-4-player local/online co-op.
Steam players rate it Very Positive (about 89% of roughly 5,000 reviews), and the reviews that praise it describe a punishing but rewarding Spelunky-meets-RPG loop with strong class variety and excellent co-op. Critics are lukewarm: Metacritic shows a 69 Metascore (Switch, 7 reviews; PC has too few) with PS4 at 79 and Xbox One at 75, and a 7.0 user score from very few votes (9 ratings). Reviews split into strong 80s from outlets like TouchArcade and Hobby Consolas and a 40 from Nintendo Life, which called it incomplete. Steam lists the full release as Feb 21, 2018, the price is $14.99, and a Steam Community thread asks whether the game still gets updates, so it reads as a finished, largely dormant title kept alive by co-op fans, the Workshop and a Vagante Remastered mod. Note: live web search was unavailable (session search budget exhausted), so this draws on Steam data, Metacritic pages and Steam Community.
What players praise
- Steep but rewarding learning curve: players say runs feel fairer and more controllable as they learn items, spells and boss patterns
- Class and build variety: each class plays differently, any class can use any item (a mage can wield a knife), and most weapons and stats are described as viable
- Co-op with up to 4 players locally or online is repeatedly called the best way to play, producing chaotic, funny moments (reviews mention reviving friends, shared trap deaths)
- Tight, responsive movement and combat; one reviewer notes they rarely felt a death was out of their control, and jeuxvideo.com praised 'millimeter-tuned' gameplay
- Atmospheric pixel art, oppressive dungeon mood (catacombs named) and a well-liked soundtrack
- Depth from item identification, shrines/offerings, magic versus burning books for healing, and gambling on unidentified potions
- Replayability and completionist content: Book of Secrets unlocks, hard achievements, Steam Workshop and custom levels, plus a community Discord
- Reminds players of Spelunky and UnEpic (Steam reviewers), with RPG-style classes layered on a platformer
What players criticize
- Controls draw repeated complaints on keyboard/mouse and especially controller; some players report needing Steam Input settings or a restart to get a pad recognized
- Trap deaths (spikes, arrow traps, boulders) and instant kills feel cheap to some players, who say traps rather than enemies dominate the difficulty
- Combat is called simple or repetitive by some (Hobby Consolas, and a Steam reviewer who says the RPG layer is a facade over platforming)
- Weak onboarding: Nintendo Life and Metacritic users cite minimal tutorials and unexplained mechanics
- Hard-to-see hazards, including traps that blend into the environment, make some deaths feel unfair
- Online multiplayer is reported as a bit buggy, with sparse public servers per Metacritic users
- Limited content scope for some critics: jeuxvideo.com wanted more biomes and Nintendo Life found the adventure short with no story
- Dev support appears to have ended, with Steam forum users asking if the game still receives updates
Distinctive features
- RPG-style classes, skins and backgrounds with free item mixing inside a Spelunky-like platformer
- Item identification, curses, shrines and offerings that make item use a risk-reward gamble, close to classic ASCII roguelike design
- Up to 4-player local and online co-op built into a hardcore permadeath platformer
- Steam Workshop custom levels plus the Vagante Remastered community mod
- Hard mode and Rift bosses give high-end endgame challenges for veterans
Divided opinions
- Difficulty: Steam reviewers call it brutal yet fair and rewarding, while Metacritic users and some Steam negatives call it punishing for its own sake
- Combat: praised as good on every class by some players, but called simple and repetitive by some critics and a co-op reviewer
- Trap-heavy design: a feature that demands awareness to fans, a cheap source of deaths to detractors
- Critic scores vary widely by outlet, from 80 (TouchArcade, Hobby Consolas, jeuxvideo.com) to 40 (Nintendo Life), with Pure Nintendo and Gamezebo at 70 and Nintenderos at 60
Repetition and friction
- Repeated early deaths, sometimes within seconds of starting a run, from traps or bad RNG
- Item roulette: unidentified items and randomized loot can make or break a run
- Losing long runs (an hour or more) to a single spike or boulder
- Learning mechanics by dying because the game explains little
- Achievement hunting is described as extremely difficult though fair, with 100% completion taking 180+ hours for one reviewer
Hoped-for improvements
- Better, rebindable and more reliable controller support and general control feel
- Real tutorials or in-game explanation of hazards, items and systems
- Difficulty or accessibility options, for example ways to tone down traps, since one reviewer found the devs offered none and modding them out is hard
- More biomes and content variety, plus some narrative or goals beyond the dungeon crawl (critic feedback)
- More varied and complex enemy mechanics so combat carries more of the challenge than traps
- More stable online co-op and matchmaking, and continued post-launch updates or a sequel (Steam forum users want one)
Steam lists the full release as Feb 21, 2018 (developer Nuke Nine, price $14.99 after a reported permanent drop from $25 per a user review), though the game predates that in a 2014 alpha/early-access era. Console ports on Switch, PS4 and Xbox One drew mixed-to-good reviews (Metacritic Switch 69, PS4 79, Xbox One 75) with Eurogamer's Switch score shown as TBD on Metacritic. PC players rate it far higher than Metacritic's small user sample (7.0 from 9 ratings) and recent Steam reviews remain about 91% positive. Steam data estimates 200K to 500K owners, and revenue tools put gross at roughly $2.2M (net about $640K), which is a rough estimate only. Steam forum chatter suggests updates have stopped, and the community now carries it via Workshop levels, the Vagante Remastered mod and a Discord. No OpenCritic entry could be confirmed, and the session's search budget was exhausted so no Reddit threads were read.
Community sources
- Top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews (local file) ↗
- Local Steam app data: review counts, tags, owner and revenue estimates ↗
- Steam store page: description, co-op, classes, Workshop, review summary ↗
- Metacritic overview: Metascore 69, user score 7.0, per-platform critic counts ↗
- Metacritic critic review list (Hobby Consolas, TouchArcade, Nintendo Life, Eurogamer etc.) ↗
- Metacritic user reviews: complaints about difficulty and tutorials (9 ratings) ↗
- Steam Community discussions: update status, Remastered mod, custom levels ↗
- Revenue estimate via Boxleiter method ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Vagante is a classic fantasy 2D dungeon crawler that he describes as a Spelunky wannabe, but with swords, bosses and far more character upgrading. He says it has little roguelite meta-progression but plenty of in-run growth, class choice and inventory management. It is brutal, with traps that can one-shot you, yet he had more fun with it than with Spelunky because of its stronger roguelike feel. He admits most people would rank Spelunky far higher and that this is just his opinion. No tier letter is stated in this segment.
What the creator praises
- Strong roguelike vibe: start with a character and find equipment that changes how you play
- Each run feels fairly different from the last
- Lots to do within each individual run, including inventory management
- Multiple completely different classes with different spells
- Great customization and in-run character building (e.g. axe skill, defensive focus)
- Co-op multiplayer looks fun
Issues raised by the creator
- Very brutal; traps can one-shot you
- Little roguelite meta-progression, mostly upgrading within runs
- Is not a huge fan of this style of brutal Spelunky-like game generally
Design observations
- Takes the Spelunky-style platformer structure and adds RPG-style character building and classic fantasy elements
- Class variety with distinct spells and playstyles changes how each run is played
