This is a direct follow up to my post about how context sensitivity is amazing, so read that if you haven't.
I've been playing Shiren lately and it got me thinking about turn based roguelikes and action-RL hybrids. More specifically, why I tend to enjoy stuff like Shiren (& prob Brogue once I get more into it too) a ton but don't care for more arcadey RL's like Synthetik, Nuclear Throne, Monolith, etc. And also why, unlike most other action-RLs, I enjoy Spelunky.
I'm NOWHERE NEAR a seasoned RL player so I'm working off very limited experience here but I'll take my shot anyway cuz I know more experienced RL players who feel similarly. Also who gives a shit about misrepresenting games as long as the brain juices keep flowing, honestly. Anyway...
On paper this doesn't make sense considering my overall preference for action games and love of arcade games, but I think the problem is that action RL's universalize too many of their mechanics, which fucks up integration between their different gameplay elements, which in turn makes the shuffling & randomizing of the different pieces of gameplay more meaningless.
In Shiren, basically everything you do besides the most basic attack is highly contextual. All your special attacks are items that exist in a limited quantity so your access to them depends on what you have and how much you're willing to use it. The most basic special attacks like rocks/arrows/staves are highly dependent on your current location - if an enemy you're aiming for (or god forbid NPC) is blocking the path to the enemy you want to hit, there are no simple ways around this. And since the game is turn based, repositioning has costs. "AOE" style spells are room-dependent for both you & enemies, so using them in hallways (which are usually very useful for fighting) is a waste of spells. Enemy abilities themselves vary in effectiveness based on whether they're out in the open or in a hallway. Enemies also interact with each other, they attack each other and level up, directly level each other up, buff each other, teleport you to themselves/into a group, etc. Even something as basic as opening normal pots is contextual since you have to throw them.
Then you have Spelunky. It adds or emphasizes universal more via more freeform async movement & attacks but it still keeps a very very strong contextual element via the really strict item limit, the fact that items have to exist in specific spots on the gameplay field, the goal of having to rescue the princess/pet forcing you to reshuffle your "abilities", items like bombs/pickaxe which are key to destroying terrain being limited/contextual, etc. Even if you think about the most basic challenge it introduces, the arrow traps, the solutions to them are contextual since you're encouraged to use items.
The nice thing about highly contextual design is that you don't actually need insane big brained procgen algorithms to make interesting games because it gives more meaning to minor variations. It "adds more weight" to each game state. This is almost obvious if you think of randomized puzzle games - they don't need crazy sophisticated algorithms to work because the rules are interconnected & contextual enough to make each variation meaningful.
The more emphasis action RLs have on the universal though, the less any of this shit matters and the more they start to resemble loose, sloppy arcade games without some of the most interesting aspects of said arcade games like optimization, or precise routing (which is contextual :) ). And hey, the context sensitivity of Shiren & Spelunky is exactly the kinda thing I think arcade developers should focus on