Another 'mining themed' game I played for an hour. This one has three types of ore which you randomly find and can be used to upgrade your equipment. You couldn't really use knowledge to 'optimize a hunt for copper/silver/gold,' rather you just have to invest enough time until the ore you want spawns. Deeper levels of the game give you more ore, but the structure means you have to always navigate easier random dungeons to get there.
The combat fundamentals are decent for a simple platformer-action game, although the real issue is that this plays too much like a regular action game, so the roguelike elements wear thin when you repeat runs as rooms require you to kill all enemies. It's like if you had to clear Dungeon 1 in zelda every time you died in Dungeon 2. So even if I'm interested in trying to beat Boss 2, I have to play through a lot of easy/boring content to try again...
There's not necessarily anything wrong with making you start at the surface, but it works better in something designed around that like Isaac or Spelunky - floors aren't too long nor grindy and it's focused on mixing emergent combat situations together, or lots of item/equipment combos.
The combat fundamentals are decent for a simple platformer-action game, although the real issue is that this plays too much like a regular action game, so the roguelike elements wear thin when you repeat runs as rooms require you to kill all enemies. It's like if you had to clear Dungeon 1 in zelda every time you died in Dungeon 2. So even if I'm interested in trying to beat Boss 2, I have to play through a lot of easy/boring content to try again...
There's not necessarily anything wrong with making you start at the surface, but it works better in something designed around that like Isaac or Spelunky - floors aren't too long nor grindy and it's focused on mixing emergent combat situations together, or lots of item/equipment combos.