The rich history of violent vendors in roguelike games

If you look through the past year of videogame releases, you'll notice a trend: roguelikes are everywhere. From Hades and Noita to Risk of Rain 2 and Going Under, a genre that was once dismissed as convoluted is now thriving with new ideas. But one tradition from the old school has withstood the passing of time: merchants and shopkeepers aren't as harmless as they seem. Before we break down this curious roguelike tradition, we should let you know that there are minor Hades spoilers below, so continue with caution.

"I'd say my first encounter with 'fighting NPCs that you shouldn't normally fight' was Ultima 1," Crypt of the NecroDancer designer Ryan Clark tells PCGamesN, recalling the '80s CRPG classic. "In these games you can generally fight anyone, including the developer Richard Garriott (known as 'Lord British') himself, and I remember being surprised by this when I was a kid."

During his first time at GDC, Clark had the opportunity to meet Garriott, who was at the conference to receive a lifetime achievement award. Clark was up for an award for his first game, Professor Fizzwizzle, and the two got to mingling. "He was kind enough to speak to me for quite a while, and even told me of various ways to kill Lord British in the Ultima games. He talked about how players always found creative new ways to do it that they hadn't been expecting, and how much they, as developers, enjoyed that. I guess it stuck with me!"

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