I've come to realize over the years that roguelikes/lites are one of my favorite types of games, and I think the reason why is because they are so incredibly difficult to do well. It's a testament to the developers that they are able to balance gameplay, art direction, difficulty scaling, and, in some cases, story-telling into a game so reliant on repetition. In fact, many games don't: there are a ton of bad roguelikes! There are a ton of "ooohh so close" roguelikes! But then there are those roguelikes that just nail it, continually introducing new elements (or allowing me discover new things at my own pace) that engage and surprise, dozens of hours into it. Roguelikes are easily the most represented genre in my top of all time, and I want to keep finding the great ones (and weeding out the bad ones).

The two real requirements for me are procedural generation and some form of permadeath/run ending. I have created a personal scale on which to rank how "rogue" a game is, as the genre both has become expansive over the years and extends beyond the general "roguelike" and "roguelite" terminology. The most important determinant on the scale is the amount of persistent progression between runs, alongside an additional category of "traditional roguelike." The scale is as follows:

Traditional roguelike: Follows most or all the factors of the Berlin Interpretation of the rogulike (http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Berlin_Interpretation). Exists to separate games that are most classically associated with Rogue from roguelikes that exist in other genres.

Roguelike: Minimal persistent progression that maintains a flat difficulty curve that relies significantly on player-skill growth.

Roguelike Hybrid: New items or skills are unlocked over the course of the meta playthrough, but there are no permanent stat upgrades.

Roguelite: Persistent progression that provides heavy character growth over the course of the the game that relies less on player-skill growth. Persistent progression is equal to or more noticeable than progression of items/skills within a run.