Shovel Knight Dig seems like a case of mistaken identity. All of the things that make Shovel Knight great don't lend well to a roguelite and all of the things that modern indie roguelites have done well haven't seemed to make their way into this game. Shovel Knight worked because its difficulty was complemented by hand-crafted level design, with all of a screen's hazard's visible at all times. Dig's procedural generation can result in frustrating enemy and trap placement that often feels unfair rather than fun. Getting hit by an offscreen obstacle or having a gem or cog destroyed right as the screen transitions is never a pleasant experience. The roguelite elements also become grating--the items seem to do mostly nothing useful, and hardly complement one another, making runs blend together instead of each being distinct. Having a large number of items that are either actively harmful or useless pollutes the already dismal loot pool, making only health upgrades useful to me personally. On top of all this, I just spectacularly sucked at this game--I don't think I'm terrible at roguelites, I've breezed through a decent number of them, but I actually had to turn on some of the accessibility options to make this one winnable for me.