When comparing Tales of Maj'Eyal vs Crypt of the NecroDancer, the Slant community recommends Tales of Maj'Eyal for most people. In the question“What are the best roguelikes/roguelites on PC?” Tales of Maj'Eyal is ranked 10th while Crypt of the NecroDancer is ranked 23rd.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro A lot of depth through many character classes and quests
Pro Pretty polished compared to other open source games
Pro Easier to learn than some other roguelikes
The graphical menu system helps a lot.
Pro Built-in but optional chat system for bragging or when you get lost
Pro Unique gameplay
Crypt of the NecroDancer is a dungeon crawler that is also a rhythm game. Your character can move, attack, and use special abilities only to the beat of a level's music. This means you have to split your attention between listening to the music and watching enemy movements. If you miss a beat your character won't do anything, but your enemies still get to move and attack. While the enemies are bound by the same rules as you, they won't ever miss the beat. Fortunately enough, they're always bound to a rhythm, so learning an enemy's rhythm is the key to defeating them. As a result, the gameplay stands out in both the roguelike and rhythm game genre.
Pro Fantastic soundtrack
Crypt of the NecroDancer has one of the best soundtracks you'll hear in a video game, featuring EDM, synthwave, and even heavy metal music. Each song has a unique tempo, rhythm, and feel to it, so you'll never get tired of listening to them.
Cons
Con Bad balancing
Not all classes are balanced. Some are clearly weaker. As an example, every class that can summon, cannot avoid their summons to waste their skills. This is not important, except if you only have 1 summon, like the alchemist, that often charges you.
Con LUA bugs
It depends on LUA for many (if not most) things, this could ease the development, but in the end, the result is several crashes which are hard to debug.
Con Heavy resource need
Lots of graphics effects, which may make the game run slower on older systems.
Con Graphics may not appeal to everyone
Mostly because they are a mix of styles assembled throughout the lifetime of the project instead of one consistent whole.
Con Extremely hard
The combat in this game has an insanely fast tempo, requiring you to split your attention between the music and the on-screen enemies. Losing focus even for a split-second means you'll probably die, so you'll have to restart the level. At times this will feel really overwhelming, especially if there are many enemies around.
Con Co-op can make the game a lot harder
While Co-op in most games makes a game easier, Crypt of the Necrodancer is the opposite. This boils down to three main reasons.
First, you and your co-op partner have to share money and items. This can lead to two under-equipped characters that struggle with killing enemies and surviving their blows.
Second, there's no splitscreen, meaning your movements need to be in sync with your partners. If you happen to go in the opposite directions, you can get stuck or attract multiple groups of enemies, causing you to get overwhelmed.
Third, you share one beat counter with your co-op partner. So if one if you misses a beat, that's the end of a combo for the both of you. Not keeping up a combo means you'll have less gold and consequently less gear.