A little game came out this week called
Rogue Legacy and it's pretty great. It's a Metroidvania where death leads to your character's heir going back to finish your quest. The trick is that each death leads to a choice between three randomly generated children and a rebuilt and rerandomized game world. What you take back after death is cash which you use to build your manor and, in that way, make the next generations stronger. This effectively just carries over the basic stats and equipment, but because of the rebuilt world and character generation each time feels a little different. You do gather new gear and abilities during each run but only the next generation will get to use then. In some respects it feels a bit like the Souls games because death is a very important part of the game and it happens constantly as a way to move things forward. It's also fairly tough; my family must breed like rabbits to replace all the kids I've killed. The game also just has a lot of charm and a nice look to carry the experience along.
I'd totally recommend it. There's a good sizable demo available on their site and I recommend trying it out. You can get the game on Steam, but if you buy directly from the website (Humble Store) you get a DRM free copy and a Steam key for convenience.
