Maybe I'm addicted to critique, to learning through failure, or maybe I'm just addicted to the simple, clear reminder that video games give me sometimes: “Pay more attention, stupid!”
The evolution of this game corresponds to the core idea of Isaac himself, a steadily growing monstrosity that becomes continually more twisted and more interesting with each gross addition to itself.
In The Binding of Isaac, the monstrous body may be ugly and awful, but it is unique, free from established rules and stricture, free to continue to grow into something other than what others desire it to be.
For as much as you level up in Darkest Dungeon, you will also level down. This is not power fantasy. This is a fantasy of cruelty and self inflicted pain.
In The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, the body is wrecked and made ugly for the sake of freedom from fear. Instead, it becomes something fearful in its own right.
In games that feature perma death, by melding narrative consequence to mechanical consequence, a great deal of meaning is added to even the most routine of skirmishes. Death makes play matter.