turn-based

FROGUE is a rogue-like platformer from Brazilian-based Wired Dreams where you play as a sword-wielding frog as it clears room after room of enemies. The pixel-art visuals might suggest something a little generic, the usual indie fodder but this game genuinely brings something new to the genre. If you ever saw […]

FROGUE – PS5 Review

July 16, 2024 in PS5 tagged Frog / frogue / platformer / rogue-like / turn-based by Richie

Tactical RPGs can feel both appealing and impenetrable to me. I love the idea of playing a tabletop general but I’ve never quite had the acumen to fully embrace the genre. Crown Wars: The Black Prince is the latest one to come my way. Artefacts Studio has been prolific over […]

Crown Wars: The Black Prince – PS5 Review

June 4, 2024 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 100 years war / Artefacts studio / base management / challenging / crown wars the black prince / england / france / Medieval / tactical rpg / turn-based by Mike

King Arthur: A Knight’s Tale is an RPG with turn-based combat and with it’s mostly top-down viewpoint is very in keeping with the rest of the software catalogue of Hungarian developers NeocoreGames given that they made all those Van Helsing games and Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor. They’re known for combining a solid story […]

King Arthur: A Knight’s Tale – PS5 Review

March 11, 2024 in PS5 / Reviews tagged adventure / king arthur: a knight's tale / rpg / the knights who say nic / turn-based by Richie

Alina of the Arena is a deck-building, roguelike strategy game from Taiwanese indie studio, PINIX. It’s been out for a while on Steam and the Switch but has now found its way over to PSN and it should be of interest to fans of games such as Slay the Spire and Into […]

Alina of the Arena – PS4 Review

November 23, 2023 in PS4 / Reviews tagged alina of the arena / pinix / roguelite / strategy / turn-based by Richie

We loved Van Halen. Eddie and Alex, the two eponymous brothers in the band were often overshadowed by flamboyant frontman David Lee Roth. We think he’s ace too, mainly for his daft solo shit like Just A Gigolo / I Ain’t Got Nobody. Particularly the amazing video that accompanied it […]

Miasma Chronicles – PS5 Review

July 11, 2023 in PS5 / Reviews tagged charasma / post apocalyptic / the bearded ladies / turn-based by Ian

Blood Bowl III comes to us from Cyanide Studio and is published by parent company Nacon. Despite that, this is very much a work-for-hire project for Nottingham based Games Workshop aka Warhammer. The first Blood Bowl was released in 2009 with the sequel, the imaginatively named Blood Bowl 2 coming […]

Blood Bowl III – PS5 Review

March 2, 2023 in PS4 / PS5 / Reviews tagged blood bowl / cyanide studio / dice roll / Games workshop / nacon / no fun league / turn-based / Warhammer by Ian

The deck building Rogue-lite has some strong representatives. Slay the Spire is probably the best on PlayStation but there are other examples on other platforms and even something like Neoverse is a good time. Roguebook is in a similar vein but has enough twists to make it stand out. You […]

Roguebook – PS5 Review

March 16, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged 2d / cards / deck builder / Ink / neoverse / rogue-lite / roguebook / slay the spire / turn-based by Gareth

When a game has a connection to Shin Megami Tensei I sit up and take notice. Monark is from ex-Atlus developers who worked on the tough but oh so rewarding and atmospheric JRPG series and you can see some connecting threads here and there, but this isn’t a Shin Megami […]

Monark – PS5 Review

February 24, 2022 in PS5 / Reviews tagged grinding / jrpg / madness / monark / school / seven deadly sins / shin megami tensei / tactical / turn-based by Gareth

Indie game devs love the retro scene. That’s reflected in visuals more often than not, but gameplay can also be heavily influenced by games from the past regardless of the genre. Rise of the Third Power is one such game, with developer Stegosoft basically making a SNES JRPG but it’s […]

Rise of the Third Power – PS4 Review

February 9, 2022 in PS4 / Reviews tagged 2d / jrpg / retro / rise of the third power / SNES / turn-based by Gareth

I’ve got a taste for roguelite games right now and I also enjoy turn based games. So when Evertried dropped into the PlayStation Country inbox I gladly accepted reviewing duties. Although it has similarities to something like Into the Breach it’s very different to anything I’ve played before. You play […]

Evertried – PS4 Review

October 22, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged evertried / GRID / into the breach / modifiers / rogue-lite / skills / strategy / turn-based by Gareth

I’m a big fan of the modern XCOM games. They mix the right amount of difficulty and strategy whilst ‘dumbing it down’ to a point where you lose a lot of the faff and it works well on a controller. Phoenix Point comes from the creator of the original XCOM, […]

Phoenix Point – PS4 Review

October 8, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged civilization / factions / julian gollop / phoenix point / recruits / strategy / tactical / turn-based / xcom by Gareth

Rogue-likes/lites come in many different flavours, some will let arcade skills balance out the randomness if you’re good enough for example. Crown Trick on PS4 does not, you only have your own tactical nuance to help battle the RNG. if you want to make the game go faster you should […]

Crown Trick – PS4 Review

September 15, 2021 in PS4 / Reviews tagged crown trick / grid based / luck / rng / rogue-lite / rpg / turn-based / upgrades by Gareth