Great game that lets you get a table top feel without the agonizing setup. The difficulty is high in the beginning but it is rewarding learning the game and making progress. The expansions are filled with a lot of good content adding new weapons and enemies to the game but the main quest line is still the most challenging. If you are looking for something with a healthy dose of RNG that you can influence at times and you want a challenge have at it. It is great to play with friends local co-op or online. Controller works well with only some minor bugs while passing items between characters.

If you're playing for the story: don't. And if you're playing with less than three people? Don't. I'll mention beforehand that I'm reviewing this game based off of two playthroughs of the game (dying early on in the story the first time), both on the easiest game mode. We were a team of two. THE GOOD THINGS: This game is fun for exploration and laughs. It's enjoyable to clear

If you're playing for the story: don't. And if you're playing with less than three people? Don't. I'll mention beforehand that I'm reviewing this game based off of two playthroughs of the game (dying early on in the story the first time), both on the easiest game mode. We were a team of two. THE GOOD THINGS: This game is fun for exploration and laughs. It's enjoyable to clear sea caves, catacombs, and other mini dungeons on your own time. I very much liked the random encounters with buried swords, wishing wells, deep pools, stuff like that. It made sense to use your stats in that way, and I didn't mind the RNG function of it. Character customization and naming is fun as well, but only because we could laugh at it. The world seemed very open and fun to explore. Emphasis on seemed (we'll get to that later). THE FIGHTS: The main dungeons, along with the rest of the main quest, are unbelievably draining. Oftentimes, you can enter a level 6 dungeon, as a level 6, and get absolutely obliterated with no chance of winning. That's a huge problem with enemies and fighting in general. All enemies (that are the same level as you) will ALWAYS be more powerful. The only time my partner and I were able to clear dungeons with ease was when we were SIX LEVELS ABOVE THE DUNGEON LEVEL. Level 8 dungeons at level 12 felt like a fair fight. The turns hardly make any sense. I understand that ambushes will decide initiative, but sometimes one enemy will be able to go multiple times without any given reason. My partner often had to use rush to give us a fair chance. I'm fine with the mechanic in which you use up a life to revive your teammates. That's fine. But you have to both use up a turn to revive them, and if you die too you're both done for? My partner and I save up nine lives only to discover that they don't mean anything if you both die. I would have even been fine if you had to use two lives each to revive yourselves after complete death. But after failing a dungeon (whether it be a mini dungeon or otherwise), you have no chance to return to the outside of the dungeon, or even recover what you had for a new game. [SPOILER WARNING FOR THE END OF THE GAME] The last dungeon, the Chaos Tower, was Level 10. I was Level 13, and my partner was Level 12. Ordinarily this would be a pretty easy fight, but knowing the game, it wouldn't be. There was no way to prepare for the different elemental enemies that would come up. There was no way we could have known that the first floor would be ice based, and therefore had no way to equip gear that would allow us to have a fair fight. The only way we could prepare for the next floor was to GUESS at which element it would be. For a game that's so heavy on using better equipment to increase your stats, it was really frustrating. The final boss battle, might I remind you, was STILL only Level 10. My partner and I had to revive ourselves upwards of eight times, along with using up all the stashed healing herbs we had, and crumbling our sanctums. Upon finally killing the (way overpowered) Boss, his wolf henchmen were still remaining, which didn't make much sense to me. I had assumed they would disappear, since they're clearly made of magic, and their caster was dead. We hardly got any reward for beating it, too. No achievement, no extra gold, not even a hefty sum of Lore that you couldn't get anywhere else. That aside, we beat the dungeon, and we were immediately killed off. This comes across as lazy storytelling, as if the writers didn't know how to bring the story to a close. It was the most anticlimactic ending to a game I had EVER seen. It left a very foul taste in my mouth. I'll say that I very much enjoyed the fight with the Kraken (LVL 12). We were able to fight it with good strategy at Level 11. It was daunting but still felt winnable, since after defeating the Kraken itself, the tentacles were no longer a problem. I wish more fights in the game were like the Kraken battle. Most fights feel helpless, as if you're just taking hits and can't respond to it at all. That's because you are, and you can't. When battles supposedly got more difficult, the only thing that changed was the player could do less about what was happening to them. Often times it's taking multiple hits over and over, and being helpless to it. A difficult fight should be daunting but possible, not depressingly and annoyingly impossible. This game is reliant on artificial difficulty. THE MAP: Both my partner and I liked the beginning of the game because the map felt exciting. There was always more stuff to explore and discover. That ended after unlocking more than the Guardian Forest, Golden Plains, Burning Forest, and Rogue Isles. Past those, exploring felt tedious and unexciting. We were more likely to run into enemies that were either way higher level, or lower level and still capable of taking all our money or killing us altogether. We avoided exploring these new areas. Eventually we avoided it so much that we uncovered every hex of the map, of which was only disappointing. I understand that the clouds were placed to make the game seem more expansive, but travelling the deep corners of the ocean only to find that there isn't even a sea cave? That's incredibly disheartening. On top of that, we didn't get anything from it. There were no achievements, secret dungeons or areas to unlock, or even secret encounters. It was pointless above all else. THE PLOT: I didn't really understand the plot, or the weight of it. I didn't know who the king was, I didn't know why I should care that he died. The chaos felt so far away, and even when it affected gameplay, fights were already overpowered enough that I didn't care. The scourges felt like more of a threat than the chaos did. Not of it left an impact on me or the gameplay. THE GAMEPLAY: The fight mechanic isn't inherently bad. I like the use of RNG, stats, and how each weapon has different attacks and effects. However it gets real tedious when the enemies seemingly have infinitely more luck and skill than you. It just seems unwinnable at that point. The game is very keen on making you start and entirely new save file. They very clearly want you to play this game over and over, because the Lore Store, oftentimes, only truly affects a new game. I likely won't be replaying this game as much as they'd like me too, though, for various previously mentioned reasons. Perhaps it relies on artificial difficulty so much because it wants to force you into restarting the game. I would have loved if there were more chances to permanently raise your stats, instead of relying on your equipment to carry you through battle. I would have loved if fights were actually fair. I even would have been okay with having to revive so much if these dungeons were the same level I was. I still do not like the ending of the game, but it would've been better if the code bothered to factor in the fact that we're only two heroes, not three. It was kind of like a slap to the face after being stabbed. TL;DR: This game is fun for laughs. You're better off avoiding the main quest and having as much fun elsewhere as you can. This game left me feeling incomplete. It has little to no impact, and hardly anything the game does feels like it matters. If you really want to try it out, I suggest waiting until it's free again and getting the recommended three players. This is not a game worth spending $60 on. Finishing the game left a foul taste in my mouth.

If you're playing for the story: don't. And if you're playing with less than three people? Don't. I'll mention beforehand that I'm reviewing this game based off of two playthroughs of the game (dying early on in the story the first time), both on the easiest game mode. We were a team of two. THE GOOD THINGS: This game is fun for exploration and laughs. It's enjoyable to clear

If you're playing for the story: don't. And if you're playing with less than three people? Don't. I'll mention beforehand that I'm reviewing this game based off of two playthroughs of the game (dying early on in the story the first time), both on the easiest game mode. We were a team of two. THE GOOD THINGS: This game is fun for exploration and laughs. It's enjoyable to clear sea caves, catacombs, and other mini dungeons on your own time. I very much liked the random encounters with buried swords, wishing wells, deep pools, stuff like that. It made sense to use your stats in that way, and I didn't mind the RNG function of it. Character customization and naming is fun as well, but only because we could laugh at it. The world seemed very open and fun to explore. Emphasis on seemed (we'll get to that later). THE FIGHTS: The main dungeons, along with the rest of the main quest, are unbelievably draining. Oftentimes, you can enter a level 6 dungeon, as a level 6, and get absolutely obliterated with no chance of winning. That's a huge problem with enemies and fighting in general. All enemies (that are the same level as you) will ALWAYS be more powerful. The only time my partner and I were able to clear dungeons with ease was when we were SIX LEVELS ABOVE THE DUNGEON LEVEL. Level 8 dungeons at level 12 felt like a fair fight. The turns hardly make any sense. I understand that ambushes will decide initiative, but sometimes one enemy will be able to go multiple times without any given reason. My partner often had to use rush to give us a fair chance. I'm fine with the mechanic in which you use up a life to revive your teammates. That's fine. But you have to both use up a turn to revive them, and if you die too you're both done for? My partner and I save up nine lives only to discover that they don't mean anything if you both die. I would have even been fine if you had to use two lives each to revive yourselves after complete death. But after failing a dungeon (whether it be a mini dungeon or otherwise), you have no chance to return to the outside of the dungeon, or even recover what you had for a new game. [SPOILER WARNING FOR THE END OF THE GAME] The last dungeon, the Chaos Tower, was Level 10. I was Level 13, and my partner was Level 12. Ordinarily this would be a pretty easy fight, but knowing the game, it wouldn't be. There was no way to prepare for the different elemental enemies that would come up. There was no way we could have known that the first floor would be ice based, and therefore had no way to equip gear that would allow us to have a fair fight. The only way we could prepare for the next floor was to GUESS at which element it would be. For a game that's so heavy on using better equipment to increase your stats, it was really frustrating. The final boss battle, might I remind you, was STILL only Level 10. My partner and I had to revive ourselves upwards of eight times, along with using up all the stashed healing herbs we had, and crumbling our sanctums. Upon finally killing the (way overpowered) Boss, his wolf henchmen were still remaining, which didn't make much sense to me. I had assumed they would disappear, since they're clearly made of magic, and their caster was dead. We hardly got any reward for beating it, too. No achievement, no extra gold, not even a hefty sum of Lore that you couldn't get anywhere else. That aside, we beat the dungeon, and we were immediately killed off. This comes across as lazy storytelling, as if the writers didn't know how to bring the story to a close. It was the most anticlimactic ending to a game I had EVER seen. It left a very foul taste in my mouth. I'll say that I very much enjoyed the fight with the Kraken (LVL 12). We were able to fight it with good strategy at Level 11. It was daunting but still felt winnable, since after defeating the Kraken itself, the tentacles were no longer a problem. I wish more fights in the game were like the Kraken battle. Most fights feel helpless, as if you're just taking hits and can't respond to it at all. That's because you are, and you can't. When battles supposedly got more difficult, the only thing that changed was the player could do less about what was happening to them. Often times it's taking multiple hits over and over, and being helpless to it. A difficult fight should be daunting but possible, not depressingly and annoyingly impossible. This game is reliant on artificial difficulty. THE MAP: Both my partner and I liked the beginning of the game because the map felt exciting. There was always more stuff to explore and discover. That ended after unlocking more than the Guardian Forest, Golden Plains, Burning Forest, and Rogue Isles. Past those, exploring felt tedious and unexciting. We were more likely to run into enemies that were either way higher level, or lower level and still capable of taking all our money or killing us altogether. We avoided exploring these new areas. Eventually we avoided it so much that we uncovered every hex of the map, of which was only disappointing. I understand that the clouds were placed to make the game seem more expansive, but travelling the deep corners of the ocean only to find that there isn't even a sea cave? That's incredibly disheartening. On top of that, we didn't get anything from it. There were no achievements, secret dungeons or areas to unlock, or even secret encounters. It was pointless above all else. THE PLOT: I didn't really understand the plot, or the weight of it. I didn't know who the king was, I didn't know why I should care that he died. The chaos felt so far away, and even when it affected gameplay, fights were already overpowered enough that I didn't care. The scourges felt like more of a threat than the chaos did. Not of it left an impact on me or the gameplay. THE GAMEPLAY: The fight mechanic isn't inherently bad. I like the use of RNG, stats, and how each weapon has different attacks and effects. However it gets real tedious when the enemies seemingly have infinitely more luck and skill than you. It just seems unwinnable at that point. The game is very keen on making you start and entirely new save file. They very clearly want you to play this game over and over, because the Lore Store, oftentimes, only truly affects a new game. I likely won't be replaying this game as much as they'd like me too, though, for various previously mentioned reasons. Perhaps it relies on artificial difficulty so much because it wants to force you into restarting the game. I would have loved if there were more chances to permanently raise your stats, instead of relying on your equipment to carry you through battle. I would have loved if fights were actually fair. I even would have been okay with having to revive so much if these dungeons were the same level I was. I still do not like the ending of the game, but it would've been better if the code bothered to factor in the fact that we're only two heroes, not three. It was kind of like a slap to the face after being stabbed. TL;DR: This game is fun for laughs. You're better off avoiding the main quest and having as much fun elsewhere as you can. This game left me feeling incomplete. It has little to no impact, and hardly anything the game does feels like it matters. If you really want to try it out, I suggest waiting until it's free again and getting the recommended three players. This is not a game worth spending $60 on. Finishing the game left a foul taste in my mouth.

This game is absolute garbage and a slap in the face to roguelike genre fans. At their core, rogue genre games should be about trying to progress through difficult decisions and combat tactics. Sometimes things go wrong and you lose. That's the way the genre plays out. For the King however, nothing you do in combat, character prep, or any other choice matters. The only thing that matters is the terrible rng slot rolls which the entire game is built around, adding nothing but arbitrary gimmick mechanics. I can not tell you how many times I have actually missed a roll at 93% chance on 2 weapons slots. No this is not how rogue games are. You want to remove poison from a teammate? Nope. Failed 89% chance. The system is utter trash. It doesn't matter what team combo you setup, it doesn't matter if you found a new weapon that deals a lot more damage. Rng will make it so you will never hit. The game mechanics are so bad, it's like the develops just thought of random junk and said yah put it in the game. How about a monster that only takes damage on perfect combat rolls. Sounds good put it in! Opps, we forgot, players fail rolls every turn. Combat goes on for 10 rounds since you fail every roll. That's just the beginning of some of the stupid mechanics in this game. To me, the developers took the lazy and cheap way out making a game like this and calling it difficult. Nothing is this game is hard, there is no strategy, there are no consequences for your decision ingame. Nothing that makes a solid roguelike game are in For the King. Instead, it is a slot machine simulator with dumbed down combat encounters. If you are looking for a good roguelike. Do yourself a favor and hard pass For the King.