For The King Early Access Preview: Into The Chaos

The brainchild of several industry veterans, the turn-based indie RPG For The King provides a unique twist on the roguelike genre.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the phrase “Early Access,” a little alarm goes off in my head. This alarm gets even louder when the often misused tag of “roguelike” is tacked on to that. The explosion of Early Access games on Steam can oftentimes be overwhelming and end in bitter disappointment. But every once in a while, you find that diamond in the rough. That game that reminds you that not all Early Access indie titles are multiplayer survival games or Minecraft clones or Unity Asset Store flips.

This past week, that shiny diamond for me has been IronOak Games’ For The King. Despite its rather generic name, the game is anything but. This procedural roguelike RPG is uncommonly polished for an Early Access title, filled with adventure and danger in a vibrant world that immediately sucks you in. Its combination of board game mechanics and turn-based, dice-rolling combat is like if Armello, Dungeons and Dragons, and JRPGs had a child, resulting in a unique hybrid that provides a refreshing twist on both the strategy and roguelike genres.

The Brink of Chaos

The once prosperous kingdom of Fahrul has fallen into chaos after the great King Bronner was murdered by an unknown assassin. Ancient forces begin to wreak havoc on the kingdom. Out of desperation, the Queen Rosomon calls upon the citizens of Fahrul to discover the source of the Chaos. Players control a small party of three adventurers as they explore and fight their way through a dangerous world where death lurks around every corner.

You can initially choose from four different classes to compose your motley crew: the tank-like Blacksmith, the deadly accurate Hunter, the magic dueling Scholar, or the supporting Minstrel. You can unlock an additional four classes through the “Lore Store.” You are awarded Lore for completing objectives each playthrough, enabling you to purchase new classes, items, encounters, and locations for subsequent adventures.

Credit: IronOak Games /

For The King offers a single player mode, where one player controls all three characters, as well as both online and local cooperative modes to split character control with your friends. Each class lends itself to different playstyles, and you have to choose whether to explore the map together or split up. Experience points and levels are individualized per character, while any obtained items can be traded between party members.

The overworld plays like a board game, rotating turns between each party member. Each turn, you roll to determine how many hexagonal tiles your character can move on the map. There are various randomly generated locations and enemies on the map you can interact with, some of which are hidden until you land on that tile (making for dangerous surprise encounters). You have a main storyline quest to complete, with the option of picking up side quests along the way.

Credit: IronOak Games /

Don’t be fooled by its colorful art style and animations: For The King is unforgiving to say the least.

The map is procedurally generated on each playthrough but the storyline remains the same. You will always start off with the same quests, while the objective locations, spawned enemies, and item drops will differ each time. For The King also includes both a weather system and a day-and-night cycle, affecting what challenges and enemies appear (for better or for worse). While this rogue-like system definitely favors replayability, it is still a bit too repetitive for my liking, especially when compared to other games in the genre. I would love if they added a few different starting zones that are randomly chosen to mix things up even more.

Although the game is turn-based, it is still a race against the clock: or in this case, the Chaos meter. You have to complete storyline objectives within a certain number of turns or else the Chaos meter increases, which in turn raises the difficulty of your playthrough. This mechanic plays a huge factor in the game’s difficulty spike. Completing these objectives within the turn limit can be a challenge, especially if they spawn in less-than-favorable locations. I would love to see a casual mode added into the game that disables the Chaos meter to enable more map exploration.

Credit: IronOak Games /

RNGesus Be Praised

The game’s combat utilizes a proficiency skill system. Your abilities are entirely determined by the items you have equipped. Each action is tied to one of seven core stats, and its efficiency in battle is determined by a weighted dice roll dependent on that character’s related attribute. For instance, a Hunter’s bow might have a Standard Shot that relies on the Awareness skill. The higher the Hunter’s Awareness, the more likely that shot will succeed. Characters can also tip the odds in their favor by using a limited amount of Mental Focus. This will guarantee a higher success rate, helping balance out some of the RNG. It’s a game of probabilities and chance: should you take the 100% safe route, or go for the 55% chance of ambushing?

Don’t be fooled by its colorful art style and animations: For The King is unforgiving to say the least. Every move can make your break your current run. You can choose between three different difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, and Hardcore. In the previewed build of the game, you could easily rename these as “Normal, Hard, and Near-Impossible.” In every difficulty, one misstep can lead to a failed battle or player death, increasing the Chaos meter. And in the case of hardcore mode, death is permanent: no reviving your dead friends in this insane mode!

Credit: IronOak Games /

It’s a constant battle to keep your party healed up while still gaining experience and obtaining necessary item upgrades. Defeating enemies rewards you with gold and various consumables and items, or they can be purchased from shops scattered across the map. Town locations also sell services to heal your characters or remove debuffs like poison. But the amount of gold you gain each battle is underwhelming. As the game progresses, the inflation rate becomes extremely hard to keep up with. You end up paying a lot of gold to heal yourself for only a portion of your health bar. Balancing your gold spending between healing and buying much-needed weapon upgrades is challenging, more so than it probably needs to be.

While the game might need some balancing in this regard, the challenge of For The King is a primary selling point. Randomness will always play somewhat of a factor, but that is to be expected for rogue-like games. Sure, there were a few times I got unlucky and missed a 95% hit chance on an attack, or the objective spawned in a hard to reach location. But I never felt like the randomness completely hindered my progress. At its core, For The King is all about strategy and properly weighing the probabilities for success each turn.

Credit: IronOak Games /

I Heart Co-Op

The game’s strategic gameplay truly came into the spotlight while playing co-op mode. I spent some time this past week playing with IHeartPieGaming, who I found streaming For The King on Twitch. The co-op mode is designed for three people, so when playing with only two players, one person controls two characters. As you progress through the story, every move you make becomes more and more important. This makes teamwork crucial to the success of your party. Being a former World of Warcraft raider, I’ve always enjoyed planning strategies with friends in video games. I found that For The King nailed that aspect, making for an extremely enjoyable and unique co-op experience.

Ultimately, I enjoyed For The King the most in this mode, and would highly recommend playing with friends for added enjoyment. Keep in mind that the online co-op mode is still in beta, which is proclaimed in an alert banner on the main menu. It currently lacks any text or voice chat, which you can easily work around. The biggest hindrance was the lack of a fully shared user interface. This means when it is not your turn, you cannot see anything that your partner(s) are doing nor any information about the nearby locations and enemies in the overworld map. This adds an additional communication challenge when trying to plan out your next moves.

Credit: IronOak Games /

Concluding Thoughts

I was surprised at the polish For The King has considering it’s still in Early Access. The art style is attractive, the music is exceptionally fitting, and the animations are rewarding. It does so many little things well that a lot of fully released titles ignore. For instance, when you equip different items, the in-game character model actually equips them, color-coded to their selected primary color. Or when you manage a perfect roll on an attack, the sound and resulting attack animation is extremely gratifying.