Here’s a rundown of all the RPGs and strategy games worth checking out from the last few days. For anyone who isn’t familiar with this very personal weekly column of mine, it’s basically a recap where I gather new releases, whether full or early access, and even interesting demos to try out.
It’s definitely useful if you’re looking for something new to start, or just want to discover a few noteworthy titles that, for one reason or another, slipped under your radar.
That said, the order is pretty random, except for the first entry on the list, which usually lines up with the most important release. Let’s get started.
Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy DX
- Developer: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch
- Release Date: November 13, 2025
- Steam Page
Obviously, I couldn’t not kick off with the DX edition of one of the most beloved series among JRPG fans, and maybe not just them.
Atelier Ryza 2 DX takes the already chunky JRPG sequel and turns it into the definitive version, bundling in all the previous DLC plus new content on top. Ryza’s alchemy-driven adventure still plays out three years after the first game, with real-time-with-pause turn-based combat (sort of ATB).
Dungeon exploration, and a big focus on gathering and synthesis, but this DX release adds Empel and Lila as fully playable party members, a side story centered on their search for a gate to the Underworld, and a Custom Combat mode that lets you tune enemy behavior and battle speed for repeatable challenges.
It also folds in quality-of-life upgrades like larger inventory capacity, UI improvements, extra graphic options, and save-data bonuses if you’ve played other entries in the Secret trilogy.
Five More Minutes (Demo)
- Developer: PurpleTurtle
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: 2026
- Steam Page
I talked about this title not too long ago, and the news that Five More Minutes’ Kickstarter campaign hit its goal has also paved the way for a demo to try out. Plus, there are still a few days left to support the campaign, maybe after giving the playtest demo a shot.
Five More Minutes is a genre-bending roguelite deckbuilder where every run is framed as a nostalgic trip through the video game eras you grew up with.
The demo lets you pick from different starting “genres”, each with its own card pool, memorabilia, and playstyle, then mash them together into broken hybrid builds as you hop between procedurally generated worlds loaded from your character’s old memory cards.
You level up your avatar to gain more actions and health, collect mementos that tweak the rules, and eventually fuse genres into absurd combo decks that deliberately try to “break the game,” all wrapped in a playful, retro-inspired presentation and a campaign that’s aiming for a 2026 release.
Rue Valley
- Developer: Emotion Spark Studio
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
- Release Date: November 11, 2025
- Steam Page
There’s no doubt that Disco Elysium paved the way for a one-of-a-kind RPG subgenre, one I fundamentally consider turn-based at its core. Many titles are trying to follow in ZA/UM’s footsteps, and one of the most recent to debut this week is Rue Valley.
An isometric narrative RPG with no traditional combat, built entirely around dialogue, internal monologue, and a 47-minute time loop.
You play Eugene Harrow, stuck in a surreal desert town and undergoing therapy after a breakdown, reliving the same day at the Rue Valley Motel while your choices reshape his personality, “mindsets,” and how people react to him on subsequent loops.
Progress is carried through via memories rather than stats in the usual RPG sense, and most of the playtime is spent probing conversations, managing inspiration and willpower, and slowly piecing together the nature of the anomaly trapping the town; the game is out on PC, PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch, published by Owlcat Games. Here is our detailed review.
Indies’ Lies 2: Fire Seed
- Developer: Fun Square Games
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: November 12, 2025
- Steam Page
I’ll admit I never tried the first entry in the series, but it’s still worth sharing that Indies’ Lies 2: Fire Seed launched just a few days ago, shifting the series away from pure card play into a top-down 2D tactical roguelite where you command a trio of heroes on compact, chess-like battlefields.
Each run has you building out skill synergies and rogue-lite meta upgrades while you lean hard on terrain manipulation, positioning, and combo chains to survive escalating encounters under the shadow of the evil god Indies.
The sequel keeps the Mekaa setting and factional conflict from the original Indies’ Lies, but trades lanes and card hands for grid tactics and a rotating cast of heroes, with procedurally generated maps and battles designed for repeated runs and “spike then explode” power curves.
Octopath Traveler 0 (Demo)
- Developer: Square Enix, DOKIDOKI GROOVE WORKS
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
- Release Date: November 12, 2025 (Demo) – Full Release set for December 4, 2025
- Steam Page
Maybe this one deserved to be at the very top, but since it’s “only” a demo, I decided to let it step back and mention it alongside the others. Yes, because, quite unexpectedly, the playable demo of the brand-new entry in the Octopath Traveler series has arrived, even if technically it’s a prequel to the main series.
Octopath Traveler 0’s new demo is basically a three-hour head start on a 100-hour HD-2D JRPG campaign, and your save carries straight into the full game when it launches on December 4.
Set in the town of Wishvale before it goes up in flames, the demo lets you create your own protagonist, sample the first chapters of several “Master of” villain storylines, and get an early taste of the town-building system that has you rebuilding Wishvale between journeys.
Turn-based battles still lean on the familiar Break & Boost system, but now you can field up to eight characters across front and back rows, swapping them mid-fight to line up weaknesses and tempo swings, and the demo is available across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.
Into the Grid
- Developer: Flatline Studios
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: November 10, 2025 (E.A.)
- Steam Page
The first reviews for the next title on my list are all “mostly positive,” even though we’re still talking about a game in Early Access.
Into the Grid is a cyberpunk roguelite deckbuilder that plays out like a tabletop board game smashed into a hacking sim. Every run sends your avatar through industrial maps full of terminals and patrolling machines, while a “Trace” meter punishes noisy play and forces you to think about route planning as much as raw combat power.
Battles themselves are driven by a dual-resource card system where devastating “programs” consume VIM and Commands, cutting down on dead draws and rewarding careful sequencing, and you gradually unlock new perks, commands, and faction-specific hackers with their own decks.
It’s in Early Access on PC now, with very positive early reviews praising the depth of the VIM/Command system and the way narrative snippets drip-feed the personal stories behind each faction.
Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution
- Developer: Studio Imugi
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: November 9, 2025 (Out of Early Access)
- Steam Page
I’ve talked about it often, Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution got solid visibility on TBL, and the game launched in its full version right on the anniversary of the French Revolution.
Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution is a turn-based tactics RPG that throws giant walking war machines into an alternate version of the French Revolution.
You lead a small resistance force on a campaign map, juggling limited resources and political decisions while dropping into grid-based battles where line of sight, elevation, and destructible cover matter as much as raw stats.
Between missions, you tweak mech loadouts with different weapons and support modules, level up pilots, and make narrative choices that can shift how the revolution unfolds, giving the campaign a light strategy-layer feel on top of its story-driven missions about nobles, commoners, and steam-powered class warfare.
Below the Crown
- Developer: Misfits Attic
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: November 10, 2025 (E.A.)
- Steam Page
Below the Crown is a strange, clever Early Access mix of roguelite dungeon crawler, chess puzzle, and psychological experiment from the Duskers devs.
You drop into a dungeon with a single chess piece and a wizard, then “cast” new pieces with special abilities onto the board as you fight through rooms full of enemies that move with simple, readable patterns until you reach bosses.
Runs are laced with meta-layers: daily challenges, community-posted runs you can attempt as asynchronous “ghost” duels, a custom board editor for building new rooms, and even in-run psychological questionnaires that react to how you relate to your pieces.
It’s currently PC-only, in Early Access, and tuned to be fast and readable rather than a slow traditional chess slog.
Die For The Lich
- Developer: Monovoid
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: November 10, 2025
- Steam Page
The next one is a game I adore for its graphic style and clean UI. Die For The Lich is a dice-based roguelite that swaps decks of cards for trays of magical dice, then asks you to gamble your life against folklore monsters and an undead king.
You pick a hero with their own starting dice and gear, walk a branching map full of fights, vendors, upgrade shrines, and weird events, and in combat, you need to roll at or under specific numbers to trigger weapons, shields, and abilities.
The hook is how much you can manipulate fate: you can fuse and customize dice, equip trinkets that alter rolls, and seek out “Blood Moon”-style high-risk encounters for bigger rewards, creating builds that feel closer to a living dice engine than a static loadout.
The full version is out on PC with a generous demo still available for people who want to test the dice-builder loop first.
Conquer Lands
- Developer: Virtual Fable
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: November 8, 2025
- Steam Page
It slipped past me among last week’s releases, and so Conquer Lands, the medieval roguelite deckbuilder, is here. The game is about lords scrapping for the throne after the king dies, and is built around card-driven gameplay.
Released 8 November 2025 and currently in Early Access from indie studio Virtual Fable, Conquer Lands core mechanics revolve around deck-building and army composition.
You assemble unit cards, each card is triggered by the class/strength/type of units in your army, and the battlefield introduces positional tactics such as cards that change enemy formation or allow you to swap your own units mid-battle.
Between runs, you upgrade cards in two dimensions (Card Level increases damage; Position Level allows multi-target effects) and collect relics of the fallen Molgrad Empire to boost your deck’s potential.
The game emphasises high replayability by branching map regions, randomised enemy patterns, and relic pulls, and despite its early state, it already supports strategic depth rather than mere “card draw + luck”.
Swords and Sandals 3 Redux
- Developer: Whiskeybarrel Studios
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: November 12, 2025
- Steam Page
And we wrap up with a title that’s always had a special pull for me, one where the heroes’ limbs go flying in the most satisfying way. I’m talking about Swords and Sandals, which just returned with a redux version of the third entry in the series.
Redux is a modernized version of the old-school gladiator RPG, refreshing its arena brawls with widescreen support, cleaner UI, and a raft of quality-of-life tweaks.
You still roll up a custom gladiator, assign stats and skills, and grind through turn-based duels, tournaments, and survival modes to earn gold for new weapons, armor, spells, and silly cosmetic gear, all while climbing the ladder of a tongue-in-cheek fantasy empire.
The Redux release tightens the balance, smooths the progression, and adds conveniences like cloud saves and updated presentation, making it the “best way” to revisit one of the most beloved entries in the Swords and Sandals series on modern PCs.
