The weekend means it’s time to round up everything new to play on the turn-based RPG and strategy front, including roguelites and a few hybrids.
This week, my radar mostly picked up titles debuting in Early Access, reinforcing how that model is becoming the norm not just for solo indie devs and small studios, but for slightly better-resourced teams too.
Either way, between new demos, Early Access launches, and a few full releases, there’s plenty worth spotlighting again this week.
ENDLESS Legend 2 (E.A.)
- Developer: AMPLITUDE Studios
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: 22 Sep, 2025
- Steam page
Obviously, the week’s main headliner has to be ENDLESS Legend 2, so I had to start there. The long-awaited second entry in this major 4X strategy series has debuted in Early Access, and it looks like it’s off to a great start.
It shifts the fight to an ever-changing ocean world on the brink, where seasonal monsoons and dramatic tidefalls expose fresh land, resources, and approach routes that can upend your plans mid-campaign.
You found cities, extend districts for adjacency bonuses, exploit strategic and luxury nodes, and push armies into turn-based tactical battles where terrain, chokepoints, and elevation matter.
Heroes anchor your forces and grow through traits and gear, minor factions can be subdued or integrated to add units and specialists, and victory paths range from conquest to diplomatic or technological play, with quests and anomalies threading story through the run.
The Early Access build includes the core systems, narrative quests and victory conditions, functional diplomacy and combat, and five major factions; the team targets at least six months of iteration, with plans for an additional faction, expanded endgame, multiplayer, and broader polish before 1.0. If you loved the first game’s mix of empire management and tactical scraps, this reads like a true sequel, new planet, same focus on big choices and strong identities.
Aethermancer (E.A.)
- Developer: moi rai games
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: 23 Sep, 2025
- Steam page
Another title debuting in Early Access and just as interesting, maybe more to my taste, is Aethermancer, a monster-collecting RPG with a stronger roguelite slant.
A party of three bonded creatures tackles turn-based battles built around the four Aether elements. Each run pushes through procedurally generated levels across Terastae, with choices about skills and synergies shaping how a team plays.
If a monster falls, it’s gone for that run, but the rebirth system lets souls return changed and stronger, turning losses into long-term gains. Outside combat, a small village grows as new townsfolk arrive, feeding light story threads and metaprogression that carry between attempts.
The Early Access build on PC includes one player class, three difficulty modes, three biomes, 28 monsters, each with a shifted variant, and hundreds of abilities to unlock. The team targets about a year of iteration, aiming to add more monsters and biomes, deity boss fights, player classes, and a fuller endgame before 1.0.
I think that if Monster Sanctuary’s depth (latest game from this dev) clicked for you, this keeps that focus on clean, readable combat while pushing harder on run variety and team-building experiments.
Command Deck (E.A.)
- Developer: k-critical
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: 24 Sep, 2025
- Steam page
The FTL formula has become so well-known that it’s been revisited in countless iterations over the years, and plenty of turn-based titles have already experimented with it. The latest on that front is Command Deck.
As the captain of the Peregrine, the player charts the Outer Reaches, where every jump tosses up fresh events, enemies, and rewards, and where aliens fight with their own decks instead of canned scripts.
Battles hinge on whether you shield up, vent heat, or line up blasters, then meddle with the opposition by jamming hands, seeding glitches, or outright stealing cards. Progress links map choices to ship-building: recruit executive officers for new tactical angles, bolt on augments, and tune a deck toward burst damage, control, or survivability while hunting a mystery around a guarded ancient artifact.
The Early Access build already covers a full five-sector run, capped by boss fights and fields three enemy factions. If you like roguelike deckbuilders but want the friction of ship systems and positional pressure, this reads like a clean, readable spin on the formula with plenty of room to grow.
Hunter’s Moon: A Sovereign Syndicate Adventure Demo
- Developer: Crimson Herring Studios
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: 25 Sep, 2025
- Steam page
This week also brought a playable demo for the sequel to the CRPG Sovereign Syndicate. It’s a slight genre shift, though: Hunter’s Moon (its official title) leans into a roguelite deckbuilder format while promising to maintain a strong narrative focus.
The demo lets players sample the loop: pick from four distinct classes with their own card sets, build and upgrade a deck on the fly, and take on corrupted beasts and bosses in turn-based battles that reward learning enemy traits.
Progress as usual happens in the genre doesn’t die with a failed attempt; relics, items, and materials feed back into stronger agents and airship upgrades, while enchanted tarot modifiers tilt the odds in different ways on the next go. It’s available to try now on Steam ahead of the 2025 launch.
Wartales: The Fief
- Developer: Shiro Games
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: 25 Sep, 2025
- Steam page
Another heavy hitter this week is definitely The Fief, the new strategy expansion for Wartales, which, by now, like some kind of modular robot thanks to the components added over the months since launch, has really become a whole different game, in the best possible way.
The fief DLC pivots the campaign from pure mercenary work to actual lordship. Instead of just taking contracts, the company claims the ruined Old Mount Altis Fortress and the surrounding lands, then grows that domain between journeys, managing it straight from camp so it fits the game’s rest-and-travel rhythm.
You’ll rebuild structures, produce goods, trade wisely, and keep people fed, safe, and loyal, turning a battered stronghold into something that reflects how you play.
In short, everything becomes more “strategic” and it’s positioned as a long-requested progression system that plugs into the existing loop without breaking its pace, and it arrives as part of the ongoing Contract line next to The Beast Hunt.
If you wanted a reason to return to an old save or a new backbone for a fresh company, The Fief gives Wartales a strategic home to defend and shape, and it looks awesome.
Saveseeker Demo
- Developer: Paper Sword Games
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: 24 Sep, 2025
- Steam page
Imagine having to fight your own father, a hero who’s slowly veered off his original purpose, and to pull it off, you team up with the very people who used to be the bad guys. Well, you don’t have to imagine it, because that’s exactly what the intriguing JRPG-inspired Saveseeker has you do.
You play Emmer Edette, a cheerful kid who inherits her famous father’s power to “save” moments in time, then sets out to overwrite his Save Stops across six colorful lands with the help of her grumpy dragon toy, Tippleton.
The journey leans on classic exploration and puzzle beats and a classic turn-based combat. What sets the cast apart is how former bosses become allies, each carrying a distinct kit that feels lifted from an RPG boss fight.
If you’re curious, the demo is the right place to meet Emmer and Tippleton, sample a region or two, and see whether those boss-ally synergies click for you.
Lost In The Open (E.A.)
- Developer: Black Voyage Games
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: 26 Sep, 2025
- Steam page
One of the Early Access debuts I’m most curious about is Lost in the Open, a tactical survival RPG where, as a despotic, and let’s be honest, utterly ruthless king, you’ll have to flee to dodge the fate you probably deserve.
A low-fantasy setting where we must try to keep King Nrvesk alive, giving command to a small company that you recruit, train, and equip on the run.
Fights play out on tight, positional maps with enemies that pull allies out of place, bait flanks, and spring traps, so protecting the king matters more than trading blows.
Between battles, you weigh routes through forests or high ground, spend scarce resources at merchants, and take on event decisions that can help or hurt the group.
The current build is Act 1: five factions with around twenty unit types (most recruitable), three zones and biomes, six boss encounters, and hundreds of events across dozens of combat maps.
Forsaker:DingDing&Blade
- Developer: BladeLanternStudios
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: 24 Sep, 2025
- Steam page
The last newly released RPG worth flagging is Forsaker:DingDing&Blade. A blend of a dark visual novel with light, non-grindy card battles.
The story plays out in a tripartite world caught between Humans, the Divine Corpus Church, and the Forsakers, where a “simple” mission pulls two rural youths into a cannibalistic conspiracy with real moral choices.
If you only want the narrative, there’s a dedicated Novel Mode with 200,000+ words and multiple interwoven, but I really can’t understand playing a game only by reading. However, if, like me, you want interaction, card duels surface at key moments and even let certain characters join you as combat allies as the plot advances, there’s the normal mode.
Scenes are illustrated with a cute-gothic art style and frequent CGs, then the game drops in short card encounters to underline a twist or raise the stakes rather than grind you through random fights.
That’s everything I had to share this week. Reminder: today at 6 PM I’ll be publishing a new video on my YouTube channel highlighting a few indie titles; for everything else, I’m waiting for your suggestions. Bye.
