You’ve heard of book clubs, but have you heard of a demo club? Each month, the charming folks behind Turn Based Thursday pick a curated collection of promising demos for the community to come together, discuss, and enjoy.
I have to admit, while demos have had a bit of a resurgence thanks to Steam, they are not something I have utilized in many years. Not since the days when you could crack open a box of cereal and find a demo disk for whatever kid-friendly sponsor was slapped on the front of the box. There are just so many full titles sitting in my backlog that my conscience tells me I should be playing over a new demo…
…Yet the idea of a group discussion over a variety of bite-sized game experiences certainly appeals. Maybe I would find a hidden gem to be excited about for the future or some innovative ideas that I hadn’t come across anywhere else? All without the time commitment of a full title. If nothing else, it’s interesting to discuss your experience with the game developers themselves, who can frequently be found in the same group. Imagine a book club where the author is also a member and your feedback can help shape work on the book in question.
I’ll be sharing my feedback on this month demo’s below, but if you wish to participate, I would advise you to stop now, head on over to the Turn Based Lovers Discord, and get involved yourself, lest I bias your opinions. If you are just on the hunt for interesting new titles though, I got you covered with my thoughts on this month’s batch.
Zodiac Legion
The first title on the list was the one I was most eager to try: Zodiac Legion. I adore Battle Brothers and similar style games, so when I initially stumbled across this on the Steam store and saw I would get to take command of a chivalric order, develop my stronghold, and go on quests through a dynamic campaign, it immediately made my wishlist.
Upon loading into the demo, I was sold on the theming with a dark fantasy world map and character design that felt like a throwback to Diablo 2 or old isometric RPGs. The tutorial handily pointed me to my party composition screen to be presented with my available knights, from which I picked a retinue based solely on the aesthetic coolness factor and then set off to defeat some bad guys.
Maybe the demo was throwing me a number of powerful characters, or maybe this is the baseline, but every single knight looked like they could make their way through the latest FromSoft title, and I’m here for not starting off with a bunch of rag-tag peasants.
The music shifted from a charming medieval harp to a more sinister creeping tone as I was dropped into the first dungeon. An ominous herald of the vicious enemies lurking within. It certainly was ominous…. because my game then crashed. I’ll admit I did have some tech problems with this title, but after a restart, my lance went room to room, separating heads from shoulders.
The combat places emphasis on formations and making sure units are placed correctly, with the store page promising a number of spells and abilities featuring terrain destruction to add additional strategic levels not to mention the traps and barricades I encountered during my short time playing.
It did feel very Battle Brothers, and that isn’t a bad thing, although, unlike Battle Brothers, this game actually has some combat animations! They were nothing too flashy, but they added a nice weighty feel to the combat, complete with hefty connecting sounds.
My main concerns were around the UI. There are a whole lot of icons for each character compounded by many of the numbers you care about as a player (i.e., hit chance) being obscured behind a secondary dice-rolling system. Maybe I am blind, but I also couldn’t see any type of log to show me what was happening behind the scenes, which would have helped me digest what the numbers in front of me actually ended up doing. It wasn’t enough to put me off the game, and it still has its spot on my wishlist. Assuming the technical issues are fixed, I am fairly confident in this one being a very solid title on release; keep an eye on it.
My Familiar
I had not heard of this title prior to the demo club, so I went in with no basis of what to expect other than a glance at its rather vibrant capsule art and its description of being a “turn-based, buddy-cop Isekai RPG”. Thankfully, My Familiar had my expectations surpassed on pretty much all fronts. After a short introduction where our main character gets isekai’ed via window fall (I guess the truck driver that usually turns up to run over a character was on vacation). We find ourselves in a world that feels like a noir crime story that someone unashamedly took cans of neon spray paint to.
Within my short time in the game, I was introduced to some rather defeatist locals and sent a trio of hooligans packing in old-school JRPG-style combat with optional timing elements to keep it fresh. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it doesn’t need to when it succeeds in feeling like a reverent but fun take on older titles.
It’s always hard to tell how the narrative will go from a short demo snipper, and I hope the story pans out well, but I can at least attest to the characters being fun and engaging, even if some jokes didn’t land with me personally. From the store screenshots, there are also plenty of interesting characters yet to meet, including the fearsome double threat that is “Duckdog.”
The real selling point from the demo is the overall style, though. Whether it be the “saxy” battle music, the creative boss fights against greaser looking foes or the UI being composed of graffitied walls. My Familiar just oozes quality and fun. If the demo is reflective of the final product, then I can easily recommend this one to all turn-based fans. Even if JRPGs aren’t your usual flavor of turn-based, the setting of this game might just be enough to drag you in any way. Very Impressed!
Kingdom’s Deck
Being a deckbuilder in 2025 doesn’t really pass as a selling point anymore. We have been absolutely saturated with them to the point that roguelike deck builders have their own Steam tag. Still, I can’t deny I like the formula, and mixing it with a town builder with elements of Tower Defence/RTS certainly makes for a more novel feeling twist on the genre.
During the day, you’ll be drafting cards to build your city, trying to tow the perfect line of economy, military, and utility. At night, it’s time for the villagers to run back to their homes as you ready your soldiers and prepare to face the approaching hordes.
There are some interesting strategic choices in the day phase. Cards unlock over the course of the day, so if you want the most choice, you can wait the day out until all are available. Doing this will severely limit the resource collection time on any economy buildings as well as run the risk of your builder simply not completing everything before nightfall.
I generally liked this half of the game, there is a nice sense of progression to the buildings although I had a niggling feeling there was a slight lack of meaning behind the player choice as from what I saw you can’t really specialise and were forced to go for a very balanced approach.
The night sections I found to be a fair bit weaker. Combat feels rather finnicky as you can’t order units to attack specific targets, only position them and let the AI take control. This is especially annoying with ranged units who can often end up closer to the fight than you might like as you try to position them at the perfect range. You can fairly accuse me of being bad at micro, and I don’t think the game wants to be a full-blown RTS, but it didn’t quite work for me. The unlockable spells do promise to add a bit extra variety, although they were simply spammable on a cooldown, and I found myself wanting to get back to building the town!
It will be interesting to see how this one shapes up. From the demo, I didn’t get a great sense of where this game is headed after more playtime, so the additional maps and unlocks could well subvert my expectations, but I did find myself rather charmed by the relatively simplistic aesthetics. Keep an eye on it if the idea of a city defense deckbuilder appeals to you.
Silence of the Siren
I’m honestly surprised we don’t get more Heroes of Might & Magic likes (yes, I know about King’s Bounty). Yet between the full launch of Songs of Conquest and the early access launch of Silence of the Siren, 2024 was a good year for fans of the niche. I had heard some promising rumors about this one going in as a strong sci-fi take on the genre. When the demo started I certainly didn’t get the titular sirens, instead I was greeted by some militaristic molemen intent on taking over the area.
Now, I should be clear that if you have never played HoMM, then you will need to play the tutorial first, as the bulk of the demo throws you straight into the action. It very much wears its inspiration on its sleeve, and if you have played a similar title, your muscle memory will be kicking in straight away. Build up your citadel, win battles, make pitstops every now and then to collect more units, rinse and repeat.
What I particularly enjoyed was the unit’s diversity and design. Initially starting off with some beefy moles and ratling gunners, I was concerned it might feel a bit on the stale side, but when I unlocked mole artillery that fired shells under the ground to explode on the next turn, I was sold. There are some nice innovations here on the original HoMM formula as well. Resource points can be upgraded, and many units have activatable abilities to turn the tide in battle. I also ran into a particular unit that changed its power based on the day/night cycle, which makes me wonder what other interesting designs can be found among other factions.
This all pairs with a vibrant world map and interesting alien unit design that helps separate it from its contemporaries. If you weren’t into this style of game prior, I don’t think Silence of the Siren is going to do enough to change your mind, but from the small slice I played, it seems to be shaping as a worthy Heroes successor. It also just received an hefty update and is the only game on this list you can jump into now via early access. Just be aware it still has quite a bit of content missing from the full release.
That’s my round-up; feel like joining in? There is still plenty of time this month to get involved and plenty more months of fun to come. Head on over and tell them AJ sent you.
