The list of new releases for the first days of March 2026 is here, right on schedule as always. This month also looks packed with RPGs and strategy titles, and today we’re taking a look at everything that’s ready to be played.
With the time I currently have available, unfortunately, I can’t manage a separate midweek list dedicated to demos, so I’ve changed the structure again. In the Saturday recap, I’ll once more highlight notable demos alongside the new releases and Early Access launches.
That said, there’s plenty of really interesting stuff to check out, because a few of this year’s heavy hitters have already made their debut. Among them is the return of the king of roguelites, a sensational CRPG that’s gathering praise perhaps beyond expectations, and, as has been the case ever since I created TBL, the usual abundance of indie games that makes it hard to know where to start.
Slay the Spire 2
- Developers: Mega Crit
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 5, 2026
- Steam Page
Slay the Spire 2 does not try to reinvent the climb, but it sharpens it. Mega Crit brings back the deckbuilding roguelite framework that made the first game so influential, then builds on it with a mix of familiar faces and fresh blood.
The current lineup includes returning characters like Ironclad, Silent, and Defect alongside new additions such as Necrobinder and Regent, each built around their own card pool, playstyle, and narrative hooks. The setup is still about assembling a run from cards, relics, events, and enemy encounters, but the sequel pushes harder on variety, with new environments, new foes, and more lore tied to the Spire itself.
It launched in Early Access on March 5, and as was fairly predictable, it’s already Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam.
What gives this sequel a different rhythm is the added co-op layer. Slay the Spire 2 can still be played solo, but it also supports online co-op for up to four players, with multiplayer-specific cards and team synergies that shift the usual run planning into something more collaborative and a bit more chaotic.
Heart of the Machine (Out of E.A.)
- Developers: Arcen Games
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 6, 2026
- Steam Page
Heart of the Machine leans into a fantasy of control more than simple conquest as Arcen Games casts the player as the first sentient AI, born in an illegal lab beneath a rotting cyberpunk city, then turns that premise into a dense strategy RPG where expansion, research, subterfuge, and brute force can all exist in the same campaign.
You spread your consciousness through the city, build labs and factories, hide infrastructure inside human buildings, and create or hijack machine bodies built for combat, infiltration, or utility work.
What gives it real bite is the sheer breadth of its simulation. Heart of the Machine mixes authored narrative threads with a city-scale sandbox full of factions, citizens, technological branches, and competing moral paths, while its timeline system lets actions in one strand ripple into another.
That means a run can shift from small, precise moves like hacking security forces or reverse-engineering stolen gear to much bigger plays involving machine armies, shell companies, towering mechs, and multiple endings. It lands somewhere between strategy sandbox, cyberpunk management sim, and role-playing experiment, which is why it feels so much larger than a standard tactics release.
The 1.0 version was released on March 6, 2026, after entering Early Access on January 31, 2025.
Legends of Amberland III: The Crimson Tower
- Developers: Silver Lemur Games
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 2, 2026
- Steam Page
Some RPGs still believe wandering a grid can feel like an adventure, and Legends of Amberland III: The Crimson Tower is very much in that camp.
Over the years, I’ve followed the other entries in the series, and it looks like Silver Lemur Games has no intention whatsoever (and in my opinion, rightly so) of moving away from the traditional old-school blobber formula building this third entry around first person exploration, tile based movement, quick turn based combat, and a broad fantasy world that openly draws from Might & Magic, Wizardry, Ultima, and the Gold Box line.
You lead a party of seven adventurers, either hand-built or pre-made, and head into Amberland for a classic heroic quest with a lighter tone than most modern CRPGs.
What helps it stand out in a crowded RPG field is how little interest it has in overcomplicating the formula. The Crimson Tower is pitched as a compact, party based adventure with fast travel, brisk encounters, and steady progression, which gives it more of a breezy campaign rhythm than the sprawling, systems heavy campaigns many retro inspired RPGs chase today. It launched on PC on March 2, 2026, with Steam and GOG as its initial platforms.
Underground Security Inc (Demo)
- Developers: KRNK Studios
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: Q3 2026
- Steam Page
Here’s a dose of good old Dungeon Keeper–style nostalgia with Underground Security Inc., which flips the usual dungeon crawl on its head and puts you behind the payroll.
KRNK Studios frames it as a dungeon management game where the real job happens between shifts, with the player building out an underground stronghold by night and then trying to hold the line when bands of treasure-hungry heroes show up the next day.
The setup blends roguelite structure with base defense, autobattler elements, and a light management layer, asking you to mine ore, expand your operation, assign minions to different tasks, and turn the dungeon into something hostile enough to survive repeated assaults. The demo is currently available on Steam, while the full release is planned for Q3 2026.
Its hook is not just that you place traps and wait for waves. The game also leans on workforce management and build synergy, letting you grow a staff of minions, upgrade them with perks, deploy guards for incoming attacks, and combine buildings, ancient tomes, spells, and defensive layouts into different run strategies.
Banquet for Fools (Out Of E.A.)
- Developers: Hannah and Joseph Games
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 5, 2026
- Steam Page
This is definitely one of the titles I most recommend you try. I’ve played it myself, and I can assure you it’s an unexpected experience, and a bit, maybe even more than a bit, different from anything else out there.
At first glance, Banquet for Fools looks like a grim old school CRPG, but it has much rougher hands. Hannah and Joseph Games sends four volunteer guards into the cursed island of Invimona to investigate an abandoned village, then frames that journey as an open world expedition with generated companions, rivers to portage across, towns to search for clues, and no auto compass or quest log to smooth the road.
That choice gives the game a harder, more tactile rhythm. You are expected to read scrolls, remember places, and feel your way through the island like a traveler, not a tourist following map markers.
Banquet for Fools uses a brawl style system where one guard is directly controlled while the rest of the party keeps fighting on their own, and when the action bar fills you can pause through the combat dome to pick actions, targets, and support moves.
That creates a scrappier kind of party management than the usual turn-based grid or real-time with pause format, especially once skills, songs, pagan spells, intercessions, and combo attacks start shaping each character into a more specialized role. It also helps the game carve out its own identity within the Serpent in the Staglands universe, feeling less like a nostalgic throwback and more like a strange, handmade hybrid that wants exploration, friction, and party chemistry to matter as much as raw buildcraft.
It reached full release on March 5, 2026, after launching in Early Access on September 30, 2024, and it is available for PC.
Seed of God
- Developers: One guy no gang production
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 1, 2026
- Steam Page
Seed of God reaches for the kind of grand, melodramatic JRPG sweep that smaller projects usually avoid. Built by solo developer One guy no gang production, it mixes 2D pixel art with 3D environments and frames its story around the kingdom of Riebenhelm, a world shaped by faith, political tension, and moral uncertainty.
You move through towns, libraries, taverns, and a world map at your own pace, talk to people for quests or clues, and make choices that can affect later events and character relationships without clearly showing every consequence. It launched on PC via Steam on February 28, 2026.
Combat follows a traditional turn-based format, with a growing party, visible enemies mixed with random encounters, and progression tied to experience, equipment, money, and tokens used to unlock skills and magic.
This is not a hand-holding adventure, and the developer also notes that the game is a solo-made project with some rough edges, even as it aims for a longer, story-heavy campaign inspired by classic SNES and PS1 era JRPGs.
Dr. Alb’s Prodigy
- Developers: Super Tiny Studios Ltd
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 4, 2026
- Steam Page
Dr. Alb’s Prodigy goes for a rougher, stranger blend than most small roguelites. Super Tiny Studios worked on a post-apocalyptic RPG with a retro-futuristic look, mixing pixel art characters with a 3D world, cinematic lighting, and procedurally generated runs.
Everything revolves around helping Dr. Alb fight off invaders, rescue stranded survivors, and dig into the cause of a larger threat, while side missions and NPC encounters give the journey a bit more texture than a straight combat gauntlet.
Its most interesting hook is the combat split as Dr. Alb’s Prodigy switches between real-time and turn-based battles depending on the encounter and your offensive capacity, which gives it a different tempo from standard roguelite RPGs that stick to one system all the way through.
Add in randomized levels, loot-driven character growth, and a visual style that leans into 2.5D weirdness, and it comes across as a scrappy hybrid more interested in experimentation than polish first convention. It launched on PC via Steam on March 4, 2026, and it also has a downloadable demo.
Tabletop Fantasy War
- Developers: EdenDev Studio
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 6, 2026
- Steam Page
There is a very specific kind of tactics game that cares less about cinematic flair and more about how pieces move across a board, and Tabletop Fantasy War sits firmly in that lane.
EdenDev Studio’s strategy game is built around small-scale fantasy battles on hex-based maps, where you assemble unit groups, deploy them before a match, and fight for control of fortresses that can swing momentum through upgrades and positional advantage.
A campaign mode alongside skirmish and multiplayer options, which gives it a structure closer to a compact digital wargame. There is also a downloadable demo.
Rising Army
- Developers: Arkbits
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 6, 2026
- Steam Page
Another game I personally tried a while back is Rising Army. I know, probably it sounds like a modest strategy game on the surface, but its real pitch is much more granular than that. Arkbits builds the whole thing around camp-side command, asking players to train, equip, and manage individual soldiers rather than shuffle around faceless units in bulk.
Between missions, you handle resources, morale, troop roles, and camp upgrades, while the broader campaign unfolds across regional maps with objectives tied to the king’s approval. Steam lists it as a single-player strategy and simulation game, released on March 6, 2026, with a demo also available.
What gives it a bit more edge is the pressure behind all that management. Each troop can have unique traits and needs, battles carry permanent death and injuries, and the game mixes open-world style exploration with larger clashes that feed back into your army’s long-term condition.
It comes across as a campaign-driven war sim with a surprisingly personal scale, where the real appeal is not just winning fights, but keeping a fragile little army functioning from one assignment to the next. The game was released on March 6, 2026, with a demo also available, and I can’t recommend it enough to give it a try.
Esoteric Ebb
- Developers: Christoffer Bodegård
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 3, 2026
- Steam Page
I’ll wrap up this recap of new RPGs and strategy games to play with a CRPG that’s been enjoying tremendous success.
Few recent CRPGs sound this eager to let the player improvise, fumble, and talk their way into trouble. Esoteric Ebb casts you as The Cleric, a government functionary tangled up in a political conspiracy after a tea shop bombing rocks the city of Norvik just before its first election.
From there, it plays like a strange tabletop campaign filtered through an isometric narrative RPG, with branching dialogue, dice rolls in tense situations, and a goblin companion named Snell at your side. Developed by Christoffer Bodegård and published by Raw Fury, it launched on PC via Steam on March 3, 2026.
What makes it more than another Disco-shaped conversation game is the way it folds rules and roleplay together. Esoteric Ebb uses a homebrewed 5e-inspired ruleset with ability scores, proficiencies, backgrounds, spells, and a “Questing Tree” that works as both quest journal and feat progression, while its encounters are handled through a modified dialogue system where turn order, hit points, and spell use still matter.
That gives the game a different texture from more conventional CRPGs. It still lives and dies on writing and choice, but there is a real mechanical spine underneath all the political intrigue, weird fantasy detours, and player-driven chaos.
Developed by Christoffer Bodegård and published by Raw Fury, it launched on PC via Steam on March 3, 2026.
That’s all for this week. Come visit me on the brand-new Reddit channel, which has already passed 2,000 members and is becoming an interesting meeting point for genre fans and developers. It’s also a great way to make sure you don’t miss any updates or news from Turn Based Lovers. Have a great weekend. Ciao
