It’s hard to believe, and as unbelievable as it seems, there isn’t even a single new title this week that I can point you at.
In other words, the only news I have to report is an important update to one of my favorite old school roguelike RPG which has been in development for years. While I am certainly aware of the absurdity of writing a weekly column with nothing but updates to existing titles, I still felt obligated to do what I normally do: recommend some quality RPGs in early access or recently released, as well as demo versions of promising RPGs.
Stoneshard – Blood Omens Update
- Developers: Ink Stains Games
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 26, 2026
- Steam Page
Let’s start with the massive update to Stoneshard called Blood Omens (v.0.9.4.6) that was released on March 26, 2026.
This update has added a large amount of new content and mechanics to the already established game. Among the most important things are a new Lighting and Darkness system using torches and lanterns.
A new quest that can be completed by players who have reached character levels 10 through 12+, 22 new Proselyte units including variants, mini-bosses, a new sling unit type with 21 items, additional gear, new templates for dungeon rooms, Rotten Willow situations, and a much more advanced enemy AI that will take into consideration how the player has built their character archetypes, the health status of their character(s), and what abilities they’ve acquired through learning.
In addition to these major updates to Stoneshard, the developer team made many other significant improvements to the overall design and functionality of the game.
Thornetica (Demo)
- Developers: Forbidden Candy
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: Q4 2026
- Steam Page
The new game from Forbidden Candy will mix the strategic RPG elements of battle with a visual novel style in the form of a “slice-of-life” based around the Theater Club at Kent University.
Players will interact with an eclectic group of outsiders and misfits, build relationships by participating in various behind-the-scenes aspects of putting on a show, grow their social attributes such as Maturity, Honesty, and Comradery and possibly have romantic interests in some members.
On the other hand, Thronetica’s battle element is presented as staged performances of key battles from a theatrical production about the struggles of the house of York vs. the house of Lancaster. Each Chapter allows the player to select who plays what actor, but this selection may also affect both scene changes and dialogue. It looks like a strange but intriguing SRPG variation to try, thanks to the demo available.
The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles
- Developers: Fix-a-Bug
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: October 25, 2025
- Steam Page
The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles is an ode to older-school dungeon crawler games; however, there are a couple of ways in which this game keeps its formula fresh.
Fix-a-Bug’s RPG drops you into a pixelated roguelite maze, with procedurally varied environments, multiple types of traps/puzzles, and a turn-based combat system mixed with real-time action (perfect parries), and a Swing Meter for more powerful swings.
Additionally, the game gives each playthrough a little more definition by having three playable character profiles, weapon-based skill trees for customization, the ability to craft items, and fifty different archetypes available at each level across six different biomes.
Lastly, the overall tone of the game remains absurdly offbeat with witty dialogue, strange NPC interactions, and a healthy dose of pop culture humor.
Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime
- Developers: Bonte Avond
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: March 16, 2026
- Steam Page
After a somewhat cruder dungeon crawler experience, Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime takes an entirely opposite approach and focuses on humor, collecting creatures, and turn-based gameplay.
Released on March 16th, 2026 by offbrand games and developed by Bonte Avond, Bonnie Bear Saves Frogtime features the player as an adventure-seeking frog-obsessed person who will be building his or her “Frog Time” rosters by collecting, buying and trading frogs for battle.
In terms of how farcical the premise has been set up (Bonnie’s journey is filled with all sorts of tangential distractions; he will have to take time out to perform music, wear disguises, infiltrate a beehive, participate in a vampire sled racing event…), the store page also notes there are fully voiced characters and the tone is a mix of lighthearted joking and more serious commentary on community and self-esteem.
Mythswayer (Demo)
- Developers: Angry Cat Studios
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: TBA
- Steam Page
Where Bonnie Bear went for the ridiculous side of comedic absurdity, Mythswayer‘s design is centered on a more established form of the traditional high fantasy loop, but this time with a systemic bent.
The next from Angry Cat Studios (Ultimate Space Commando), is an RPG, where each run will send you through different magical tomes containing both new enemies, items/character upgrades, and loot.
Classless progression, weapon/gear choice, and a focus on the Arcane Tome mechanism, which gives players the ability to affect the environment by creating cover or manipulating encounters. No release date yet, but a demo that gives a strong feel of what the final game will be.
House of Necrosis
- Developers: Warkus
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: October 6, 2025
- Steam Page
Next game is House of Necrosis. A quite original take on horror and dungeon crawlers experiences. This was developed and published by Warkus on Oct. 6, 2025.
The base premise of the game involves exploration of a home/mansion where each time you go back into the home/house, the layout changes (in a similar way to Mystery Dungeons), so there are multiple ways to play the game in terms of route or path choices.
It is presented in a way that is reminiscent of earlier 3D Survival Horror games with retro 32-bit graphics/visuals, using tank controls for player navigation in large hub areas (similar to many older first person shooter games), and static, pre-rendered background images.
As you continue to explore the home/house (and progress further), your character will be able to level up and upgrade weapons. House of Necrosis include; grid based movement, turn based combat, roguelike features, resource management, permanent death and zombies.
It appears to be a conscious throwback to how horror games were designed during the 1990s but instead of being presented as a linear campaign experience with a single ‘try and fail’ opportunity per play session, it is formatted in a way to allow players to repeat runs of the game as needed.
Fadedlands: The Reckless Squad
- Developers: ForindGames
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: August 15, 2025
- Steam Page
If House of Necrosis took horror and twisted crawler mechanics; Fadedlands: The Reckless Squad instead takes a systems and tactical approach with a run based system with an emphasis on movement, timing and team development.
Published by OKJOY and developed by ForindGames, Fadedlands: The Reckless Squad was released on August 15th, 2025. It’s combat is centered on guessing what your enemies are going to do next, where you will be when they do it (to avoid getting hit), and when and how to use knockback or timed ability to swing the battle in your favor.
While all of this is happening through Roguelike Progression (Blessings) which can modify how a skill behaves versus increasing the number associated with it. Once your main run is completed, the game switches to a larger meta-loop for base building, recruiting companions, upgrading companion training, and resource management.
Additionally, difficulty increases as does harsher weather and terrain. Something to try for sure.
Tarnished Blood (E.A.)
- Developers: Juggler Games, Nakayama Games
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: October 2, 2024
- Steam Page
Tarnished Blood will be shifting the player’s experience from running and killing all monsters within an area towards focusing on hunting bosses (and other large creatures) and utilizing an alternative way of battling compared to previous entries.
Developed by Juggler Games & Nakayama Games and being published by Galaktus, Tarnished Blood is a turn-based roguelite RPG that takes place underneath the Dome, where a group of hunters, serving the ancient tree called the Protector Tree, track down massive creatures, harvest their essences, and attempt to survive within a harsh environment where it appears that each expedition is designed to be as long and grueling as possible and where death, or failure to complete an expedition is simply part of the process.
The main draw of Tarnished Blood is its time-warping battle system, allowing players to have an even more unpredictable and experimental style of play when compared to the normal turn-order system found in most RPGs.
While the overall loop for Tarnished Blood has been shifted further away from completing areas and moving closer to the idea of monster hunts, character survival, and progressing through multiple iterations of each expedition.
The game was released in October 2024, and the developers stated in March 2026 that it remains in early access while they continue to refine it and are targeting a full release sometime before the end of 2026.
Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy
- Developers: AtomTeam
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: December 16, 2025
- Steam Page
Now for your weekly dose of CRPGs, I can suggest Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy by AtomTeam‘s (dev behind Atom RPG and Trudograd) featuring a low magic CRPG focused on party-based role playing within the frontier area of Nova Drakonia.
Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy was fully released on December 16th, 2025 after almost an year of Early Access. The game focuses on the core elements of classic isometric RPG games such as a classless character creation system, multiple branching quest paths, hundreds of non-player characters (NPC), recruitable companion units, and a craft system.
In addition, the game’s combat model provides players options for tactical turn based or strategic real time with pause combat modes dependent upon their preferences for each battle encounter.
Additionally, the world itself appears to be a key element of interest in regards to the themes of Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy; these include colonialism, politics surrounding local factions, historical events that are concealed from the public eye, historical and/or mythological artifacts from a past era, and ultimately a world where all aspects appear to have a sense of grounding and reaction as opposed to pure heroism.
Heroes Against Time
- Developers: David Vinokurov
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: September 18, 2025
- Steam Page
The traditional isometric CRPG design of Swordhaven was stripped away for Heroes Against Time, which has been pared down to be a fast, small-scale game centered around short roguelite runs and party building.
David Vinokurov developed this title, releasing it in September 2025. Players will find themselves recruiting allies with unique skills, potential event results, and synergy effects; guiding their assembled team through a tile-based map as they are pursued by a magical mist closing in from all sides.
Once you have mastered your ability to execute successful runs within about 10 minutes, the quick pace appears to be related to deeper combinations of scalable combos, unlockable mechanics, and routes.
In other words, every time you make a tile choice for movement, you influence how likely it is that your team will encounter the battles, ruins, or events that they need to advance to, and ultimately, whether those opportunities remain available when the mist closes them off.
Void War
- Developers: Tundra
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: June 2, 2025
- Steam Page
FTL meets Warhammer 40k in Void War. It is about as wide open as you get in a run-based strategy, where your ancient starship will have to be controlled through a falling apart empire that has all the hallmarks of a gothic-techno wasteland.
Tundra developed and released Void War in 2025, with elements from a roguelite progression, real time-with pause space combat, managing a crew, and fighting boarders to keep track of weapons, modules, reactor power, upgrades and which faction members are recruited at each point along the route of the procedurally generated galaxy.
It appears the greatest draw may be how systems can combine or clash in the same way that player-built artifact/upgrade combinations can create devastating results.
Enemy-created synergy in the form of enemy builds and event choice conditions also affects the condition of the starship and ultimately, the fate of the crew. All told it seems to be a densely tactical and heavy space roguelite with influences (maybe more of simply influences) of FTL and Warhammer but with much more focus on brutal battles with boarders, darker world building, and longer term build-out plans.
Twilight Wars
- Developers: Comrade Bear Games
- Platforms: PC
- Release Date: May 23, 2025
- Steam Page
Let’s wrap up this recap with Twilight Wars. An actual cyberpunk tactical dungeon crawler where you’ll be rebuilding a broken spy organization in a world ruled by megacorps. Released in May 2025 by Comrade Bear Games, it has turned its progression based on hiring elite agents, repairing your hidden base, and sending agents on stealthy missions, where turn-by-turn combat encounters and managing teams appear to be what defines the experience.
This approach to gameplay appears to create a new feel compared to the other games within this kind of game because instead of wandering heroes fighting monsters, it focuses on clandestine battles, resource limitations, and pushing back against corporate control using covert means.
It is a condensed version of a strategy RPG that combines elements of squad-level tactics, managing an intelligence agency, and the dungeon-crawling style of progression found in the traditional sense of the term in a uniquely cyberpunk environment.
