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If Mewgenics is too appalling, you might prefer the turn-based charms of Dobbel Dungeon

The first thing I noticed about turn-based tactics game Dobbel Dungeon is that you can see fingerprints on the playdough character models. Even hard metallic objects such as swords are decked with faint, glimmering whorls. I’d have liked the game to let me leave my own prints on those playdough characters, care of the biometrics functionality I assume is secretly built into my work laptop. Perhaps they could have made this part of a proper degradation system, with high level characters looking all greasy and smooshed.

Alas, Dobbel Dungeon has no time for such Crysis-grade simulation elements. Going by the demo, it is simply a cheerful and well-made, tabletop-style game of leisurely flanking and special ability usage with a gentle twist. The twist is that every time a character takes a turn, they fling a bunch of dice. These dice are then slotted into ability boxes to perform them. Some abilities deal effects proportionate to the dice score – stick a dice roll of 5 into a fireball and you’ll inflict 5 points of damage. The three starting characters also have the ability to reroll one die per turn.

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Mewgenics' early mods include an incompetent auto-battler that shamelessly mimics my playstyle, more cat hoarding, and good poop

"You will get anywhere between a fairly surgical battle with the more simple moves and synergies, to a downright-drunken-disaster run. [They] act with basically zero understanding of enemy mechanics, no regard for their ability order, and they couldn't give less of a damn about tile hazards." This is a section taken from the description of a mod which turns Mewgenics into an auto-battler, but turning the controls over to an AI chessmaster. That AI chessmaster just happens to play almost exactly like I have in my seven hours with it thus far.

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Edmund McMillen on assembling Mewgenics' meow cameo list: "the inclusion of people with clashing ideologies felt appropriate"

Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel's cat breeding roguelike Mewgenics came out earlier this week to an overwhelmingly positive reception and plenty of early success. However, one aspect of the game has left folks on the fence - this list of pretty... complicated internet personalities who've voiced the copious amounts of meows emitted by in-game cats. So, to get a better picture of how those cameos came to be, I reached out to developer McMillen.

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Modern classic dungeon crawler board game Descent is getting its first, very TTRPG-sounding, video game adaptation

If you like your board games a little less physical, and a little more not technically a board game any more if we're being honest but that's fine because it's a neat looking, strategy RPG now, then boooooy howdy do I have the game for you! Those familiar with the dungeon crawling tabletop game Descent will be interested to learn that it's getting a video game adaptation in the form of Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent.

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What do you want to happen to the Final Fantasy franchise? You've got a few days to tell Square Enix directly

There are a few series staples you can expect from Final Fantasy: a guy called Cid, moogles, chocobos, that lovely arpeggio motif in the music, and… surveys? If you've been reading this site for a while - or, indeed, following the Final Fantasy series - you'll know that Square Enix likes to lobby the fanbase to hear our thoughts about the series' identity and future.

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The 50 best games of 2025, ranked

It's been another strange, difficult, and yet somehow also brilliant year for video games in 2025. Triple-A releases have been sparse again, compared to the boom times of old, with a great big GTA 6-shaped hole left in the final few months of the year. And yet once again, every gap left by the established order has been filled twice over with something brilliantly new.

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Oh yes, I will take a look at the Vampire the Masquerade and Indian folklore inspired RPG Rakshasa, thanks

Every once in a while, a game rocks up that so quickly finds itself in my Steam wishlist I don't even remember clicking the button. Today, that game is Rakshasa, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines and Baldur's Gate inspired first-person RPG set in modern India where you must face off against demi-gods and "centuries-old flesh-eating monsters" inspired by Indian folklore. Yeah! Hell yeah! Yeah, yeah sign me up!

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Larian will no longer use GenAI for Divinity concept art, and any genAI used for other games will be "trained on data we own"

Larian CEO Swen Vincke has provided an update as to how the studio are planning to go about handling the use of generative AI in the making of Divinity. In an effort to alleviate concerns, the newly decided plan is to avoid using it in any capacity as part of the concept art development process. In general, Larian are aiming to ensure any in-game generated assets in their games come from models "trained" on data Larian already own, rather than risking the charge of creative theft or actual copyright breach.

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Creature collector RPG EvoCreo brings its turn-based monster battling to Steam, a decade on from mobile

I found the opening 15 minutes of EvoCreo’s demo to be a laugh riot, mostly because I accidentally named my character “Help”, not “Helen”. This lent a certain urgency to all the routine scene-setting and tutorial dialogue. Help, Farmer Whatshisname is looking for you! Help, I’m adding a map feature to your tablet! Help, there are over 170 Creos to discover! Given that RPGs can be sluggish at first, I think I’m going to adopt this as standard practice going forward. Nothing gets you over the opening hump like the impression that everybody you speak to has just escaped from a burning house.

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Kill this tractor so you won't have to awkwardly ring your parents, Keep Driving's tyres squeal

Keep Driving captures the dream of a road trip, a coming of age experience where you’re finally able to start motoring around the world in your own set of wheels. Your sense of wonder’s still intact and each place you visit on brings fresh surprises.

But the game isn't a schmaltzy dip into wanderlust, or a blinkered memory of youth and a lack of responsibilities. Lurking in the background is the nervousness of inexperience, which transforms mundane tasks into nightmares you must overcome.

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Hooded Horse's latest strategy RPG looks like some Final Fantasy mercs invaded the world of Battle Brothers

I've been savouring the modest upsurge in turn-based strategy games about savage and malodorous bands of mercenaries, not least because it accompanies wordlarking as fine as this. Here to join the screaming pile of gushing throats and grazed elbows is Pathbreakers: Roaming Blades, the latest from Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark developers 6 Eyes Studio.

Hooded Horse have just announced that they're publishing it, which is lovely because it means I can write about a horse game this week that hasn't been banned from Steam for infringing upon Valve's ever-elastic content policies. There are no scenes of iniquity so far in Roaming Blades, just good, wholesome disembowelment and the chance to blow up lingering balls of lightning. Here's the trailer.

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Dosa Divas is a flavourful RPG village roadtrip and a more assured follow-up to Thirsty Suitors

If you're fond of crispy South Indian cooking, JRPG-style road-trips that take you from village to village, older female protagonists, turn-based combat with a healthy garnish of QTEs, slapstick satire, and food-themed reinventions of familiar mechanics... you have probably already wishlisted, bookmarked or otherwise made preparations to buy Dosa Divas, the next game from Thirsty Suitors developers Outerloop.

In this low-angle diorama-style fantasy, you play Samara and Amani, two wandering chefs who are fighting a fast food corporation run by their estranged sister Lina. Samara and Amani travel and battle by way of their "spirit mech", Goddess, an ambulatory LEGO forklift in optional oven mitts, whose tricks include clubbing enemies with her own unplugged leg, and whipping up fresh dosas from gathered ingredients in a sort of culinary mind palace.

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Octopath Traveler 0 is an interesting experiment in trying to make a traditional game out of gacha elements, it's just not a very successful one

I've got an issue with people saying 'turn-based games are back, baby'. For those with the eyes to see, they never went away. Yes, Metaphor Refantazio and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 might have reminded the masses that tactical min/maxing is video game catnip, and that there are so many brain-scratching things you can do with the formula, but the past few generations has been rife with gems in the genre: Dungeon Encounters, the Shin Megami Tensei series, Sea of Stars, Chained Echoes, and Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes immediately spring to mind, but there are dozens more, too.

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