The Turn Based Lovers checked out the survival RPG Age of Tribulation:

Age of Tribulation – A Dark Fantasy Open-World Survival RPG – Overview

An Immersive Dark Fantasy World

Age of Tribulation is an open-world survival roguelite that plunges players into the grim and corrupted world of Hyrinthia. As a chosen Apostle, you’ll navigate a massive, dangerous world filled with encounters, rogue-lite elements, and a rich, twisting storyline. Developed by Apostle Games, this upcoming RPG sets itself apart with a blend of survival mechanics and permadeath, making every decision potentially your last.

The game’s story revolves around a creeping darkness that overtook the land, corrupting everything from royalty to beasts. As a foreign Apostle, you must find and unite the Fellowship of Apostles to reclaim the world from dark forces.

Core Features:

• Turn-Based Combat: Face a diverse array of enemies, both physical and spiritual, in skirmishes.
• Permadeath with Meta-Progression: Lose your character and hired mercenaries upon death, but retain some progress to avoid total loss.
• Survival Elements: Manage hunger, thirst, and sleep to maintain your strength and awareness.
• Day/Night Cycle: Brave the night at your own peril—enemies become more dangerous, but the rewards grow richer.
• Expansive Arsenal: Over 950 weapons, apparel, and items, with armor set bonuses to enhance your strategy.
• Hand-Drawn Aesthetics: Gorgeous 2D environments and sketched-style portraits complement the grim atmosphere.
• Codex and Lore: Study enemy weaknesses and lore to gain the upper hand.
• Dynamic Encounters: Random events and battles keep the world feeling alive and unpredictable.

[...]

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RPGFan checked out Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma:

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Hands-On: A Tale of Two Genres

When Marvelous announced Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, I liked the idea of the Eastern-inspired setting. The more we saw, the more it felt like the game may be primarily an action RPG with sim elements on the side, for better or worse (depending on what you want out of Rune Factory). But after our social media editor Lucy and I spent some time with it at PAX East, I have realized two overarching things about the game: First, the action RPG elements are robust, and there seems to be a lot to explore in the fields and variety in combat. Second, there is so much depth to the sim components that there will be plenty to dig into, no matter which aspect of Rune Factory is your favorite.

[...]

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RPG Site checked out the indie RPG Beloved Rapture:

Beloved Rapture PAX Impressions - A vibrant and gorgeous pixel art RPG

Sometimes, it can be just as exciting to see a game do something correctly as it is to see it do something different. Enter Beloved Rapture, a classic JRPG-inspired indie RPG by Rapturous Studio, and published by 2 Left Thumbs (Picayune Dreams, Tower of Kalemonvo), a slice of which I got to experience at PAX East.

And I say “a slice” rather than “a demo” because, as I soon came to understand after playing for what must have been at least half an hour with no clear end in sight, it wasn’t a demo at all — it was just the game — and players could stop playing whenever they felt so inclined (or in my case, once enough time passed that my nervousness upon checking a clock finally outweighed my potential embarrassment from asking the person in charge of the booth how long the demo is). The full game, I soon came to learn, has been available on Steam since October.

[...]

Still, despite its shortcomings, I see a lot of potential with Beloved Rapture. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it even seem like it wants to. Instead, it’s content to do what it’s doing, and doing it well — which is to say, bringing back that retro RPG experience in full, gloriously pixelated force. While I wish there was a dedicated public demo, and ideally one that gave you a better feel for the game’s story and who the main characters are, the first section of the game that I played nonetheless left me feeling impressed from a technical standpoint (even if I was underwhelmed from a storytelling standpoint), and curious to check out more of what this game has to offer. Luckily, as mentioned earlier, it’s already out, so there’s no wait for this one required.

Couchpotato spotted that a public demo for Mystic Land: Search for Maphaldo will be released on May 27.

PC Gamer checked out the latest version of Last Epoch:

Last Epoch's excellent new update proves we're in a golden age of ARPGs, and there's something here for everyone

No need to be mad. Let's farm monsters.

 The month of April has turned out to be a flashpoint for the isometric ARPG community. It's packed with updates: Path of Exile 2, Last Epoch, Diablo 4, and No Rest for the Wicked all have big new shinies out this month, and while it's natural to compare them, brawling over which is better obscures the bigger picture: This great genre now has tons of great games, each with its own particular merits.

Let's start with Last Epoch, whose Tombs of the Erased update just dropped a few days ago. It's got an overhaul to the Sentinel class, a new and very spidery faction, tons of new monsters, new endgame systems, and crucially for a lot of players, tons of buffs. Almost nothing got nerfed this time around, and it shows.

[...]

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Couchpotato spotted a new patch for Drova - Forsaken Kin:

Patch 1.3.2 is live

We have just released patch version 1.3.2. It contains small bug fixes, which you can read about below.

Furthermore, in the last episode of Behind the Pixels, we specifically addressed your questions and answered them (video is in German, but with English subtitles).

Perhaps we answered a question there that might interest you? Or you may have your own questions. Write them in the comments and we will answer them in a future video.

What do we do now after Drova? What's next? We'll answer that in the next update video, which will come next week.

Just2D

Changelog
Finally, here's a list of other bug fixes, balancing changes and the like that we've done in the context of this update:

• Added safety teleporters to allow leaving Forest Primeval in later chapters after bugging in and being stuck in there
• Added a teleporter to a certain room where some people have bugged in and were stuck
• Added Adwin to character info in journal
• Added a pop-up when Germans try to report that "Rennofen" is a typo (it is not :D)
• Adjusted some object colliders in the world to avoid getting stuck
• Tweaked aggro ranges for Bygone warriors in underground dungeons
• Tweaked tooltip of "Gladiators' Armor"
• Reduced the collider when using "Gift of the Wolf"
• Fixed some graphical tile/object issues in the world
• Fixed a bug where player got stuck in a dialog loop with Lukan
• Fixed a bug where items were removed from inventory when putting an item on a puzzle statue
• Fixed some locations where Misty Step didn't work consistently/as intended
• Fixed a bug where spell "Charge of the Boars" could be looted everytime after saving/loading
• Fixed lots of typos
• Fixed a daily routine for Jero where he was looped sitting down/getting up
• Fixed some minor issues with some journal entries
• Fixed a bug where player couldn't talk to Kora, Tia and Sorcha
• Fixed a rare bug where Ella could die in the Deep Mines
• Fixed a mushroom that couldn't be looted
• Fixed a dialog option with Sorcha, where player could say something that wasn't known
• Fixed a tooltip layout when using the biggest font

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is ten years old:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Official 10th Anniversary Trailer

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C4G checked out Enshrouded:

Enshrouded Keeps Getting Bigger in 2025! - Thralls of Twilight Update Preview

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GamingBolt reviewed the DLC Kingdom Come Deliverance 2: Brushes With Death:

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2: Brushes With Death DLC Review - The Final Verdict

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GameSpot checked out Crimson Desert:

Crimson Desert Is For Fighting Game Sickos Like Me

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Splattercatgaming checked out Sector Unknown:

A Fresh Dystopian Open Galaxy Sci Fi cRPG - Sector Unknown

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StefaNonsense looks back at Jagged Alliance 2:

Why Jagged Alliance 2 CRUSHES modern RPGs

Matt talks with marc Crow about Space Quest and more:

MC554: Mark Crowe on Space Quest and SpaceVenture

Mortismal Gaming reviewed Horizon Zero Dawn:

Horizon Zero Dawn - Review After 100%

Couchpotato spotted the opening story of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter:

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter - Opening Video

Wizard Worm reviewed the re-released dungeon crawler Brany Skeldalu (aka Gates of Skeldal):

Gates of Skeldal (Brany Skeldalu) Review - Old-School RPG Reborn!

Gates of Skeldal is a cult classic Czech dungeon crawler from 1998. On the mythical island of Rovenland, a party of adventurers sets out to stop five rogue mages from the tower of Skeldal. Enjoy turn-based combat, powerful magic, and tricky puzzles in this legendary RPG!

Like every week the RPG Crawler sums up the RPG news:

CRPG News Roundup (5-17-2025)

TTRPG News Roundup (5-18-2025)

Couchpotato spotted a new devlog for Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone:

DEVLOG 03

Between Mega Patches
Hey! Time for another dose of information about what's going on around Chernobylite 2 and what we're planning for you soon :)

But first, a quick recap for those who don't follow us regularly.

We've had a lot going on since the game's Early Access release. The first hotfixes fixing the most important bugs are behind us, as well as the first devlog, in which we tell you a bit about the genesis of Chernobylite 2 (what’s that? It was supposed to be a tactical game?). If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, we encourage you to do so:

DEVLOG 2.0

We already have further publications planned. With these devlogs we’ll continue to update you on the progress of the game, while also revealing a bit of the behind-the-scenes and showing materials that are not available anywhere else.

We have also published a much more extensive Megadevlog. This is a series of irregular publications in which we intend to answer in detail the most pressing questions about the game in Early Access. It's our response to the recurring issues that you wrote in your comments (on Steam, among others) after the game's release, and it's to them that we've dedicated most of the text:

MEGADEVLOG #01

Be assured that we'll continue this format. So don't be afraid to write about problems with the game, whether in the Steam forum or on our Discord. Your feedback is important for the further development and improvement of Chernobylite 2.

[...]

Couchpotato spotted dev diary #20 for MENACE:

Dev Diary #20: Work in Progress

This week, we give you a snapshot of our active development and show you what we are working on right now. As always, everything we show here is a work in progress.

UI
We are in full swing implementing the second iteration of the tactical combat UI and HUD. As soon as we make enough progress and the UI is in a proper shape, we will be able to share actual gameplay footage. This is also one of the final puzzle pieces we need to prepare a small combat demo for the game.

As part of the UI rework, we overhauled all unit icons. Inspired by NATO military symbology, the player should be able to roughly estimate a unit's role by just looking at its icon.

Art
We are implementing more squad leaders all the time while at the same time trying to keep up with creating the corresponding character illustrations. For now, a lot of these are implemented as work-in-progress versions and will be finished later.

Concept
As we are in the process of onboarding a technical artist, we are preparing some rough concepts for different subtypes of biomes for each of the game's classic biomes.

In this example, the basic biome would be called “temperate” as you would find it on the planet “Backbone”. The different subtypes of biomes would be temperate highlands and temperate marshlands.

Bear in mind that these concepts are just a very basic guideline for tech art, intended to illustrate roughly what we are aiming for.

Level Design
Our main focus at the moment is adding more operation types to the game. Right now, we are working on another operation type for the pirate faction. Each enemy faction will have multiple different types of operations, each consisting of a unique set of missions. Of course, we will keep adding more operations during development.

Below, you can see a screenshot from our chunk system editor, which we use to create templates for procedurally generated parts of the map. In this case, it's a rogue forces defense line for the “breakthrough” mission type.

3D
The 3D department is focusing on implementing the dynamic vehicle weapon system, which allows the player to equip their vehicle chassis as freely as possible with all available weapons.

We showed a basic concept in an earlier Dev Diary. Now, the system is actually shaping up and will soon be ready to be implemented. This gives the same freedom you already have when equipping squads to the vehicles and allows for an insane number of weapon load-outs.

[...]

GreedFall 2 has a day and night cycle:

GreedFall 2 | Day & Night Cycle

Greetings Carants!

Much like the endless cycle in our own world, both day and night play a part in GreedFall 2’s. Today, we wanted to show off these elements and take you on a little tour.

Remember to pack your sunscreen (or, if you forget, hope the locals sell burn heal) along with your stargazing blanket, and let’s wander under the sky’s vast expanse.

Everything the light touches is our kingdom...

When the sun rises, the world around you transforms. Birds take to the skies, whilst butterflies seek out flowers scattered around towns and forests. Meanwhile, streets fill with life, chatter echoing throughout as people get on with their day.

... so don’t go outside at night.

When it bids adieu and sinks into the horizon, draping the night’s veil across the skies, similar changes take place. With the moon looming overhead, the stars greet you as lights begin flickering within cities. Once bustling streets quieten to a murmur, and, depending on your location, the gentle sound of waves lapping or the cries of cicadas will fill the air.

It’s the circle of liiiiiiiiife.

Thanks to the team’s hard work, you can watch time slowly tick by as environments go from day to night and ambient sounds change around you. Breathing life into the game, it follows you across your arduous journey as you travel through Teer Fradee and Gacane.

Watch the sun set from the windows of Uxantis' council room, admire the midnight skies above you onboard the Constanzia, and listen to the trees rustling next to a flowing river next to your village – if you take a moment to smell the flowers, you’ll be able to witness the world transforming.

Some places will change drastically depending on the time.

This cycle will extend to the next part of your adventure, where bright and lavish streets await you. But careful where you tread. The city is very different come nightfall, as you'll discover in the next chapter...

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The Kickstarter for Hawthorn is live and already successful:

The Game

The golden age of anthropomorphic fantasy is reborn with Hawthorn...

Hawthorn is a sandbox roleplaying video game in a world inspired by Victorian-era fairytales and fantasy adventure stories with memorable woodland creatures being developed by a small team of former developers from BioWare and Bethesda Games including the Lead Designer from Skyrim. 

This game will be fully playable singleplayer, but is also a co-op game for friends, couples, and families who want to play together in an immersive world, but may have differing tastes in gameplay. 

You get to choose how to play Hawthorn. Start by creating your favorite woodland animal character, a small creature in a big world, each species with its own unique abilities. Then choose whether to focus on village life, adventure, or both!

In case you missed it, here's our recent gameplay trailer:

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Couchpotato spotted a dev blog for the J-RPG Edge of Memories:

Say Hello to Midgar Studio & Edge of Memories - Dev Blog #1

Hello everyone!

This is Midgar Studio, the team behind Edge of Memories, our new fast-paced, third-person Action-JRPG, and the follow-up to Edge of Eternity. Today, we’ll introduce our studio, philosophy, values, and some background on developing the ‘Edge of’ series.

You may be wondering how we got here…

We’re a French indie studio focused on building refreshing worlds and experiences, where the technical, aesthetic, and storytelling aspects are the focus. In 2014, we started working on a turn-based JRPG, Edge of Eternity, mixing our passion for Japanese culture with a French touch.

In the early stages of development, we decided to start a crowdfunding campaign to assist, with the help of over 4000 supporters, we raised over 3.5 times our initial goal. That support meant we could expand the team to about 15 developers (we were 4 before that) and work alongside amazing talent like Yasunori Mitsuda, releasing our 30-hour indie game in 2021.

Where do we go from there?

After that, we started thinking about what’s next. We dabbled with the idea of making spin-offs, including a game with a card-based combat system. We worked on this idea quite a bit, but in the end, we decided to follow up with a direct sequel to Edge of Eternity.

We’re now a team of almost 40 professionals working on Edge of Memories, an even more ambitious project. This allows us to build on the series' story while challenging ourselves by creating a dynamic action RPG.

Edge of Memories

Edge of Memories takes place in Heryon, the same world as Edge of Eternity, but on the continent of Avaris. Our original pitch for EoE would have seen players visit both continents, with Avaris being reached via Fallon’s ship. As Early Access went on, we rethought this idea as it was a bit unrealistic for a team of our size.

Our lead narrative designer, Guillaume Veer, rebalanced the story, shaping it into what you know now as Edge of Eternity. But there were stories left to tell. Some of you may remember our original Edge of Eternity key art. This character was meant to be an addition to the main cast, but in Edge of Memories, you’ll play her.

Eline is a Soul Whisperer with Fragmented memories of her past. Aided by her not-so-typical mentor Ysoris, and Kanta, the shaman prince of a lost tribe, as they look for a way to cure the rise of the corrosion. In Edge of Memories, Eline is the only playable character, but you interact with these companions during exploration and combat.

It’s not required to have played Edge of Eternity before playing Edge of Memories. There are a few ah-hah moments and callbacks for those who experienced Daryon & Selene’s journey, but Edge of Memories is being developed as an enjoyable standalone experience regardless of your experience with the series.

What’s next?

We hope you’re excited to learn more about Edge of Memories. We’ll be sharing more behind-the-scenes content in a series of dev blogs covering sound design, visuals, inspirations, gameplay, and the talented Japanese developers helping us bring Edge of Memories to life.

Edge of Memories will be available at the end of 2025. If you want to support us, wishlist now on your platform of choice.

See you soon!

Couchpotato spotted a new archetype for Rogue Trader:

Level the Battlefield with the New Archetype and Origin in Lex Imperialis!

As the situation across the Koronus Expanse continues to escalate, the von Valancius dynasty is in dire need of new tactical advantages.

The new second-tier archetype the Overseer as well as the new Arbites origin introduced in the Lex Imperialis expansion offer the perfect solution to this problem.

Let's find out more!

Meet the Overseer

Overseers are flexible support specialists who deploy familiars — cybernetic creatures that can assist their masters in various ways. During combat, these loyal servants dash across the battlefield at great speed, amplifying their Overseer's offensive abilities, disrupting enemy maneuvers, and delivering additional damage with their claws and teeth. During exploration, they may also provide aid by pulling levers, dragging items, or uncovering hidden objects.

Familiars can’t be controlled directly (except in some rare cases), but they can be issued a variety of commands during their master’s turn, allowing them to perform a wide array of tasks. Each of them has its own stats and can be attacked as well as fall unconscious.

The Overseer stands out among second-tier archetypes in that it can be unlocked not only by picking one of the relevant first-tier archetypes (in this case, Officer or Operative) but also by having one of the relevant origins (ie, Sanctioned Psyker, Unsanctioned Psyker such as Idira, or the newly introduced Arbites origin).

[...]

Couchpotato spotted an upcoming playtest for Band of Crusaders.

Mortismal Gaming reviewed the Brushes with Death DLC:

KCD2: Brushes With Death - DLC Review

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The survival game Survive the Fall will be released on May 22:

Survive the Fall - Official Launch Trailer

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C4G checked out Of Ash and Steel:

Of Ash and Steel - New Open World RPG Inspired by Gothic and The Witcher

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Gematsu reports that the Future Games Show: Summer Showcase is set for June 7.

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DSOGaming reports that Dead Island 2 is free to own on Epic Games this week.

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Couchpotato spotted a new update for Avowed:

Avowed 1.4 Update is Here - And So Is Our Roadmap!

This update brings a host of quality-of-life improvements, many of them inspired directly by your feedback.
Thank you for being part of our amazing community. Your support means the world to us, and we’re excited to share what’s next on the horizon for Avowed.

Alongside today’s 1.4 update, we’re also unveiling our roadmap! This new graphic gives a sneak peek at some of the content and improvements coming to Avowed in the near future. We hope it gives you a clearer picture of what we’re working on—and what you can look forward to next.

[...]

We also want to acknowledge our players in Korea, Japan, and French-speaking regions. We know how important it is to experience a game in your preferred language, and we are actively working on localized versions for Korean and Japanese, along with ongoing improvements for French. We’re committed to delivering these updates as soon as they are ready, and we deeply appreciate your patience and support as we make sure they meet the quality you deserve.

Now, onto what’s available today…

Arachnophobia Mode Now Available!
The community has spoken—and we listened! Our new Arachnophobia Mode is now live in Avowed. This optional feature replaces spider enemies with round, floating orbs that still pack a punch… but might be a bit less creepy. You can toggle this setting in the Accessibility menu. Just remember: friendlier looks, same deadly bite.

[...]

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Couchpotato spotted a major update for Tenebris: Terra Incognita:

Major update “Heavyweight” game version 0.5!

Greetings, space marines! The day has finally arrived!

A giant update to the game called “Heavy Weight” is now available for download! This is the first big update of the game, which expands and improves many key systems. We're sure it will give you a whole new perspective on Tenebris.

But let's get to the point: below you'll find a list of the changes added in the update. Please note that this list is not all-inclusive, many changes and improvements have been deliberately omitted or described only in general terms, so as not to reveal all the cards.

IMPORTANT
This update is incompatible with old saves and requires starting a new game (profile).

[...]

Mortismal Gaming checked out the new version of Banquet for Fools:

Banquet For Fools - Early Access Update 2.0

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Fextralife checked out Blades of Fire (a demo is out as well):

Blades of Fire Gameplay Preview - God of War With Soulslike Combat

Blades of Fire - World Trailer [ESRB]

Check out the Blades of Fire demo on May 15th.

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PC Gamer checked out the Brushes with Death DLC:

Kingdom Come 2's first expansion feels like the base game's best parts distilled, but don't expect a game-changer

Also, rocket cat.

You've got to envy folks in the middle ages. I mean, not the plague. Not the religious zealotry, either. And certainly not the subsistence farming. But give them some credit: they lived in a world of magic. You couldn't leave the milk out without some hobgoblin stalking in to curdle it. Every weird happenstance or downturn in fortune was attributable to Lucifer, spirits, gremlins, Baba Yaga, witches, demons, or some kind of sector-wide trade union composed of the whole lot of them.

It's these fragments of superstition that make for some of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's most fun and absurd parts, and they're front and centre in its first expansion, Brushes With Death. Pagan gods, basilisks, a mysterious painter whose best pal is a skull that tells him secrets—it's all here, baby, and that's just in the two hours I've played so far.

[...]

IGN checked out Outward 2:

Outward 2 Preview: The Survival RPG That Hits Hard

Outward 2 picks up 50 years after the events of the first open-world survival RPG, where you again play a nobody of an adventurer – just a regular ol' human against a world rife with danger. We went hands-on with a PC demo, and it felt like a hyper-polished slice of gameplay – but a rather thin one. It evinced no details of Outward 2's story or scale, but we sure felt the series’ famously difficult combat. It left us ultimately unsatisfied, desperately wishing to learn and experience more

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The Hack and Slash RPG The Slormancer has been released:

The Slormancer - Content Trailer - From 0.1 to 1.0

Fight hordes of enemies led by The Slormancer, an evil warlock from the past, in an absurd yet epic Action RPG! Experience fast-paced gameplay, loads of shiny loot, tons of collectibles, countless hours of content, and carefully crafted pixel art.

IGN reviewed the DLC Brushes with Death:

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 - Brushes With Death Review