The Turn Based Lovers reviewed Those Who Rule:

Those Who Rule – Review

Those Who Rule is a brand-new tactical RPG developed by Eldin Turulja. The game offers a few unique systems, a gorgeous art style, stunning character portraits, and even perma-death.

Story
The player will take control of a group of Rangers in a war-torn world. The man cast is Slyker, the leader, Marcus, the brute of the party, and Illyana, the tactician. These three are tasked with impossible decisions at every corner of their journey.

The player will traverse a wide range of biomes and locations, such as castles, dungeons, caves, snowy plains, sandy deserts, and lush forests.

As you play through the story you will uncover the secrets of the world and the enemies you are fighting, but not every enemy is how you pictured. The game is riddled with twists and almost becomes a thriller in the sense of not knowing who the villains truly are, and even then, the game leaves you asking questions about each decision you make.

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Impressions
The combat, the story, and the challenge are incredible. Every mission has been engaging and making me want more, and the story beats do not let up in keeping the suspense while also reminding us that this is a grounded experience for our cast. Seeing these inexperienced young adults battle through these dangerous encounters makes you feel more connected with them.

The game will take roughly 20-30 hours to complete and offers some replayability with the dynamic story options that they have to offer.

I would highly recommend this game to RPG fans who are looking for a hardcore tactical experience.

Thanks Couchpotato!

The tactical RPG Those Who Rule has been released:

Those Who Rule is LIVE!

Hey everyone,

Surreal feeling, but Those Who Rule is officially available for purchase on Steam! I want to give a huge shoutout to all of you who wishlisted and followed the development of the game. It's been a passion project of mine for the last four years, and your feedback has been invaluable in shaping the game.

I hope you enjoy your time with it, and I'd love to continue hearing your feedback as I continue to push out updates to the game!

Features

• A 20-30 hour single player campaign that spans 21 chapters and can be played on 3 difficulties.
• Over 30 classes to choose from, with 2 tiers of 3 choice upgrades for each character.
• Over 100 different abilities from personal/weapon/item/class/refinements.
• Over 50 character and world building base conversations.

Roadmap

• Player requested QoL/features, and bug fixes.
• Controller support and Steam Deck verification.
• A Brutal difficulty mode where the first person recording themselves beating it will get to design a custom in game playable character.
• Mod support.

Though it's the launch, it's also just the start! Please continue to help me make Those Who Rule the best game it can be. I'll be eagerly watching the forums for feature requests and bug reports to fix ASAP. Again, I can't say it enough but I appreciate each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you!
Eldin Turulja

The tactical RPG Those Who Rule will be released on January 27:

Release Date Announcement - January 27, 2025

Hey everyone!

Getting a little emotional, last one of these updates I'm going to do before the game releases. The first update I did was on February 12, 2022, almost 3 years ago, and here we are now, announcing the release date of January 27, 2025. It's a surreal feeling, and I want to thank each and every one of you who have followed the development of this game.

I've been heads down on the remaining chapters, and I can finally say that we have finished the entire game, with 21 chapters in total (Prologue up to chapter 20). I don't want to spoil all the levels, but I'll show a sneak peak into a later chapter:

I had some extra time to get in the most popular requests, like fixed growths option, a non-permadeath option, difficulty options (planning a "brutal" difficulty after release), persistent blood effects (can be seen in the gif above), etc.

I've also added in the remaining weapons, items, and refinements into the game, bringing the total amount of abilities you have to customize your units with to well over 100.

These final 2 weeks will be spent play-testing, and adding in the final story scenes/supports, but trying to make minimal code changes to have the game be as stable as possible for release.

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October news for the tactical RPG Those Who Rule:

Dev Update (October 2024)

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the late update, but I've narrowed down the release month to January 2025!!

I've been nose to the grindstone on polishing up the demo for the Steam Next Fest that we'll be participating in starting TOMORROW! Really excited to see how it goes, as it's usually a major source of visibility for indies. This one has over 3,000 games participating though so we'll have to wait and see.

We also have a shiny new trailer to announce the new launch month.

Between all the demo updates and trailer creation, I also had time for finishing up chapter 8, focusing on a more tight experience. I have a new process for designing maps that I think is going to be super engaging:

The new demo is also released now, still up to chapter 3, but I've gotten a ton of feedback that I've already incorporated into the game.

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Thanks Couchpotato!

September news for the tactical RPG Those Who Rule:

Dev Update (September 2022)

Hey everyone!

This month I stepped way from development a bit, but for good reason. I got married!! The second half of the month saw me getting back into the swing of things and I've made significant progress on one of the most requested features: reducing the amount of inputs required to take your turn!

Here is a video demonstrating the old vs new flows:

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