Tabletop-inspired RPG For The King launching from Early Access next week
The long development cycle ends April 19.
For The King was successfully Kickstarted in 2015 and entered Steam Early Access in February 2017 for a projected six month stay, "give or take a few months." Developer IronOak Games missed the mark on their prediction by more than just a few months, but For The King is finally preparing for launch: it will leave Early Access on Thursday, April 19, the studio announced.
In case you missed its long development cycle: For The King is a turn-based, tabletop-inspired fantasy RPG. You build a party of three from several unlockable classes and venture out into a hexagonal grid of a world to control the chaos set off by the death of the king. Battles and encounters are like simulated, expedited D&D, complete with skill checks and dice rolls. And while you can adventure alone, you can also play For The King with a few friends.
The launch update will add three new wintry biomes to explore: the Frozen Expanse, Frigid Sea and Shivering Woods. Between them they contain 20 new enemies and encounters, IronOak says, not to mention plenty of loot. As it happens, I took a few intrepid steps into the Frozen Expanse at GDC, and I enjoyed my brief adventure. I saved a drunk guy, bought a boat, and defended (most of) a city from goblin mages. It was a good day.
Ahead of the upcoming launch, IronOak have raised the price of For The King from $15 to $20. Luckily it will be 20 percent off the week of release.
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Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.