For The King Reviews
For The King is a strategic RPG that blends tabletop and roguelike elements in a challenging adventure that spans the realms. Set off on a single player experience or play cooperatively both online and locally.
App ID | 527230 |
App Type | GAME |
Developers | IronOak Games |
Publishers | Curve Games |
Categories | Single-player, Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, Multi-player, PvP, Online PvP, Co-op, Online Co-op, Full controller support, Shared/Split Screen Co-op, Shared/Split Screen, Remote Play Together, Shared/Split Screen PvP, Remote Play on TV, Steam Trading Cards, Remote Play on Phone, Remote Play on Tablet |
Genres | Indie, Strategy, RPG, Adventure |
Release Date | 19 Apr, 2018 |
Platforms | Windows, Mac, Linux |
Supported Languages | English, Portuguese - Brazil, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Polish |

41 487 Total Reviews
36 581 Positive Reviews
4 906 Negative Reviews
Very Positive Score
For The King has garnered a total of 41 487 reviews, with 36 581 positive reviews and 4 906 negative reviews, resulting in a ‘Very Positive’ overall score.
Reviews Chart
Chart above illustrates the trend of feedback for For The King over time, showcasing the dynamic changes in player opinions as new updates and features have been introduced. This visual representation helps to understand the game's reception and how it has evolved.
Recent Steam Reviews
This section displays the 10 most recent Steam reviews for the game, showcasing a mix of player experiences and sentiments. Each review summary includes the total playtime along with the number of thumbs-up and thumbs-down reactions, clearly indicating the community's feedback
Playtime:
2351 minutes
This game is entirely random chance, almost no strategy involved. Look for a different game if you want something similar to a rogue-like.
👍 : 1 |
😃 : 0
Negative
Playtime:
1143 minutes
AMAZING one the best games i've played in a long time, so refeshing to find a game like this
+rep. 10/10
👍 : 0 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
1136 minutes
This is a fantastic game, especially with friends. I have around 20 hrs here but many more playing with friends on their devices. Its simple but fun and I never regretted it.
👍 : 0 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
870 minutes
Genuinely the worst roguelike I've ever played, maybe among the dullest experiences in all of gaming. There are zero interesting choices to make as far as character building goes, and none of the classes are cool. I won my first run and after that the whole experience just seemed extremely hollow.
There's no interesting combinations of items, because your weapon dictates every move you get in combat. There is no interesting story or world because the developers thought they could get away with horribly dull and uncreative writing just because it's a roguelike.
Co-op is terrible because it just increases the time you spend waiting around, and since everyone moves individually, trying to start encounters with enemies is a chore.
I actually cannot think of a single redeeming quality of this game. A rare trait.
Just look at most people's positive reviews for this game. Very few of them have over 20 hours. The whole point of a rougelike is to have amazing replayability. If the replayability is so lacking that it doesn't even take you 20 hours for a person who LIKES the game to get tired and move on, you know it's a shit roguelike.
👍 : 2 |
😃 : 0
Negative
Playtime:
1161 minutes
fantastic game to play with friends and family
👍 : 0 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
1296 minutes
For The King is the best. This game is endless fun from awesome bosses to epic dungeons. If you got a friend or playing solo it is scary easy to drop over 4 hours in a session. There are built in difficulty settings for convenience or you can customize them yourself for your own personal skill level. I recently told my friend about and at first he didn't want to buy it and he even said he didn't this style of game but when he played it he said it was worth every penny. The lore store adds EVEN MORE stuff to do and unlock so Its impossible to ever get bored. They're almost too many things to do and For The King 2 adds even more. Download For The King and I promise you will love it. Have Fun!
👍 : 0 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
1921 minutes
Amazing game to play with friends. I don't normally game but everything is very intuitive and fun.
👍 : 2 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
1382 minutes
Classic RPG vibes in an interesting world with a weird/bad execution. Clunky, shallow, and with heavily RNG dependant mechanics, For The King leaves me feeling frustrated and bored.
👍 : 4 |
😃 : 0
Negative
Playtime:
13374 minutes
good game. I played it when I need to reduce study stress and to play with my little bother. it will be nostalgic someday.
👍 : 6 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
3802 minutes
[h1]For the King Review[/h1]
[i]**Spoiler free**[/i]
[u]Overview:[/u] For the King is basically a boardgame version of a lite RPG with D&D influences, and I was pleasantly surprised by what this game achieves. This high fantasy world with skill checks aplenty imbues the hex-grid map and turn-based fights with a sense of adventure in mini-campaign scenarios. The results of gameplay might be too random for some players, and the campaign stories are bare-bones. But for those who want to experience their own emergent adventure unfold in this atmospheric board game style of play, there is much to appreciate here in the kingdom or Fahrul.
[u]Gameplay:[/u] For the king is best thought of as a digital board game with a lite-RPG theme and D&D influences. Each of your 3 party members takes turns on the hex grid map, combat is turn-based ala classic Final Fantasy, and almost every action is dependent on skill checks, which are basically invisible dice rolls.
Skill checks are the most important gameplay mechanic which drives your entire adventure, and the most likely indicator to signal whether you’ll enjoy this game or not. Skill checks are based on a binary pass/fail system, and every combat and event will utilize this. Instead of visible die rolls, each skill check is represented with a number of tiles that indicates the number of checks you’ll make. The number of tiles that fill in as pass/fail will determine your outcome to that attempt at combat or engaging with an event. Combat checks usually present themselves as “max damage potential” if you pass every tile skill check, and events usually present themselves as “number of passes/fails” varies your outcome.
Every character has a 0-100 stat rating on their attributes (strength, vitality, intelligence, awareness, talent, speed, and luck). Your stat rating is the percent chance you will succeed on one skill check tile that uses that attribute. For example, if you have an intelligence rating of 77, you have a 77% chance to pass a single skill check tile. If there are 3 tiles to check, you will have a 46% chance of passing all 3 tiles.
Every attack/ability in combat uses skill checks. Even enemies use skill checks (though they usually pass with flying colors). The attribute used for a skill check is based on the weapon you have equipped, and often make class thematic sense. Swords will usually check your strength, staffs will usually check your intelligence, etc. The number of tiles checked can also add to some decision making. For example, a weapon that makes two tile checks is more likely to fully pass for max damage versus a weapon that makes 5 tile checks. However, failing one of two tile checks will reduce your damage output far more than failing 1 of 5 tile checks.
This leads to the other big gameplay mechanic, which is loot management. This game is full of loot that you are constantly keeping track of to determine how to best spec your party members. Sometimes it feels like after every battle you’re going into the menu to analyze and manage the loot you acquired against the gear you have equipped. It seems like there is always a reason to be looking into your inventory and assessing your current loot.
A little nitpick, but the UI for entering the inventory is a little buggy. The keyboard shortcut doesn’t really work well, which means you have to manually click a little button with your cursor. It’s annoying, but not too bad.
The game comes with a primary campaign which covers 4-5 biomes, and extra smaller campaigns/modes. The campaigns take about 1-3 sittings to complete, more-or-less. There is a lot of content for a game that’s meant to be re-played. However, the core of your gameplay experience will remain the same. So, if you don’t like the skill checks and inventory gameplay loop, the extra content isn’t going to help.
You will also get to choose your 3 party members prior to any campaign. There are a variety of classes, each with their own skills and attributes stats. You can also customize their starting look and their names. I think you start out with 4-5 classes, and you can unlock more later.
There’s also a meta-game unlock store for rewards from new classes, to new encounters, to new weapons, to new cosmetics (all using in-game lore you collect).
So how does this all come together? Well…you can probably see why I initially described it as a digital board game with an RPG theme and D&D influences. But what it does is give you a pseudo Table Top experience where you go on an adventure, overcome challenges, get some lucky breaks, suffer some hilarious fails, and maybe just squeak by to beat a campaign. It can be riveting, exciting, and heartbreaking. But in the end you have a story to tell.
On my first play through, by the time I got to the final boss I thought I was toast. But because of some amazing rolls I was actually making a stand. Two of my 3 party members died. I had my one archer left. I was rolling incredibly. I was chipping away, and making some incredible dodges. With barely any heath left, I was one attack away from actually winning. I made the skill check, and whiffed! I completely missed! He goes to attack me. If I can just dodge, I can attack one more time. But no! I was hit and killed, and campaign was over! I was 1 turn away! Hahah! It gave me such a rush, and I laughed as I failed! I came so close, but I was thrilled at how fun it felt. Even to lose. Because I had a story about a group of unknown adventurers who almost saved a kingdom.
[u]Atmosphere:[/u] Atmosphere: For the Ling is full of Immersive atmosphere. There’s not much of an official story, but the environment and presentation makes you feel like you’re on a small RPG adventure. From the different biomes to classic high fantasy enemies, you feel like adventurers exploring a land full of dangers and dungeons. There are even some clearly inspired D&D enemies, like “mindflayers” and “gelatinous cubes”. The environment is very “nerdy”, and I love it.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the low-poly art style, but I was a fan of the overall stylistic choices. All of the characters have disproportionally large heads and it somehow makes it feel more like a board game. Maybe because they remind me more of meeples rather than real characters. And all of the little locations and little animations made for a fun and not too serious experience.
The music is really good too. Each biome has its own theme, and the overall score composition feels like it’s on a smaller scale, which fits the scale of the game well. After a while some of the instruments can get a bit repetitive. But overall it adds a very helpful dose of atmosphere.
Despite no engaging story, this game does a good job at immersing you into a world and engaging you in the fantasy of it all.
[u]Things to Note:[/u] This is a rogue-like with no ability to manually save. Once your party dies, it’s game over, and your campaign save is erased. Meaning no redos. You start a new campaign.
Also, there’s not much of a tutorial. Either look for an explanation online, or read their glossary like a board game rule book.
[u]Performance tips:[/u] On my GTX 1070, I used the NVIDIA control panel to enable vsync and limit my FPS to 60 (I have a 60hz monitor, no gsync/freesync). I would stay away from the vsync in the game. I don’t think it’s implemented very well and made my screen stutter. Using the control panel vsync instead worked much smoother for me.
[u]Conclusion:[/u] For The King gives you a fantasy adventure in a small scale package with all the atmosphere and skill checks right for its scope. It can be a frustrating game depending on your mindset and expectations, but it can also be a great time. I would highly encourage you to try it out it if you don’t mind skill checks and want that zero-to-hero adventure within a 2-4 hour window of time. For RPG and board game lovers, this is an easy decision. Recommend!
👍 : 11 |
😃 : 0
Positive