Ashfall Keep

Ash falls slow over a keep that won't stay buried

A kingdom burned here. The village at the foot of the hill lives on anyway — farming, fishing, trading, arguing — while something up in the keep has still not finished with the place.

You arrive with nothing but a choice of weapon. What you do after that is largely up to you.

Fight, or don't

Turn-based combat built to reward attention rather than grinding. Enemies have elemental weaknesses worth exploiting, a combo streak that builds while you go untouched, and a limit gauge that fills whether the fight is going well or badly.

Bosses change shape as they fall. At certain thresholds they enrage, gain new attacks, and open real-time dodge phases where the turn order drops away and you move for yourself.

And not every fight has to end in a death. Some can be talked down — including one where that turns out to be the whole point.

A world that isn't only a battlefield

Farming — till a plot, plant, come back. Four crops, different patience.

Cooking — a timing minigame at the fire. Overcook it and you ruin the lot.

Fishing — wait for the bite, hit the window. You will catch junk, and some of the junk is worth keeping.

Crafting — 53 recipes across anvil, alchemist's table and cookfire, discovered by holding the materials rather than bought from a list.

Gambling — slots and table games at Dice-Eyed Sal's. Win big enough and he offers you something rather more dangerous.

Minigames — reaction tests, rock-paper-scissors, tic-tac-toe, and a drop-the-token board. Some villagers only play after dark.

Companions — a stray pup, a ruins cat, a mountain crow, an owl. Each earned rather than given, each with a bond that deepens as you travel.

Choices that stay chosen

Five skill trees and 37 nodes, several of which lock each other out for the rest of the run. Respec is possible, at a price that climbs each time you use it. Twenty-five side quests. Fifty-two achievements. Decisions about people — a captured bandit, a deserter, a friend who has been talking to the wrong crowd — that the world remembers and comments on later.

For a second run

Beating the King is not where the content stops. The world visibly reacts, New Game+ opens a tier of skills above anything in the base game, Boss Rush puts every boss back to back, and there is a secret ending you cannot fight your way to.

Play it your way

Four difficulties from Story to Nightmare, the last with permadeath. Four optional run modifiers — No-Armor, No Fast Travel, Permadeath-Lite, Speedrun Timer. Full keyboard, mouse and controller support, every button rebindable. English and German. Colourblind palette, text scaling, reduce-motion, and separate volume controls.