Roguelikes and roguelites, I just can’t get enough of them, and indie developers keep dropping new ones that easily eat up more hours than I’d like to admit. Each month brings a few generic titles, but some really stand out.

Not every roguelite needs fully realized mechanics; sometimes the art, writing, and pacing are enough to make me stick around. 2025 shows no signs of slowing, even in November, and a few releases from this month have already caught my attention.

As someone who loved Olija (2021), hearing that Thomas Olsson was making another action game instantly caught my attention. The thick textures, crunchy sound effects, and stellar art were easily recognizable. It’s not often you find a roguelike or roguelite that really tries something new and succeeds at it.

Forestrike is just that, giving players virtually infinite opportunities to perfect a combat encounter before taking it on for real. To discuss the game, its influences, and its development, I had the chance to interview Thomas Olsson himself.

When Ubisoft announced Anno 117: Pax Romana, fans were immediately excited not only because of a new Anno title, but also because it revolves around the Roman Empire.

But while it’s easy to expect a history lesson from a game set during the height of the Roman Empire, it will be interesting to see how the setting incorporates into Anno’s core foundation. With one of Anno’s core foundations being built around islands, players will wonder how it will adapt to the setting, especially when Anno 1800, the previous Anno title, didn’t even have land combat.

Starsand Island isn’t just a typical cozy farming sim with an anime tag; it also boasts a breathtaking world with its wonderful art design. However, it’s the game’s customization that takes center stage, aiming to redefine the genre by offering players more freedom.

What Makes Starsand Island’s Customization Unique Compared to Other Farming Sims

While most life and farming sims lean heavily on familiar cozy game tropes, like decorating your home, dressing up your character, and collecting fun and cute items, Starsand Island pushes the genre forward by giving players more creative control.

Telling stories in a game is hard. The interactive nature of the medium means you can’t always fully use it to immerse players in a narrative where they feel directly involved. Whether it’s the limited use of gameplay-driven storytelling, writing that doesn’t hold up against other media, or a lack of care in handling serious subjects, many games fall short.

Bounty Star isn’t one of those games. It’s an exploration of grief, trauma, and acceptance that pulled me in with genuine brevity and care for its themes, transforming the mundane into something deeply rewarding as I played and learned more about its main character.

While Genshin Impact and Warframe are two widely different genres, mixing them together gives you Duet Night Abyss, an anime hack-and-slash looter shooter with a lot of promise.

Mixing popular genres sounds pretty common nowadays, so why does it deserve your attention? Well, Pan Studio, the team behind Duet Night Abyss, originally planned to have a gacha system on its weapons and characters, and even a stamina system mostly seen in typical gacha games, but they are now all given for free to serve a better gameplay experience, along with a revamped and more user-friendly monetization system.

If it isn’t obvious by now, I love action games. Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, God Hand, Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising, I’ve played them all. So when I confess the sin of never properly playing the mainline 3D Ninja Gaiden games (despite loving the 2D entries), I want it to be clear that it wasn’t out of indifference or ignorance of their legacy, but more of an ‘I’ll get to it eventually.’

Since each game is practically self-contained, I didn’t hesitate to jump into Ninja Gaiden 4, and wow, I was missing out on something special. These are my impressions of Ninja Gaiden 4 from someone who loves action games but skipped the main trilogy.

With Starsand Island entering Steam’s Next Fest from Oct 13 to Oct 20, I had the chance to check it out myself after following the game since its Kickstarter phase.

The anime-style art combined with its cozy farming simulator nature already had me intrigued, but it wasn’t until I got to play the game that I saw its charming potential.

Fellowship brings the first-ever MODA or multiplayer online dungeon adventure genre to the mainstream, giving players the addictive gameplay loop seen in most MMORPGs but without all the needless clutter for those who just want to play dungeons.

After playing for 25 hours over the past few days, here are my thoughts on Fellowship – also with a perspective from decades of playing World of Warcraft as well.

The Anno franchise is easily one of my top city-building franchises of all time, and when Anno 117: Pax Romana got announced back in 2024, it became one of my most anticipated games of the year.

Once I got hold of the preview in early October – huge thanks to the Ubisoft team – I couldn’t stop playing it over the weekend.