Premium fantasy tactical roguelike

Oaken is a premium strategy game developed by Laki Studios. This fantasy-inspired, turn-based roguelike game lets you explore the land of the Great Oak to find your allies and fight against monsters. You build decks that allow you to place monsters, mages, and other creatures on your side of the board. Fight, strategize, and conquer as you face stronger opponents and gain cards.

In essence, Oaken feels like an unlikely yet effective cross between Civilization VI with its strategy and hex-based boards and Hades with its fantasy mythological elements in a roguelike premise. It’s equally challenging and fun to play.

Explore limitless possibilities

The world of Oaken is a mythical location lost in space and time. Its premise explains a wide variety of living beings, both good and evil, that listen to the singular voice called the Oak Song. Similar to The Force in Star Wars, the loss of this voice has caused great strife. This has eventually led to a struggle for the very survival of the Great Oak.

As mentioned, the game occurs on a hexagonal grid that allows you to move in any of the six directions per turn. You start with a Hero and go on to find allies. Graphics-wise, it has vivid and colorful designs that feel lifted from Ori and the Blind Forest. This aesthetic binds to the rest of the game, including its original music, to create a singular coherent theme.

In terms of gameplay, this is one of those games that is easy to learn yet difficult to master. As a roguelike entry, you can gain new and better cards but still, permadeath exists. Getting defeated or “dying” will reset your progress story-wise. This makes it particularly difficult to progress, especially through the latter part of the game since there are randomly-generated enemy lineups that might be a bad match.

An exciting, nature-themed adventure

Overall, Oaken is a really promising strategy game. It has a great story premise, one that is nature-themed and is echoed across the entire game — including the character and set designs and the soundtrack. It is challenging enough, with the use of a hex grid and procedurally-generated levels. Although, be wary of the roguelike elements, such as permadeath. Still, this game is a must-try.