IronOak Games sequel, For The King II, promises to be a deepening of the original game or, “the game that we wish we made in the first place.” The sequel features a new art style, a revamped combat system, four-player parties, and even landboats.
For newcomers to the series like myself, it was a lot to take in and digest. For The King II is a turn-based roguelike but can be best described as a Dungeons and Dragons tabletop game played solo or with friends; dice rolls and RNG included. There’s a sprawling hex grid that serves as the adventure and a timeline element layered onto the progression, difficulty curves, and environmental hazards you’ll face. It’s meant to be played briskly, so players will have to strategize their movement and resources to achieve the best outcome.
You can choose from 12 different characters, each with a specific job class and special abilities. Hunter, Blacksmith, Farmer, Pathfinder. Those were the classes we saw in the demo build. I chuckled at how a band of everyday common folk would sign themselves up for such an epic adventure but that’s the lore we’re given. The story follows the events of the first For the King and once again the world of Fahrul has been plunged into darkness. A wicked queen rules the land and the heroes have united as the resistance. Time has passed so expect some callbacks with familiar faces and locales to pop up.
Before heading into the adventure, you can customize the player skins, assign items and equipment for modifiers from the loadout menu, and jump in. The Lore Store returns from the first game and offers a whole slew of items to unlock from ranking and completing the campaign objectives.
There’s a main objective in an adventure to complete and you’ll explore the hex map to remove the fog of war. Along the way, there are treasures and enemies to fight. Combat now takes place on a 4×2 grid offering new strategies for positioning and attacking. You’ll want to position your toughest fighters in the front row and range classes in the back. Certain squares on the grid offer special bonuses so move a character to take advantage. I found myself using splash damage often to inflict a frozen status on opponents and fought through an increasingly tough dungeon encounter ending in a bandit king boss fight.
And there’s the looming spectacle of permadeath throughout since this is a roguelike. Harder difficulties and failures….I mean lessons are awaiting. Or you can just toggle down the difficulty. I could easily see For The King II as very satisfying for those who like to min max their setup and invest time into it. It was a bit dense for me at the jump but after spending some time with it, For The King II started clicking and that was in itself, rewarding.
For The King II releases this year for Steam on PC. Get up to speed by following The Book of Lore dev blog series for the latest updates.
