Necroking

Necroking is a turn-based tactical roguelite with deckbuilding elements set in a dark fantasy realm. Players become the Necroking, a necromancer who raises skeleton armies and demonic minions to spread death and expand dominion through procedurally generated battles, featuring over 30 unit types, card-driven combat from a skull deck, and charming pixel art visuals. Its mild difficulty makes it accessible for genre newcomers, though it may lack strategic depth for hardcore players.

Necroking: Review

Introduction: The Allure of the Bone Throne

In an era saturated with deckbuilders and roguelites, standing out requires a potent thematic core and mechanically satisfying synthesis. Necroking arrives promising exactly that: the intoxicating power fantasy of raising an undead legions to conquer a decaying world. Developed by the prolific indie outfit KORO.GAMES and published by the veteran Alawar, this 2024 title attempts to fuse the card-driven progression popularized by Slay the Spire with the tactical grid-combat sensibilities of classics like Fire Emblem or Disciples. Yet, beneath its charming pixel art veneer lies a game caught between accessibility and depth, offering a streamlined, often enjoyable, but ultimately superficial taste of necromantic conquest. This review will argue that Necroking succeeds as a competent, approachable entry point into the turn-based tactics roguelite genre but stumbles in delivering the strategic complexity and narrative weight that would elevate it from a pleasant diversion to a genre-defining title.

Development History & Context: An Indie’s Ascent in a Crowded Field

Necroking is the product of KORO.GAMES, an independent studio founded in 2019 with a portfolio characterized by “stylish, sometimes weird, and highly addictive games” (Nano Gaming News). Their previous work includes titles like Greeded and Reverse Dungeon, suggesting a design philosophy rooted in clever mechanics and unique premises. The choice of publisher, Alawar, is significant. Since 1999, Alawar has built a reputation for financing and distributing a vast array of indie titles, including the thematically adjacent Necrosmith series, indicating a keen eye for niche, mechanics-driven games.

The game’s development unfolded against the backdrop of the early 2020s—a golden age for the roguelite deckbuilder. The monumental success of Slay the Spire (2019), Monster Train (2020), and SteamWorld Quest (2019) had firmly established the “run-based, card-collection” loop as a dominant paradigm. Necroking enters this space with a distinct twist: applying the deckbuilding mechanic not to a single hero’s journey, but to the command and growth of an entire army. Technologically, it was built in Unity, a common engine for indies offering a balance of power and accessibility, and employs hand-crafted pixel art—a deliberate aesthetic choice evoking the golden age of tactical RPGs while keeping system requirements modest (requiring as little as 6GB RAM and a GTX 960).

Its release on September 4, 2024, for Windows and macOS via Steam, followed by a Nintendo Switch port in April 2025, was a “full release” skipping Early Access, as noted by Bleeding Cool. This indicated developer confidence, though post-launch updates (detailed on the Steam Community page) revealed a team actively responding to player feedback, adding features like a new “Strategy” mode, controller support, and balance tweaks—a modern approach to live service for a premium title.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: A kingdom of rot, ruled by silence

Necroking‘s narrative is not delivered through cutscenes or dialogue trees but is instead environmentally and textually inscribed onto its world, adhering to the “show, don’t tell” ethos of much game design. The official ad blurb provides the foundational lore: “Troubles and decay struck the cities, the villages were mired in the vices of madness, and people began to look for a reason for battle in order to throw out their aggression.” This establishes a world already morally and physically infected, where life itself has become a corrupting, conflict-ridden force. The player does not cause this decay; they are a reaction to it, a necessary correction.

You are the Necroking, a figure who “put[s] on the crown of a powerful necromancy magic.” The title implies sovereignty, a king who rules not over the living but over the very concept of death and undeath. The mission is explicit: “embark on a dark and twisted journey to bring chaos and destruction to settlements desecrated by life itself. Raise an army of skeletons and other vile creatures to conquer your enemies and establish your dominion!” This is a thematic inversion of the classic hero’s quest. Instead of saving a kingdom from a necromancer, you are the necromancer, and your goal is to impose a new, undead order upon a world rotten with “life.”

The themes are thus darkly pragmatic:
* Necromancy as Order: The narrative frames undeath not as a horror but as a cleansing, organizing force. Skeletons are presented as a loyal, disciplined army (“Raise an army of skeletons”), contrasted with the chaotic, maddened “life” that plagues the settlements.
* The Burden of Power: While the ad blurb speaks of “establish[ing] your dominion,” the gameplay loop—managing a finite resource (Souls), building a deck, and facing procedural challenges—subtly reinforces the logistical burdens of rulership. Every skeleton raised costs a Soul; every card added to your deck is a potential liability in a future, different battle.
* Silent Protagonacy: The Necroking is a silent, avatar-like figure. There is no character development arc, no personal story. The player’s engagement is purely through the systemic narrative of conquest and growth. This is a strength for a strategy title, allowing the focus to remain on tactical expression, but it means the “story” exists primarily as a backdrop for the gameplay metaphor.

In essence, Necroking‘s narrative is a thin but potent thematic scaffold. It provides a clear, compelling justification for its mechanics—you are a monarch of death restoring a perverse form of balance—but lacks the literary depth or character study to resonate beyond that core premise. It’s a world of rot, and you are its coronated cure.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: The Deckbuilding Army

The core innovation of Necroking is its marriage of deckbuilding with large-scale tactical unit command.

The Core Loop: Each run is a campaign across a procedurally generated world map consisting of nodes (settlements, events, shops). You select a route, engaging in turn-based tactical battles at combat nodes. Victory grants Souls (the primary resource) and unlocks new “Skull” cards (units, spells, items) that are added to your collective “Skull Deck.” Between battles, at a central hub (the Obelisk), you spend Souls to purchase new Skulls from a rotating shop and upgrade existing units’ skills, crafting your persistent army deck for the current run. Death ends the run, triggering a meta-progression where you spend “Stars” (earned based on performance) to unlock permanent bonuses, new starting Skulls, or enhanced unit versions (added in Update 1.5.2).

Combat System: Here lies the game’s most noted point of confusion. The Steam store page lists “Real-Time Tactical Gameplay” as a key feature, while MobyGames and user tags consistently label it turn-based tactics. Analysis of gameplay footage and developer commentary clarifies this: battles are turn-based at the strategic level (you and the enemy take turns initiating phases), but real-time within the turn. During your “action phase,” units with the “Speed” stat act automatically in real-time based on their initiative and AI scripting, while you manage your hand of Skull cards—many of which are played in real-time to cast spells, summon units, or trigger special attacks. This creates a hybrid feel: you plan your turn’s card plays (turn-based strategy) but must execute them and manage your positioning amidst a flurry of auto-attacking units (real-time tactics). This system demands quick strategic decisions under pressure, fitting the “quick reflexes” claim.

Unit & Deckbuilding: With over 30 unit types, classification is key. Units fall into archetypes: Tanks (Spearmen, Thorned Tanks), Damage Dealers (Vampires, Mage Shooters), Support (Soul Generators, Healers), and Specialists (Cavalry, Phantoms). The Soul economy is central. Souls are generated by Soul Generator units or by sacrificing your own units. This creates a profound risk-reward dynamic: do you preserve your front-line skeletons for defense, or sacrifice them for the Souls needed to summon more powerful units later? The deckbuilding aspect means you are not just building a single hero’s kit, but curating an entire army’s possible composition for a run. The “Skull Deck” is your recruitment pool; from it, you draw a hand each battle.

Systems: Strengths and Flaws:
* Strength – Accessible Depth: The core loop of “battle -> earn -> upgrade -> repeat” is satisfying and easy to grasp. The visual clarity of pixel art units and the straightforward stat sheets (Health, Attack, Speed, Range) make tactical assessment manageable.
* Flaw – Balance & “Samey” Fights: As articulated in a detailed Steam Community feedback post, post-launch players identified a critical flaw: late-run trivialization. Once a player accumulates a critical mass of Souls and unlocks key “must-have” units like Soul Generators and high-damage dealers (Mage Shooters), “most fights feel the same,” and the challenge evaporates. Some units (Cavalry, stationary Tanks) were deemed “useless” due to poor survivability or situational relevance, while others were “no brainer” picks. This creates a degenerate optimal strategy that stifles experimentation, a cardinal sin for a game promoting “vast deckbuilding.”
* Flaw – Deckbuilding Misstep: The feedback post also highlighted a fundamental disconnect: unlocked Skulls are not immediately draftable. You must wait until a specific battle node to potentially draw them from your master deck, which discourages experimenting with new archetypes (like a “demon deck”) within a single run. The permanent upgrades (at the Obelisk) feel more impactful than the new cards themselves.
* Flaw – The “Strategy” Mode Paradox: The developer’s response to this critique was the addition of a “Strategy” mode (Update 1.3.7), where most cards burn after use, forcing constant deck reconstruction. While this directly addresses the “samey deck” problem, it arguably solves it by increasing micro-management tedium rather than enhancing strategic diversity. It’s a band-aid on a deeper design issue: the core unit balance and the static nature of the world map encounters do not necessitate meaningful adaptation.

User Interface & Controls: Initially mouse-only, full controller support was a major requested feature added in Update 1.2.6, crucial for Steam Deck and console play. The UI is functional butbasic, with card hand management and unit selection being clear but not particularly elegant. The addition of a 4x-speed and simplified animation mode (Update 1.5.2) was a welcome quality-of-life change for a game with many repeated battles.

World-Building, Art & Sound: A Gritty, Grinning Pixel Purgatory

Necroking’s world is a masterclass in atmospheric efficiency through limitation. The 2D side-view pixel art is not merely a nostalgic throwback; it’s a deliberate design choice that enhances readability. Every sprite—from the shuffling skeleton to the hulking demon—is distinct and readable even at a glance, a non-negotiable requirement for a tactical game where unit identification is paramount. The color palette is muted and earthy for the “living” world maps (greens, browns) and shifts to desaturated blues, greys, and sickly greens for the necrotic realms and battlefields, visually communicating the encroachment of death.

The setting is a classic dark fantasy trope: a realm of “chaos-stricken cities, villages, graveyards.” The world map nodes evoke a campaign board of a desolate war. The biomes (Forest, Swamp, Halloween-themed additions) provide slight visual variety but, per player feedback, lack meaningful terrain-based tactical implications—a missed opportunity to deepen strategy. The atmosphere is one of grim resignation, not恐怖 (horror). The skeletons aren’t terrifying; they’re tools, and the world they march through feels already dead, just waiting for the final coup de grâce.

Sound design is less documented but consistently praised in user reviews for its moody, atmospheric soundtrack (sold separately as a bundle). The audio likely relies on a mix of ambient drones, trudging percussion for the army’s march, and sharp, satisfying sound effects for combat—the crack of a skeleton’s bow, the squelch of a demon’s impact. The sound design’s primary role is to reinforce the game’s medieval fantasy warfare aesthetic rather than to innovate. It is, in the best sense, serviceable and immersive, supporting the visual and gameplay tone without ever distracting.

Together, art and sound create a cohesive, intentionally retro-futuristic vision. It doesn’t aim for the emotional weight of a Darkest Dungeon but for the clear-eyed, tactical clarity of a Advance Wars filtered through a macabre lens. The world is a game board of decay, and you are its final player.

Reception & Legacy: A Promising Start, an Uncertain Future

Necroking’s reception is a study in genre-specific expectations. On Steam, it holds a “Very Positive” rating (81% of 773 reviews as of the cut-off), with recent reviews being overwhelmingly positive. This suggests a solid core audience that enjoys its loop. The Dutch review from Gameplay (Benelux) provides a critical counterpoint, calling it an “aardige instap” (nice entry point) into the genre due to its mild difficulty but noting it has “beperkt vlees aan het bot” (limited meat on the bone), leaving “hardcore strategen” (hardcore strategists) hungry for more. This encapsulates the central tension: it is accessible and enjoyable but lacks the strategic density and challenge to sustain expert players.

Commercial performance isn’t publicly detailed, but consistent discounting (Daily Deals, bundles with Wall World 2 and the Necrosmith series) and a quick Switch port indicate healthy, if not blockbuster, sales—typical for a successful Alawar indie title. The developer’s hyper-responsive post-launch support (multiple major updates with new modes, balance changes, QoL features) is a major positive, demonstrating a commitment to iterating based on community feedback, as seen in the openly responsive Steam discussions where developers directly address balance and feature requests.

Legacy and Influence are, by necessity, speculative. Launched in 2024, it is too recent for definitive historical assessment. However, its place in the roguelite and tactics lineage is clear. It stands in the shadow of giants like Into the Breach (supreme tactical puzzle-solving) and Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark (deep, classic TRPG systems). Its primary innovation—the army-scale deckbuilder—has been explored in other titles but rarely with such a direct, grid-based tactical focus. If it influences future games, it will be as a proof-of-concept: that the deckbuilding meta-progression can meaningfully apply to a squad of units rather than a single avatar. Its greater influence may be on its own developer, KORO.GAMES, and publisher, Alawar, solidifying a niche for mechanically inventive, modestly produced tactical indies.

Its legacy will depend on whether KORO.GAMES evolves the systems beyond balance patches. The player suggestions for terrain effects, a proper spell system separate from cards, and dynamic world-map events point toward a more systemic, reactive design. If the team pursues these, Necroking could be remembered as a foundation stone for a deeper series. If not, it risks being a well-executed but forgettable one-off—a fun, 20-hour distraction that failed to grasp the full potential of its premise.

Conclusion: The Crown Is Tarnished, But Still Worn

Necroking is a game of compelling contrasts. It offers the thrill of raising a skeletal horde with the cerebral satisfaction of optimizing a card deck, all wrapped in a beautifully coherent pixel-art world of dark fantasy. It is accessible, frequently fun, and mechanically sound at its core. Yet, it is also a game whose ambitions outstrips its design depth. The campaign can become a trivial, repetitive grind. Key units overshadow others, limiting strategic variety. The world map, while procedurally generated, offers little meaningful variation, leading to a feeling of “samey” runs.

As a historical artifact, Necroking is a snapshot of a trend: the mid-2020s indies’ relentless recycling of the roguelite deckbuilder formula into every conceivable genre. It demonstrates both the strength and the weakness of that approach. The strength is a instantly gratifying gameplay loop. The weakness is a frequent failure to build emerggent complexity and long-term strategic narrative from that loop.

Its final verdict in the canon is that of a competent, mid-tier title. It is not an essential classic like Into the Breach, nor a flawed gem like Fell Seal. It is a strong recommendation with caveats. For the player seeking a relaxing, visually charming, and undemanding tactical experience with a fun power fantasy, Necroking is an easy buy, especially at its discounted price. For the hardcore strategist craving deep unit synergies, punishing difficulty curves, and meaningful run-to-run variation, it will prove unsatisfying.

The crown of the Necroking fits, but it sits a little loosely. The kingdom of tactical roguelites has a new, undead vassal—one that serves its purpose well but lacks the ambition to ever truly rule. With continued, bold updates, it might earn its place on the throne. As it stands, it remains a promising, partially-realized conquest— enjoyable to raise, but unlikely to be remembered centuries from now.