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.