Below the Crown

At first I bought it because it was from the same creator as Duskers, and it turns out it's a good twist on the typical chess gameplay.

Very fun chess-based rogue-like from the creators of Duskers. As with Balatro, the chess is mostly a set-dressing here, with pieces being upgraded, entirely new pieces being added and your king (wizard) being able to cast spells. In that sense, it's closer to something like Into the Breach than chess (though the game does teach you stuff like forking, pinning and skewering), where every level is like a mini-puzzle you have to solve. It does feel a [i]bit[/i] chaotic when there's more than ~5 pieces on the board, but not a huge problem so far. Note: there are some bugs, I'm reporting whatever I find in hopes it'll get patched up soon.

Put hours into the Playstest and Demo. Full version obtained through Humble Bundle (Checkmate! A Chess Games Collection). Will update review as I get more hours into the full release. A roguelike chess with a twist. Very fun and easy to play with many different skills to master. Runs very well, and rules of the game are very clear. You only have yourself to blame for your blunders.

A wonderfully challenging roguelike that is a multi-layer puzzle box, where every single move will make you think! Beautiful Aesthetics and music, can't wait to play more!

A refreshing chess roguelike with fair pieces, fun concepts, and phenomenal presentation. A lot of problems I have with other chesslikes is that the pieces can be super overpowered, and hard to play around. In this game, there isn't any queen that also moves like a knight that can check you into eternity on move one. Instead, the pieces are all normal for the exception of a couple of interesting variants that really only place restrictions on their original counterparts, which leads to some very thought provoking situations. The positions are also very fair. Coupled with the obstacles and obstructions and the fact that you start without any of your pieces and have to move the wizard (effectively the king) before placing a piece or casting a spell forces you to really think far ahead from move one, instead of just building up an overpowered board and slamming into the enemy until you mate them. The presentation is also amazing, the retro feel with the vibrant neons and scanlines, the constant buzz of archaic electronics, and the overall feel of the dungeons being reminiscent of 80s and 90s retrotech kinda reminding me of some Tron kind of feel, all of it culminates for a great late night vibe with a whiskey in hand, feeling like MacReady in The Thing. On top of that is the cool themes of the questionnaires and the looming mystery of the emperor break the flow of your constant calculations in the best way possible. Abruptly pulling you into a different long line of questions and theories. Only gripe I have are no draw arrows like in the online chess games but I'm sure this will be coming at some point. Friggin 10/10 love this thing. Must buy if you've been lookin for a chesslike to scratch that itch

Great chess variant game. Like a mix of chess and balatro

Cool graphics, freaky vaguely psychological horror stuff, short gameplay thats fun even if u rnt good at chess

7/10 (∩｀-´)⊃━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ♟️ you should be able to use your unused undos if you lose

Great game. I enjoy chess but not enough to play with all these crazies who play online and learn all the queen gambits and other doodads, so this game is pretty perfect for me. I can take the familiar chess strategies I know and mix them with an Inscryption-like vibe and deck builder sort of thing, and it's a lot of fun. Plays on Steam Deck just fine, although with a virtual cursor which is mildly annoying but not a big deal.

Below the Crow is a neat chess derived stratagey game. Each board is of modest size and can generally be completed in shot order while providing a modest challenge. The nature of the upgrade system does present a few problems, some of the buffs for pieces can at times trivalise encounters. Conversly variation in pieces and positions between boards means that even the "easy" levels may present a challenge. More importantly the nature of chess requires a minimum of attention to be provided a single careless move can put one on the backfoot, whether this is a perk or detriment is a matter of taste.