Orcish Skies

A deep tactical deckbuilder roguelike with escalating levels of difficulty modifiers that encourage and test your growing mastery of each playable ship. The ships have drastically different play styles, from the organic vine ship that can take a lot of punishment and seed the battlefield with deadly plants, to the fragile but lethal stealth ship that relies on mobility and misdirection. Each ship has its own progress track and you can enjoy hundreds of hours getting as far as you can with all of them. Even within the individual ships, there are innumerable ways to play based on the build you pursue in terms of ship customization and deck choices. If you're looking for your next roguelike obsession, this is it.

A fantastic tactical deckbuilder in a neat world that's obviously had a lot of thought and effort put into it. It's great for fans of more complicated deckbuilding. There are a lot of mechanics to learn for each character and a lot of viable card options. Even if you want to reduce the complexity with the Simple and Basic deck options available for most characters, there's a lot of fun to be had for such a low price. Haven't encountered any bugs or play issues, but It could use some QoL improvements like widescreen, game speed options, and quick card use with double click (dragging up and releasing each card gets old). Oh, and it's not clear at first that the glossary exists to more deeply explain mechanics. You will need to use it and put in some work to learn how each character plays, but it's worth it.

Let's take the synergistic deck construction and hero mechanics of Slay the Spire, dynamic strategy of Fire Emblem and Into the Breach, oh and a splash of Battleship, because why not. Orcish Skies is a solid strategy game that makes you make hard choices and seriously consider risk reward. There are few surprises in combat, enemy moves are visible and how dangerous your positioning is not a surprise, but are you willing to take those hits to maximize your hand or are you going to play it safe is a question you will ask every battle. Oh, and when that bassline hits during the boss fight theme, you are going to feel it in your gut.

Super detailed, thoughtful rogue-like deckbuilder with a ridiculous amount of extremely hilarious builds to pull off. Fun setting, good dialog. It's been a pleasure watching this develop. Totally recommended!

Flowerboy vs final boss, I did so much damage in one turn it forced the boss into invuln and crashed my game. 10/10. Also queer af, which is neat.

Beautiful art, good music, and fun strategic gameplay with some surprising depth. So far I've only played the earlier demo and a few encounters with different characters, and I like how the game eases you in as you learn the different systems. Each character has a very distinct play style, with different abilities and approaches to combat. There's also a helpful glossary to learn about the world and the game systems. The card effects and those when an airship is destroyed are top notch. Can't wait to play more of it!

i can defaintly recommend this game for the price, the UI is kinda clunky and the information on screen isn't all that clear. but it is quite an in depth rouge like deck builder. also: orc airships going daka spears is fun :D

A really fun game that has endured sabotage and many setbacks, but the great developer who was very responsive and created a delightful masterpiece.

A [i]criminally[/i] overlooked tactics/card-roguelite. Though Orcish Skies is not without its faults - no 'exit game' option on the main menu, occasional clunky, messy UI or difficult to read text, effects that are less than obvious unless you play with a 'full tooltips' option that doesn't appear to be enabled by default, and an inability to see what weapon type a given card is once it's in your deck - it is an impressively deep game with effective interconnected systems, tons of layers of strategy, and all together a remarkable package of mechanics that play off each other quite well. The UI, and some of the finer mechanics (like the 'ammunition' weapons), take some time to fully understand, but by the middle of my first run I was grateful for the wealth of information conveyed to the player and the constant choices and considerations demanded of me every few minutes of gameplay. This is clearly a passion project, and it fulfils its passion well! For points of comparison; the balancing of movement, damage output and shielding in a card game gave me hints of Cobalt Core, the virtually one-person development team deep tactical experience reminded me of Horizon Gate/Voidspire Tactics/Kingsvein, and the method of drafting new cards and upgrading your ship with passives and stat increases feel almost completely unique (and well-implemented!) in the genre. My only concern is the longevity the game may or may not offer, as there don't appear to be *that* many enemy types - but then, I've only played with one of the five characters, each with their own storyline. This would be an easy recommendation if it were $10. But at $4USD at full price - the price of a cup of coffee? It's a steal.

A game where every decision is made complex and nuanced, for better or for worse. Usually for better. A lovely gem for genre-fanatics to sink their teeth into. Also delightfully queer.