
Beat the Devil at his own game. The Killing Stone is a deckbuilding card battler wrapped in a 17th century occult horror narrative. Clean the sins of a cursed family by bargaining against a series of demons - and outwitting the Devil himself.
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About
From the makers of The Blackout Club and The Magic Circle comes The Killing Stone. A card battler with beautiful stylized art, animated figurines, dazzling effects, haunted sound and music, and an original first-person narrative set in the 17th century in a remote region of the Arctic circle.
At the center of the ceremonial board is the Fanghella, the Killing Stone. A collection of magical creature figurines, spells, and incantations allows for a variety of clever tactics. The game pieces are full of life and character, giving a very tactile and responsive experience while still allowing players to deliberate their every move.
A novel Reserve System allows for more strategic plays, letting you stack units and buffing incantations above the battle line for later deployment. Creature placement, spellcasting, and bargaining to add powerful banes and boons to your deck all affect your chances of success.
In between matches, the story plays out in first-person with a painterly stylized presentation. You are a Maven, master of the dark arts - and Mariken's final friend. Explore the mansion and talk with family members - and animal familiars - to learn the circumstances of her final days.
The eerie tone of the game and setting are further enhanced by the game being told in two styles: a period 17th century English, and a more modern prose. Players will be allowed to switch both text and VO to enjoy the game in the version they prefer. Branching dialogues let you dive deeper into the story, learning the origin of the familial curse, and shedding light on the characters' motives and fears.
Simplified Chinese 中文, Latin American Spanish, French, and German are supported for all UI and text. You can still choose whether to listen to Modern English or 17th Century Period English for the VO when these languages are selected.
Battles feed into a Ritual bargain against the Devil’s minions for the soul of each family member. Like a cat with a mouse, Demons love to play with their victims. Their pride cannot resist a wager if they think they can tilt the outcome to their advantage - but you can call their bluff.
Each Svangård has their own card deck representing their souls, cursed with debts left by their Matriarch. The outcomes of a Bargain offer powerful effects which permanently affect the family member you are helping with helpful Boons or heavy Banes.
You only have a few rounds to negotiate before the Ritual is completed, and only a few Rituals to make a difference and alter a family member's fate before the final Reckoning is due.
These bargains and the opposing demons change as you progress. No two playthroughs are identical. Replays grant you new dark miracles, and ways to change the ending.
Purge the Svangård family’s hereditary curse before the devil arrives. Hopefully, without losing your own soul.
Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English*, French, German, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America*languages with full audio support
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 41 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 41 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
Great atmosphere and a novel line-based tactics gameplay. I've been having a lot of fun digging into the past of Mariken and her mysteries.
this is VERY FUN if you like reading, and it's also very fun if you don't like reading i imagine
Started off not certain about the 'Overworld' but the Card Battling system seems very fleshed out and versatile. Love the possibilities and Direction
Very Underrated card game about a Man who is the pupil to a Witch Named Mariken Svangard. An Exile who was banished along with her family to some distant place. The Witch herself made a pact with the Devil for either revenge or all of the power , artifacts, tomes etc she would bet her soul and eventually lost. So you Maven Pupil to Mariken now has to play for souls to save not just her soul but the souls of her family an thus the Killing Stone begins. It's a very fun and Interesting card game where you take 3 - 6 creatures and try to defeat demons (Generals and Underlings to the Devil) as well as the Devil himself by attacking there Eye's. Using The Svangard's Family Decks trying to save there soul by playing the Killing Stone using Pacts and Forges to make either your deck Stronger or make mistakes in the deck getting weaker from curses. I made a video talking about my experience playing the game. Right here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy_pI9L8S50 It has some great Voice acting And the gameplay itself is very fun. Give it a look.
It feels like Inscryption. It has a more complicated (confusing) story which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it. You don't start the game with much knowledge of the plot but a LOT gets thrown at you in the first act; with extremely wordy and lawyer-speak dialogue it's hard to process what is going on. Again, the game doesn't give you any lifelines to really understand what is happening. The battles themselves have more complex rules than other card games I have played but I think I will get the hang of it eventually. Graphics are... not great tbh. And it's not like it has charm- I think it just looks unpolished. You can pet all the animals which is awesome :D Bottom line: this is a great game for early access (released two weeks ago at time of writing), but it needs better graphics, more digestible dialogue and story points, and a help manual for figuring out what everything is.
The game has a substantial graphic of art, it is a fun game, to play in levels.
Finally the Devil has modernized and now instead of chess or poker, you have to beat him at Magic the Gathering
10/10 would outwit the fox again
I wouldn't blame you for looking at an early access game in an oversaturated genre with skepticism or dismissal, but I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this one so far. I feel confident in saying that there is enough content here for it to be worth buying. That said, it is still very clearly early access. Some visuals are a little rough and the balance in certain areas (looking at you, Herald) could use some improvement. Later battles have a tendency to drag on, which can quickly feel tedious. The 17th-century dialogue is really cool to see. It's not hard to figure out what each sentence means, even if you don't know every word. I imagine someone for whom English isn't a first language might struggle, but thankfully it's not the only option available. I actually took a break from the game for a week when I had a cold because I wanted to keep reading the 17th-century version but couldn't quite process it while sick. Some things I'd particularly love to see added: -A compendium/library/whatever in which you can review cards that you've unlocked or previously faced. -Voiced dialogue for more characters. Emma Gregory and Liam O'Brien are amazing, but it's a bit jarring to hear them, then look at silent text for somebody else, then back again. All in all, The Killing Stone is off to a very promising start. I'm looking forward to seeing what's added next.
The actual mechanics and atmosphere are fantastic. The writing, as well, though I'm still early on- Question's storytelling remains extremely strong in all respects. It's still in early access, so everything is understandably still a work in progress, especially on the voice acting front (though I'm still extremely happy with the Period English setting, for what is there). I had to refund this game, despite my praise, because it would crash the entirety of Steam roughly once or twice per Ritual, which utterly destroyed my immersion every time I began to hit a stride. I hope to buy it again sometime when it is slightly more polished.
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Concurrent players on Steam, sampled daily since tracking started.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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