The Ouroboros King

Really interesting concept, but marred by execution. I found myself constantly hovering over the icon that shows where you or the enemy pieces move because of the unfamiliar pieces and rules. The portals constantly screwed me because I didn't understand how they worked until it clicked after a few turns. You only have a limited number of rewind (undo). I've only played a few games, but these pieces feel broke: Martyr - When captured, blows up all pieces in one square around it. The AI aggressively goes after this piece, usually sacrificing a high-value piece. Reaper - Kills any other piece on the same color tile, except the King or Witch. I've won many games in three turns or less because of this piece. It is extremely difficult to understand how to defend. Immortal - Moves like a king, can't be killed by any piece except King, but itself can't capture a king. This piece (when combined with the Leper - also moves like a king) really creates an unsatisfying slog of a game where you're basically watching paint dry (and your gold reward drops to 0). I don't feel like there's much progression for a roguelike. The archives of every piece, artifact, etc. are already unlocked. There's nothing to discover. I don't feel like it is much of a deckbuilder either. Being assigned random pieces at the beginning seems bad because your run is completely determined by those starting pieces. If you get bad pieces, good luck trying to capture the king early and maximize your gold to actually buy anything. I'm happy that this game, by default, starts in windowed mode and doesn't feature pixel graphics, which is common for these kinds of roguelikes.

Stripped down chess is less fun than chess.

Shotgun King is much better. Permanently losing any pieces that get captured, combined with rewards for the battle going down over time, is a really lame combination that contradicts itself (winning without losing pieces, or losing minimal pieces, would require careful planning, turns you don't have to waste if you want a decent amount of rewards). I do like the pieces though, the game isn't great imo but it would be straight butt if it was just regular chess pieces. Again, Shotgun King is better, even if their recent update removed a useful feature for no reason.

It is a solid game, but much more barebones than I previously expected. - The UI is a mess and has trouble updating, so sometimes you will lose a run to a piece you assumed had a completely different moveset because the UI didn't refresh. - Some of the rules for the pieces feel very arbitrary and item / pieces' abilities aren't well communicated. I often just have to rely on hovering over the pieces to know what they do, because from my perspective they're just a random icon with an arbitrary ability and even more arbitrary set of rules for said ability. - some rules are straight up broken. I had non-glass pieces just straight up disappear on me, even though afaik there isnt anything written anywhere about this being possible Also ♥♥♥♥ the random mode for completely disabling units sometimes. I am playing it for it's randomized moveset, I don't want a chance for a unit with no moves that I can't even reroll later. The wins with it feel cheap and the losses due to it feel unfair.

在新手教程的时候，这游戏非常像在解国际象棋的残局。它有一定的计算量，但又加入了一些微微的变化，这让我很上头。感觉像是在解一种从未有过、微妙又奇怪的残局，这种既熟悉又带点违和感的玩法吸引了我。我本来特别喜欢新手教程那一局的克制感，结果发现从第二局开始，兵种就开始变得千奇百怪了，完全不像教程里那样只做一点点的演变。 一开始还能勉强适应，但随着大家攻击范围变得越来越蹊跷，我对棋盘的掌控力明显减弱了。作为国际象棋爱好者，我很难再感受到那种原汁原味的博弈感，它更像是一个披着象棋皮的传统战棋游戏——大概保留了百分之二三十的原本味道，剩下的全是大刀阔斧的变化。我觉得复杂度（不是难度）的铺垫应该慢慢来，目前的节奏实在太快了，新手教程一结束几乎就见不到原版兵种了。特别是敌方的一些兵种（比如欺诈者），移动逻辑千奇百怪，极难预测对方的行动——除了移动和攻击范围本来就奇怪以外，有些时候 AI 也不走最佳路线，导致无法预测（这对 PVE 的下棋来说是件好事，但对肉鸽游戏来说是坏事），因而很容易莫名其妙的丢子。虽然游戏给了回卷这种手段，但我感觉这更多只是给玩家误操作的一个保底。不可否认，这种不对称的战斗确实更契合电子游戏，玩着有计算量的同时又比较休闲，但在整个流程中，每走一步几乎都在高强度战斗，玩家很容易感到疲劳。如果能调整成“战斗——休息——构筑”这种张弛有度的节奏，我认为会合适得多。 除此之外，虽然游戏设计了五花八门的兵种，但在前中期的体验里，只要稍微研究一下，在两三局之内就能摸索出几个非常超模的构筑。比如“戈尔贡”（像皇后一样行动但无法击杀，可以锁住周围单位）配合“传说法师”（瞬间传送并可攻击周围 8 格），就能极其轻松地通关；再比如“王子加国王”的套路，王子保护国王（国王在王子周围无敌），因此会变成 AI 优先将军的对象，此时AI的行动就更好预测了，只要加上“不朽战士”等棋子，把王子死死护住，像橄榄球队一样护送国王前去砍人，就很容易通关。在难度 30 之前，这些超模构筑确实简单粗暴，让我觉得这游戏简直变成了自走棋——只要抽出厉害的构筑就能无脑通关，根本不需要考虑敌方阵容。某种意义上，这确实大幅减轻了我的计算量。 不过，当我真正打到难度 30 的时候，才发现它还是有自己的难处的。虽然凑齐了上述的超模组合，但敌人的遗物会变得非常棘手。比如在前期，我最爱用的策略就是尽量和敌人同归于尽，通过强行兑子来减少我这边的计算量，最后只保留自己的主 C 核心，这样必定能赢。但是到了难度 30，游戏出现了专门限制我同归于尽的机制（比如击杀我方单位后，对方的普通兵种会变成我方的兵种）。这导致同归于尽变成了负收益，特别是在兵种数量本来就少于对方的情况下，这让我感觉非常难受，挑战性一下就上来了。 也是在这个时候，我才意识到它与传统战棋游戏的明显区别。传统战棋的移动大部分是按着路径走或者飞行，但这游戏里大家的移动范围大都是超乎常理的，全在棋盘上“乱跳”。这恰恰还原了真正玩国际象棋时那种“不知道从哪儿冒出来的棋子又把我将军了”的突发感。所以，虽然前期超模构筑让人觉得像自走棋，但在难度 30 的高压下，当你熟练掌握了构筑却依然必须和敌人打得有来有回时，那种纯正的国际象棋味道反而又回来了。这游戏底子很好，目前的程度已经足够让我喜欢了，虽然感觉弄清楚构筑和底层逻辑后很快就能全成就封盘，游戏时间很短，但它在高难度下展现出的博弈感，确实证明了它还有被挖掘得更深的潜力。

[h2][b] Ты получил то, что заслуживаешь....[/b][/h2] [b][i] Плюсы: [/i][/b] Мне понравилась идея. Красивый визуал и стиль иллюстраций и анимаций. Проработанные иконки фигур, предметов, реликвий и тд. Индивидуальность боссов, истории реликвий, описание фигур - нарративщик отработал каждую копейку [b][i] Минусы: [/i][/b] Главное меню - мусор. +1000 оконок и объявлений. Вы еще сабвей серф сюда воткните. Совсем идиоты? Часть фигурок - мусор, который я бы не стал юзать. Я играю против пк -> он ЛУЧШЕ меня просчитает ходы и вариации. Поэтому я вообще не вижу смысла использовать часть инструментов, особенно на высокой сложности. Игровой процесс - мусор. Я покупал игру, в надежде на сюжет. А разраб решил, что он - сын Миядзаки. Поэтому я должен сам придумать сюжет. Но нет, сыныще темных душ и слащавых мужчин, я не буду додумывать того, чего нет. [b][i] Итог: [/i][/b] Я не люблю рогалики, поэтому поставил бы отрицательный отзыв. Но мне зашла идея + я могу похвастаться, что вынес искусственный интеллект на хай сложности за 5 часов 7.4\10

bought this game on steam a few days ago and today i sat down and beat the game. genuinely super fun experience all the way through. kinda surprised at how few people know about this masterpiece. the art and setting are both great and i think i know for sure 4 people ive gotta get playing this. even downloaded it on my phone. really wanted to say just how much i loved it

The Ouroboros King scratches a very specific itch — it's chess meets Slay the Spire, and for the most part that combination works beautifully, with wild pieces like the Hydra and Portal Mage making every board feel like a puzzle you've never seen before. The roguelike map progression and relic system add just enough depth to keep runs feeling fresh, and the UI does a great job of showing you exactly where each piece can move without overwhelming you. That said, be warned: the AI has some real blind spots, especially around your special piece abilities and relics, which means once you figure out how to exploit that, the difficulty curve falls apart a bit. The bigger issue is content — I beat the campaign in a couple of hours and while there's an infinite mode, I'm not sure it has the legs to keep me coming back long-term. For the price, especially on sale, it's a genuinely fun time for anyone who enjoys chess or tactical roguelikes, just go in knowing it's more of a weekend game than a long-term obsession.

The Ouroboros King is a fun roguelike chess game with a lot of new and interesting pieces. You have to win quickly in order to gain gold for upgrades and the AI is often quite difficult, so it can be rather challenging, particularly before you figure out all of the new pieces and how they typically work.

The game is fun in general though the system on how much gold you get each round could be reworked entirely because the current one is hit or miss, you also get punished for buying stuff that gives you extra turns because those extra turns in one turn count as two and take money twice as much, also if you get an extra turn on a turn where you'd already win you basically have to waste a turn and lose money with no gain, also the having to replay the game 5 times for the actual ending is stupid because you don't get anything new after 1 win so you literally just replay the exact same thing 4 more times just for slight dialogue changes, and the final achievement is basically rng because doing it without the modifier that's entirely rng is next to impossible