I’m always on the lookout for my next favorite deckbuilding roguelike, and I may have just found it. With a dash of Slay the Spire and strategy games, Shadowveil: Legend of the Five Rings is everything I love. You’ve got to rely on positioning, building up your team, and risk-taking, with a healthy dose of card-based luck thrown in. We don’t have long to wait for launch, either, as the release date has finally been announced alongside an upcoming demo.
Shadowveil is the first videogame in the Legend of the Five Rings universe. Created in 1995, the setting focuses on Rokugan, which is heavily inspired by feudal Japan. Over the last three decades, we’ve seen it come to life in the form of a collectible card game, tabletop RPG, novels, and even a board game, but Shadowveil: Legend of the Five Rings is the first time the series has gone virtual.
Best of all, Legend of the Five Rings is making the jump to videogames with a deckbuilding roguelike. As the commander of the Crab Clan, it’s your job to lead a group of heroes and warriors to the Shadowlands, making tough and calculated decisions as you venture forth. Played on a hexagonal grid from a top-down perspective, you need to find and assign cards to your party to come out victorious. Positioning and strategy are all key to success, however, so you’ve got a few things to worry about.
With every run, you’ve got to choose your path and recruit new members to your party, while collecting item and ability cards in the hope of activating some truly powerful synergies. Think of it like the gameplay of Slay the Spire, but with an entirely new dimension and even more characters to think about.
I’m a total sucker for any deckbuilding roguelikes, and as soon as you tell me there’s one that’s part of a samurai-inspired universe with thirty years of history, I’m on the hook. The prospect of building up a band of adventurers and taking them into tougher battles with an array of cards is exactly what I always want more of, so Shadowveil has me excited.
Palindrome Interactive is releasing Shadowveil: Legend of the Five Rings on Tuesday March 4, with a demo arriving as a part of Steam Next Fest starting on Monday February 24. You can find the game right here.
We’ve also got all the best indie games you can play on PC today, alongside the best strategy games to watch out for.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or join our community Discord to stay in the know.