A Long-Lost RPG Classic and Lots of Fun Hybrids - New RPGs This Week! April 28, 2025
There's nothing as big as Oblivion or Clair Obscur this week, but still some new releases to check out
After a massive week for new RPG releases last week, things have slowed down a lot. There are still a few intriguing titles to talk about, though, even if they’re much smaller.
Age of Reforging: The Freelands
Platform: PC
Developer: PersonaeGame Studio
Publisher: Kunpan Games
Release Date: April 28, 2025
From the limited information I can find, the developer behind Age of Reforging: The Freelands, PersonaeGame Studio, seems to be based in China and primarily creates weird little indie CRPGs like 2020’s Blackthorn Arena. I’ve loved seeing the growth of the Chinese game development scene over the last five-plus years, and it’s always fascinating seeing another culture’s take on a style of fantasy that feels distinctly Western.
If that’s not enough to sell you on checking out Age of Reforging, though, make sure to check out the trailer above. The absolutely baffling accent from the trailer’s narrator deserves to be heard for yourself!
Castle Craft (Early Access)
Platform: PC
Developer: Twin Earth
Publisher: Astra Logical
Release Date: April 28, 2025
Now here’s something surprisingly cool-looking. Castle Craft’s voxel art style means it initially comes across as yet another Minecraft clone survival game. In reality, though, this title mixes together elements from real-time strategy, tower defense, farm sim, horde mode, automation sim, and RPGs, combining it all into something that looks totally unique. The voxel graphics are put to good use in allowing everything to be fully destructible, and I love games that have the tactical gameplay of a great city-builder or strategy title but still allow the player to get up close to the action.
Conquest Dark (Early Access)
Platform: PC
Developer: Eldritch Sword Games
Publisher: Mad Mushroom
Release Date: April 30, 2025
Like Halls of Torment before it, Conquest Dark appears to marry the sensory-overload horde massacring joy of Vampire Survivors to something more akin to the art style and character progressing of Diablo. The game promises to take players through the progression curve of an action-RPG in each run, and as I can attest from my more than 80 hours in Halls of Torment, that’s a pretty killer feeling if they can pull it off. I don’t think I’ll play Conquest Dark while it’s in early access, but I’ll be keeping my eye on it for sure.
Freeride
Platform: PC
Developer: Flightyfelon Games Inc.
Publishers: Future Friends Games, Flightyfelon Games Inc.
Release Date: May 1, 2025
We’ve seen plenty of pixel art games emulating the look of the NES and Genesis era, and in recent years there’s been an uptick of games using the low-poly style of the N64/PlayStation 1 days. But Freeride may be the first modern game I’ve seen that appears to be going for a 3DS vibe with its visuals. I love it!
Beyond the look, though, I’m also curious about this narrative RPG’s branching storyline. Apparently the game operates as a personality test of sorts, assigning players with a title like “Hero,” “Guardian,” “Tyrant,” or “Fool” at the end. And with playthroughs only taking around four hours, it shouldn’t be too difficult to go for new paths.
Gates of Skeldal
Platform: PC
Developer: Napoleon Games
Publisher: Jindřich Skeldal
Release Date: November 1, 1998 (English rerelease on April 30, 2025)
If you’re an RPG history sicko like me—and if you’re subscribed to this Substack, I’ve got to assume you are—then this is one you’ll want to pay attention to. Gates of Skeldal (aka Brány Skeldalu) is a computer RPG that was originally released in Czech only in 1998. The game’s charming cartoony enemy design, deep lore, and challenging dungeon crawling earned it enough cult classic credibility to receive an English translation fan patch many years later, but as far as I can tell, it’s never been officially released in English before now.
I’m a huge fan of obscure bits of RPG history being made more widely available, especially in a language I can read. And even better, Gates of Skeldal’s 2002 sequel, The Fifth Disciple also received a Steam release earlier this year. The third game in the series, 2016’s 7 Mages, is not currently available on Steam, but hopefully an updated version will show up soon.
Kaamos
Platform: PC
Developer: Pepperbox Studios
Publisher: Indie.io
Release Date: April 28, 2025
I’m a sucker for puzzle/RPG hybrids like Puzzle Quest. Add in roguelike design with an emphasis on build variety and, yeah, I’m pretty much sold.
Kaamos comes from a small indie team in Finland. The name is a Finnish word that refers to polar night, the phenomenon on the extreme southern and northern regions of Earth where there is no sun for more than 24 hours at a stretch. It’s a cool concept to pull from, even for a little pixelated roguelike puzzle game. This one looks like it will be a great choice for Steam Deck users.
Kiborg
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Developer: Sobaka Studio
Publisher: Sobaka Studio
Release Date: April 30, 2025
Kiborg definitely falls heavier on the “action” side of the action-RPG spectrum. However, it’s also a rogue-lite, which means players can expect plenty of progression both throughout and in-between runs primarily focused on beat-em-up brawler style gameplay.
Last year, Rock Paper Shotgun compared combat in the demo version of Kiborg to Batman: Arkham Asylum. Again, maybe not an RPG in the strictest sense of the genre, but that’s a point of comparison that has caught my interest.
And that’s it for this week!
Let me know in the comments if any of these smaller titles grabbed your attention. Meanwhile, I’m going to read everything I can about Gates of Skeldal. What a cool surprise!
I had a lot of fun with the Kiborg demo. Solid brawling, thought not as tactical with parries as the Arkham system.