Flyway Games’ Commander Quest is one of those indie releases that slips onto the scene quietly, but immediately grabs your attention if you’re a fan of tactics, deckbuilding, or roguelike gameplay. Released on April 4, 2025, this genre mashup delivers a deceptively simple premise—build a deck, deploy your units, and watch the battle unfold—wrapped in a clean art style and a satisfying gameplay loop. But underneath its approachable exterior lies a thoughtful and often surprisingly tense strategy game that will appeal to fans of Slay the Spire, Into the Breach, and Loop Hero.

A Strategic Mix of Mechanics

At its core, Commander Quest is a single-player, turn-based strategy roguelite. Each run sees you take control of a commander of your choice from a pool that the player can expand through achieving certain goals. Each commander has a set of unique passive abilities and starting decks. The player builds their army from a mix of unit cards, spell cards, and support structures, place said forces on the battlefield and enjoy watching beautifully animated death unfold.

Unlike traditional tactics games where you micro-manage each unit, here players are the planner. Players decide who goes where, what cards to play, and when to use limited resources. Once combat begins, the real time wave commences and here players can use their remaining mana to summon more troops or aid them in battle with spells and buffs. It’s a refreshing combination of pre battle planning and mid round improvisation.

What makes Commander Quest particularly compelling is the synergy between cards. Each unit type—ranged, melee, support—has specific interactions, and learning how to stack abilities and trigger chain effects is the key to winning tougher encounters. Some units buff adjacent allies, others explode on death, and a few grow stronger as they rack up kills. The game rewards experimentation, and over time, you’ll start to recognize how certain combos can turn a desperate fight into a decisive victory.

Beautiful presentation and meaningful progression

Visually, Commander Quest is charming without being flashy. The hand-drawn fantasy aesthetic, reminiscent of early mobile strategy titles but with much more polish, complements the tone of the game nicely. Units are easy to read, animations are crisp, and battlefields are colourful yet uncluttered. The soundtrack—ambient, mystical, and loop-friendly—sets a calm pace that fits well with the methodical nature of the gameplay.

Progression is typical roguelite fare. Each run gives you currency and unlocks based on your performance. Over time, you’ll expand your pool of available commanders, cards and relics, introducing new strategies with each attempt. There’s enough here to keep players coming back for dozens of hours.

There are flaws, but they didn’t stop me

Despite the strengths, Commander Quest isn’t without issues. Balance is a recurring concern. I have noticed that regular fights are often too easy, making the start to many runs and mindless speed run. However, elite and boss battles can spike dramatically in difficulty. This uneven pacing sometimes makes a good run unfairly perish. But such the luck of the draw with roguelites and hoping for that one relic that competes your run.

Similarly, while the initial sense of discovery is strong, the unit and card pool can begin to feel limited after a dozen runs. You may find yourself repeating the same combos, simply because they’re more effective than experimenting with underpowered or situational options.

That said, these are issues common to early versions of deck-based roguelites. With the right post-launch support, Commander Quest has plenty of room to grow. The foundation is solid—intelligent design, approachable strategy, satisfying progression—and future updates could easily add the depth and variety that would elevate it further.

My Conclusion

Commander Quest is an addictive, polished strategy roguelite that understands the appeal of combining smart planning with unpredictable outcomes. It won’t replace the genre’s giants, but it carves out a niche with its breezy pace, clever mechanics, and bite-sized battles that beg for “just one more run.” Whether you’re a deckbuilding enthusiast, a tactics fan, or just looking for a fresh spin on strategy, Commander Quest is well worth your attention.

Willow Guard is a quietly ambitious indie RPG from Finnish developer MiTale that blends narrative choice, deckbuilding combat, and atmospheric exploration into a surprisingly cohesive and poignant package. Set in a crumbling, anthropomorphic world left behind by its gods, Willow Guard follows Ghweros, a veteran guardian, as he investigates a series of violent incidents plaguing the woodland village of Woikos. What begins as a monster-hunting mission evolves into a layered story of legacy, moral ambiguity, and the heavy weight of duty.

Story is at the core

From the moment you step into Tersa, the game’s setting, you’re drawn into a world that feels lived-in yet teetering on the brink of collapse. The pixel art style might initially suggest a simple throwback aesthetic, but Willow Guard quickly asserts its visual identity with richly detailed environments, moody lighting, and expressive character sprites. The soundtrack is equally evocative—minimalist, ambient, and frequently haunting, it reinforces the loneliness and tension that permeate Ghweros’s journey.

At its core, Willow Guard is about choices. Not just in dialogue, but in how you build your character’s skillset and interact with the world. MiTale implements an “Inclination” system, which tracks how Ghweros responds to different situations. Are you sympathetic to the struggles of the townsfolk, or are you cold and focused solely on the mission? These choices shape not only the dialogue options available to you, but also how the people of Woikos react to you over time. It’s a subtle but effective way to make your decisions feel meaningful without always dangling obvious “good” or “evil” consequences in front of you.

Another great mechanic to make the world feel alive is ‘focusing’ on the environment. Focus pointsare a limited source that replenishes through certain actions. Ghweros can inspect different parts of his surroundings which unlock new talking points, clues and side quests when pursued further. This is yet another reason for the player to slow down and think about how to interact with their surroundings.

Simple combat to make your own

Combat in Willow Guard is real-time, but relies heavily on deckbuilding mechanics. Ghweros assembles an action deck made up of abilities that you unlock and refine throughout the game. These range from straightforward attacks to defensive stances, crowd-control maneuvers, and self-healing techniques. Each encounter—especially in the procedurally generated dungeons—is a mini-puzzle of positioning, cooldown management, and timing. While the system is rewarding and flexible, it does occasionally stumble. Enemy variety, while visually striking, can feel repetitive over extended play sessions, and there are moments when combat lacks the punchiness found in more traditional action RPGs.

What keeps the experience engaging is the rhythm between combat and narrative. After each dive into a dungeon or combat zone, you’re brought back to Woikos, where the slower pace invites you to converse with townsfolk, unravel lore, and witness how your actions have influenced the world. These quiet moments are where Willow Guard truly shines. The writing is thoughtful, and while the game doesn’t use voice acting, it doesn’t need to. Characters are distinct, with believable motivations and subtle arcs that respond to your behavior over time.

How it comes together

Thematically, Willow Guard is a meditation on resilience, responsibility, and the fraying bonds of community. Ghweros isn’t a chosen one or a fresh-faced hero—he’s weary, seasoned, and full of regrets. Playing as someone already shaped by the past adds a level of gravitas rarely seen in indie RPGs, and it’s refreshing to experience a protagonist whose character is nuanced from the start. The world of Tersa reflects this tone well, with visual decay and spiritual absence echoing Ghweros’s internal state. It’s a clever narrative mirror that deepens the immersion without being overt.

MiTale’s previous works leaned more into experimental narrative spaces, and Willow Guard feels like the culmination of those ideas in a more structured form. It’s not flawless—some players may find the slow pacing and limited enemy pool a turn-off—but it is memorable. It’s rare to find an RPG that prioritizes quiet introspection as much as action, and rarer still to find one that succeeds.

My Conclusion

For fans of games like Gris, or even Undertale, Willow Guard offers a similarly resonant experience—one where the story and atmosphere linger long after the story is wrapped up. It’s a game that rewards patience, contemplation, and empathy. And in a genre often dominated by spectacle, Willow Guard reminds us of the power of subtlety.