Forsworn

Introduction

Forsworn, developed and published by solo studio Resummon Studios LLC, released on Steam on 10 September 2026 at NZ$19.99 during its launch discount. It's a turn-based tactics roguelite built around a simple, declarative premise: command a party of heroes, stack game-breaking synergies across skills, gear and trinkets, and slay gods, whether playing alone or with up to two friends in simultaneous-turn online co-op. Death doesn't end the game so much as start the next attempt, with a metaprogression layer of soul points, respeccable heroes, and a choice between a Quest run and a Gauntlet run structuring how far a player pushes each session. It's a brand-new release with a launch review sample unusually substantial for a day old: 22 total reviews at the time of writing, roughly 91% of them positive.

What's working: deep builds, real co-op, and a metaprogression loop that respects the player's time

Forsworn's reviewers converge repeatedly on the depth of its build variety and the specific quality of its co-op implementation. One reviewer who'd extensively played the pre-launch demo sums up the appeal directly: "Character abilities have great depth, and synergize well with each other. Each character has their own playstyle, with several ways you can build them." A separate reviewer frames the same point through direct genre comparison: "If your looking for a game that's Roguelike and plays like Baldurs Gate 3 then you found it! Tons of builds and synergies to find, awesome upgrades. Trinkets and rings and perks galore. Tons of replay ability as you get soul points for further upgrades after your run is over." That comparison to Baldur's Gate 3's combat recurs across more than one review in the sample, alongside repeated references to Stolen Realm, Slay the Spire and Inkbound as the genre Forsworn is directly competing with, and in several reviewers' stated opinion, beating. One especially blunt review puts it plainly: "Do you wish Stolen Realm wasn't a buggy dumpster fire? This is it. Scratches an itch" — logged by a reviewer with over 7,100 minutes already recorded in the game's demo and launch build combined.

The metaprogression system draws specific praise for how it paces difficulty without making failed runs feel wasted. A reviewer with 65 minutes played lists it as one of several reasons for a strong recommendation: "As your Heroes level up, you may RESPECT them anytime before a run to adjust to the run," pairing that with praise for the two available run types and calling the game "EASILY the MOST BANG!!! for your BUCK." The game's co-op is one of the most consistently singled-out features in the entire sample: "Just played with 2 friends and we all had a great time, everyone is looking forward to playing it more," reads one review, while another calls it "Cool turnbased co-op roguelike for up to 3 players from a solo developer" that offers "surprising depth and a palpable love for detail," specifically recommending it to fans of Inkbound or Hellcard. A further reviewer frames the appeal in a single sentence that several others echo in substance: "Simultaneous turn based coop is awesome game design. can be brutally hard but oh so addicting."

The honest problems: escalating bosses, repeat-kill enemies, and plain visuals

Set against that strong reception, Forsworn's negative reviewers raise a specific and converging complaint about how the game's difficulty escalates, one that's worth taking seriously given how detailed the account is. The most thorough negative review describes a specific boss encounter in concrete terms: a tank with only 76 HP facing a final boss with 150 HP that, once nearly defeated, "summoned 6 total 28 HP friends, 4 10 HP ghosts of himself, and then once I finally did get him to 1 HP, he magically splits into 3 mirrors of himself with 45 HP each and all buffs." That same reviewer criticises the run-based experience-gating that follows a failed attempt as feeling restrictive rather than fair, describing the reduced experience payout for an incomplete run as punishing progression that requires a fresh run just to level a character from 1 to 2. A second negative reviewer raises a related but distinct complaint about specific enemy design: "Having to kill certain enemies multiple times because they resurrect or 'start a new surprise phase', is incomprehensible nonsense design," closing with a direct recommendation to avoid the game as it currently stands. Both of these are specific, first-hand accounts of concrete fight mechanics rather than vague frustration, and they land on the same theme: Forsworn's difficulty curve, at least for these two reviewers, tips from challenging into punishing at certain boss encounters.

A separate, much milder complaint recurs even inside the positive majority: more than one reviewer independently flags the game's visuals as a genuine weak point rather than praising them alongside the mechanics. "The visuals are fairly mediocre, but the game offers surprising depth and a palpable love for detail," reads one otherwise strongly positive review, a sentiment echoed by a separate reviewer who calls the game "one of the better games of this genre" specifically "despite the not so great visuals." None of the reviewers who raise this treat it as disqualifying, framing it consistently as a trade-off against the strength of the underlying systems rather than a dealbreaker, but it's a specific enough pattern across independent reviewers to be worth stating plainly rather than glossing over.

Verdict

Forsworn backs up a strong, substantial launch reception with real mechanical substance: reviewers across the sample independently praise its build depth, its metaprogression pacing, and a simultaneous-turn co-op mode several call a genre highlight, all built and maintained by a single developer. Its honest problems are specific and worth taking at face value: at least two detailed negative reviews describe boss encounters that resurrect, summon waves of adds, or split into buffed copies in ways that tip from challenging into punishing, and even several of the game's strongest advocates independently flag its visuals as plain. Neither complaint undoes what the large positive majority is responding to, but they're real enough, specific enough, and repeated enough across independent reviewers to flag directly to anyone considering the current difficulty curve or visual presentation before buying in. For fans of turn-based tactics roguelites, especially those with co-op partners, this is a confident recommendation.

Wanderer callout

The reviewer who called Forsworn's metaprogression a system that respects a player's time even through a failed run, set against another reviewer who found that same system's experience-gating punishing after a hard loss, is the same tension Wanderer weighs in its own death and respawn design: a setback should teach and progress a player, not simply cost them the time they already spent.