Blending that familiar roguelike deck builder structure that Slay the Spire catapulted into popularity with an in-depth fantasy world and the autobattler combat stylings of Teamfight Tactics and Super Autopets, The Last Flame is a promising new strategy game that’s already got its hooks in me with the launch of an extensive prologue. Available now as a free Steam game ahead of the full launch next week, The Last Flame Prologue is a hearty meal on its own merits that has me very interested in exploring the full menu.
The Last Flame is a roguelike autobattler that takes the automated strategy game format popularized by Dota Auto Chess (and later seen in the likes of Teamfight Tactics) and inserts it into a structure seen in many of the best roguelikes, with a prologue that’s out now as a free Steam game acting as a rather substantial demo of what to expect.
Choosing your path through a series of increasingly challenging floors, each comprising fights of various difficulty levels along with campfires, shops, and decision-driven random events, you’ll build out a squad of heroes and upgrade and equip them to make best use of their abilities.
As you beat encounters, you’ll get to pick from new heroes to join your team, items that can be equipped on heroes to boost their stats and abilities, recipes that can craft your existing items into more powerful tools, and relics that apply passive bonuses (some of which can be toggled on or off as you desire). You’ll also earn gold to spend, and trophies, which can be handed out as you please to level up your heroes more rapidly.
With an impressively deep set of mechanics, The Last Flame can be a lot to take in at first, but its excellent tooltips let you check and double-check all its systems at a glance just by hovering over them, and smart keybind modifiers make it quick to do things like swapping full gear sets between characters in an instant.
If you’re someone who likes the idea of autobattlers but isn’t interested in the multiplayer format, or you’re a big fan of the combat in Baldur’s Gate 3 but wish you could just set up your party and then watch them go through the motions of combat by themselves, The Last Flame is well worth a look. It’s also ideal if you’ve already smashed through the likes of Slay the Spire, Wildfrost, and Monster Train and are on the hunt for something new.
The Last Flame: Prologue is out now as a free game on Steam. It includes the game’s first two acts of Ascension mode, including special exclusive final boss Vasfen, who can be challenged on Adept difficulty if you try it out and finish a Novice difficulty run. The full game, which features over 55 heroes, 55 origins, 300 items, and 120 relics, arrives via Steam Early Access on Wednesday, January 17.
Alternatively, we’ve got even more of the best roguelike games in 2024, along with even more fantastic fantasy games to try.
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