Goblin Stone

Goblin Stone makes a wonderful first impression with playful and charming presentation, but that charm spell soon dissipates, revealing a sometimes stodgy, grindy, and unsatisfying tactics game with diminishing returns.

There is a fundamentally good, core Darkest Dungeon-like experience somewhere underneath this rushed, languid, and poorly executed turn-based rogue-lite.

So if that kind of management and absurdity sounds appealing–and I did enjoy frowning at my goblin roster and trying to min-max stats in my goblin eugenics program–then hiding beneath the cutesy storybook exterior is the fiendish heart of a pretty good roguelike.

Goblin Stone tells the story of the poor goblins who defend themselves against the evil adventurers. The cute goblins have to position themselves well tactically and take part in various adventures to further expand the goblin base. A turn-based roguelike adventure with beautiful graphics and a great narrator's voice.

Goblin Stone has a repetitive but addictive gameplay loop with enough variants to make us want to keep you going. The twist in the narrative helps to keep the interest, despite a somewhat tedious progress system that does not fit with the narrative

Goblin Stone is a wonderful RPG with thoughtful combat, some seriously compelling base building, and a whole lot of little green folks.

The plight of the goblins and their allies vacillates between heartwarming and viscerally upsetting, with deft storytelling that's nearly impossible not to be enraptured by. Though some bits drag, the game's strategic depth, beautiful environments, and adorable tiny details like the fact goblins sometimes trip as they run across the landscape greatly help offset this. Goblin Stone as a whole is an incredibly creative undertaking, and has a lot to offer any fantasy, turn-based strategy, or roguelite fan.