“Nearly Impossible Not To Be Enraptured By”

Goblin Stone is a charming fantasy roguelite that combines hallmarks of the genre with innovative new twists. The debut release from indie developer Orc Chop Games, Goblin Stone reimagines the roles of hero and villain in a way that’s genuinely meaningful. Though there are some points in the game’s story where gameplay can feel a bit repetitive, the game’s charming style, unique mechanics, and room for strategic experimentation greatly help make up for these shortcomings.

In Goblin Stone, the typically-maligned titular creatures finally have their side of the story told as they work to save their homeland from marauding, pseudo-heroic adventurers. The general gameplay loop is a mixture of combat-filled adventuring and base management, while also presenting a much more linear narrative than most roguelite games. The title does a great job of balancing its consequences in a way where they carry weight, but mistakes simultaneously don’t feel game ending, and its engaging blend of systems and procedurally-generated worlds often leave something new to be discovered.

The Story & World Of Goblin Stone

The world of Goblin Stone feels like stepping into a storybook, with gorgeous, diverse biomes and fully-narrated, hand-drawn cutscenes. The game’s music comes from Hearthstone composer Peter McConnell, and perfectly captures the game’s fantasy feeling. After rebuilding their lair with the Goblin Stone, the goblins find the land is being ravaged by adventurers who show great contempt for much of the world’s population – not just goblins, but other creatures typically seen as villainous like orcs and gnolls. A true underdog story, the game follows the goblins as they work to help these inhabitants and protect the land.

Goblin Base

A great deal of important strategy is to be had at base camp, which players can expand over time through excavation and upgrading the Ancestor’s Hall with the souls of passed on or retired goblins. It’s here fighters are managed, bred, and customized, and spoils from adventures are kept and sold. All rooms can be upgraded with materials, offering boons like increasing the capacity of the armory or supply larder or an improved war room granting the party a blessing whenever they embark on an adventure.

Breeding goblins is a large part of the strategy in Goblin Stone, and takes place in the base’s warrens. Goblins have three baseline stats – Mind, Body, and Spirit – which correspond to the classes they can undertake, and they can also harbor up to four traits. There are a huge amount of traits to discover over the course of the game, from ones like Religious or Open Mind that improve stats to more complex ones that do things like making certain enemy types flee to the back of the combat line.

Goblin bloodlines will need to be consistently improved in order to progress, which adds a fun layer of team planning and makes it genuinely exciting to find goblins with new traits. The other key planning base locales are guilds, which correspond to eight of the game’s nine classes – Guard, Bandit, Shaman, Mystic, Acolyte, Raider, Hunter, and Warlock – just leaving out unspecialized Peons. Here, players can assign classes their four starting moves and unlock new ones with goblin souls, making it the place to play with synergies before each excursion.

Adventuring Across The World

Eachjourney in Goblin Stone is procedurally-generated, with a myriad of different locations that can be encountered each time. Similar to other roguelites like Slay the Spire, there’s a map of diverging paths to be followed, so not everything can be investigated. There are helpful spots like battle gurus to improve abilities, shrines that dole out blessings, and captive goblins that can be recruited – a great way to discover traits – as well as bad and ambiguous ones, like fights, cursed versions of shrines that can corrupt characters, and almost always a boss battle waiting at the end.

There are only a few points in which excursions veer into repetitive territory, which is when players have to grind for badges – which are earned defeating special bosses – to unlock new areas. For example, there’s a point mid-game when six are needed to progress, but the area in which to get them only has three bosses, meaning each fight is repeated at least once. This would be less monotonous if they got harder between excursions, but they don’t, and it makes the journey leading to them each time feel more like routine work instead of fun, new exploration.

Combat In Goblin Stone

Battling in Goblin Stone is between two combatant lines, similar to games like Darkest Dungeon. Instead of typical back-and-forth combat via turns, order is determined by a timeline, with each action knocking characters back on the line a certain amount based on cost. This can be affected by things like party speed stats, weapons with Knockback, and status effects like Slow or Frozen, which can hinder or stop movement entirely momentarily. With this system, ordering becomes a much bigger element of strategy than other turn-based RPGs, helping things like buffs and negative effects carry more weight than they often do.

Each of the classes largely feels unique, although there’s a bit of overlap in playstyle between some magic-users. Each turn, goblins will draw three of their four chosen abilities, with class strategies ranging from healing or defense-focused to huge hits and AOE. There are many fun synergies to be had both within and between classes, like speedy, criticial-hit Raider builds or strategies centered around stunning enemies, then utilizing moves that deal extra damage to those with that status. With a great enemy variety between areas, switching up techniques is crucial, and provides fun variance.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

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.