Forestrike

An initially frustrating puzzle-action-hybrid that quickly reveals itself as a revelatory meditation on perseverance, Forestrike is an odd anomaly worth experiencing.

It’s easy to get muddled in the endless sea of roguelikes, but occasionally, you wander on one that feels really special. Forestrike ticks that box. With a simple premise and a great combination of pick-up-and-play combat and involved strategy, Forestrike makes for a mighty fine martial arts adventure.

While it doesn't offer anything groundbreaking, Forestrike's smart mix of puzzle and action offers a very gratifying experience when you play by its rules.

Forestrike is an exceedingly clever roguelite that combines combat and puzzle solving with a clear reverence for martial arts. The various masters that you can choose from at the beginning of each run do a great job of making each run feel fresh, and it absolutely nails that all important feeling of progression both by subtly teaching you its visual language and increasing your power with better techniques the deeper you get. A weak story slows its momentum, and the level of precision required in the later stages can lead to some frustrating ends to otherwise promising runs, but the failures mostly serve to make the eventual triumph all the sweeter.

My complaints with Forestrike are ultimately quite minor, though. It’s an incredibly unique action game that requires a great deal of planning and foresight to see your way to the end. If you aren’t able to slow down and approach a game with patience than it won’t be for you but if you’re willing to meet it where it is you’ll find a compelling game which feels entirely singular.

Fans of Sifu and Shogun Showdown should feel the distinctive draw of Forestrike.

Forestrike’s ability to turn mechanical knowledge into meta progression creates a very addictive and enjoyable gameplay loop, allowing you to slowly get better at solving each encounter with grace rather than through brute force. While it does unfortunately fail to provide much when it comes to randomization, the combat system does a great job at carrying the experience, even if the game is overly punishing at points. There are still a couple of rough spots that need to be polished, like the hitstop being way too long, something that can completely throw off your timing when parrying, as well as the RNG for techniques being rough, but Forestrike is bound to please those interested in brutally difficult titles.

As an action game and a roguelike, Forestrike is a satisfying, if challenging, experience. By allowing the player to foresee fights and predict their foes’ next moves, it turns what would be a by-the-numbers 2D fighting game into a more thoughtful experience built around memorisation, timing and strategy. While it drags anytime you have to claw yourself back following a game over, Forestrike makes up for it with its varied combat system and appealing aesthetics. If you’re a roguelike fan or an action fan, there’s a lot to like about Forestrike, and it’s certainly worth jumping into.

Forestrike comes with a refreshingly clever premise. Its seemingly bare-bones combat system actually hides a surprising amount of depth, while its Roguelike layer is the opposite—flashy on the surface but primitive where it truly counts.

Forestrike is a wonderful idea that just needs some refinement in its meta-progression. Encounters are an absolute thrill, blending combat and puzzle elements to make each fight feel intense and rewarding. While you earn plenty of bonuses throughout a run, permanent upgrades are few and far between, which slows the overall pace. As a result, you’re left with a satisfying but occasionally stagnant loop that leans more on player skill than long-term growth.

Forestrike features an interesting concept and aesthetic I appreciate, but can feel unbalanced. I happened upon many situations where I felt like I couldn’t win, which was even why it took longer to prepare this review. I like the story and the way some of the martial arts movesets work. I just wish it didn’t often feel like chance so heavily affected my odds of success.

Forestrike is an action rogue-like where players can practice every battle before it occurs by using the Foresight. This system in and of itself is fun, but the game can’t get out of its own way with unfair balancing that punishes the player regardless of performance. Even so, when the gameplay works, it works wonderfully, with an excellent sense of aesthetics and a strong story and characters to back it up.

Too often in Forestrike, you lose because you do what the game invites you to do. [Issue#418, p.122]