Defend the Rook

Got this on sale and it was much better than I expected - a really elegant little strategy game. The basic gameplay is typical for turn-based tactical RPGs - move your dudes on a tiled board, take out enemies while avoiding damage (think Regalia, Fell Seal, etc.) but with a tower defense flavor. Enemies come onto the board in waves, you can place a few automated towers or cast some spells to help your guys, and the objective is to survive five waves, so you can move on to the next level. There is a strategic overlay, however, in that between each wave and each level you choose upgrades for one of your three characters (they 'level up,' basically.) The powers you get in these upgrades are essential to dealing with the escalating difficulty of waves and levels, so there is a nice interplay between the strategic (how-you-level) and the tactical (how-you-survive-this-particular-wave) aspects. Beat all five levels and you've won the game! But this is where the rouge-lite thing comes in - beating the first few runs is fairly easy but every time you win a run, the game ratchets up the difficulty a little bit. Enemies get stronger, upgrades get more expensive, etc. You also unlock new characters and upgrades, however. Balance is a bit of an issue as certain upgrade combos are clearly better than others while some are outright broken. But the randomness of which upgrades you are offered and which specific enemies spawn in each wave keeps this from making the game too easy. Ultimately, like most rougelites, the basic loop gets a bit boring after a while. The game does mix it up a bit between runs (will you have to beat the ice level or the undead level this time?) but about five or six runs in you've seen everything it has to offer and the only motivation is to see if you can beat the higher difficulties, which wasn't enough for me (I stopped at about 7 of 10.) Graphics, sound and story are ok but pretty basic, so this is really one you play for the actual gameplay.