Oaken offers a new take on the tactical genre full of Celtic and tribal vibes

Everything starts with a tree. Oakrevolves around the Great Oak and its spirits: the Lady, an unsuspecting but rather brave little scion – as she awakens to this whimsical world, she inherits the task of bringing back the Oak’s Song – a spell that has kept the residents of the Oak peaceful for countless cycles; Kidu, a wild and unpredictable fire spirit who has his own ideas on how to deal with all this mess; and the Pathfinder – a mysterious mentor who helps them reach their destination, along with many other spirit guides discovered during the journey.

In most tactical roguelikes and card battles, there is a conflict between “your side” and the “enemy side”. In Oaken, battles focus on your hero character participating in the battle. Heroes can summon spirits and use spells and trinkets. And of course, if your hero is defeated, you lose the game. From the position of your hero, the so-called line of sight and “action areas” are calculated. There are events and dialogues aimed at them, and at the end of the day it’s up to the Lady and Kidu to resolve the story’s conflict in their own way!

In terms of artwork, the Laki Studios team had a lot of fun creating these wacky and cute spirits that inhabit the oak tree. Much Celtic and Slavic folklore served as the basis for Oaken’s designs and lore. Aside from that, they also wanted to twist this base in a fun, whimsical direction. games like Rayman or final fantasy were also great inspirations. The developers wanted the design to be enchanting, but still remain very mysterious and somehow ancient at its core.

In terms of mechanics, the Laki Studios crew are self-confessed big board game fans and have taken a lot of inspiration from physical games, one of their favorite games Ndollarshima Hex . This game gave us the first impetus to experiment with rotating units on a hexagonal grid. They then attempted to capitalize on the most entertaining aspects of card games Hearthstone And fairymixed with the intelligent roguelite and tactical aspects of into the breach. So that’s clear to say Oak created by mixing countless different elements!

Speaking of mechanics, every unit in there Oak has a “front” and a “back” and can be rotated in any of six hexagonal directions. Depending on their position and rotation, they can use multiple abilities, backstabs, dodges, and attacks – there are numerous placement, move, and attack actions to trick your enemy. However, don’t let the cute art style fool you! Oak is a demanding tactical game even at standard difficulty. We’re pretty confident that battle-hardened players will find the higher difficulties quite challenging!

However, the developers also wanted to ensure that Oak is not too complex on the first playthrough, but difficult enough even for demanding players! They introduced a system called “Talents and Masteries” that allows players to gradually increase the difficulty as the game progresses. And to support also players who are here mainly for the story and only interested in relaxed gameplay, they also added a relaxed mode.

We are aware that there are many tactical and roguelikes. Oak places a greater emphasis on positioning, and particularly rotation, as the team found this to be underused in the genre. Laki Studios also worked very hard on it Oakcharacter design. Every ghost in the game went through a detailed design process, from multiple concept art to polished illustrations. They also paid special attention to the structure of the game world. It is coherent and logical and has been in development for years. OakThe story about the sweet ghosts has actual meaning. But to know more about it, players have to buy the game!

Ported to Xbox consoles by Red Art Studios, Oaken is coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One on July 20th. Pre-order Oaken from the Microsoft Store and get 20% off the full price.