🔵 Pros
+ Charming, well animated, decently detailed graphics and environments.
+ Interesting storyline with decently original setting and lore.
+ Excellent turn-based combat system, reminiscent of Divinity Original Sin and XCOM series.
+ Secondary objective rewards make completing optional tasks in each mission meaningful for character progression.
+ Good variety of items, spells and equipment to either purchase at the shop or unlock through leveling, special mission tasks.
+ Possibility to re-spec assigned skill points at anytime between missions.
+ Above average challenge level: consider Normal as the Hard of other similar games, while Hard as "Impossible".

🔴 Cons
- Inability to re-spec the ability choices made on hero level up: each hero will be "stuck" with those once chosen. This can lead to permanently "ruined" heroes.
- Puzzle levels are generally on the easy side and do not pose much challenge.
- The gold amount earned, even by doing all gold rewarding secondary tasks, is quite miserable and to get all the best gear from the shop, grinding already beaten levels becomes necessary.
- Some of the main characters are generic and uninteresting compared to others.


Druidstone is a fantasy turn-based tactical RPG set in the original world of Elo Sphaera. This game tells the tale of a company of brave heroes who set out initially for what seems to be an adventure like others, but soon turns out much more important than they thought initially. Featuring deep strategic combat, substantial challenge level, and interesting lore, this is definitely a solid game for the genre: let's see why.

There are a lot of good things to be said about Druidstone, first to mention undoubtedly is its deep and tactical combat system, featuring very diverse heroes, each with specific roles it can be fit into by players, and equally diverse enemies, special battle conditions, and more, to always change the cards on the table in each level. The objective system, giving out additional, meaningful rewards for each task completed, is interesting and makes completing missions more than once (if needed) more meaningful than just "grinding". Items are not looted, instead bought from a shop: more powerful ones can be unlocked by completing specific tasks in missions. The fact heroes can be (partially) respec'd at any moment is great and allows players to adapt to different situations when needed. All of this is considerably more challenging than average TRPGs, so Normal will prove challenging already even for veterans of the genres.

On the bad side, there're also some things to be said. Respec being only partial can be a big downside as hero builds can turn out "botched" in the long run if wrong skills are chosen. Puzzles are good and interesting alright, but not that difficult in the end, not in line with the game's general challenge level. Level grinding can very well become a necessity later on as item prices, good ones that is, can be huge and there simply won't be enough gold from completing each mission once (even with most / all tasks done).

In conclusion, Druidstone is definitely a very good TRPG, with some issues, that will not disappoint fans of the genre, but might offset newcomers to this type of games due to its above normal challenge rating. I suggest this title to TRPG fans and fantasy setting enthusiasts.

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🎮 Gameplay
Druidstone's gameplay is divided into Party Management and Combat.

Party Management is done in the World Map screen or by using the Respec feature during a level (doing so will restart the mission). Heroes do level up once in a while, depending on XP gained from killed monster, bonus objectives, and such. On level up, new one new skill can be chosen and added to one of the ten available skill slots of that character. And that's pretty much it in this regard, no attributes to increase or similar. Each hero can wear an armor, an accessory, and one or two weapon, depending on the types.

Often these items grant additional unique skills, health and dmg. resistance bonuses, while maluses in some cases. Fitting each hero with the best gear for his role is important. The Shop is always open and trades items for gold found in missions. More items are unlocked by finding Crates in levels. Power Gems are skill points for abilities and can improve or change drastically how hero skills work, when allocated inside them, and are collected from mission objectives.


📖 Story
The story of Druidstone is not bad at all, featuring betrayals, turns of events, and unexpected situations, while the characters are of uneven quality, some being just generic while others interesting. In the end, the game offers a more than acceptable storyline quality, even if it does feel a bit stereotypical at times.

👊 Combat System
Druidstone's tactical combat system is perhaps its best feature, and delivers a complex gameplay full of different options, strategies, and situations to adapt to in each level. Each hero has a number of movement points, one action point per turn. Skills do not have cool-downs but instead use numbers, once exhausted, can't be used anymore, unless special items are used to recharge them. Positioning is a core mechanic to avoid enemy attacks, effectively combining attack and defense together in the overall strategy. Specializing heroes in support, tank, dps etc. role is necessary as well: specialized builds are pretty much the only way around.

The great variety of special rules, environmental dangers, reinforcement waves, enemy types is also what makes each mission's combat unique and with its own objectives.


💰 Content & Pricing
Priced at 20€ standard tag, offering about 18-21 hours of gameplay if one wants to really do everything there is, and good quality content, I definitely can recommend this game to TRPG fans and fantasy lovers at full price.

🔗 Balance & Challenge
Challenge level is above normal, so consider Normal difficulty as Hard in other games. Balancing is alright mostly, with a few dents, especially the final boss needing some nerfing in the last phase to some skills.




🎥 Graphics
Druidstone sports really nice graphics, even if not top quality for 2019, they do the job really well overall, especially animations are of high quality and effects are quite good. For this genre they are totally more than acceptable.

🔊 Sound
Very good soundtracks overall, emphasizing action and story moments well. Sound effects are good as well. Too bad for the absence of voice-acting, that would've been a real charm.

🔩 Performance & Stability
The game runs without issues in 1440p maxed out. [GTX1080, i7 4820K, 16GB RAM].

💻 Artificial Intelligence
Enemy AI is really good and will always find a way to hit enemies, get into the best position every time. It will give a good challenge to even experienced players.

🏠 Quality of Life
No problems to report.

🐛 Bugs & Issues
No significant problems to report.


Druidstone is definitely a solid turn-based RPG with enough unique elements to its gameplay in order to result fresh and not just generic. A solid purchase for fans of the genre.


This product was reviewed using a free key provided by the Developers.

This should be a NEUTRAL review, if only Steam knew such thing. The game have very good production values and level of polishing, so I'm sad to give it a negative review, but I cannot give a positive one to a game that is no fun for me.

I like strategic/tactical games a lot, and I knew this will be more on the puzzle/logic game side than pure strategy, but I still bought it and hope it will be fun. Soon, I found out that it is not for me, and that I will not finish the game.
The gameplay is not fun enough for me. Basically the combination of completely rigid scripting and often tight time limits means that the game is more about replaying the levels, learning when, where and which enemy will be spawned on turn X, and then exploiting it in the most brutal fashion. The difficulty is not very low, and is set so that (in most levels) the only way how to get the three star result (or the achievements) is exactly this learn-and-exploit stuff. And while even this can theoretically bring satisfaction to the player, here it do not satisfy my enough.

This is such a brilliant game! I am about 2/3rds of the way through the game, so I will wait until I've finished it before I write my full review.

But, for now, this is a wonderful tactical puzzle combat game, that really doesn't feel like a puzzle game at all. Each mission is super unique and designed by hand, and every one of them feels completely new and interesting. There is always a new tactic or strategy to think about with each and every mission. The puzzle nature of the missions is strong with this one, but it really doesn't feel like that most of the time. There are multiple ways, and multiple builds, that will succeed in these battles. It's really a unique design that I am in love with!

I am having the time of my life playing this game, and can't wait to finish it and post my full review.

All I can say for now is, if you like turn-based tactics, and don't mind a bit of the puzzle aspect of the missions, please give this game a try. I want these developers to continue making brilliant games like Druidstone!

[UPDATE] Finally, after 41 hours, I have finished Druidstone: The Secret of Menhir Forest. I three starred all missions on normal mode. Didn't get every achievement, because that's not a big deal for me. I don't think I'll replay it in hard difficulty. I have too many other games to enjoy, but this was a delight from start to finish.

What a brilliant game this was. I HIGHLY recommend it to any turn-based combat fan. Quality game, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

The main problem with the game is that you rarely can kill all the enmies to beat a level. Not just that it doesn't have the objective but that there are so many infintely respawning enemies that every mission devolves into sprinting past everyone and trying to complete the objective (generally open X chests, destroy X totems etc). And then you have to replay the sam mission a couple of times until you completed all the bonus objectives to get all the gems and money.

For what it is it's ok. It's more of a puzzle game really. So just don't expect X-Com with Druids.

Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest was....pretty good. Definitely not on par with all the praise heaped on it, but a solid game in its own right regardless. I know more than a few people will go in with expectations of it being familiar for Grimrock fans, or of it being similar to XCOM. I would say both would be a mistake. While developed by the same people who made the Grimrock series, and despite having some similarities with XCOM, it is most decidedly unlike either. I'd advise going in with an open mind and a general appreciation for turn based tactical battles.


Honestly, the story wasn't all that engaging for me. You gather a party to combat the evils that have befallen the Menhir Forest and who have been killing the local druids. Basically.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1945631300

On one hand, the writers very definitely enjoy some Monty Python in their lives, and I thought the humor added to the writing and character interactions was fun, if a bit more on the juvenile side of things more often than not. However, oftentimes, the humor is used in an awkward way, more akin to those awkward laugh moments, where it isn't really a funny situation, and so you make light of it to sort of make it more tolerable. I thought that was actually a more powerful use of brevity than normally happens in games.

Beyond that though, the writing was okay, but nothing that really had me wanting more. If anything, I really looked forward more to the character interactions than the actual story. However, the story DID resolve effectively within the context of the plot, and so that was nice.


This is probably where most of the XCOM comparisons come into play, but I would say those comparison pretty much start and stop with Druidstone being a tactical turn based combat oriented game. Does it have all the standards of an XCOM style game? Yes. However, it really does offer plenty to be its own experience, or at least for it to be a reasonably unique fantasy specific experience anyway.

Each scenario, be it actual combat or puzzles, will typically conclude quickly. I think the longest missions only really lasted around 20-30 minutes. This is actually a positive as, while you can definitely binge play (I did lol), it's also a solid pick up and play title once you have the gameplay mechanics down. There are a lot of missions, and the map variety was definitely there.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1948544726

The overland map is set up as a topographical map with points of interest, and each of these is a mission of some sort, whether side mission or something that advances the main story. I feel that doing all the available missions was pretty important as it allowed me to level up my party enough and gather enough cool stuff to really have a chance later in the game. This game has a pretty high degree of difficulty, so giving yourself the best chance to succeed possible is pretty important. RNG does factor in, but I found that aspect to be completely fair.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1945631354

Once you select a mission, you are dropped onto a map with different obstacles, objectives, and a decent variety of enemies. This is fairly standard for the genre. However, your actual abilities and such really set this one apart from games like XCOM, and cover definitely doesn't factor in AS prominently due to the smaller map sizes here.


The graphics in Druidstone were always lush and never failed to impress. Yes, as an isometric type game, some of the finer details will be lost on some people, but really, this game is a stunner. The use of color and lighting to really bring the world alive was pretty evocative, and the avatar detail was nice.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1948544907

The animations were especially well done also, and there is no lack for cool looking effects in the game. It's also worth noting that the overland map is a stunner, and the UI in Druidstone was easy to navigate.


I thought the OST in Druidstone, in particular, was worthy of note. Often whimsical, always on point. It's a nicely composed soundtrack. The actual in game sounds were also nicely done. All in all, I never felt compelled to mute the game, and in fact, I sometimes found myself sort of zoning out to the music lol.


Druidstone was, in my opinion, very much worth playing. I don't think there is an especially high amount of replay value outside of trying different levels of difficulty, but the base experience was one worth having. I thought the game was both the perfect length and just the right level of difficulty, with cool bosses and a fun enough story. Recommended on sale, but I would also advise tempering your expectations if you are an XCOM or Grimrock fan.

This is not a RPG. It is a puzzle game like Into the Breach but deeper.

Every map has objectives where you can gain upgrade gems to boost skills or equipment, that you can respec at will anytime, so you aren't building a character or party so much as constantly evolving your party to match whatever challenge you are next facing.

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm only a few hours in, but it is growing on me. One mission I thought was stupidly hard I beat in one try after I came back to it later. I do like the tactics of it minus the puzzles though; attacks of opportunity, lots of movement skills, constantly on a 'get ready' for the XCOM reinforcement positioning mindset...

Don't let the vapid title fool you. This is a hardcore turn-based tactics game which is HARD. There is some story there (from 1-5 I'd give it a 3 so far) but the meat of the game are its marvelous, hand-crafted battles.

Do you like XCOM? Advanced Wars? FTL? Divinity Original Sin? Then this is definitely a game for you!

What starts out as a potential great grid based tactical game quickly and I mean quickly shows that it's a very shallow game with very little thought put into the core mechanics. Remember those timed reinforcement missions/endless wave missions in XCOM/2?

Nearly every mission is built this way in Druidstone. Wave after wave of enemies who will wear you down via attrition.

I was in a mission where I just cleared a room; was making my way to the exit when the enemy calls for reinforcements from the EMPTY room I just cleared out. Add in additional reinforcements that can spawn in 1 turn, and it becomes a real slog.

Now, can you beat this mission with this knowledge? Sure, you can replay with a different loadout or you can even cheese the game with protection and guard mechanics; but these are ways to circumvent strategy rather than create strategic opportunities.

Visually the game is lovely, but I can't recommend this to anyone looking for a squad based tactical experience in a fantasy setting. There are better games out there, save your money.

This is only my second review after many thousands of hours of Steam games over the years, because I wanted to respond to other reviewers.

I thought this game was fantastic. Yes, it is difficult, but I 100%ed it on hard in ~25 hours. If you don't like to be challenged, this game is certainly not for you, but if you do, you will enjoy it. It is ABSOLUTELY NOT the case that there is "only way to solve each map" as I have seen some reviewers say, and the mechanics allow a HUGE amount of creativity in how you approach each map. The missions were varied to a degree I have never seen in a game of this type, so that even after 25 hours every single mission felt fresh and interesting.

In addition, I am baffled by some reviewers saying there is no story between battles. That's just... false. Were we even playing the same game? There is quite a bit of story, and while it's not the second coming of Tolkien, it was cohesive, competent, and enjoyable.

People have said the dialogue was "cringy," but it was not. The dialogue is not intended to be Super Serious Fantasy RPG, so yes, if that bothers you, you will not like the dialogue. But for what it is, it was funny and enjoyable. I really liked that they broke out of the usual RPG tropes.

I also loved the customization system. As you level up, you gain new abilities, and as you complete optional tasks in the game you receive crystals which you can use to power up those abilities with additional duration or damage or uses, and you can change those crystals around at will. If you are having difficulty on a level, you can totally change your loadout and try something new.

I enjoyed every minute I spent with this game, and I would recommend it to any fan of the genre. It is fun, creative, allows for almost unparalleled depths of creativity, and is exactly the right difficulty and length.

(One thing I will agree with the other reviewers: the last boss is kind of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥)

Druidstone is a tactical party based game, which to me would compare closest to the Into the Breach. If you enjoy well crafted maps with challenging gameplay specifically on hard difficulty then I would think you would enjoy this game like I did. The gameplay overall has little randomization, but especially if you wish to get all the bonus objectives on each maps I would expect to restart some maps to complete all of the goals. The start I think feels way more difficult and as you gain new skills and can buy new equipment for your characters you will have a lot more ways to complete your goals with varying difficulty. I loved the variety of ways to do things in, and the overall goals on the missions. The thing that a lot of people do not like, and I can understand why is that in most maps you get new spawning enemies, that in a lot of cases you can't kill all of, and with one turn of warning timer of them coming up, it can be difficult to plan for them. However for me it simply added difficulty, sometimes you have to complete your goals not by killing all the enemies, but instead by simply going for your mission goal.

The story itself is certainly not to everyone's like, and it definitely would not be the reason for me to buy the game, but I did enjoy it for what it is. It has a lot of cliches, but for me some of them were added in in a fun way.

Overall the combat to be is the highlight of this game. And as I enjoy difficult games, this definitely grabbed my attention. I finished with 3 star rating all of the story and missions in about 27 hours on hard difficulty and might go back for some of the steam achievements, as there are some more difficult ones to complete. I don't often leave reviews, but just thought of giving my opinion on this one.