Deified Is a Tactical Roguelite With No Mana, Action Points or Cooldowns, Out September 21

Here’s a roguelite with a genuinely fresh idea: throw out the resource economy entirely. Deified, a dark, turn-based tactical roguelite from French studio Unexpected and publisher Goblinz, lands on Steam on September 21 for $14.99, with a 20% launch discount for the first two weeks. There’s no mana, no action points and no cooldowns anywhere in it.

Every turn, all gas

That “no resources” hook is the whole pitch. Most turn-based games spend your turn rationing mana or points, but Deified lets you be powerful every single turn. The challenge moves somewhere more interesting instead: deciding which relics to bring, and how to combine them. It’s a game about decisions rather than budgets, and it lives or dies on how good those decisions feel.

Relics, slots and hard trade-offs

The build-crafting is where it gets its teeth. You explore and collect relics with unique powers, and collecting several of the same type triggers synergies, so your runs snowball as your collection lines up. Finding duplicate fragments lets you restore and upgrade an artifact, which gives you a reason to chase specific drops instead of grabbing everything.

The clever bit is slot management. Relics need slots to be used, and every slot hands you a bonus and a drawback, so nothing is a clean win. On top of that you’ve got skill trees to refine a strategy across runs, unlockable rooms to widen your options, and seven bosses, each carrying a unique curse designed to flip your carefully laid plan on its head.

Who’s making it

The story leans on some heavy myth. You play as Sator, out to confront the Lords who corrupted the Gold of the Rhine to forge relics of unmatched power and eternal curses, which is a Wagnerian setup if we’ve ever heard one. Your job is to learn from their failures and return the Rhinegold to your people.

Unexpected is a French indie studio founded in 2015 on the bet that a fully junior team could ship a real game, and it’s since put out originality-first titles like looK INside and As Far As The Eye. Goblinz is a solid name to have in your corner too, with a strategy-heavy catalogue that includes Legend of Keepers, Hero’s Hour, Shogun Showdown and Microtopia.

If you’re the kind of player who reads a relic’s downside and immediately starts scheming, this one is worth a wishlist. You can find Deified on Steam now, with the launch and its discount landing September 21.

Source: press release. Images supplied by the company.