I have had a chance to check out Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch from Ocean Drive Studio a couple of times at previous PAX Events, but never had a deep dive as I skipped the Early Access Run. Having buried dozens of hours into the full release of the game I can safely say it is a fun, engaging, story deep Roguelite tactical RPG that is a must play for fans of the genre.

Set in the same universe as the mainline Lost Eidolons game this Roguelike/Roguelite starts with a typical premise, the hero is washed up on a beach with no memory. Rescued by new companions a simple fight is launched featuring the grid and turn based combat mechanics of the game.

Once the dust settles the hero (Ashe by default and can be male or female) heads to a nearby town and discovers that they are on an Island besieged by the walking dead with no ships available to leave with. Gathering a couple more allies Ashe and crew head out and are defeated in a battle, but this being a Roguelite it is not the end.

Resurrected by the strange entity Sable, a godlike Eidolon, Ashe and her team are tasked with finding and stopping the undead scourge. This is when the FIRST part of the game proper kicks off and many of the systems and progression methods are unveiled.

What grabbed me near instantly about Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch was the easy to pick up gameplay, but immense tactical depth as skills are learned/upgraded, relics are discovered and equipment upgraded. Each run has the heroes start from scratch aside from the stat upgrades from an Alter of Fire system and Class promotions but growth happens quickly.

Initially there are 3 Acts, each with a number of stages before the boss and each stage has a choice for the player to choose what rewards they are chasing. Sometimes it is battle rewarding with upgrade stones or a camp to train/rest other times it could be finding a temporary/permanent ally or a battle with loot or relic rewards.

The battles are varied as well with some requiring beacons be destroyed or just all enemies vanquished. There is enough battle and enemy types that playing run after run stays enjoyable especially once the full roster of characters is unlocked adding a ton of tactical variety.

Boss battles are unique experiences and are suitably challenging with each boss boasting tremendous abilities that keep the combat engaging and almost chess like. After the ‘first’ ending of the game Act 4 is unveiled with not only new bosses, but the original ones get tweaked scenarios and abilities.

In games like this the skills, upgrades and relics/loot are usually randomly assigned so a good run can depend on what you are able to roll as you move through the game. In Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch it is no different, but I also found a varied team especially with a strong healer and magic user can make a massive difference.

I have yet to play a single round without Evie the healer as she is the most essential and well rounded character by far. Thanks to the dual equipment nature of each character she has not only progressively better healing skills (Tree of Life is the standout) her melee skills when using sword and shield are great in a pinch.

All the characters benefit from the dual equipment design with the mage Laurent able to switch to a bow for alternate attacks and the axe wielder Marco able to leverage an alternate spear for distance attacks and different skills. This design adds nuanced tactical depth as different armor is weak to different weapons so swapping out a crucial moment is key.

At the beginning of this review I talked about how the story starts in a cliched way with an amnesiac hero, but to my pleasant surprise the narrative evolved and progressed in a beautiful way. Told both through conversations with party members, dialogue with Sable and bosses and crucially unlocked memories the true tale of Ashe and the Island is revealed.

There is a heartbreaking narrative buried in this roguelite experience that I was completely engrossed in and got emotional experiencing. It does follow some traditional paths but was executed in a heartfelt and sincere way that had me invested in the characters and total experience.

The Roguelite genre is crowded with many standout games such as Hades 2, Darkest Dungeon and Dead Cells among many others but Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch stands tall among them. The story is terrific, graphics are incredibly pleasing, audio is stellar with a fully voiced cast and most importantly the game is addictive, deep and just plain fun.

We were given a Steam code for review purposes by the publisher. Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch is available right now for PC via Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch/Switch 2.