In this Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch Article, we’re going to be talking about the turn-based tactical RPG that goes into Steam Early Access today that you can begin playing right now at the time of this article that kind of spins off the original title of the game and makes the game a bit more into the roguelike side of things.

If you’ve never heard of Lost Eidolons before, this game came out in 2022. We also did a video on it, but this game is done in the vein of Fire Emblem, if you’re familiar with that. It’s similar but with an indie touch, following that style. Where Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch differs from the original game is that it mixes roguelike elements, combining aspects of Darkest Dungeon and Fire Emblem into something unique. I’ve honestly never played anything quite like Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch before. It was intriguing because of the mashup and inspiration from these two games, with clear influences that show while you’re playing, yet it still feels distinct. I want to dive into how this game plays and explore its mechanics and features to help better acclimate you to what it’s all about.

Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch – What Is It About?

The general premise of the game is that you play as Ashe, the main character, who is responsible for bringing party members along on his expeditions and excursions into the world of Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch. The story is that Ashe dies and makes a pact with a powerful being, who brings him back to do her bidding. You’re essentially roped into this, and your journey involves fighting your way through various enemies to reach a boss fight, much like in Darkest Dungeon. The game has a map where each point offers different options: you can rest at camp to replenish health, fight battles for rewards, or visit a trader if you have gold. As you progress, you eventually reach a boss fight, and if you’re strong enough, you can defeat it. If not, you’ll die and have to start over.

The game is heavily party-based, similar to Darkest Dungeon, where you control Ashe and can recruit up to eight other characters, mixing and matching them for your runs. Each character starts with their base stats and equipment, and as you make choices and engage in battles, they gain experience and level up. You’ll have opportunities to choose new skills and passives, much like what you’d see in a roguelike, but with the Lost Eidolons setting. As characters level up, they grow stronger, and with each battle, they become more powerful. However, if you die and start over, your characters go back to level zero. Along the way, you’ll also collect resonance stones after completing combat encounters. These stones can be used to upgrade the equipment of one of your characters, randomly selecting a piece of equipment for each character to improve.

Each character typically has two weapon sets, so the resonance stones can upgrade either one of the weapons or their armor. These upgrades make the character stronger, and after each fight, you usually receive one or two resonance stones in addition to leveling up. Sometimes, the resonance stones will resonate more strongly with a specific character and their equipment, resulting in a more significant upgrade. Other times, the resonance will be lower, and you can choose which character to use them on. You can focus all the upgrades on one character to make them stronger, or spread them out to make your whole party more balanced. This system gives you a lot of control over how you build your party. For example, upgrading the main character tends to be very effective, as they become powerful in combat. Another key character to upgrade is the healer, since keeping them alive is essential for maintaining your party’s health. The flexibility in upgrading characters provides various strategies, which I appreciate.

It’s important to note that these upgrades, like leveling up your characters, are reset each time you start a new run. They are not permanent upgrades but specific to that particular run. For instance, one run you might make a character very strong, but in the next, the resonance stones might favor a different character, so you’ll focus on them instead. These resets mean you can’t carry upgrades from one run to the next. However, there are permanent upgrades you can earn called Sacred Embers. As you progress through the game, you can use Sacred Embers at the Altar of Fire to improve certain aspects of your characters permanently. These upgrades are tied to skill trees, like increasing the effectiveness of medium armor, boosting sword damage, or ensuring your characters heal to full health instead of only half when resting at camp. These permanent upgrades carry over to every run, so even if you fail, you’re still making progress, which is a common feature in roguelike games.

Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch – Let’s Talk About The Mechanics

What I’ve been enjoying about the game, aside from its tactical combat—arguably the best part of Lost Eidolons—is how random each run feels. There are so many variables at play, from the way resonance stones resonate with each character’s equipment, to the skills you get to choose from when your characters level up. Sometimes, you get mythic skills, which are incredibly powerful and can turn the tide of battle in dramatic ways. I haven’t seen most of them yet, but the ones I have encountered are extremely strong. When a character has one, it really changes the way you approach combat and can shift your priorities about which character should attack which enemy.

The game also includes a base-building element, where you can interact with your companions, check their stats, equipment, and skills, and decide which ones to bring along. There’s a reputation system that lets you bond with your characters, and the more you bond, the more abilities you unlock in combat. It’s a neat system, but I haven’t had the chance to fully explore it yet, so I’m not sure how impactful it will be, especially since reputation takes a while to build up.

In addition to the Altar of Fire, which allows for passive improvements to your party, you can also promote characters by collecting runes during your runs. As you gather these, you can promote characters up to two times (at least for now), which adds another layer of progression. Beyond that, there isn’t too much else to do in the base. The rapport system does play a role, but I haven’t seen much impact from it yet. If I had one complaint, it would be that I wish there was a bit more to do here, though that’s a small gripe.

When I first started playing Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch, I wasn’t sure it was going to work. I was pretty skeptical in the first couple of hours. I kept wondering how they’d pull off a turn-based party RPG on a tactical grid for every encounter, while also making it feel fresh as a roguelike. But as I played more, I got deeper into it, and it really started to grow on me. I love roguelikes, especially ones where you make actual progress in each run, with some of that carrying over so you’re not starting completely from scratch each time. I really enjoy that aspect of roguelikes, and I’m a big fan of turn-based combat, which is a rarity these days. The combination of tactical combat and the random elements really starts to work as you get further into the game.

One thing to note, though, is that this is an early access game. While it’s technically feature complete—you can reach the end of the game—there are still some things missing that’ll be added during early access. For example, there’s no voice acting at the moment, and with so much dialogue in the game, it can be hard to get through it all without that.

I’m looking forward to that being added. They’re also planning to add hidden bosses, including the final boss. Right now, there are three bosses, so you’ll need to complete three successful runs with one character to get through what’s available in early access. That’s actually quite a bit of gameplay—I’ve spent around five to eight hours getting through the first map and defeating the first boss. The game’s not easy. Every fight is challenging, and one of the tough parts is that your characters don’t auto-heal between encounters. So, whatever health they have at the end of an encounter is what they go into the next one with. If you didn’t manage your resources well, the next fight will be harder.

During early access, more combat maps and random event variations will be added. I’m already happy with the level of variation, but the more randomness the better. It’s the random events and elements that make roguelikes so engaging, and the more there are, the less repetitive the game feels. I’m glad to see these additions coming down the line.

Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch – Final Thoughts

And the last thing I want to leave you guys with is that because the game is launching on Steam Early Access today, it’s going to be running at a 20% discount for the next 13 days. The price is going to be $15.99 USD instead of $19.99 USD, so if you want to get the game in Early Access and save some money in the long run, this would be a couple of weeks to do it in. If you like what you see and it makes sense to buy it for you, then you can spend that. That’s not very much money in my opinion. That’s like a dinner out. It’s so cheap. I actually can’t believe it’s that cheap. Anyway, if you guys like what you see and you want to help support the channel, you can click our link below. Had a good time with this game so far. Definitely, definitely think that it’ll appeal to a lot of people in our audience. But I want to know what you guys think. What do you make of Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch? Did you play the first game? Do you like tactical turn-based combat like I do? Do you like roguelikes? Do you like something that might be a little bit of a mashup of the two? What do you think of the game so far? Let me know in the comments below.