East Asian inspired Martial Arts video games are not as common as they should be. Like the Kung-Fu DVD boom in the USA in the 90s/early 00s, you would expect games to follow the trend. And while games did incorporate the fighting styles, we did not get as many fully Martial arts-inspired video games. Down to the presentation, game-design philosophy, and narrative themes. And it is clear there is a demand. 2019’s excellent Sifu showed a thirst for well-made Martial Arts.
Enter Thomas Olsson and Skeleton Crew Studio, with their latest effort – Forestrike. A 2D Martial Arts Roguelite with a combat disciple and presentation you would expect from such a Martial Arts game. But like mastering techniques many times, this game wasn’t created in a single day. Developer Thomas Olsson has been creating games with strict but rewarding combat. Along with Skeleton Crew Studio, they released Olija in 2021 – a 2D action adventure which has both the mechanics (single weapon combat requiring mastery) and an East Asian inspired setting. And you see their clear evolution in Forestrike.
The Narrative
Martial Artist, Yu, is the only remaining student of the Monastery. The emperor of the land is kidnapped by his general. As a result, the entire country is thrown into disarray. As part of the Order, your task is to defeat the general and rescue the emperor. The game takes you through the country’s 4 biomes, all affected by the rot of the empire in different ways (and hence fighting different types of enemies). With your choice of one of 5 styles (fighting schools), the masters associated with each of those styles offer a different view on the empire, interweaving their own experience working for them and the Order. Each master’s personality matches their fighting school style. “Leaf” school, which emphasizes evasion and “peaceful resolve”, is a kind old master who believes violence is a threat to natural balance. “Cold-Eye” school, which emphasizes endurance and retaliation, has a vengeful master who is disgusted by weakness and uses any means necessary to achieve his goals. You unlock more as the game goes on.
Between runs, in the hubworld, you can interact with masters to learn more about them, the Order, and the empire. And the writing punches well above its weight, dealing with the intrigue of the Masters’ back stories, the complex politics of both Order and Empire, and their consequences on regular people. Even reaches in some out-there places that you uncover at the end of your runs. Though I did find the tone to be inconsistent at times, unable to balance silliness with the very serious premise.
The Gameplay
From the hub world, you select your fighting school (signature style of one of the Masters), and you journey along the aforementioned biomes littered with combat encounters. (Small Detail – Fighting style selection music switches dynamically based on which Master is highlighted in the menu.) You can choose between branching paths to take based on varying rewards offered on each.
In combat, Yu and his enemies remain still at the start. You have two options: fight or foresight, this game’s signature. With the “foresight” option (planning/practice phase), you practice how the fight would play out in a mind-palace type of simulation. Here, you can attempt various ways to make your strategy and execute it as many times as you wish. This is the part that is most “Martial Arts” about it philosophically, to practice your moves over and over before you do it for real. And then when you’re ready, select the “fight” option (execution phase), where you’ll have one chance to execute your moves in one go. Foresight-to-Fight is a fantastic push-and-pull. Since fights are over in just a few seconds, it is like a rubber band pulled back with many practices, which is then released like a snap.
While the fighting may resemble a beat-em-up, its pacing is similar to a tactical strategy game. No wonder, since Subset Games (FTL, Into The Breach) helped with the game’s initial stages. Actions are divided into four: regular attack, heavy attack, vigilance, and throws/grabs. Both attacks are deliberate and take time to execute; they have windup animations similar to classic Castlevania’s whip attack. Timing is key. Vigilance is a custom action depending on your fighting style; it can be a dodge, block, dash etc (but consume limited resources to perform). You get a lot of items to throw, and a few provide protection. Other attacks get varied with different abilities if you follow different schools for that run. I had to unlearn a lot of beat-em-up twitch fighting instincts to adapt to its pace.
Each school has its own set of techniques. You start with one, and after the first fight, you get an additional “starter” technique. One school emphasizes deflection, another on retaliation, another on precision strikes, and so on. Each one feels well thought out and creative. As you travel, you can choose to acquire techniques from any other schools. These are rewarded from certain fights, which also earn you coins. There are also optional objects to finish fights in certain conditions to earn more coins. At shops, not only can you buy techniques, but you can also combine two techniques into one, leading to surprising outcomes, which may or may not work in your play style’s favour. You can also buy trinkets that provide additional benefits under certain conditions, adding an additional layer of depth to your run. There are no carryover upgrades like in most rogue-lites. But you are rewarded additional moves for each school whose style you picked, every time you run, which you can get even if you lose (but have progressed far enough to at least beat a boss). You can earn petals between runs, 5 in total, giving you a lotus that can revive if you die in the “fight” phase.
Strategy comes from best utilizing your basic moves, the school’s techniques, trinkets, and weapons to defeat the enemies. Each enemy has its strengths and weaknesses, which you can utilize to your advantage. As a basic example, under “Leaf” school, you have dodge ability, which you can combine against a rush-type enemy, who will rush into you, but will instead hit the enemy at your back.
Since each enemy’s moves are deterministic, you choreograph your moves in order, leading to a Rube Goldberg-like setup. It feels great. Though it requires a lot of thinking to see how best you can “solve” the fight while not losing health.
If you read so far, you might have made many connections to 2020’s Hades, another narrative-based rogue-lite with similar ability gains, a logical reasoning for retrying stages over and over, and a hub world where you can talk to characters. However, like any good inspiration, it does its own thing.
There are two things that hold it back, in my opinion. Firstly, by its very nature, a game requires a lot of time and patience to learn. I had to take breaks between fights because the cognitive load of practicing the “combat dance” and the pressure of executing it perfectly was exhausting after a while. I had to take multiple breaks between fights. You get stuck in figuring out what the best ways to “solve” fights, akin to getting stuck in puzzle games like The Witness and Snakebird. While the payoff is good, I did not have a lot of fun initially failing a lot or getting a bad hand dealt.
This follows my second gripe. While I understand it is like rogue-lites that randomization will never always give you the optimum tools, in Forestrike few runs feel like you have picked the wrong moves. The game has been mostly fair, but many times you just hit the wall. In my case, “Cold Eye” school runs were easier due to the health regen technique, while “Leaf” school didn’t have enough offensive tech to dispatch foes without taking hits. Health is very limited. Each run takes quite a while, so losses are devastating. Seems like time is the main currency of each run – how much time and patience you have to practice and figure out a strategy before you enter the one-chance execution phase. A minor gripe, but the game sometimes eats inputs even when animations end.
The Presentation
Overall aesthetic goes for the chunky pixel art similar to Olija, with beautiful hand-drawn art for character portraits and cutscenes. Latter especially looks like something out of a graphic novel. Some may find it odd; I found it immensely charming.
Music is suitably movie-inspired, with 70s action movie funk-jazz mixed in with traditional Chinese instruments to create an exciting mood of “beating out” a careful strategy.
There is also a neat hat cosmetic system – enemies will randomly spawn with rare hats. Hitting enemies will make those hats fly, and you can position yourself so that it lands on your head. If you keep it till major boss fights, you earn it permanently.
Shout out to the excellent button-mapping menu, where you can map any interaction from gameplay to menu and even dialogue. Such in-depth options should be commended.
“Wax on, wax off.”
[As of writing, I have completed one run and unlocked 4 out of 5 masters.]
Though I would like to add one additional note. After finishing one run unlocks the “realistic run”, where you cannot use foresight, only the fight mode. I was shocked at how well I did, able to beat the first boss with ease (something that I struggled with on initial runs). It felt automatic, like my inputs were moving on their own. It was the Mr Miyagi moment of doing chores that made you a better fighter. I had never experienced that in a game, and I think this is what makes this game special.
Real Talk
Despite a steeper-than-usual learning curve, some balance issues, and dealing with bad RNG at the start, Forestrike is one of the few games where you feel like mastering a martial arts skill. There is a depth of tactics game, mixed with the reflexes of a fighting game and the innovative “Forsight mechanic”, making its gameplay stand out among its peers, and it should be commended. Those MA philosophies get corporate well into a story whose writing punches well above its weight compared to similar rogue-lites. This will certainly not be for everyone, but those with patience and a desire for mastery are sure to find a worthwhile experience.
FINAL SCORE: 80/100
