Once a Pawn a King
Clover Bite · 2025 · Roguelike, Chess, Turn-Based Strategy, Strategy, Casual
PC
Mixed57% · 51
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About Once a Pawn a King
Once a Pawn a King is a roguelike, turn-based strategy game with party-building mechanics, where chess meets chaos. Venture into the ever-shifting castle of the evil White King on a quest to rescue the beloved Black King, who was recently taken by the tyrant.The board is shattered. The rules are twisted. And the king is gone.Once A Pawn A King is an asymmetric turn based roguelike where you gather a party of chess pieces, empower them with magical abilities, and fight through a fractured world built from the ruins of a timeless chess match.Classic chess strategy collides with roguelike unpredictability. Every run challenges you to adapt, experiment, and outthink a game that no longer follows its own rules.Assemble your forces from classic chess pieces including pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, and more. Each piece brings unique movement, abilities, and strategic possibilities.Recruit allies, strengthen your army with powerful upgrades, and reshape your strategy as your party grows.Every piece matters. Losing the wrong unit can change the entire course of a run.You do not need to know chess openings or memorize theory.Once a Pawn a King takes the core ideas of chess tactics and transforms them into a more accessible strategic experience where experimentation, positioning, and decision making matter more than memorization.Learn by playing, adapt to unexpected situations, and discover new strategies with every run.No two runs unfold the same way.Randomized boards, randomized upgrades, and unpredictable encounters ensure that every attempt offers new challenges and opportunities.Each run asks you to rethink your approach, refine your strategy, and push deeper into the fractured chess world.Failure is part of the journey. Every defeat teaches you something that will help you on the next run.In a decaying world sustained by an eternal chess match, the black and white armies battle endlessly. They fight, they die, and the cycle resets.Command the Black Army as it searches for its lost king, uncover the truth behind the White King's growing madness, and confront a new rebellion rising from the board.The cycle is breaking. The board is changing. And the truth behind the endless match is waiting to be discovered.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Played the demo for a long time before buying this game, but since I enjoyed the demo I didn't check the reviews before buying it. Experienced just how much of a buggy mess this "finished" product actually was from the get go. Somehow the demo is the superior product. If everything that's being said about the original devs being sacked, the publisher forcing an early release and so on, is true - the future looks bleak for this game. I'd highly recommend sticking to the demo for now.17 found this helpful
I think this game's downfall has 2 main people to blame. To make a long story short, Cloverbite could have been a successful publisher if greed and money weren't the main motivator to making games. The game by itself is fine I guess? it has its own charm, not a too steep learning curve, but its boring. Don't buy games from Cloverbite until they change their policies as to how students get paid for the time they invest in games.4 found this helpful
Have crashed 5 times in 14 minutes, from black screens, to soft locks the game is just unplayable and should not have been released to 1.0 yet, also cant seem to find any responses from the Developers about any planned fixes and still hasn't been a 1.0+ patch to date despite the very common complaints.4 found this helpful
I love the concept and story but Gods the bugs are annoying, and everything feels so slow1 found this helpful
The full release is a buggy mess. It felt far more user friendly and playable before 1.0. A list of the bugs i've encountered so far for 1.0 Health/Damage overlays stay and block visuals after a piece has been captured. Paths don't show when they should, and are sometimes shown permanantly after a capture. Only 2 floors. Definently only half finished. Consistent crashes. No cue on how to progress the story or gain unlockable resources (memories). Re-rolls on shops sometimes just don't work. Furniture blocks the view of the 'catapault' tiles, meaning you can't see the direction those tiles will move you. Cursor over on some squares for selection is incredibly precise, particularly when using blessings. The Figure that unlocks a purified curse for all pieces, doesn't give them to you purified. The premise of this game is really cool, I like the Slay The Spire-esque setup, the idea of the chess pieces working to free their king and progress a story is fun. But the game is a buggy mess.... shame, because the early access showed a lot of promise.1 found this helpful
DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. IT IS A BUGGY MESS AND THERE IS BASICALLY NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT.
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