Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUETales of Maj'Eyal
Tales of Maj’Eyal is a roguelike RPG, featuring tactical turn-based combat and advanced character building. Play as one of many unique races and classes in the lore-filled world of Eyal, exploring random dungeons, facing challenging battles, and developing characters with your own tailored mix of abilities and powers.
Why this score?
Original text · Simplified Chinese
角色构筑和战术系统极深，不同职业能带来不同的解题方式；长局突然失败与复杂界面抬高了学习和使用成本。
Core gameplay
Weight 25%8.0 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
回合制冷却与资源管理支持细致战术，职业机制能贯穿长战役；大量普通战斗与突然高压精英之间的节奏落差明显。
Builds & strategy
Weight 25%9.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
职业、种族、天赋和特殊装备有深入的相互作用，角色发展真正改变资源与战斗规则，而不是只叠加伤害。
Replayability
Weight 20%9.0 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
不同职业要求重新学习，随机敌人的技能组合和解锁模式制造新判断；超长战役的重复前段仍是成本。
Randomness & fairness
Weight 20%6.5 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
敌我共享规则与可选生命模式支持学习和容错；复杂精英的控制或百分比伤害可能造成未预见的突变，知识门槛高。
Polish & usability
Weight 10%6.0 / 10Original text · Simplified Chinese
自动探索、旅行和物品整理降低例行操作量；界面拥挤、字体缩放重叠、加载与存档故障反馈表明易用性仍有短板。
- Reviewer
Original text · Simplified Chinese
Rogue by Rogue · AI 资料评测- Version reviewed
Original text · Simplified Chinese
具体构建未知；以所引资料描述的版本为准
Scope and limitations
Original text · Simplified Chinese
未进行试玩；分数是依据已收录评述与社区具体反馈作出的主观资料评测。旧反馈跨版本、部分原始材料为不可重开的本地快照；本次 Steam 核查仅确认玩法与功能，未复测平衡、性能或报告的故障是否仍存在。
Review sources 02
- 01Archived materialView archived external material ↓
Original text · Simplified Chinese
收录评论与社区资料（2026-10-01 快照）
使用 作者观点摘要 的 Tier list Part 2 (2024) 的具体优缺点，以及 玩家好评、玩家批评 与 资料核查说明；不使用旧等级、外部分数或销量反推。
- 02Web sourceView original ↗
Original text · Simplified Chinese
Tales of Maj'Eyal · Steam 官方商店
2026-10-08 访问。核对回合制战术、多种族职业、自定义能力发展、随机地牢与创意工坊支持。未据商店介绍推定性能或故障已修复。
Video reviews
Reviews and deep dives from YouTube and Bilibili, in every language. Open the original video to watch.
Other voices, for reference.
Archived third-party reviews and community material may refer to different versions. External opinions and ratings are presented separately; consult the original videos for their full context.
Community discussion
A free, open-source (with paid Steam/GOG builds) tactical turn-based fantasy roguelike RPG by Netcore Games (Nicolas 'DarkGod' Casalini) with a huge roster of races and classes, cooldown-based talent trees and optional permadeath.
Players regard it as one of the deepest and most replayable roguelikes available: Steam sits at Very Positive (about 94% of roughly 7,500 reviews) and GOG at 4.5/5, and Wikipedia reports the wider community rating it very highly. Metacritic is thinner and cooler: the critic score is not yet formed (only 2 reviews, 100 from USgamer and 80 from GameGrin) and user score is 7.3 from 71 ratings, with about 21% negative. Critics and fans alike praise class design, build variety and the forgiving life/difficulty options, while detractors cite a steep learning curve, UI-heavy play, balance spikes, long runs and instability on some setups. It is not early access; core content is complete (three expansions through 2018, version 1.7.6, seasonal events such as Pikataclysm in 2025), but Steam reviewers describe balance and bugs as untouched for years and some keep asking for the long-promised Lost Land content. A late-2025 YouTube video sparked a wave of new and returning players.
What players praise
- Class and race design: dozens of classes (10 races, 27 classes per GOG listing) with distinct mechanics, e.g. time-controlling archers, psionics dual-wielding with mind and hands, slime mages, and well-liked necromancers
- Enormous build variety and synergy space, so two runs rarely play the same; many reviewers have 500 to 1,500 hours in it
- Tactical cooldown-and-resource combat that sits between slow classic roguelike and action RPG, and enemies use the same classes and rules as the player
- Loot with unique effects plus a meta-progression of unlockable classes, races, arena and endless dungeon modes
- Flexible difficulty and lives: multiple difficulty levels, roguelike permadeath, or extra lives/unlimited save options, so both casual and hardcore players are served
- Passion-project feel: free official version, strong QoL features like auto-explore, autotravel and item transmogrification, modding via Lua addons, and an active community
- Surprisingly good lore and writing for the genre, plus about 1,800 achievements that reward unconventional play
- Cheap: Steam price around $3.49 and a free official download, making it very high value
What players criticize
- Dated, minimal graphics and animation; some tilesets are confusing on dense vegetation maps, and music and sound are described as repetitive
- Steep learning curve and a cluttered, unintuitive UI; the tutorial covers only the basics, so new players struggle with item and talent knowledge
- Balance is uneven: players describe easy cruise-control through trash mobs, then sudden deaths to a unique or boss with a nasty CC or percentage-damage ability they cannot see coming
- Stability issues reported on Steam: crashes on zone load, freezes at loading bars, and corrupted or lost saves (only one save slot is kept)
- macOS build reported as problematic, with screen-setting and cursor-lock issues
- Steam vault (item sharing between characters) is locked if you run non-whitelisted addons, which some see as unnecessary always-online restriction for a single-player game
- UI scaling bugs: increasing font size can make interface elements overlap
- Runs can be very long (reports of 20 to 30 hours per full campaign), which makes failing late very costly
Distinctive features
- Hybrid of classic roguelike depth with RPG-style skill trees, cooldowns and resource management rather than pure tile-based bump combat
- Lineage from Angband/Zangband/PernAngband/ToME 2 and 3, rewritten in 2009-2012 as an original high-fantasy setting, using its own T-Engine (C plus Lua) with shaders and particle effects
- Lives system and difficulty options that let you choose permadeath or a gentler mode, with an achievement-based life economy
- Enemies that play by the same class rules as the player, making their talents readable and sometimes exploitable
- Free official download with donation-unlocked online features (character vault, chat, stats), alongside paid Steam and DRM-free GOG editions with Workshop and addon support
- Won the ASCII Dreams Roguelike of the Year award three years running (2010-2012)
Divided opinions
- Depth versus illusion of depth: fans see one of the most intricate tactical systems ever, while critics say the complexity hides an autopilot loop with many weak skills
- Randomness and luck: some call the outcomes a slot machine where unique enemies or boss counters decide runs, others say knowledge and preparation beat luck
- Visuals and audio: many say to look past the graphics, others find them and the music a real barrier
- Difficulty: the roguelike mode is praised as tense, but others call it masochistic, and player-facing options (extra lives, saves) are viewed as either accessible or as diluting the stakes
Repetition and friction
- Auto-explore-and-one-shot loop: many players say most fights require no thought, with real tactics only mattering at bosses or dangerous uniques
- Sorting through large amounts of mediocre loot, and optional escort quests that players call frustrating
- Very long runs and heavy knowledge requirements, so dying late or to a counter-build feels punishing
- Losing progress to one-shot deaths from enemies you cannot see or understand, and a perception that luck plays a large part
- Achievements that do not register lower-difficulty versions once a higher-difficulty one is earned, which annoys completionists
- Fighting the interface and absorbing huge amounts of ability detail, described by some as the main enemy of the game
Hoped-for improvements
- Better onboarding: a deeper tutorial and clearer in-game explanations of talents, status effects and why a monster is dangerous
- Clearer feedback on enemy threats and deaths, such as easier inspection of abilities and readable danger indicators
- Enemy and boss balancing pass, including fewer hard-counter or percent-damage spikes and more consistent threat throughout a run
- Reduce junk loot and the sorting burden, and add shorter run options or mid-run pacing improvements
- Stability and save safety fixes (multiple save slots or automatic backups), plus better macOS and UI scaling support
- More content and new updates: fans keep hoping for the long-awaited Lost Land expansion or at least a dev update, and want more animation and visual polish
Launched on Steam on Dec 12, 2013 via Greenlight after years as a free download (ToME 4 released 2012). Early reception was strong: USgamer called it the pinnacle of the fantasy roguelike in 2013, and it won ASCII Dreams Roguelike of the Year for three consecutive years. Expansions followed: Ashes of Urh'Rok (2014), Embers of Rage (2016) and Forbidden Cults (2018). Steam ownership was estimated at over 150,000 by 2016 (Wikipedia via SteamSpy), although a current SteamSpy range shows 50,000 to 100,000 owners, and a third-party revenue calculator estimates about $1.47M gross and $433K net revenue; these are rough estimates only. Metacritic has no formed critic score because only two reviews exist. OpenCritic has no entry. Current Steam reviews show a surge of new players in autumn 2025 after a popular YouTube video and recurring hopes for the Lost Land expansion; some reviewers complain that balance and bugs have not been touched for nearly a decade. Steam has a handful of mixed/negative reviews about crashes, a macOS build that behaves badly, and the addon-whitelisted vault restriction. Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux; Steam version supports Workshop and trading cards, GOG is DRM-free. WebSearch budget was exhausted during this research, so Reddit and Steam community threads could not be fetched directly; community themes come mainly from the Steam review file, GOG, te4.org, Wikipedia, RogueBasin and Metacritic.
Community sources
- Local file of top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews (18 each), main source for community praise and complaints ↗
- Local Steam store metadata: 94.4% positive, 7,475 reviews, price, SteamSpy owners, revenue estimate ↗
- Steam store page for Tales of Maj'Eyal (app id 259680) ↗
- Metacritic page: user score 7.3 from 71 ratings; critic score not yet formed ↗
- Metacritic critic reviews: USgamer 100 (2013) and GameGrin 80 (2017) ↗
- Development history, expansions, awards, Steam ownership and reception overview ↗
- Official site: version 1.7.6, seasonal events, online features, free/open-source status ↗
- GOG listing: 4.5/5 from 87 reviews, user review highlights, DRM-free, playtime estimates ↗
- RogueBasin entry: feature list, lineage, platforms, Greenlight and GOG release ↗
- Third-party Boxleiter-method revenue estimate (gross about $1.47M, net about $433K); order-of-magnitude only ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 2 (2024)
Tales of Maj'Eyal is a classic turn-based, traditional roguelike that plays like a huge RPG with many classes and a great deal to do. He says it is a cult favorite and that he understands why people put hundreds of hours into it. His own first run was overwhelming, and he says it demands real knowledge and dedication. He would not recommend it widely, but for fans of traditional roguelikes he calls it a must-play and says it is phenomenal at what it does. He admits he has not played many hours, and notes he forgot to cover it in his earlier 80-plus-game tier list.
What the creator praises
- Packed with stuff to do; feels like a unique RPG experience each run
- Deep enough that it would work as a big RPG even without roguelike elements
- Many classes and a lot to uncover
- Extensive tutorial and rewarding once mechanics are learned
- One of the games he would pick if stuck with only one or two for months
- Executes the classic traditional roguelike experience very well
Issues raised by the creator
- Very steep learning curve; needs a lot of knowledge and dedication
- Random run starts felt insanely overwhelming, with many enemies, spells and text at once
- Wishes the start of a run were more minimalistic, or that such an option was clearly indicated
- Not for everybody, especially people who dislike turn-based games; he would not recommend it to many
Design observations
- Functions as a full RPG experience with roguelike structure layered on top
- Cult-favorite status driven by huge depth and replayability across many classes
Updated opinion
Was left in his earlier big tier list without being covered (forgotten); this is his first proper evaluation after viewer comments. He also mentions he forgot to rate Star of Providence just before placing it.
