Forestrike asks you to win fights in your head before you ever truly throw a punch

In an ancient land, a revolution brews, and with it comes the upheaval of the leadership as a despotic villain underhandedly seeks to take control. The only thing that may stop the violence and chaos is an order loyal to the Emperor, through their secret power of Foresight, and a brave martial artist of that order known as Yu. Foresight lets these warriors simulate battles in their minds countless times until the path forward is clear, and with that power, you will beat back impossible odds in Forestrike and perhaps save Yu’s nation in the process. I got to try an early version of this roguelike martial arts action-melee and came away believing in its future.

A nation in turmoil

Forestrike takes place in a non-descript nation in a time of emperors and peasants, but this nation is on the brink of ruin. Weakened by crumbling institutions and citizen unrest, the Emperor’s scholars bring in a militant entity known only as The Admiral to protect the land. What they didn’t know is that this Admiral is also a manipulative schemer. Seeing an opportunity within the weakened empire, the Admiral seizes control. He riles thugs, bandits, and aggravated citizens to his cause and calls for a total overthrowing of the kingdom. The turmoil reaches far to the countryside where an order of monks loyal to the Emperor resides. When the Admiral’s thugs attack the order, seeing it as a threat, a monk known as Yu takes it upon himself to use their ancient power and fight back.

The Order of the Foresight is capable of playing out events before them and witnessing multiple outcomes in their minds, working out the path forward, and then carrying it out in reality. With that in mind, this is a roguelike martial arts game. You travel from place to place on a map that leads toward the Admiral, and through his many minions along the way. At each stop, you fight a battle against increasingly numerous and difficult opponents. Given that any damage you take carries on with you through your journey, it would normally be near-impossible to win against such odds, but the power of Foresight lets you play out each battle in Yu’s imagination before he fights the real thing.

Forestrike is a pixelated game, but its style around this concept is very cool. The country is dreary with the signs of war and chaos, but the fluid dance of combat with each battle you fight on the way to the Admiral is awesome to witness when you learn how to effectively use Foresight. The game even lets you watch replays of your battles and see how you performed, or you can copy the code of a particular battle and revisit it for practice, as there are numerous variations of encounters. The bit I played was punctuated by a sometimes dramatic and sometimes funky array of music that reminded me of popular old school kung-fu movies and TV shows, which made it even more fun to watch when I’d work out a particularly cool-looking fight against foes.

From many paths, one true way forward

Forestrike is, once again, a rougelike game, but also a brawler. You choose different stops on the map that provide rewards such as techniques, gold for special items and healing, and upgrades for your abilities as you go. That said, each stop also generally has a battle where you must beat down multiple foes. Take any damage, and it stays with you for the whole run, or until you can obtain techniques or special items that heal you conditionally.

Thankfully, there’s Foresight. As explained above, the Order of Foresight can play out battles in their head as much as they want before the fight even begins. What that means in gameplay is that with the touch of a button, you take on a simulation of your upcoming battle, seeing how your enemies will attack and move around your own techniques. You can defeat them with light and heavy attacks, or weapons like brooms and tables in the room. You can also dodge their attacks and/or misdirect them, pushing them into beating each other up. Enemies often have their own quirks to learn, whether it’s a foe that dodges attacks, throws weapons, or tanks hits and counters you, to name a few. Forestrike helps you navigate around all of that with practice and you can also simulate the battle as many times as you want and figure out the cleanest and least costly method to victory.

Of course, as many times as you can simulate the fight through Foresight, you still have to fight the real fight. You can still make mistakes and catch an unintentional wound on your way to your true victory. In that, there’s still a risk to your journey ending prematurely. Getting hit or having anything veer off from your predicted path makes everything more chaotic, and getting beaten completely means you go back to the beginning of the journey where Yu sees your failure as a grandiose (or perhaps wimpy) Foresight vision. As much as Forestrike gives you an advantage, this game could get very hard, very fast, but it was also a satisfying challenge.

One thing that stood out to me in the preview was the option to select masters in Forestrike, which change the kind of techniques you’ll learn as you go through a run. Only Leaf school was available in our version of the game. It specialized in evasion and misdirection techniques, prioritizing directing foes' attacks into each other and letting them defeat themselves without you having to throw as many punches. It had options such as one where you could turn your opponent backwards in the middle of their attack and make them beat up their friends. That said, it looked like there will be four more schools of combat to choose from, each with their own specializations, and I’m curious to know how those will play.

In countless predicted failures, one ultimate victory

The premise of Forestrike makes for an interesting angle on the usually punishing challenge of roguelike survival. You can practice as much as you want, but the real victory must be earned regardless, and some of the compositions of enemies took some tight reflexes to dismantle, even after numerous successful tries in Foresight. The pixel art and funky music also do a great job of driving home a specific and cool martial arts film vibe. I’m really curious to see how the other schools of combat play, because if they’re as interesting as the Leaf school was, then Forestrike is easily a game we’ll be playing again and again as we chart out victory among countless possible paths.

This preview is based on an early PC version of the game offered by the publisher. Forestrike is set to come out on PC and Nintendo Switch.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on BlueSky @JohnnyChugs.