UPDATED – 20/11/25
Forestrike has a lot to admire. On first glance, the pixel-art and painted stills are brimming with character. Every punch, swing of a weapon, and dodge is accompanied by sharp animations, capturing the visual flair of a classic martial arts film.
Do it again and again…and again…
You play as Yu, a forestriker belonging to an order tasked with protecting the Emperor. An individual known as the Admiral has taken over and it’s Yu’s job to punch him in the face.
Mechanically, Forestrike has an interesting hook in the “Foresight” ability. You can endlessly rehearse the fight in your head before attempting it for real. When you decide to go ahead with the fight, it’s one shot only or it’s back to the start!
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Encounters evolve into something more thoughtful than just button mashing until everyone’s down. You’re encouraged to analyse enemy patterns, push them into each other, weaponise the environment, then strike.
The rogue-like structure gives it the required loop of risk and reward. The flow of battle is key and akin to a dance, you’ve just got to practice the steps.
Kung Fu Faculty
Within the order, Yu has many masters and they each offer a different fighting style. Talgun, for instance, prefers to win without throwing a punch, while Nodai is more of the “take a punch and hit back harder” type.
The game is broken up into four stages, each ending in a boss fight. Completing stages unlocks further masters, each with their own style of justice. Progressing with the different masters on runs unlocks more upgrade options, as well as basic starting-out moves; each upgrade makes your next run slightly easier, assuming those upgrades drop for you, of course!
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Pick Up and Dust Yourself off
Overall, Forestrike is an excellent game. A roguelike brawler with real depth, stylish visuals and a unique brain-meets-brawn twist. While it was initially held back by performance issues on the Switch, it’s since been updated and the game runs perfectly.
Forestrike is out now on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
Quest Daily scores Forestrike:
8/10
A review code for Forestrike was supplied to Quest Daily by the publisher.
