Elven Legacy
Elven Legacy
Game
Game2023
The Ouroboros King
Developer Oriol Cosp Games
The Ouroboros King combines the strategic depth of chess with the build variety and replayability of roguelikes. Assemble a formidable army, discover powerful relics, and buy surprising gadgets to defeat the Coven. From the Steam store page
176 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 16, 2026 · last updated Oct 17, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
67
Fresh
107 positive · 53 negative
95% range 59–74%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 107 | 53 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 2 | 0 | 9 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
353 of 441 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
66% recommend · 107 yes, 54 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 161 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (462 of 580 positive).
Some reviewers criticize the AI for having blind spots and the balance for being inconsistent. [1][2][3] A few players find the game too short or lacking in content despite its replayability. [4][5][6]
Liked
Representative posts
- [16]
Really interesting concept, but marred by execution. I found myself constantly hovering over the icon that shows where you or the enemy pieces move because of the unfamiliar pieces and rules. The portals constantly screwed me because I didn't understand how they worked until it clicked after a few turns. You only have a limited number of rewind (undo). I've only played a few games, but these pieces feel broke: …
- [3]
TLDR: just play normal chess or Shotgun King. I didn't know it was possible to make a game this dragged-out and tedious. Almost every battle is at best needlessly long, and at worst (kinda) stalemate. The RNG is terrible and the balance itself seems very inconsistent. You can almost skip first chapter if you pick pieces that can capture on first moves. With each chapter it gets worse, opponents have more pieces …
- [8]
bought this game on steam a few days ago and today i sat down and beat the game. genuinely super fun experience all the way through. kinda surprised at how few people know about this masterpiece. the art and setting are both great and i think i know for sure 4 people ive gotta get playing this. even downloaded it on my phone. really wanted to say just how much i loved it
- [1]
The Ouroboros King scratches a very specific itch — it's chess meets Slay the Spire, and for the most part that combination works beautifully, with wild pieces like the Hydra and Portal Mage making every board feel like a puzzle you've never seen before. The roguelike map progression and relic system add just enough depth to keep runs feeling fresh, and the UI does a great job of showing you exactly where each piece …
- [4]
I really enjoyed it. It's a fun and interesting break from regular chess. Was sort of hoping for full conventionally structured games (opening, middlegame, endgame) while fighting for key squares with fairy pieces sprinkled in, but its more like a chaotic middlegame middlegame middlegame king chop. I feel like the devs kinda forgot that pawns and pawn structures are a massive part of what makes the vanilla game so …
Summarised from 34 of the 178 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 11, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
The Ouroboros King sits at 67% positive across 160 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 176 · most liked firstReally interesting concept, but marred by execution. I found myself constantly hovering over the icon that shows where you or the enemy pieces move because of the unfamiliar pieces and rules. The portals constantly screwed me because I didn't understand how they worked until it clicked after a few turns. You only have a limited number of rewind (undo). I've only played a few games, but these pieces feel broke: Martyr - When captured, blows up all pieces in one square around it. The AI…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[Epic] The Ouroboros King (PC), Warhammer 40,000 : Speed Freeks (PC), Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition (Mobile). [Claim…
neutral · AI labelView post →im disappointed i was looking foward to play this game for a while, finally bought it and in less than 2 hours i've beaten the game nad almost in 4 tried almost every piece and upgrade... im disappointed because there is a really great potential but it's not fullfilled, i would understand if this game was new, but for a game that is 2 years the only this i can say is that im disappointed
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The entire essence of the game can be summarized as "Will my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ OP unit spawn in direct line against the enemy's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ OP unit that will kill my king in two turns if the stars do not align perfectly." As much as I love tactical games, this is not such, it is just a test of patience while you wait for the dice to fall in the right way.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting game, but the difficulty is a bit wonky, and the fact that your reward is based on how quickly you win needed to have a floor on the reward implemented, as it is too common for the AI to flee endlessly. It also is a real boring time sink to have to chase down a king into checkmate by moving units one square at a time - the relic that lets you win if they have no units should be available no matter what and shouldn't be tied to the "ascension" system.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Decent premise with less than stellar execution. This is a game with chess's gameplay and Slay the Spire's structure. One problem is that I do not think the game's roguelike structure was given much thought. Relics are either gamebreaking (like the combination of relics that make your knight pieces able to move to all adjacent squares and take an additional turn after capturing another piece) or entirely underwhelming. Whereas Slay the Spire's structure forces you to plan for the run, there…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stripped down chess is less fun than chess.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Shotgun King is much better. Permanently losing any pieces that get captured, combined with rewards for the battle going down over time, is a really lame combination that contradicts itself (winning without losing pieces, or losing minimal pieces, would require careful planning, turns you don't have to waste if you want a decent amount of rewards). I do like the pieces though, the game isn't great imo but it would be straight butt if it was just regular chess pieces. Again, Shotgun King is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[Epic] *The Ouroboros King*, chess roguelike (for mobile). > The Ouroboros King combines the strategic depth of chess with the build variety and replayability of roguelikes. Assemble a formidable army, discover powerful relics, and buy surprising gadgets to defeat the Coven. > > Build the Ultimate Army: Combine classic and new fairy chess pieces, relics that give them bonuses, and consumable items that grant you temporary advantages to create a formidable army. > > Perfect Your Strategy: You…
neutral · AI labelView post →the best roguelike chess game I've ever played but the bar is in hell. the presentation is serviceable at best, soundtrack gets grating quickly, and the story is boring. the gameplay loop of collecting pieces and upgrading them is so short lived there's no time to get invested and pieces are balanced by changing the enemy's composition, not in comparison to eachother. There's alot of cool ideas here like the rocks and how pieces interact with them but there's no cohesion, so few of the game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a solid game, but much more barebones than I previously expected. - The UI is a mess and has trouble updating, so sometimes you will lose a run to a piece you assumed had a completely different moveset because the UI didn't refresh. - Some of the rules for the pieces feel very arbitrary and item / pieces' abilities aren't well communicated. I often just have to rely on hovering over the pieces to know what they do, because from my perspective they're just a random icon with an…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What is the point of having a decoy (a unit that cannot move but kills the piece that kills it) if enemy units refuse to interact with it?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR: just play normal chess or Shotgun King. I didn't know it was possible to make a game this dragged-out and tedious. Almost every battle is at best needlessly long, and at worst (kinda) stalemate. The RNG is terrible and the balance itself seems very inconsistent. You can almost skip first chapter if you pick pieces that can capture on first moves. With each chapter it gets worse, opponents have more pieces covering great portion of a board, then portals, then bombs, then who knows what…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short chess-based roguelike. The concept is genuinely decent and enjoyable for an hour or two, but the game is ultimately let down by a bunch of things like the following: Variety is a bit lacking for a roguelike. E.g. there are too few types of map nodes and hardly any level obstacles. There's little incentive to play more than a few runs. Many chess pieces have unintuitive mechanics which make it hard to tell which tiles are (not) threatened, unless you constantly hover a part of the screen…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My first game (The Ouroboros King) had more than 4.5M views on YouTube, leading to > 25k lifetime sales. Streamers were by far what helped me the most in getting players to know about my game and I want to share my method for finding content creators suitable to any game.
positive · AI labelView post →The base idea is interesting, and the new pieces/map geometry/items are interesting to. However, the game doesn't come together. Often times its just dancing back-and-forth hoping for a misplay or very slowly hunting down the enemy king as checkmates are very difficult. The number of unique pieces means determining which squares are safe takes a lot of time which isn't very engaging. And of course, mistakes lose a consumable rewind, which feels so terrible when you forget that actually that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice idea, but unfortunately it doesn't work. Chess is a great game because you can read the board state very quickly and then you have to think about what could happen a few turns in advance. In The Ouroboros King you have tons of different units, portals and artifacts that alter the gameplay. It is incredibly hard to read the board state with all those weird movement patterns the units have and due to that it's almost impossible to see what could happen during the next turn or even the turn…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's not terrible, but it's very short and maybe even mildly annoying (RNG sucks, too many combinations of pieces and effects). It doesn't have a "difficulty" option, but it's relatively easy and I finished in the second run. I bought this in a bundle with a small discount and had forgotten about it until today. Not worth the sticker price (~11 CHF, I paid ~8.8 CHF), but would be decent with a steep discount, I guess. Then again, I'm probably not the target demographic. And being short is not…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a weak entry into the traditional board/card game roguelite series. Ankle deep gameplay, terrible UI, inconsistent design, imbalanced... Needs lots of work.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played a good amount of chess. I've played a good amount of roguelikes. This SOUNDED like it would be right up my alley. First couple levels, not too hard but fine. And then I get to the first boss and get checked by the queen that can also move like a knight. Every turn. Until I lose. Fine. Try again. Different pieces, same outcome. This is the second time I got the game since i thought maybe it was shotgun king or another chess roguelike that I had tried before and saw it was on sale…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It felt pretty bad that illegal/immediately losing moves were allowed and cost resources to rewind. I suppose this wouldn't be an issue if I could just get better at reading the board state, but between portals and the large variety of slightly different units, it's pretty tough to know what can happen.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For how novel some of the movement options are, I don't feel like you get enough time to learn how your pieces move. I have the feeling that it's *just* missing something to smooth out runs, but I couldn't tell you what that would be or why. Game functions as advertised - no tech issues here, but something doesn't quite click.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Recent new indie game favourites I don't think I've posted much about yet: Anomaly Collapse, The Ouroboros King and Moon Watch. All turn-based combat roguelikes, but very different from each other. I am constantly astounded by the depth and breadth there is in this genre.
positive · AI labelView post →its pretty boring and generic. its not really that interesting of a chess game or a roguelike game. its kinda the worst of both worlds by just using the most generic elements of both things... i'm sorry devs its probably fine if you're a big fan of chess maybe but its not for me as a mostly roguelike enjoyer and causal chess player.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like Chess you will definitely like this. Some of the names of the extra pieces in this are made up for this game, like war wagon, but many of these piece types exist in official chess variants that I have played. The War Wagon is a promoted Shogi rook for example. But many of these are completely unique to this game. I got a little bit addicted to this game because I play chess every day already and this is my style.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it's uhh... not great. i mean the premise if great, variety is good, gameplay... well, it's chess on drugs, any questions? but what i mean is that some design or boss choices were just pure absurdity to me - first and i repeat FIRST BOSS gave me more trouble than second or third OR ALL OF THEM COMBINED! i couldn't even move without first boss just smacking me on top of my head every time i move, because i move = she can penetrate through terrain and my pieces... THE FUBERGHASTY F*CK YOU…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →bought this game on steam a few days ago and today i sat down and beat the game. genuinely super fun experience all the way through. kinda surprised at how few people know about this masterpiece. the art and setting are both great and i think i know for sure 4 people ive gotta get playing this. even downloaded it on my phone. really wanted to say just how much i loved it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the computer always plays the best move and i can never have enough monies to buy important stuff because you get barely any gold from a fight
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra & Paradise Killer + 3 More - Steam Deck Tested | Jun 14. Kia ora Everyone! Another batch of free game giveaways tested on Steam Deck with Junk Store this week. - The Ouroboros King (Epic) - chess-style battler that kicked my butt, a bit like Pawnbarian - Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks (Epic) - vehicle combat, one for the multiplayer crowd - G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra (Prime) - the highlight for me, instant TMNT and Double Dragon vibes, straight back to my NES and Sega days…
neutral · AI labelView post →Bit of a 90's flashback this week. G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra gave me instant TMNT and Double Dragon vibes. Plus The Ouroboros King, Paradise Killer and 2 more tested in Game Mode on Steam Deck. www.junkstore.xyz/blog/games-t... #JunkStore #SteamDeck #NonSteamGames
neutral · AI labelView post →UI/UX is bad feels like a prototype
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Ouroboros King scratches a very specific itch — it's chess meets Slay the Spire, and for the most part that combination works beautifully, with wild pieces like the Hydra and Portal Mage making every board feel like a puzzle you've never seen before. The roguelike map progression and relic system add just enough depth to keep runs feeling fresh, and the UI does a great job of showing you exactly where each piece can move without overwhelming you. That said, be warned: the AI has some real…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a really solid rogue. I played chess as a kid and always sucked. If you like puzzle rogues you’re going to enjoy this one. It really deserves more attention.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played about 20 Hours, 100% the game, and have beat it on the hardest difficulty. I got my copy from a humble bundle. The game play is fairly simplistic, but it can become complex very quick. You have your usual chess pieces, and their standard move sets, but through upgrading/finding new pieces. You can obtain absurdly strong, or rather bazaar pieces. The progression through your run is similar to slay the spire, but every level will always start with a battle. The RNG can be unfair at…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had a lot of fun with this... I love all the different relics and items you can get, and the modified pieces are so fun. I do wish that there were more bosses to battle, though. Regardless, there's so much replay value. A great game to play when you don't have a lot of time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →100% in roughly 3h. idea is decent, not worth the money though. If you can pick it up for sub 2€ that may be worth it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really enjoyed it. It's a fun and interesting break from regular chess. Was sort of hoping for full conventionally structured games (opening, middlegame, endgame) while fighting for key squares with fairy pieces sprinkled in, but its more like a chaotic middlegame middlegame middlegame king chop. I feel like the devs kinda forgot that pawns and pawn structures are a massive part of what makes the vanilla game so interesting and complex. Also, the game is a bit too short, but it has a lot…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →pretty fun game. Kinda easy tho. Once you beat it the first few times, even increasing the difficulty doesn't make it any funner, and it's just boring. Still worth it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →only fun for two seconds, gets very stale
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →7/10 someone did all the drugs and remade chess - not much content here would grab on deep sale
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is fine. It is not worth even $10. Maybe $5 if you're REALLY balling. This is probably worth like $3. There is simply not much to this game. Runs are very short, though challenging, especially with arbitrary rules applied - native support for this would be nice. Maybe pick it up if it goes 50% off or more. That said, at this price, cannot recommend.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quite a crazy rougelike. When you take the traditional mechanics of chess, and throw in an entire melting pot of other pieces and abilities, it can get pretty crazy. I admit I wasn't very good at predicting the computer's moves. Variables can change and grow exponentially, but luckily there are plenty of QoL mechanics that help you take back turns, reroll, etc. I believe the game's really well done, though maybe a bit to ambitious as some of the pieces don't really synergize and the computer…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good idea done poorly.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →cool game, chess but 2 essentially
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"The Ouroboros King" is a nice little fantasy chess game (with lots of randomly selected units that move in unusual patterns) that also has a "Slay the Spire"-style map progression. You traverse across three maps. Each map ends with a boss fight (i.e. the enemy will have one particularly powerful unit on the board). You can choose several paths to get to the final fight, so you can choose which types of encounters you want to face. Most encounters are simply battles of your group of units…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Grab The Ouroboros King for FREE on Epic Games(mobile)👀 Want more free game alerts? Subscribe to my YouTube channel and join my Discord link in bio!!! #mobile #freegame #epicgames #fyp #viral
neutral · AI labelView post →Decent. A lot of games have attempted the whole "chess with novel move sets" thing before, but this game pulls it off a little better than what I've typically seen, seemingly manage to grapple with the inherent ridiculous balancing of giving chess pieces new move capabilities a little better than most others have that I've encountered in the past. Overall delivery package could definitely use polish: there is a lack of linting on potential moves and you feel a little bit starved for…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As mechanically sound as an empty chessboard, but not quite as fun as having those same missing pieces thrown at you.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Grab The Ouroboros King for FREE on Epic Games👀 Want more free game alerts? Subscribe to my YouTube channel and join my Discord link in bio!!! #freegame #epicgames #fyp #viral
neutral · AI labelView post →The game is fun in general though the system on how much gold you get each round could be reworked entirely because the current one is hit or miss, you also get punished for buying stuff that gives you extra turns because those extra turns in one turn count as two and take money twice as much, also if you get an extra turn on a turn where you'd already win you basically have to waste a turn and lose money with no gain, also the having to replay the game 5 times for the actual ending is stupid…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Ouroboros King is a fun roguelike chess game with a lot of new and interesting pieces. You have to win quickly in order to gain gold for upgrades and the AI is often quite difficult, so it can be rather challenging, particularly before you figure out all of the new pieces and how they typically work.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The biggest problem of this game is that winning doesn't feel satisfying and losing feels incredibly frustrating. Winning doesn't feel satisfying because you're just sluggishly waiting for your opponent to misplay, which will happen sooner or later since the ai simply can't account for all the interactions and piece movements. It can take forever moving the pieces back and forth, but in most matches you will inevitably win because the ai just can't play the game properly. Losing feels…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[Game Bundle] Indie Likes and Lites. $5: | Game Name | Steam Link | |---------------------------------|-------------| | The Ouroboros King | https://store.steampowered.com/app/2096510/The_Ouroboros_King | | Rack and Slay | https://store.steampowered.com/app/2311990/Rack_and_Slay | | Luck Be A Landlord | https://store.steampowered.com/app/1404850/Luck_be_a_Landlord | | Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos…
neutral · AI labelView post →I would have liked to see more pieces and relics, but what is here is fun for a bit. Even without much replayability, for a few bucks on sale it's a solid chesslike game!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Super Chess. Some of the units (the agents) are waaaaay confusing
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very fun and involves luck and skill, would recomend to anyones who likes chess and a fun game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is pretty fun, for the price I got it for it was very good, whenever I have a bit of free time I go to this game, bloons, and risk of rain 2. Very good strategy game and would reccommend to anyone if you want a fun and brain-needing time waster.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The portals ruin the game after having some fun with the other elements, and it's a terrible design to have them also affect threatened spaces while also being incapable of moving on spaces near them. This is really disappointing, and I don't think I'll be interested in the game with them there. Not to mention the fact that the villains here are depicted as a coven, which while including units like crusaders and knights templar is just all kinds of messed up. I don't think I'll be revisiting…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →fun but easy to cheese and little content... maybe a yes if on a massive sale
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game is hot ass the ai will do ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to ruin your experience constantly other than that its pretty good.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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