I have spoken at length about my love for underrated fantasy RPGs that push the genre to new heights, irrespective of their limited budgets and relative jank. These kinds of games, the Two Worlds and Gothics of the world, are frankly what make the RPG genre so much fun to delve into, each unique title sporting a smattering of novel ideas that you’ll have never seen done quite the same way, or at all, in any of their AAA contemporaries. The more controversial, broken, and AA they get, the better, in my opinion, as it is typically these games that have overstretched their budget to deliver a truly revolutionary experience.
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In 2025, we got one of the most underrated fantasy RPGs in recent memory, a title that flew so under the radar, I’m surprised its developer is still working on it. The reasons for it being so criminally overlooked are, in this instance, actually justified, as it was in a rather unplayable state at launch. Those small, insignificant quibbles aside (I’ll delve into them a little deeper later), this fantasy open-world RPG is the perfect game for those who miss the days of Eurojank titles like Elex, Gothic, and Mars: War Logs, especially now that it has been fixed. Simply put, in its current state, more people absolutely need to start playing Of Ash and Steel.
Of Ash And Steel’s Rocky Launch State Has Finally Been Fixed
When Of Ash and Steel first launched, it was, and this is putting it rather politely, unplayable. That’s not to say that the systems present were unfun, but rather that they had been rushed out of the gate far too early, and were riddled with technical and mechanical issues that rendered much of the latter half of the game, and certain quests, broken. Entire parts of the map, specifically a large city, simply vanished, a giant hole in the map taking its place; quests wouldn’t complete properly either due to an absent NPC or item, ensuring that players simply couldn’t progress further. Sadly, this impacted the main narrative too, which meant that many affected by this bug were left with little recourse other than to wait for the inevitable patches.
Fortunately, Of Ash and Steel has been largely fixed, at least to a point in which the most significant problems have been rectified, and minor issues can be easily remedied using the newly-introduced console commands. That’s fantastic news, as beyond those superficial problems, Of Ash and Steel is a phenomenal RPG. Sure, it won’t be for everyone, it’s devotion to a grounded fantasy setting, immersive mechanics, and a punishing level of difficulty, making it tough to add to the ever-growing list of fantasy RPGs everyone must play.
However, I don’t think that’s a negative thing, nor something that reflects poorly on the finished product. I merely mean to imply that Of Ash and Steel is for a certain kind of player, people like me who delighted in Hell Is Us’ abandoning of traditional quest markers, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s penchant for making the player engage in tedious tasks on the basis that it’s more realistic. Indeed, it is the friction that Of Ash and Steel introduces that enables it to hone in on its most innovative aspects and ultimately deliver one of the most immersive single-player worlds in recent memory. Frankly, abysmal technical state aside, we need more games like Of Ash and Steel that push the RPG genre closer to being a truly player-led adventure like the tabletop experience it is based on.
The World Needs More Games Like Of Ash And Steel
At the end of April 2026, one of my favorite developers and a purveyor of innovative and janky RPGs, Spiders, entered liquidation and would be shutting down. It followed legendary RPG developer Piranha Bytes, best known for creating the Gothic series, which shut its doors in 2024. We’re swiftly losing the best and brightest developers still daring to release sprawling fantasy RPG epics, the likes of which not even AAA developers are making anymore. It is a colossal shame, but an unavoidable one, especially considering the exorbitantly expensive cost of developing any game in the current turbulent landscape.
Naturally, this makes Fire & Frost’s commitment to fixing Of Ash and Steel all the more important. It obviously means that those who enjoy the game already or were disappointed after paying money for it get a better product, which is a necessity at this point. However, one would also hope it better safeguards Fire & Frost’s future as Of Ash and Steel becomes a more tantalizing prospect to players like me who are desperately searching for their next fantasy RPG obsession. We need developers like it to remain within this space, as without them, we’re left with the AAA fantasy RPGs, which both take forever to release and cater to a much broader audience and are saddled with enormous budgets. As a result, there’s more of an incentive for them to play it safe, unlike Of Ash and Steel, which has you spend an entire Act without a map.
I’m not trying to overlook Of Ash and Steel’s obvious failings to make a point. The way in which it was released was unacceptable and continues to be an aggravating trend in both the AA and AAA space. However, I also don’t want to lose the type of experience that Of Ash and Steel offers, one that, as aforementioned, is dying off with the few developers that once formed a strong band of outliers to fight against the expected and deliver role-playing games that truly lived up to the genre’s name. I sincerely hope that more people flock to Of Ash and Steel so that folks like Fire & Frost can continue making games and we don’t lose the final bastions holding together the AA RPG scene that I’ve come to adore far more than their blockbuster counterparts.
Will you be giving Of Ash and Steel a go now that it is fixed? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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