Forged of Blood isn’t a bad first game for the developer, Critical Forge, and it will surely find an audience, even though its graphics are atrocious. This turn-based strategy is very good gameplay-wise - but also way too verbose and overly complex.

Forged of Blood is ambitious well beyond its means, and it has so many systems at play at once that there are moments where, mechanically, they fall down. Thematically, however, it’s a gorgeous blend of complementary fantasy genres and approaches, and it's done differently. We need to see more original and different games being made, and it’s great to see something of this vision and presentation coming out of emerging game development nations like Indonesia.

Long story short, Forged of Blood is the best example of a project which was meant to be big but ended up being small. I wouldn't have been so disappointed if it was a “good” small rather a than “bad” small.

Quotation forthcoming.

The question remains unanswered that what the combination of witcher, X-Com and Crusader Kings would look like, as Forged of Blood failed to execute correctly. A project this big would be a difficult job to pull even for AAA studios with huge budgets, and it would produce better results if small, indie studios focus on less ambitious projects.