20. Armello

Armello Official Trailer

Up next on our list is Armello. Recipient of the Indie Fund and called the Australian Game of the Year by Kotaku, Armello is a beautiful, dark fantasy strategy game. It ranks at number 20 on our list because of its originality in art style, and for its creativity in combining elements from tabletop games, trading card games, and strategy RPGs.

In Armello, players attempt to dethrone the king of Armello, who has been driven into madness by a strange darkness called the Rot. Players can choose to play as one of eight heroes with the opportunity to play as other characters as the developers roll out new downloadable content. My personal preference is for the Forest Sister.

“Don’t mind me. Just passing through, not looking for any trouble.”

Unique to Armello is the day/night system with some characters becoming stronger in the day and some becoming stronger at night. Rival battles, quests, dungeons, and places to capture will randomly generate on the board, which makes Armello feel less like a virtual board game and more like a classic RPG. The hugeness of your hero in relation to everything else is also a nice throwback to the original Armello board game.

Unfortunately, his legs are too short to step over the castle walls.

Armello Gameplay