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Those Who Rule
Join three fresh recruits caught in a web of betrayal as war looms over the land. Lead your band of heroes through tactical turn-based battles, master unique abilities, and forge powerful gear to turn the tide of battle. Will you unravel the conspiracy driving the conflict—or be consumed by it?
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
86 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Great indie title for fans of turn based strategy game. As a big fan of games like Fire Emblem and FF Tactics, this scratched that itch for sure with its combat system and medieval/political narrative. I like that it is…”
“The best Fire-Emblem-like I have played since Berwick Saga. It strides the line perfectly between capturing the essence of what made Fire Emblem enjoyable while also doing it's one thing. Nearly every single mechanic is…”
“fun - better than fire emblem”
42 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Great indie title for fans of turn based strategy game. As a big fan of games like Fire Emblem and FF Tactics, this scratched that itch for sure with its combat system and medieval/political narrative. I like that it is…”
“The best Fire-Emblem-like I have played since Berwick Saga. It strides the line perfectly between capturing the essence of what made Fire Emblem enjoyable while also doing it's one thing. Nearly every single mechanic is…”
“One of the best turn based combat games I've ever played. Good combat, nice story.”
19 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Great indie title for fans of turn based strategy game. As a big fan of games like Fire Emblem and FF Tactics, this scratched that itch for sure with its combat system and medieval/political narrative. I like that it is…”
“We got Vandal Hearts at home… but I liked it. The game is meaty, the difficulty is fair and poses a challenge, and the upgrade system is good. The writing is not bad but it feels like it is written by one person,…”
“Very nice gameplay, nice tough fights (respect this), permanent death of heroes, which is hardly managed, so need to play again and again to keep all alive (love it in tactic games), but full lack of normal management,…”
16 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“The best Fire-Emblem-like I have played since Berwick Saga. It strides the line perfectly between capturing the essence of what made Fire Emblem enjoyable while also doing it's one thing. Nearly every single mechanic is…”
“We got Vandal Hearts at home… but I liked it. The game is meaty, the difficulty is fair and poses a challenge, and the upgrade system is good. The writing is not bad but it feels like it is written by one person,…”
“Great tactical RPG. Most similar to the Fire Emblem series, but with some tweaks to the formula to keep it fresh and interesting. + Interesting Story + Fun evolution of characters and classes + Great length (not too…”
9 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Great tactical RPG. Most similar to the Fire Emblem series, but with some tweaks to the formula to keep it fresh and interesting. + Interesting Story + Fun evolution of characters and classes + Great length (not too…”
“This was an interesting game. I just completed it in around 20 hours, which is fair for the price. The story was interesting and wasn't cliche. There was a nice variety of possible builds for your characters, and the…”
“Super fun strategy RPG with a well-written and thought-provoking scenario. I had a decently challenging time playing on normal mode with permadeath. The game is well-paced and the perfect length for what it had to say.…”
20 of the 103 reviews raise this · 15 of them still recommend the game.
“This game fails due to bad pacing. First, there is too much dialog that takes too long to sit through. Like a poorly written book, you are introduced to a dozen new characters before you even got a chance to know who…”
“Great tactical RPG. Most similar to the Fire Emblem series, but with some tweaks to the formula to keep it fresh and interesting. + Interesting Story + Fun evolution of characters and classes + Great length (not too…”
“Very nice gameplay, nice tough fights (respect this), permanent death of heroes, which is hardly managed, so need to play again and again to keep all alive (love it in tactic games), but full lack of normal management,…”
16 of the 103 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“This game started fun, and quickly became an unfair and unfun slog. Why developers create game "balance" with unfair RNG moments in 30 minute battles is beyond me. If I wanted unfair nonsense I would only play my old 8…”
“This game fails due to bad pacing. First, there is too much dialog that takes too long to sit through. Like a poorly written book, you are introduced to a dozen new characters before you even got a chance to know who…”
“This game suffers from X-Com syndrome, where 90 % accuracy hits about 15 % of the time. Very disappointed so far, I had high hopes for this game but starting from chapter 5 you have to reload constantly because of…”
15 of the 103 reviews raise this · 12 of them still recommend the game.
“This game fails due to bad pacing. First, there is too much dialog that takes too long to sit through. Like a poorly written book, you are introduced to a dozen new characters before you even got a chance to know who…”
“We got Vandal Hearts at home… but I liked it. The game is meaty, the difficulty is fair and poses a challenge, and the upgrade system is good. The writing is not bad but it feels like it is written by one person,…”
“Full disclosure: I love Tactics and Turn based strategy games. This game reminds me so much of my favorite games like; Tactics Ogre, Fire Emblem, Shin Megami, FF Tactics etc. Like many RPGs with lots of story and…”
10 of the 103 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“This game started fun, and quickly became an unfair and unfun slog. Why developers create game "balance" with unfair RNG moments in 30 minute battles is beyond me. If I wanted unfair nonsense I would only play my old 8…”
“Pretty fun Fire Emblem like game. Has some issues with difficulty curve with huge spikes for certain chapters. Runs a bit slow similar to Path of Radiance so have to be patient for enemy turns as they go through all…”
“This game suffers from X-Com syndrome, where 90 % accuracy hits about 15 % of the time. Very disappointed so far, I had high hopes for this game but starting from chapter 5 you have to reload constantly because of…”
7 of the 103 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“Has most things that Fire Emblem has except in hex grid, which I like. The game has 3D elements, but there is no map rotation, which later on becomes necessary. In FE, there's the weapon trinity, but here I couldn't…”
“Really fun game and surprisingly solid story and characters. I did get frustrated at the lack of QOL features that tempted me to either quit or lower difficulty, having no rollback for mis-clicks and 3 mandatory…”
“Super fun strategy RPG with a well-written and thought-provoking scenario. I had a decently challenging time playing on normal mode with permadeath. The game is well-paced and the perfect length for what it had to say.…”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 90.0% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“I was a little hesitant to jump into this one but I'm glad I did. This is certainly a spin on the fire emblem school of game design, but the personal touches (hex grids, shields as temp HP, readily accessible aoe damage, items that provide active skills) combine to give it a…”
— a player, Steam review · 45 hrs played“This an indie solo passion project that everyone who has enjoyed a Fire Emblem game should be throwing their money at. I'm coming at this as someone who hates Fire Emblem games because the fundamental gameplay loop feels tragically beholden to a 30 year old formula. [i]But[/i]…”
— a player, Steam review · 41 hrs played“Before i post my positives and critiques of the game i'd first like to tell you mr. dev that the game is excellent. the characters were believable enough for me to have issues with how they act in the story which sounds like a negative but it's actually an extremely good issue…”
— a player, Steam review · 39 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-05.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-25. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-04). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Patch (v1.4.3): Small Bug Fixes, and A Big Thank You
Hey everyone! Had some bug reports I've been wanting to get to, and just wanted to make sure to get out the fixes to the common ones I could reproduce before going full steam ahead on game 2. Before t
Those Who Rule 2 - Announcement
Hey everyone! It's been over a year since the release of Those Who Rule, and some of you may have already had an idea why I've been quiet on announcements. I'm excited to confirm the poorly kept secre
Patch (v1.4.2): New SS Rank Weapons, Community Easter Eggs
Hey everyone! I know I said I was likely done with content updates, but I've had some requests through the games release that were too good not to put in. One of the main ones being filling out the ro
Patch (v1.4.1): Retry Battle Button
The long awaited, most requested feature, has finally arrived: The Retry Battle Button . No longer will you need to rage spam ENTER to skip dialogue after losing one of your units to that stray archer
Patch (v1.4.0): Mod Support
Hey everyone! For those of you who remember the roadmap I posted a while back, I'm excited to announce the delivery of the final entry: Mod Support . Player Unit Base Stats. Player Unit Growth Rates.
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | Indie, RPG, Strategy |
| Player tags | Tactical RPG · Turn-Based Tactics · RPG · Strategy RPG · Turn-Based Strategy · Party-Based RPG · Story Rich · Perma Death · CRPG · Difficult · Strategy · Character Customization (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Camera Comfort · Custom Volume Controls · Adjustable Difficulty · Mouse Only Option · Playable without Timed Input |
| Languages | English * * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 30 |
| Official site | https://thosewhorule.com/?game=twr |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10, 11 Processor: i5 Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: OpenGL 2.0 compatible video card with 2 GB VRAM Storage: 4 GB available space