Skygard Arena Review: Turn-Based Tactical Combat Meets MOBA’s Strategic Depth

Skygard Arena has officially launched after ten months in Early Access, bringing Gemelli Games‘ ambitious vision of combining turn-based tactical combat with MOBA-inspired character design to PC players worldwide. Released on September 18, 2025, this indie tactical RPG promises to challenge both strategy veterans and newcomers with its chess-like approach to fantasy combat.

I’m going to be upfront about something: I’m relatively new to tactical RPGs + MOBA-style games, so this review comes from that perspective. If you’re in the same boat, you’ll want to pay attention to what I’m about to tell you. If you are already experienced in strategy games, you may find much to enjoy in what this game offers.

The quick version is this: Skygard Arena is really good at what it does, but it’s pretty demanding. Think of it like a chess master who will teach you but won’t go easy on you.

For tactical RPG veterans seeking a pure strategy experience without luck-based mechanics, Skygard Arena delivers an uncompromising vision. For newcomers hoping to explore the genre, the game’s steep learning curve and unforgiving difficulty may prove more of an obstacle than an invitation.

Skygard Arena is now available on Steam at a discounted price of $8.99, with the regular price set at $14.99.

1. Story and World Building: Familiar Fantasy Setting with Decent Execution

The Shattering tore apart the world of Skygard, dividing it into five floating islands. Now five different factions are fighting it out in a big tournament. You follow Na Jima from the Cloud Clan as she tries to stop an ancient magical crown from ending up with the wrong people.

It’s not revolutionary storytelling, but it works. The five factions (Cloud Clan, Crimson Empire, Guardians, Silver Kingdom, and Katia) all feel different enough that choosing your team actually matters. Each faction has its own tactical style, so picking champions isn’t just about who looks coolest.

The Five Factions in Skygard Arena.

1.1 Presentation Limitations

The problem is how the game presents its story. While Skygard Arena‘s premise is easy to follow and thematically consistent, the story delivery represents one of the game’s weaker elements. Dialogue occurs through static text boxes, lacking voice acting or animated character expressions, which creates a somewhat flat narrative experience. While the world-building provides adequate context for the tactical battles, the lack of emotional depth in character interactions limits narrative investment.

Enhanced character portraits or basic animation during dialogue sequences would significantly improve the storytelling experience, particularly given the game’s focus on champion personalities and factional conflicts.

Story beats in Skygard Arena mainly involve texts.

2. Gameplay: Strategic Depth Meets Accessibility Challenges

Skygard Arena mixes tight, turn-based tactics with MOBA-inspired hero roles. Each turn, you spend movement points on positioning plus a primary action (and occasionally a secondary), then end the turn when those points are gone. It’s elegant and readable, but the systems assume some genre familiarity.

2.1 Story Mode and Mission Design

The single-player campaign of Skygard Arena spans 13 core missions across three acts, supplemented by 26 optional side quests that provide additional challenges and character development opportunities. While the overarching narrative follows familiar fantasy tropes—ancient artifacts, competing factions, and world-threatening disasters—the mission design demonstrates genuine creativity in how these story beats are translated into tactical challenges.

Missions extend beyond simple “defeat all enemies” objectives, incorporating escort missions, base defense scenarios, infiltration challenges, and multi-stage boss encounters. Each mission type demands different tactical approaches, preventing the campaign from feeling repetitive despite its moderate length.

The campaign serves multiple functions within the game’s ecosystem. For newcomers to tactical RPGs, it provides a comprehensive tutorial system that gradually introduces mechanics without overwhelming complexity. Expert gamers can unlock champions and relics for use in other game modes while taking on meaningful strategic challenges.

A battlefield overview in Skygard Arena.

2.2 Sudden Learning Curve and Strategic Depth

However, I must admit that the difficulty of this game escalates quickly. Like, really fast. I hit a wall around Mission 7 where you fight the Scarlet Empire, and it was brutal. They throw multiple high-damage units at you while you’re still figuring out basic team composition. It’s like trying to learn to drive while someone throws you the keys to a Formula 1 car.

This is probably my biggest issue with Skygard Arena. The game assumes you already know tactical RPG basics, and it doesn’t spend much time teaching you. There’s no difficulty slider, no helpful hints about team building, and no “hey, maybe try bringing a healer to this fight” suggestions.

When you lose a mission (and you will lose missions), the game doesn’t really explain what went wrong. You just have to figure it out through trial and error. That’s fine for strategy veterans, but if you’re new to this genre, it can get frustrating pretty quickly.

The campaign also limits which characters you can use compared to the full roster, which makes sense story-wise, but doesn’t help when you’re trying to learn what different characters do.

However, one thing that I commend Skygard Arena for doing really well is that it removes all the random stuff that can make tactical games frustrating. No dice rolls, no hoping for critical hits, no waiting for abilities to cool down. Every character can move and attack once per turn, and you can do these actions in any order you want.

This means when you win, it’s because you made good decisions. When you lose, it’s because you made bad ones. There’s something really satisfying about that. You never feel like the game cheated you with bad luck.

Mission 7 of Skygard Arena.

2.3 Resource Management Constraints

Campaign mode restricts available champions compared to the full roster accessible in arena battles, creating additional strategic limitations. While experienced players might appreciate these constraints as design challenges, newcomers often struggle to identify effective team compositions without clearer guidance or suggested champion combinations.

The absence of adequate healing and support options in early campaign missions compounds these difficulties, particularly when facing enemies with extensive debuff capabilities.

2.4 Champions and How They Work

You get 10 different champions, but here’s the clever part: each one has two entirely different versions called personas. This allows for the transformation of a tank character into a damage dealer or a support character into a crowd control agent. It’s like getting 20 characters instead of 10.

The roles cover what you’d expect: attackers, defenders, supports, and crowd control. But the persona system keeps things interesting because you can completely change your strategy based on which version of each character you bring.

Then there’s the relic system, which gives you 80 different passive abilities to choose from. These can entirely change how a character plays. Want to turn your damage dealer into a tank? There’s a relic for that. The math says there are over 250,000 team combinations possible, though realistically, you’ll probably find a few setups you like and stick with them.

3. Visual and Audio Presentation

The art style of Skygard Arena is clean and colorful, effectively fulfilling its purpose. It’s fantasy without being too dark or gritty, and most importantly, you can tell what’s happening on the battlefield even when things get chaotic. Each faction has its own look, which helps with the world-building.

Character designs are solid. You can usually tell what role a character plays just by looking at them, which helps when you’re trying to read enemy strategies during battles.

3.1 Audio Design and Soundtrack

The soundtrack is 90 minutes of fantasy music that fits the mood without getting in the way. Sound effects are satisfying without getting annoying after hours of play. There’s no voice acting, which feels like a missed opportunity for making the story more engaging.

The audio does its job well. It’s not going to blow you away, but it won’t annoy you either.

PvE Mission, Guardian Arena.

3.2 Hardware Accessibility and Optimization

Skygard Arena runs on modest hardware requirements, with minimum specifications including Intel Core i5-4690, 8 GB RAM, and Intel Iris Xe graphics. Recommended specifications for the game are Intel Core i7-8700K, 16 GB RAM, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, making the game accessible to most gaming systems from recent years.

The 15 GB installation size also reflects a focused development scope without unnecessary content bloat. Performance remains stable across supported hardware configurations, with loading times that don’t interrupt tactical flow during extended gaming sessions, which is something that I greatly appreciate from the developers.

However, I ran into a few minor technical issues. I experienced some loading delays between battles and encountered a strange bug in which an enemy character did not get eliminated properly. Nothing game-breaking, of course, and the developers seem to be actively fixing things with updates.

Player’s turn in Skygard Arena.

4. Final Verdict: Strategic Excellence with Narrow Appeal

Skygard Arena succeeds remarkably at its intended goal of creating a skill-based tactical RPG that eliminates frustrating random elements while rewarding strategic mastery. Gemelli Games has demonstrated impressive design discipline in their debut release, creating systems that feel both mechanically sound and competitively balanced.

The game’s commitment to fair competition, extensive customization options, and tactical complexity creates an experience that dedicated strategy enthusiasts will likely champion within the competitive gaming community. The absence of microtransactions and focus on pure skill-based progression establishes genuine trust with players seeking long-term strategic challenges.

However, the uncompromising difficulty approach and limited accessibility features create significant barriers for tactical RPG newcomers. Players unfamiliar with grid-based strategy mechanics may find themselves overwhelmed by strategic complexity without adequate support systems for gradual skill development.