There's a bit of a theme running throughout the games industry at the moment, with challenge and difficulty emerging as the next vogue. It sort of started with Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, peaked with Cuphead, and now ceremoniously continues with Airship Syndicate's inaugural release, Battle Chasers: Nightwar.

Moreover, Battle Chasers: Nightwar comes from the creative braintrust of Joe Madureira and ex-Vigil developers. It's both stunning and compelling -- from a gameplay perspective -- all at once because this crew knows how to borrow, and build, from the best. Doubly, as a budget release, with more than 100 hours of gameplay in front of you, it's an investment you can't really ignore.

Here's a snippet from our in-depth review:

So what is Battle Chasers: Nightwar? The best way to describe it is that it’s an absolutely gorgeous turn-based JRPG-inspired mash-up with Diablo. And we’re not talking over-the-top Final Fantasy-style JRPGs, this borrows heavily from the best in both Namco’s Tales of series (specifically the GameCube’s much-loved Tales of Symphonia), and Fire Emblem. The isometric game-world design in dungeons and explorable areas is simply breathtaking in both art and design, while the dungeons themselves are randomly-generated whenever you freshly restart them, ala Blizzard’s long-running Diablo series.

If those comparisons aren't enough to peak your interest, well, I just don't know what else we can offer. This is pure and excellent game design at its Indie-turn-Triple-A best. Click here for our Battle Chasers: Nightwar review.