I ran out of fortune in Fortunes of Battle and loved every second of it
I'm not entirely sure if it's because I haven't played timer-less adventures on mobile recently, or because life just seems to have spiralled out of control since 2026 started, but I've been craving a lot of alone time even more than usual for the past few months. Perhaps that's why Grabby Crab's gotten a proper hold on me thanks to its premium puzzles where I can happily take my time - and I suppose the same appeal is what's keeping me hooked on Fortunes of Battle despite running out of fortune again and again.
As you might expect from a roguelike, this dungeon-crawler is meant to have you start a run, perish, then try again. It's simple and effective, and it doesn't really need to reinvent the wheel where gameplay is concerned - and that's precisely why I love it so much. All you have to do is pick your hero (melee swordsman or ranged mage as a beginner), roll the dice, and let the numbers you come up with determine the cards/moves you can use per turn.
The turn-based nature - much like we talked about in the Pocket Gamer Podcast - keeps everything low-key and incredibly relaxing, because there's nothing breathing down your neck as you strategise the best move to make. You are, after all, seemingly playing cards with an unknown entity in the dark - and since he's got skeletons for hands, I doubt he's in a hurry to get anywhere else.
There's no hand-holding here either, because once you die, you die. Coins you earned can be used to upgrade stuff to help make you stronger on your next run, but the difficulty remains the same, as per usual when it comes to the genre. There's also that just-one-more-run itch that it scratches so well, along with that sinking feeling that, when you lose, you immediately think to yourself that you could've done better if you'd only done this and that - which is where the compelling replayability comes in.
And it's absolutely perfect for what I'm craving in my mobile adventures lately, as it's getting rarer and rarer for games to have this kind of deeply strategic and take-your-time flair. Perhaps Fortunes of Battle just happened to come at precisely the right time for me, but running out of luck here doesn't feel frustrating at all. On the contrary, running out of fortune just means I get to start over and try again, which is exactly what I've been doing all weekend.
And, given how it's gotten me fully and happily absorbed into its cold dungeons for two days now with no plans of ever coming out anytime soon, perhaps the real fortunes of battle aren't the shiny coins I get from my skeleton-handed friend in the dark. Perhaps the real fortune is the time it's given me to feed my introvert self in a world that's been too loud lately - and that's more precious than any kind of dungeon loot.
