Round Toast’s debut lets you wear dead champions and climb a reshuffling tower. The combat idea is sound. The build around it is not finished.
Round Toast Studios developed and published Mortal Rite. The Dallas indie team put it on Steam Early Access on November 7, 2024 at $14.99, with a planned year or two of extra characters, bosses, and polish. I reviewed the PC build from a code provided by Pressengine. You play solo or in a party of up to five. Steam’s sample at review time was Mixed.
Wear the Body, Climb the Tower
You carry a Godstone dagger and step into resurrected champions. Each body has a fighting style and two stances you can mix with swapped abilities and items. Launch day offered a handful of those champions: a shield tank who works in stone, faster blades, a starter kit, not a full roster. The king at the top of the tower is the destination. Story sits in coffins, ruined churches, and a hub called Alden’s Refuge. There is no long cutscene campaign.
The tower is a run. You pay blood or gold to enter a chamber. Layouts lock once you are inside and reshuffle when you go back to the hub. Strongholds hold tougher bodies and objectives. A grappling hook handles the vertical rooms. Die and you leave gear on a stain, the usual genre tax. Coffins are the wardrobe and the continue point.
How a Fight Plays
Combat is light, heavy, and charge attacks with a dodge and an air swing. Stay in the scrap and you build focus. Break posture and you get a Mortal Strike. Mash and you die tired. Stand still and you die polite. The useful path is the middle: space, a deflect if your champion has one, and a stance swap when the room changes.
That loop is why the Kickstarter crowd showed up. It is also early. Swings can feel a half-beat late. Animations stiffen. Frame drops show up when a room gets busy. Co-op adds enemies as the party grows, which is the right idea and a good way to crash a session when the netcode wobbles. PvP exists in the refuge arena. It is a side dish.
Five hours can see a first clear if you pick a tanky body and learn the dummy in the hub. That is a complete loop on paper. It is not a 1.0 product. Round Toast said so. Mixed reviews said so louder.
Who This $15 Is For
Buy it if you want a small-studio souls-roguelite you can play with four friends and you are willing to live on patches. Skip it if you wanted Elden Ring’s map, Hades’ run polish, or a game that does not hitch on a spawn. The Discord is active. The roadmap is vague. Both of those facts should sit next to the price.
Final Thoughts
Mortal Rite is for a party that already likes stamina fights and will laugh when a coffin is the shop. It is not for anyone who needs a finished tower, reliable netcode, or a story that explains the king. The dagger-and-stance idea works. Early Access is doing the rest of the work. 8.0 / Great.
Good
- Stance-and-champion swaps that change a room
- Co-op from the first minute, up to five
- A hub and tower loop you can finish in an evening
- Grappling hook that makes vertical chambers usable
- $15 Early Access that will rise after 1.0
Bad
- Mixed Steam reception and visible bugs
- Stiff timing on swings
- Frame drops and the odd crash
- A thin story told by coffins
- A roadmap that still reads like a wish list
We prepared this review with a digital copy of Mortal Rite for the PC version provided by Pressengine.
