Of Ash and Steel

A cartographer’s fight for survival

Most game developers try to play it safe with their debut game with something simple, something small in scale, and something safe; but that wasn’t the case with developer, Fire and Frost. They decided to take a giant leap and make a Euro-jank RPG called Of Ash and Steel. This is a game inspired by the likes of Gothic and Witcher 3, with a good balance between crafting, combat, and exploration, on the rough island that is Greyshaft.

In this low fantasy adventure, we follow the story of Tristan, a cartographer sent to help guide a ship through Greyshat’s reefs. Tristan is a very optimistic person with an upbeat personality, allowing him to navigate the waters of conversation, at least based on your choices. That is, until he makes it to Greyshaft, where things take a drastic turn, which forces him to learn how to survive in this new land, whether he is ready for the task or not. 

The lands of Greyshaft are beautiful yet full of dangers, especially for a cartographer like Tristan, who has rarely held a sword in his life, let alone anything outside of a map. Thankfully, for him, there are a few folk who help him learn the ropes, and later on, others who can teach him new tricks to even the odds. All of them help shape the world, and help show both sides of the coin that is Greyshaft.

As you talk to these folks, some will have tasks for you, which will help strengthen you for the journey ahead. Some of them can be completed in different ways, from having the right stat in a conversation to finding a hidden entrance to a building you need to enter. It is up to you how you complete them and what path you wish to take. Of Ash and Steel provides a remarkable amount of flexibility in how you go about your objective, whether it is words, a sword, or a choice you likely haven't thought of yet. 

As you progress through your journey and learn to stand on your own two feet, you will find a gripping story that keeps you guessing about what will happen next. Each step brings a new twist that keeps you intrigued, wondering what will happen next to our unlikely hero. The path through the story is one you will have to find yourself.

Like most old RPG’s, they will not hold your hand and mark where you need to go; heck, they don’t even give you a map to follow at the start, for quite some time, actually. The most you get at the start is a description of where to go, and it is on you to find the right path. But that is not all bad, as you are not constrained and have the freedom to explore the map without a constant reminder of where you need to go. If you are the type of gamer to complain about the excessive amount of “yellow paint” in games, Of Ash and Steel will certainly test your opinion if guided direction is something you actually want. 

Yes, this may make it to where you may get lost from time to time, but you may find some interesting points on the map worth exploring. The world is filled with destroyed buildings, buried treasure, and catacombs waiting to be found. These hold valuable treasures and trinkets that can help you along the way or permanently improve your capabilities. 

However, the game does still give you enough information to get you where you need to go, and that is the city of Greyshaft. Here, you find out you are stuck on the island until the blight is over, and that you will need friends in high places to help. At this point, you will need to join one of the two major factions of the game, the Order of the One or the Free Hunters. You can only join one, so this adds replayability to Ash and Steel, as you’ll need to fire up a new campaign to see the other side of the story. 

After joining one of the two factions, navigation starts to get easier to a degree, as you’ll get reacquainted with something a cartographer will need: their tools of the trade. These tools will help you to draw a map of Greyshaft, allowing you to get a better lay of the land, as long as you can get a good spot high up to draw.

As some of these spots do have enemies, you will have to engage in combat to be able to get to them. Combat is a bit tricky at the start because you aren’t a fighter; you are a cartographer. You have to be careful not to run out of stamina, or you may find yourself on the receiving end of a devastating attack. But as you progress and learn, these problems surface less often, and you build up some combat skill.

And there is more than combat that you can learn skills in; you also have survival and crafting, and you can spend points in. Each set can help you both in and out of combat, giving you new ways to thrive in this new land. But you will only get so far on your own, and soon need to find someone to help train you in your desired path.

Skills can only be unlocked by people who know the skill. Want to learn to make your own blades? Find a blacksmith who can teach you how. But, as the old saying goes, nothing is given for free. You also need to have the right amount of gold to pay your teacher for the lesson. Luckily, learning some skills can be quite profitable.

Once you have a good understanding of, say, being a blacksmith, you can make and sell your own blades to make money, but that can take time to learn and do. Some other skills you can learn to make money with are pelting and lockpicking. Lockpicking grants a lot more for those with a finely tuned ear, as you need to listen closely to open what you want. But learning pelting is good as it makes the wildlife you have to kill on a regular basis a bit more profitable. And as you trek out in search of your fortune, this allows you to travel and see the beauty that is Greyshaft.

The visuals this world has are great and help build the medieval aspect of the world. From a dirt path in the middle of a forest to the city streets, each environment is designed with great care. With audio that perfectly matches the environment you are in, no matter if it is the woods or the center of the town. While you can certainly see the purse strings on the budget, it nonetheless provides a pretty engaging series of environments to either do battle in or explore. 

The game’s surprisingly great audio also transfers well to the dialogue and ambient conversations in the world. The voice lines add more charm to the world and help make it feel less static, even when the NPCs are ripping on how you dress. The same goes for character dialogue, as each character has a unique voice, giving more depth to each one. We’ve come a long way from the likes of a dozen people seemingly voicing everyone in Skyrim. 

Though there is a lot of good to the experience now, that was not how it started, as least for my playthrough during and after the review period. At the start of playing this game for review, I ran into a lot of bugs and issues. Some were minor, like people glitching in the ground or repeating dialogue, and some were much worse. I had times when I could not load my save without crashing or even loading them at all. Which made it quite hard to keep playing and enjoy.

This could be because the game was a bit more than the devs could chew, but that is not the case now. The team at Fire and Frost has worked hard to fix the issues I have mentioned, and most of them are fixed at this point. To me, this shows the devs want people to enjoy their game, and are not scared of major challenges that are present in modern game development.

Even with all the bugs, I still found myself having a great time in Of Ash and Steel. The story kept me asking what would happen next, even when I had to redo an entire section all over again due to some technical blemish. In its current state, it is a lot more playable, and a lot of the issues have been fixed, which allowed me to push on and really take what this game was offering. With engaging combat, crafting, and the ability to turn this simple cartographer into a worthy soldier, Of Ash and Steel became an adventure worth taking on. If you like Euro-jank style RPG’s this one is definitely for you.

Developer - Fire and Frost. Publisher - tinyBuild. Released - November 24th, 2025. Available On - PC. Rated - (M) No available descriptors. Platform Reviewed - Steam (PC). Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.