Spellpowder: Uprising

Spellpowder is something of a lazy Saturday afternoon strategy. It's not very difficult, deep or surprising, but is thoroughly pleasant. Nice graphics and music with simple fantasy / steampunk story offer simply enjoyable time. All usual ingredients, like party of distinct characters, upgradable base, different classes, fiddling with equipement etc. are here in modest quantity that won't overload your brain, but give you enough to have around ten, fifteen hours of fun. Where Spellpowder lacks is level design. Bar occasional refreshing twist, most of the missions feel unfortunately samey. More creativity was invested into the story and recruits, of which everyone has interesting little backstory and connected subquest - unlocked of course after bulding up relationship with your character in battles. In summary, there isn't anything extra special here, it's just... quite solid, competent little game. But it oozes warm earnestness in a way I simply love and can't resist - and that's what makes it worthy for me in the end.
P. S. If you want to discover other less known gems, you're welcome to visit my curator page: Nods for Underdogs.

TL;DR - If you enjoy turn-based strategy games, this game is well worth your time. Even if you're new to the genre, you'll find plenty to enjoy. The combat and strategy is fairly straightforward and there are lots of characters and classes to choose from.
After sinking in around 30h and several play-through runs, I'm happy to say this is an overall well crafted game.
The good:
Story - For the game of it's size it has a really well written story and takes effort to build each characters background. I very much appreciate this, because it helps expand the game world and for me personally helps, when choosing my party. Every character has their reason to be part of the adventuring party and it's great to know the "why"s.
Character customization - Think it was a great choice to introduce a branching character class tree. This give flexibility and and reason to replay the game several times, exploring what kind of wacky builds could work. It also opens up more freedom when forming your party.
Sound - Big thumbs up for having voiced lines for characters. Gives so much soul for games. Overall the music and voice-lines make for pleasant playing experience.
The mid:
Items - Items feel fairly generic. Not a bad thing, but the difference between most of them is pure dmg stats, making it feel less important on the grand scale of things. Would have loved to either see some abilities on weapons or separate upgrades for dmg and accuracy.
Combat - Generally the combat is fine and great for first time turn-based players. The skills bring a nice flair as well, made each battle more fun. But, it also feels a bit lackluster. I would have appreciated either terrain stat changes or different dmg from different angles. My biggest complain about combat thou is no option to revert your movement action - I've misclicked so many times ;(
The not so great:
Not much, honestly. If I had to pinpoint things that I did not enjoy. Crit feels unfair for both sides and enables a bit too much one-shot actions. And those few stages where enemies appear from random doors and back-stab you unaware xD

Just finished the game and I thought it was pretty fun overall. I agree that it does feel a little bare bones, but that's kind of a positive for me because I personally don't like overly complicated game play. The characters have unique voices and I thought their stories added some depth, to the point that you are interested or develop some care towards them. I managed to unlock all of their A devotion ranks because of this, to learn more about them and for the achievements and final weapons. Getting their final weapons was also kind of a game changer in the final battle because I had almost everyone hitting crits on all enemies, so I'd definitely recommend getting them.
My one major gripe would have the be that characters' stat growths, and devotion ranks and their bonuses, are only viewable while in combat. It would be a QoL change to have this information viewable in the airship HUB to allow missions to be planned better, imo.
Other than that, the game is pretty good!

Solid combat based on range, counters and damage types.
Character evolution is class-based with branching at some points, providing unique active skills.
Relationship between the main character and the story characters also bring light buffs to the tactical table.
The story is simple and doesn't get in the way thanks to short dialogues between missions.
Crafting boils down to higher stats.

Spellpowerder: Uprising is a smaller scale turn-based tactical strategy RPG in the same vein as Fire Emblem. It does quite a few things differently and introduces a smaller cast with a class tree system. It was a fun experience throughout and the character customization at the start of the game was a nice touch to make every playthrough a little different. Good fun!

Talk about punching above your weight. This game is incredible, Don't sleep on this gem,

A simple but neat little game. I wish there was more of it. My compliments to the devs, hopefully they'll make another game in this setting, but with more details.