Overlooting - First Impressions

About two weeks ago, on the first days of January 2026, I started playing Overlooting by Posing Possums. The developer calls the game a inventory management roguelite and if you are familiar with these terms, that pretty much says it all.

Gameplay

The gameplay is pretty straight forward. You control a single character that has to fight thru a series of areas grouped into 3 regions. In most areas you will face 1-3 enemies. Combat is turn-based and while there are 2 damage types - physical and magic - there is only one way to directly attack. A few potions exists, these can be used “out of turn” and most of them apply status effects, but one does direct damage to an enemy. Using potions does not count as an attack, meaning it does not trigger “when attacked” effects like Thorns or counterattack (de)buffs.

Once all enemies in an area are defeated, the player is presented with 3 items and can choose to pick up one of them. Inventory is limited to the worn items helmet, chestpiece, boots, ring, necklace and 2 hand-wielded items (weapons or shields) as well as 16 backpack slots. Equipped items can only be taken of between entering an area and the first attack, so there is no mid-combat switching to a different weapon. Items from the backpack can be discarded at any time, but equipped items can not.

Items come in different rarities from common to mythic and in 3 qualities represented by stars in the item description. 2 instances of an item with the same quality can be combined into the same item with the next higher quality. Items also belong to a set and there are bonuses for wearing 2/4/6 or 3/5 items of the same set, making the decision to replace an equipped item with a better one from a different set very hard at times.

I am sure there plenty of twitch streams and YouTube videos for this game, but if you need a starting point, you can take a look at my YouTube channel

Visual Style

I don’t know how many colors are actually used or if the game uses actual sprites, but the look and feel of the game reminds me of late 8-bit or early 16-bit (J)RPGs - think of the combat Final Fantasy III or IV and you have a pretty good first idea.

Roguelike or Roguelite?

The developer has a few posts on Reddit, using roguelite in one and roguelike in another. There are changes that persist between runs, so in my opinion this makes Overlooting a roguelite. If you expect some giant meta progression however, you might be disappointed. There are 2 characters that need to be unlocked thru meta progression and a few difficulty levels. In addition to that, there are skills and new item sets that unlock over time. I consider both of these mixed blessings, as they dilute the loot pool, making later runs more RNG-dependent.

Conclusion

So far I am enjoying Overlooting. It’s not the most complex roguelite out there and some people claim to have beaten it in under 15 hours, but it is fun and - more important for me - it is very casual-friendly, both in terms of game mechanics that one has to learn and in terms of supporting a playstyle with frequent interruptions and long periods of being AFK. This makes it a great choice to play during short breaks from work, while cooking or doing household chores and of course if you have children that may or may not need your immediate attention at any moment.