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The Switch has a surprising amount of the Middle Ages on it once you start looking. There's Skyrim, of course, which still sells on a console it was never designed for. But there's also a mercenary company that has to pay wages every morning, a king whose castle only works while he's looking at it, a rat knight at war with the frogs and a Renaissance painting cut out of cardboard where half the puzzles can be solved with a sword. Some of these games stick close to the history books, others only borrow the castles and add dragons.
To build the list we took the games that Steam tags as Medieval on PC, found their Switch versions on Gocdkeys and kept the ones with offers in stock this morning. We left out a handful that carry the tag without having much medieval about them, and two that fit perfectly but already have their own place on the blog: Pentiment and Dice Legacy, which you'll find near the end. Sixteen games remain. The Steam reviews quoted below and in the table are for the PC version, because the Nintendo eShop doesn't publish user ratings.
Only three of the sixteen come with an eShop code
This morning just three games had an eShop code in stock, and only one at a price that makes sense. The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 has a European code at Cdkeys.com for €8.39 (no fees). Skyrim's only code is for the US eShop, so it will only redeem on a Nintendo account set to the United States, and it costs €47.64 with coupon Gocdkeys10 (€52.29 with fees) at Eneba. Tails of Iron's European codes at Gameboost cost €139.05 with coupon GCDK13 (€145.29 with fees), which is obviously not a real price for a game of its size. For the other thirteen we only found accounts, almost always from Key4Games or Difmark.
- eShop code: you redeem it on your own Nintendo account and the game stays there. Check the region first; a European code works on an account from Spain, France, Germany or the UK. Here's our guide to redeeming eShop codes.
- Account: the seller gives you the login of a Nintendo account that already owns the game. You add it to your Switch and download from there, but the game is never on your own account, and if the seller takes the account back, it's gone. This is how to set one up.
We don't track the Nintendo eShop's own prices, so they're not here, but buying there also puts the game on your account and it's worth checking before you settle for an account. Where there's a code at a sensible price, that's what we'd buy. Every offer comes with two figures: the shop's price with the coupon, and then what you actually pay once the payment fee is added.
Long role-playing games: Skyrim, Wartales and Final Fantasy Tactics
Skyrim needs no introduction, but the Switch version is worth a couple of notes. It includes the three expansions, Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn, and in handheld mode it holds up better than you'd expect; the loading screens are where you notice the hardware. If you have a Zelda amiibo lying around, it unlocks the Master Sword, the Hylian Shield and the Champion's Tunic. The cheapest offer is Difmark's account at €16.37 with coupon Gocdkeys (€17.11 with fees), with Key4Games just behind at €16.56 with GOCDKEYS15 (€17.56 with fees). The US code mentioned above costs three times as much, and at the end of June it was down to €20.93, without fees. If you want Skyrim on your own account, set a price alert and wait for that kind of drop; the page also lists every offer if you'd rather buy Skyrim key or account today.
Wartales has no chosen one and no prophecy. You lead a band of mercenaries across a land emptied by plague, take whatever work turns up, from escorting a cart to hunting bandits, and pay wages and food every day whether money comes in or not. Fights are turn-based on a grid, wounds carry over and losing a veteran you've levelled for ten hours really hurts. It's by Shiro Games, the studio behind Northgard, and a campaign lasts dozens of hours. On Steam the PC version stands at 85% positive out of 32,466 reviews. The only offer is a Key4Games account at €25.28 with GOCDKEYS15 (€26.67 with fees), and we've only been tracking it for 24 days.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles brings back one of the best tactical RPGs ever made. The story of Ramza and Delita plays out during the War of the Lions, a succession war full of nobles, churchmen and betrayals that owes more to the Wars of the Roses than to crystals and airships. You get two versions: Enhanced, fully voiced and with a lot of small fixes, and Classic, closer to the original. The job system is still the heart of it, and a first playthrough goes well past forty hours. Key4Games' account costs €23.83 with GOCDKEYS15 (€25.16 with fees), 28% below what this account usually costs. If you'd rather have the cartridge, Media Markt Spain has it for €54.99 (no fees).
Strategy and sieges: Thronebreaker, Ancestors Legacy, Crown Wars and Besiege
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is a Witcher story without Geralt. You play Meve, queen of Lyria and Rivia, trying to take her kingdom back from Nilfgaard, and the battles are fought with Gwent cards, each one a puzzle with its own rules. It's more of an RPG than it looks: you decide what to do with deserters, prisoners and starving villages, and those choices come back to you. Count on around thirty hours. There's no code; Difmark's account costs €12.59 with coupon Gocdkeys (€13.16 with fees). About three years ago it fell to €6.10, without fees, so this is one to put an alert on.
Ancestors Legacy is real-time strategy based on squads rather than base building, closer to Company of Heroes than to Age of Empires. You win by flanking, hiding archers in the woods or burning the enemy's village while his army is elsewhere. The campaigns follow Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Germans and Slavs. An RTS on a controller takes some getting used to, though here you only command a handful of units at a time. 80% of its 5,812 Steam reviews are positive. Difmark's account costs €23.51 with Gocdkeys (€24.57 with fees). It has dropped as low as €9.99, without fees, so there's no rush.
Crown Wars: The Black Prince takes the Hundred Years' War and adds a sect of occultists. You lead a French noble house through turn-based battles in the style of XCOM, and between missions you upgrade your castle and recruit. It's the least polished game here, and its Steam reviews are Mixed, 60% positive out of 561, so we'd only pick it if you specifically want tactics in this setting. Key4Games' account costs €16.11 with GOCDKEYS15 (€17.09 with fees).
Besiege has no story and no characters, just wooden blocks, wheels, cannons, catapults and physics. Each level asks you to flatten a castle, a windmill or an army, and how you do it is up to you; most of the time your first machine falls apart a metre from the start line. On PC it's one of the best-rated games on this list, Overwhelmingly Positive with 95% of 48,179 reviews. Building with a controller is slower than with a mouse, it's true. Key4Games' account costs €10.83 with GOCDKEYS15 (€11.57 with fees).
Running a kingdom: Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall and The King is Watching
Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall continues the original's idea. Every day a queue of petitioners reaches the throne asking for gold, soldiers or a favour, there's never enough for everyone, and your own family's problems pile up on top. It's a game of decisions and their consequences rather than battles, with a hand-drawn look and a lot of reading. It's also the most expensive on the list: Key4Games' account costs €28.89 with GOCDKEYS15 (€30.45 with fees), and 76% of its 1,520 Steam reviews are positive.
The King is Watching is built around one idea: buildings only work while the king is looking at them. Your castle is a 5x5 grid, and you only have enough attention for a few squares at a time, so every turn you choose between farms, workshops and barracks while waves of enemies approach. Each run is short and you unlock things between them. It's from Hypnohead, a Serbian studio, and it has 88% positive reviews out of 9,238 on Steam. Difmark's account costs €10.07 with coupon Gocdkeys (€10.52 with fees).
Swords and platforms: Kingsgrave, Tails of Iron, Shovel Knight and Castle Crashers
Kingsgrave starts with a king rising from his grave to find his realm wiped out by a plague. It plays like a top-down Zelda with a touch of metroidvania: areas you can't reach until you get the right tool, monsters in every corner, and villages you rebuild as you bring your subjects back. It's small and cheap: Difmark's account costs €7.55 with Gocdkeys (€7.89 with fees), and 81% of its 532 Steam reviews are positive.
Tails of Iron is the cutest-looking game here and one of the toughest. You play Redgi, heir to the rat throne, against an army of frogs, in 2D combat where you have to read each attack and block, dodge or parry. Doug Cockle, the voice of Geralt, narrates the whole thing. The account is the realistic option: €16.79 with Gocdkeys (€17.55 with fees) at Difmark. The sequel, Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter, takes the war north into the snow with a new hero and a bigger map. It has 79% positive reviews out of 1,924 on Steam, and Key4Games' account costs €14.44 with GOCDKEYS15 (€15.34 with fees), 28% below its launch price.
Shovel Knight Treasure Trove is five games in one: the original Shovel of Hope plus the Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment and King of Cards campaigns, each with its own character and way of moving, and the Showdown fighting mode. It's an 8-bit-style platformer with real knights, kings and sorcerers, and the best value on the list for hours per euro. Difmark's account costs €11.16 with Gocdkeys (€11.66 with fees).
Castle Crashers is for playing with friends. Up to four knights on the same sofa, a princess to rescue, hand-drawn bosses and a ridiculous sense of humour. Alone it's a decent beat 'em up; with three other people it's one of the best in the genre. Its PC version is the best-reviewed game on this list, with 96% positive out of 110,123. The offer is a Remastered account at G2A for €8.70 with no coupon (€8.99 with fees), the lowest we've seen in 1,025 days of tracking; it usually costs around €13.99, without fees.
Medieval humour: The Procession to Calvary and The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
The Procession to Calvary is a point-and-click adventure made from pieces of real Renaissance paintings, with a sense of humour straight out of Monty Python. The holy war is over, and your heroine, who misses it, sets off to kill the tyrant Heavenly Peter. You can solve the puzzles the classic way or, in many cases, simply by stabbing whoever's in the way. It lasts a few hours and it's very funny. Key4Games' account costs €7.22 with GOCDKEYS15 (€7.80 with fees).
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2, from the German studio KING Art, is a fantasy parody with an elf princess, a gnome wizard, an adventurer who doesn't want any adventures and a little creature called Critter. It takes the mickey out of Tolkien, Harry Potter and half the genre, and it's a long adventure with a lot of dialogue. It's the only game here where the code is the obvious choice: €8.39 (no fees) at Cdkeys.com, European region, although it's been cheaper on most days we've tracked. Key4Games' account costs €5.77 with GOCDKEYS15 (€6.28 with fees), but for €2.11 more the game is yours to keep. These are the offers to buy The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 key for Switch:
Two more would fit perfectly here. Pentiment, Obsidian's murder mystery in a 16th-century Bavarian abbey, has an account from €8.04 with coupon OCTGOC10 (€9.03 with fees) at Kinguin, and we cover it in our list of detective games for Switch. Dice Legacy, a medieval settlement where villagers are dice, is in our guide to city builders on Switch.
All sixteen at this morning's prices
The code column shows this morning's price with the fee included; the account column updates on its own with the cheapest offer. A dash means there was no code in stock.
| Game | Steam reviews (PC version) | eShop code this morning, with fees | Cheapest account now, with fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | no data | €52.29, US eShop only | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Wartales | Very Positive, 85% (32,466) | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles | Very Positive, 89% (5,837) | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales | no data | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Ancestors Legacy | Very Positive, 80% (5,812) | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Crown Wars: The Black Prince | Mixed, 60% (561) | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Besiege | Overwhelmingly Positive, 95% (48,179) | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall | Mostly Positive, 76% (1,520) | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| The King is Watching | Very Positive, 88% (9,238) | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Kingsgrave | Very Positive, 81% (532) | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Tails of Iron | no data | €145.29, Europe | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter | Mostly Positive, 79% (1,924) | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Shovel Knight Treasure Trove | no data | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| Castle Crashers | Overwhelmingly Positive, 96% (110,123) | — | € |
| The Procession to Calvary | no data | — | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
| The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 | no data | €8.39 (no fees), Europe | € (with coupon GOCDKEYS15) |
If you only buy one, make it Final Fantasy Tactics if you like tactics, or Wartales if you'd rather wander and fight without a script. For couch co-op, Castle Crashers at its lowest price. For short sessions on the bus, The King is Watching or Kingsgrave. And if you want a code on your own account, The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is the only one at a reasonable price today; for the rest, a price alert on the page will let you know when one turns up.
Playing on another console? We have the same list for PS5 and for Xbox.
Prices checked on the morning of 25 October.
Buying guides and price comparisons written alongside live prices from the stores verified by GOCDKEYS.
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