Driven Out

It's the successor to [b]A Bastard's Tale[/b], and it's exactly what you can expect if you know that game already: slow-paced battles where you have to learn how an enemy initiates a certain attack, so as to parry it and counter-attack. It's very rewarding but also very punishing. Even a device obtained at the very beginning, which works as a portable checkpoint, must be placed carefully, lest it be destroyed along with any chance of resurrecting from a failure. It's also amazing to look at. Seriously, when mentioning examples of great pixel art from games of the last decade, one would hardly think of [b]Driven Out[/b], and yet it deserves all the praise, even more as there is a notable variety of enemies for such a short game (it seems longer only because it kicks the player's ass all the time), like giant beetles, a goat turned into a monster, monkeys of various sizes, and a few surprises at the end. Not many will be able to enjoy it in full but I can't deny the "craftsmanship" poured into it. So unfortunate they've gone from this to [b]Hammer of Virtue[/b], which looks like the developers were replaced by their evil twins.