En Garde!

8//10

Ein kurzes, aber auch recht schwieriges Actionspiel. Bei den Schwertkämpfen braucht man viel Geschick, Timing und eine gute Reaktionszeit, also eigentlich überhaupt nicht mein Spiel (:D). Wer es deutlich leichter mag, der sollte sich mal das Spiel "Zorro The Chronicles" anschauen. Die beiden Spiele sind sich doch recht ähnlich von der Art her.

Good game! But not enough yuri fan art of Adalia and Zaida, that make me sad... :'(

It's games like this that make wish Steam had a mixed or "it depends" rating as the game itself I'd say is **FINE**, I guess. En Garde left me craving a little more, but not because the game is short, which I wouldn't count as a negative, honestly. Practically every aspect of the game feels shallow, for a lack of better words from the combat to the story to the characters themselves. Before I go into my gripes of the game, I will state the game feels fairly polished as I didn't run into any major problems. I only encountered one crash (idk know why, but it was in post game so I didn't mind much). The game is also GORGEOUS, how the world looks just strikes me personally and I never didn't enjoy looking at the scenery. *COMBAT* This, I think, is the weakest part of the game and what I most have issue with it. First off, the main gimmick of this game is to utilize the enviroment to your advantage against groups of enemies. I love this idea, but I feel as though its execution here comes off as much more of an afterthought rather the main premise of the game. Your three main ways of directly interacting with enemies is: Attacking, Parrying, Dodgeing, and Kicking (pushing enemies). You can't just wail on enemies as they'll often cover each other's opening with unparry-able attacks which is where the core of this game's combat is based on. The idea is to split or incapacitate enemies to make groups more manageable. This is great on paper, but falls short here. Combat often involves engaging with enemies until they start outnumbering you so you can't find an opening to attack then finding an intractable environment piece to use to create your opening. This makes combat feel choppy as it forces you to disengage from combat when things inevitably get hectic to basically find the environment peice that basically acts as in-game lower difficulty button. I don't think I would have as much of an issue with this gameplay flow if either the game focused more on fluid movement for repositioning or provided more options to reposition enemies in where you need them to be, but the games simply doesn't offer the tools to engage with the main gimmick in a way that feels rewarding. Directly attacking is pretty basic with not much room for expression, which I find rather strange for a game of this nature. There are super moves you unlock through out the game, however you can't really combo into them and they're a hard stop when used, which I feel slows down the pace of the game to a detriment. Offensively speaking, this game has the elements of a good action game based on the environment, but none of the main combat mechanics work alongside eachother which creates a technically functioning, but fractured combat system that just isn't fun to engage with. Ironically, I had the most fun in combat when I just ignored the environment set pieces and just tried to widdle down groups of enemies while also taking down stragglers from the horde of enemies. This only gives so much as the enemy varity is practically non-existent ranging from the same enemy with more health to the same enemy , but now you HAVE to use the environment or you literally can't do damage, and this pattern extends to the bosses as well. Since the game is short, enemies don't feel like they get exhausted so I never got tired of seeing any one enemy, but combat never really feels like it changes. *STORY/CHARACTER* ---- Spoiler Warning ---- Both the story and characters feel like they're lacking in some actual personality and seems to be there just to fill an archetype or a role. Now do note that the main appeal of this game ISN'T its story, but I feel like it's flatness just emphasize my entire opinion of the game. The story (and by extension, the game as a whole) is setup in episodes with four episodes in total, with episode one acting as the games tutorial. You play as Adalia to go foil the antagonist Count-Duke and his corrupted regime, and help the people who are affected by his rule. Alongside side (sometimes) you to aid is your brother Alejandro and your (maybe) love interest, Zaida. The story itself stays lighthearted throughout its runtime and never really takes itself seriously. However, it's difficult to care about anything that happens as no clear reason why anyone feels the way they do or the actions they take. Adalia is the good hearted hero that wants to help people, but you NEVER see any of the citizens of the city or how they're affected by Count-Duke in the game. Since you never see the result of her or Count-Duke actions on the people, their motives feel like they're there because they have to be. This makes Adalia less compelling to me as a protagonist because she's the hero not because of any values or beliefs she holds, but because the story needs one to function. With Zaida, the main love interest, you get very little time besides a bit of flirting, and reminiscing of the past by each character with no context provided and it never being mentioned again. Count-Duke himself is just the obligatory ♥♥♥♥ of the game that you're suppose to hate, but he never provides any motive for what he does. I think the Alejandro is the only one given some motive for his recklessness because of his admiration and somewhat envy of his sister's ability. All the character's relationships and actions are just there. No-one develops in any meaningful way and they aren't entertaining enough to 'just be as is' to result in any compelling character. I think the worst part about the story and characters is that there are absolutely interesting themes the game could explore for a more interesting story. Like Adalia's and Alejandro's relationship, maybe explore Alejandro's lighthearted jealousy of his sister and have Count-Duke exploit that to have him turn on his sister for a level. Explore Adalia's and Zaida's conflicting sense of Justice and how that could strain their relationship and how they could pull through. In the game Zaida betrays you and leaves to get captured, the emotion of being betrayed by someone you look up to is absolutely worth exploring.---These are just some ideas I came up with on the spot and exploring some of these wouldn't completely erase the comedic undertone of the game, but make the characters and world more memorable as a whole and add some much needed tension. There's a enemy called the duelist that reoccurs in later levels, that has a little rivalry with Adalia and I genuinely it's the most character dynamic in the whole game. ---- END OF SPOILERS ---- *FINAL THOUGHT* If you're looking for a pretty looking game with some simple action, occasionally fun dialog, and a straightforward lighthearted narrative that you can blow through in an afternoon, this game is a really solid choice. If you're craving something that has more depth to it with either a combat system with more complexity or characters with compelling narratives and/or relationships with a greater message, I really suggest you lower your expectations or find something else. By no means do I think the game is bad despite all my complaing, I just think there's something here that could be interesting and has some good potential, but the game doesn't try to push itself narratively or take any risk from a gameplay perspective. I came in expecting some fun combat that emphasized the use of the environment and quick thinking to defeat your oppents, but I mostly got a simplified version of SIFU that was overall a less interesting experience. TLDR; An okay game that looks good, but has a subpar story and characters with a simple combat system that falters in using it's main gimmick.

This game has bright, colorful graphics, and some funny commentary by the NPCs and enemies. And the gameplay was decent enough, but the combat became monotonous and tedious. Thankfully, the devs included an invincibility mode, and auto-parry feature for the game. Otherwise, the gameplay/combat would've become tedious and a slog to endure. The game length didn't overstay its welcome either, which was nice, because the story was all over the place, and nothing felt satisfying about it. Also, on a less popular note, I didn't like that the main character is a lesbian. On top of that, the relationship was barely mentioned until the last episode, and was barely more than a crush that felt tacked on. It was unnecessary and a turn-off to me. That's all. The game was visually decent, and the conversations among the enemies were funny. But the rest of the game was just meh.

Un momento, si este juego se inspira en las pelis de <<el zorro>> eso convirte a la protagonista en...

It's a nice little game with a smooth combat mechanic, and some collectibles for you to find throughout the levels if you want to scratch that completionist itch. Sadly, towards the end, the difficulty suddenly spikes so hard that it is almost game breaking for me. It gets very frustrating and I really want to play through the whole thing, but everytime I open it now and try it for a bit, I usually close it again after a few trys. So yes, I will give this game a thumbs up, but if you want to play it, you need a high frustration tolerance after chapter 3.

Honestly, a short experience but a fun one. The mechanics were frustrating sometimes, but very satisfying when you pulled it off. The chaos with the environment was super fun, the story was OK (cartoony feel of stopping the villain's evil plans, and acknowledging this) and in the end, I was sad it was over when it was over. Cool fun game!

a fun and loveable short game. very beautiful art direction, fun soundtrack and some funny little jokes were also included. was pretty impressed by the combat but unfortunately the level design is pretty linear especially when there are a couple of branching paths so i would expect something in between the levels definitely would recommend to players who dont mind an easier sekiro-like type of combat with more environmental interactions yet more vibrant themed game. overall i enjoyed the game and petting the chicken and some chicken cameo is definitely a plus :)