Card-based reverse tower-defense fantasy roguelite with an old-school pixel art style. That sure checks a lot of indie game boxes.
Fortunately, just about every element of Loop Hero is a best-case-scenario:
Card-Based:
If there’s anything I’m uncontrollably repulsed by, it’s card games. Fortunately this barely qualifies, with your “deck” and “cards” acting as stand-ins for tiles on the map, which are constantly getting replenished as you kill enemies. I know that obviously card games use cards to represent other things, but in this case it’s closer to picking a loadout of units in an RTS. Pro game design tip: if you’re going to use cards, make it easy for the Conman to forget that’s what’s going on.
Reverse Tower Defense:
Tower defense games were my jam back when I was 12, and Loop Hero puts a spin on that concept by making you the one marching automatically through the stage. Your job is to place enemy camps along the simple track, allowing the hero to get stronger with more gear and xp. Even divorced from every other element, it’s a proven, simple gameplay loop that’s highly addicting and satisfying.
Fantasy:
The story and setting of loop hero is a contrivance necessitated by the roguelite structure, but there is a central mystery and several characters… which I didn’t care about on almost any level. You could drop it entirely and if anything it would make repeating the boss encounters a few seconds quicker. The fantasy elements do make sense, and even if I wasn’t invested in the plot they at least tried to tell a semi-unique story.
Roguelite:
The procedurally generated aspect of roguelite games can be used as a crutch for producing theoretically ‘infinite’ content. As with all games, they need something to keep the player interested, and Loop Hero actually excels in this area. Not using any outside reading material, there’s a sense of discovery as you mix-and-match units to generate new combinations. The upgrade tree and hub town are mostly just supplemental to the player’s skill and strategy as well as your engagement with the mechanics. I didn’t have too much trouble with grinding for materials, although I also found the gameplay perhaps a little too easy. I found some pretty optimal setups and ran with them, making me feel like an unkillable god by the end. There are worse things than being too easy, like being boring, and this crap is hella addicting even on an easy run. I’ll probably never touch it again but I got everything I wanted out of it from that perspective.
Old-school pixel art style:
Presentationally Loop Hero is pitch-perfect. The limited color palette and crunchy sound design sets it apart from many other pixel indie games, and puts it right up my alley (especially with the included CRT filter). It legitimately gives the game the outward appearance of an early PC game, without the technological gameplay limitations thereof.
Loop Hero. Pretty good indie game. I liked it.
Fortunately, just about every element of Loop Hero is a best-case-scenario:
Card-Based:
If there’s anything I’m uncontrollably repulsed by, it’s card games. Fortunately this barely qualifies, with your “deck” and “cards” acting as stand-ins for tiles on the map, which are constantly getting replenished as you kill enemies. I know that obviously card games use cards to represent other things, but in this case it’s closer to picking a loadout of units in an RTS. Pro game design tip: if you’re going to use cards, make it easy for the Conman to forget that’s what’s going on.
Reverse Tower Defense:
Tower defense games were my jam back when I was 12, and Loop Hero puts a spin on that concept by making you the one marching automatically through the stage. Your job is to place enemy camps along the simple track, allowing the hero to get stronger with more gear and xp. Even divorced from every other element, it’s a proven, simple gameplay loop that’s highly addicting and satisfying.
Fantasy:
The story and setting of loop hero is a contrivance necessitated by the roguelite structure, but there is a central mystery and several characters… which I didn’t care about on almost any level. You could drop it entirely and if anything it would make repeating the boss encounters a few seconds quicker. The fantasy elements do make sense, and even if I wasn’t invested in the plot they at least tried to tell a semi-unique story.
Roguelite:
The procedurally generated aspect of roguelite games can be used as a crutch for producing theoretically ‘infinite’ content. As with all games, they need something to keep the player interested, and Loop Hero actually excels in this area. Not using any outside reading material, there’s a sense of discovery as you mix-and-match units to generate new combinations. The upgrade tree and hub town are mostly just supplemental to the player’s skill and strategy as well as your engagement with the mechanics. I didn’t have too much trouble with grinding for materials, although I also found the gameplay perhaps a little too easy. I found some pretty optimal setups and ran with them, making me feel like an unkillable god by the end. There are worse things than being too easy, like being boring, and this crap is hella addicting even on an easy run. I’ll probably never touch it again but I got everything I wanted out of it from that perspective.
Old-school pixel art style:
Presentationally Loop Hero is pitch-perfect. The limited color palette and crunchy sound design sets it apart from many other pixel indie games, and puts it right up my alley (especially with the included CRT filter). It legitimately gives the game the outward appearance of an early PC game, without the technological gameplay limitations thereof.
Loop Hero. Pretty good indie game. I liked it.