En Garde!

En Garde! is a pure single-player action game built around one idea: swordfighting should feel like a comedy of errors, not a recital. Fireplace Games, what appears to be a small outfit, set out to make a game about a quick-tongued duelist named Adalia de Volador who outsmarts enemies rather than overpowers them. The result is something that punches well above its budget in personality, even if it occasionally shows the seams of a small team working at the edges of their reach. The combat system is the whole show, and it earns its spotlight. Adalia cannot simply tank hits or grind out a health advantage. Instead, the game nudges you toward using the environment, knocking over barrels, pulling rugs from under guards, using nearby props as impromptu weapons, and building a kind of slapstick rhythm that rewards creativity over raw reflexes. Parrying and ripostes form the backbone of direct duels, but the real satisfaction comes from chaining environmental interactions into a crowd-control flow that makes you feel like you choreographed a stage fight rather than won a button duel. There are no deep skill trees or loadout screens to worry about. What you see is what you get, and that focus keeps everything tight. The aesthetic is vivid and deliberate, rendered in a colorful, slightly cartoonish style that lands somewhere between a swashbuckler pulp novel cover and a Saturday morning adventure cartoon. Levels are compact arenas dressed as a Spanish-inspired coastal city, and while the world is not open or particularly expansive, it has enough visual warmth and incidental detail that you want to poke at every corner. The music follows suit: lively, period-flavored, and energetic without becoming fatiguing over a short session. Fireplace Games clearly understood that tone and presentation need to stay consistent across every pixel and every note, and they did not let that slip. Where En Garde! runs into honest criticism is in its scope and longevity. The campaign is short, a committed player can see credits in four to six hours, and the enemy variety, while charming, is limited. If you come in expecting the mechanical depth of a Sekiro or even a mid-tier action RPG, you will hit the ceiling fast. The final act escalates well enough that the ending feels earned, but some players will wish the developers had a larger canvas to paint on. The game knows when to end, which I respect deeply, but it also leaves you wanting a sequel before the loading screen fades. For whom does En Garde! make sense? Anyone who appreciates a game that commits fully to a single, well-executed idea. Anyone who enjoys action titles where humor is embedded in the mechanics rather than just the cutscenes. Players who loved the swashbuckling fantasy of games like Nidhogg 2 or the environmental puzzle-combat of Sifu will find something warm here. It is not a long game, and it is not trying to be. It is a short, cheerful, mechanically honest thing made by people who clearly loved making it, and that care is visible in almost every fight.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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