Review anarchistica 2/5 · Jun 1, 2026
-
Playtime: 1,5 hours
-
Played: 2026
-
Context: I think "roguelike" is almost always an excuse for lazy design, but i saw some praise for this.
Review
Backpack Hero is very roguelike - it's a turn-based dungeon crawler. Each run you start with a basic sword, shield and food for absolutely no good reason. You fight enemies, loot stuff, do random encounters. …
-
Playtime: 1,5 hours
-
Played: 2026
-
Context: I think "roguelike" is almost always an excuse for lazy design, but i saw some praise for this.
Review
Backpack Hero is very roguelike - it's a turn-based dungeon crawler. Each run you start with a basic sword, shield and food for absolutely no good reason. You fight enemies, loot stuff, do random encounters. Then you sell everything because re-using items is illegal or something. Twist #1 is you use the resources to build up a village. Based on the area given and various requirements it seems like it would take dozens of hours.
The other 'twist' is inventory tetris. Some items get bonuses/penalties based on proximity to other items or their location in your inventory. This is neat at first, then you start a second run and your items are gone. So build-crafting is completely dependent on getting the right items from the ~25 items you get on a run. There are also no skills or classes or whatever to spice this up initially. You can unlock other heroes but i don't know when that happens, and frankly the combat is so incredibly basic (90% is just attack/block) it's just not worth the time to find out.
