Since last visiting Loop Hero in preview, I can safely say there aren’t any major updates to their addictive strategy game other than the obvious extra end game content. Thank god, as this is one game that I originally enjoyed for the unique plot points for the characters and the indifferent, amnesiac main character who stole the show with some pretty funny lines and charm.

The world is put into a perilous situation and we have one amnesiac soldier, as our saviour, having to fight against the Dark Liche who has destroyed time and life as we know it! Loop Hero is a dark, fantasy, strategy RPG game developed by Four Quarters and to me, it is quite unique in its gameplay.

Joining the game you enter a loop, this loop is called the ‘expedition’ while you’re not inside your campsite. During an expedition or adventuring, you have two stages, planning and adventure. During planning mode you can place the cards you collect from killing slimes or any other type of mobs that spawned due to your card placement, however, you cannot attack or be attacked during planning mode due to it essentially pausing the game.

When you enter Adventure Mode you can wander around the designated loop and kill the mobs spawning depending on the tiles. With certain tiles, you must collect loot and materials for your campsite which is slowly inhabited by more players, and when you build more areas within your campsite.

The gameplay controls and map haven’t updated too much since the preview and are still really simplistic with switching between your combat mode and build mode, allowing for quick pit stops and going on with the game again. There are no real controls to learn, just reading the cards, the armour stats, and clicking wherever you need for whatever you need to equip; very easy to get used to but lacks some combative flair.

The gameplay is something that I can play while doing multiple things at the same time since during Adventure Mode I can trust my player to not die, and the style of the game makes it much more entertaining to watch as you progress since its unique points stem from its genre. I quickly became so obsessed with the game and found myself going back and forth through the camp collecting cards to build up my HP and recovery, and then fighting a variety of mobs. On top of the planning ahead I discovered more and more about the storyline, and its twists and turns even though most of it is the general shenanigans of saving the world.

I standby the beautifully unique art style of the up-close view of each character. It’s such beautiful art and detailing for a low interactive game that I could play for hours while multi-tasking simple tasks like writing notes for this review while staring at all the intertwined designs. Its sound effects still slightly eat at your sanity the more you play as it’s highly repetitive as it is any other game however its high-pitched noises are just more insanity-inducing. The music will irritate you, even more, when you die and lose all your materials, tilting into rage quit territory. This can be balanced out by the also simple but awesome pixelated 32- bit-like artwork that is a theme throughout.

The storyline itself can be bleak for the most part however it definitely has unique story points to it in the fantasy style. When it explained that the Vampires used to co-exist with the people and they’re more like farmers I was intrigued since that’s not the status quo for vampires in fantasy settings but it fits with the story they’re going for well. This goes for all monsters, however, Harpies are treated with sadness as they can’t feed their kin and many more mob-like characters are treated with pity as the character spirals in fighting evil with another evil, killing those who just want to survive.

I personally don’t find many faults with the game, it’s the genre it’s meant to be. It’s easy to learn and it gets intense very quickly, and I can run the game in the background even while writing this review. I still recommend this game to anyone who wants a low effort game with really unique lore points. With its beautiful art style to add to it, it’s a super enjoyable and addicting game all around. I hope you all enjoy this little gem just as much as I do.

Written by: Jordy Lowe