En Garde!
- August 16, 2023
- Fireplace Games
- 5h median play time
En Garde! flares brightly with its slick, slapstick combat, for a while at least.
Get on SteamFrom the forgotten pages of history, comes Adalia de Volador! Legendary swashbuckler. Dashing adventurer. Hero of the people. Play as Adalia in her daring escapades full of sword-fighting, satire and shenanigans. Challenge the cruel Count-Duke and oppose tyranny with panache! Beautifully painted locations, charismatic characters, and an astounding amount of battle banter will transport you t…
PC
Steam Deck
Windows
Game Brain Reviews
En Garde! - Tactical sword mastery with style
En Garde is a tactical action fencing game where you play Adalia de Volador and defend her family's honor. The game is set in the 17th century with Spanish flair. The graphic is warm and comicy.
The game certainly doesn't want to be taken too seriously. The character, dialogs, graphics, music, and puns really drive home that En Garde! is a fun game for everyone.
What is serious about this game is the fighting mechanics. These are just top notch. Fighting is mostly fencing but Adalia keeps learning new tricks, can jump over tables, throw barrels, use the environment, parry and so on.
New mechanics are introduced at a good pace so you are constantly in between mastering current mechanics and figuring out how to best use the new ones.
And you better learn how to fight properly! Not only is it super fun to stun your enemies, let them get shot by cannons, push them into water, let chandeliers fall on them, or just plain out-fence them, but you also need to fight well to progress. Bosses are no joke and you need your skills - unless you are a fan of souls-like games and think Sekiro is a piece of cake.
The game is best played with a gamepad which makes it a fun game for the couch!
The backstory behind En Garde is also quite interesting. The game was the final year project of eight French game design students who used Unreal Engine 4 to create a prototype (the final game uses Unreal Engine 5 which shows).
The students decided to build the game on three pillars: "Sword Mastery", "Improvisation", and "Panache". Sword mastery is clear, you need to know how to use your sword. Improvisation is about interacting skillfully with the environment. Every fight should feel new and different locations offer other ways of using the environment. The last pillar "Panache" is all about style and pride. The fights should feel like spectacles, not boring chores. And this I think makes the game really stand out. Of course, you can often just blast through levels beating the enemies with more or less basic sword fighting but the fun really comes out once you taunt your enemies (Adalia will always have a nice line on her lips), jump over tables, and make a mess of the room you're fighting in.
I'm a fan of souls-like games. I have finished Sekiro and Elden Ring and I must say that En Garde! is a great game for fans of these games. It's nowhere as as FromSoftware's games but it's a fun, light-hearted game that offers a good challenge and a lot of fun.
- awesome fighting mechanics
- fun environments to use in fights
- light hearted setting
- I wish the story would have been more interesting
Reviews
- Charming and colorful art style with a whimsical tone.
- Engaging combat system that encourages creative use of the environment.
- Humorous dialogue and character interactions that enhance the overall experience.
- Very short campaign, taking only about 4 hours to complete.
- Difficulty spikes in later levels can feel frustrating and unfair.
- Camera and targeting issues can hinder combat, especially in crowded encounters.
- story991 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 69 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The story of "En Garde!" is lighthearted and comedic, often compared to a Saturday morning cartoon, featuring a simple hero vs. villain plot with charming characters and humorous dialogue. However, it is notably short, typically taking around 3 to 4 hours to complete, which has left some players wanting more depth and content. Despite its brevity, the engaging gameplay and the addition of an arena mode provide replayability and enjoyment beyond the main story.
“The beautifully painted locations and witty dialogue feel like you're in a classic adventure story.”
“The story is lighthearted and funny with memorable characters and lots of spoken dialogue (if I remember right every piece of dialogue is voice acted which is nice to see!).”
“The story is simple, clean, wholesome, family-friendly fun, with hilarious guard quips and the ever-appreciated Asterix-style joke of defeated enemies hushing each other silent as you leave the room, post-battle.”
“The story is very short and simple.”
“There is no story really and characters are as transparent, bland, shallow, and personality lacking, as a bucket of water.”
“The main story is fairly short, at just three-four hours, but like, there's an arena mode, a lot of extra challenges and the game's €20, there's aaa games that costs thrice as much and are barely longer than that.”
- gameplay945 mentions
- 42 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "En Garde!" is characterized by its charming visuals and engaging combat mechanics that blend simplicity with depth, allowing players to utilize environmental interactions creatively. While the game offers a fun and light-hearted experience with a focus on parrying and dodging, it suffers from limited content, with only a few enemy types and levels, leading to a repetitive experience for some players. Despite its short length, the game provides a satisfying challenge, especially on higher difficulties, and features an arena mode that enhances replayability.
“The gameplay is really fun (after setting it to hard) and I had a blast thinking strategically and using the environment.”
“The combat mechanics are simple but really rewarding and fun; I especially adore all the different environmental interactions that become available in due time.”
“The gameplay is the prime hook of this game: battles are intense and exciting and take place in interactable arenas that add another layer of strategy to battles.”
“As others have pointed out, the game has charming visuals and voice acting, and solid if simplistic core gameplay mechanics, but there's just not enough content to justify the price tag - only 6 enemy types and 4 levels (including the tutorial one) can be completed in a few hours with not much replay value.”
“Eventually I ran out of obstacles to stun them with, and the game basically forces you into a situation its entire gameplay has been against: fighting multiple opponents at once.”
“The game sells itself as having quick and snappy combat that heavily relies on parry mechanics; unfortunately, it completely fails in this regard.”
- humor651 mentions
- 99 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 1 % negative mentions
The humor in "En Garde!" is widely praised for its lighthearted, whimsical tone and clever dialogue, often drawing comparisons to classic swashbuckling tales and animated features like "Puss in Boots." Players appreciate the game's ability to blend comedic elements seamlessly with engaging combat, featuring funny quips from characters and defeated enemies that enhance the overall experience. While some find the humor juvenile or hit-or-miss, the majority agree that it adds significant charm and enjoyment to the gameplay.
“The characters are adorable and well-voiced, the henchmen are downright hilarious at times, the art is appealingly stylized... I don't know what to tell you, it's just fun.”
“The way the enemies talk to you is incredibly funny, the way every aspect of the game is explained with children's story logic is freaking adorable, as is the voice acting that I think carries the game.”
“The dialogue is fantastic too, very quippy in a good way and legitimately hilarious at times, tying itself to the gameplay with unscripted and dynamic banter during combat, allowing for unpredictable and clever interactions that adapt to your decisions.”
“Oh, and the writing is gratingly unfunny.”
“Jokes are... not funny.”
- graphics497 mentions
- 55 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 1 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their charming, colorful, and cartoonish art style, which effectively captures a whimsical and lighthearted atmosphere. Many reviewers highlight the vibrant visuals and attention to detail, likening them to animated fairy tales or comic books, while also noting that the game runs smoothly even on lower settings. However, some criticism arises regarding the simplicity of the graphics and occasional performance issues, suggesting that while visually appealing, the game may not push the boundaries of modern graphical fidelity.
“The setting and voice acting are great fun, and the visuals are more beautiful than a game this size has any right to be.”
“The art style and all the locations and environments are beautiful.”
“The graphics and sounds lend it a fantastic, storybook/cartoon atmosphere, which adds to the improvisation style of combat that this game revolves around.”
“I had to reduce the graphics to keep it from lagging, but when the graphics are set on low it just looks like an old TV show - it fit well with the overall aesthetic.”
“While very beautiful and charming, this is a game that is relying heavily on art style over fidelity.”
“The graphics are somewhat charming and very stylized, which is great, but it also looks dated.”
- music323 mentions
- 56 % positive mentions
- 42 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its vibrant and fitting soundtrack, which enhances the overall experience and captures the essence of a Spanish swashbuckling adventure. Reviewers highlight the catchy and well-composed tracks, particularly the flamenco guitar elements, as integral to the game's charm and atmosphere. While some mention occasional repetitiveness, the overall consensus is that the music significantly contributes to the game's engaging and lighthearted tone.
“One of the standout features for me was the music—both the background and the combat tracks are really well done and help enhance the overall experience.”
“The music sets the perfect tone for each scene, evoking a sense of tension or triumph as the story unfolds.”
“The soundtrack is fantastic.”
“The music can quickly become repetitive, although it is well composed.”
“One especially annoying one was when the music would just go mute for no reason, which sucks cause the music rules and is integral to the game's experience in my opinion.”
“That is, if you can hear it, because the default sound mixing in the game is pretty bad and requires you to modify sound volumes quite drastically in order to have voice lines being audible and not drowned by music and sound effects.”
- replayability144 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The game offers a high level of replayability despite its short campaign, primarily through an engaging arena mode and various challenges that encourage exploration and mastery of combat mechanics. While the main story can be completed quickly, players can return to tackle different difficulties, hunt for collectibles, and enjoy randomized combat scenarios in the arena. Overall, the combination of solid gameplay and additional content provides enough incentive for players to revisit the game multiple times.
“After completing the story, there’s an arena mode that adds replay value and lets you enjoy more of the combat mechanics.”
“A tight action adventure game with a beautiful art direction, short but very replayable story mode, a challenging and expansive arena mode and a soundtrack that just makes you wanna swing on a rope while slashing your sword in both directions violently.”
“The arena mode is a fun re-playable version of the game to enjoy after you beat the short but polished stories and I played on default difficulty which was challenging but fair - for the most part!”
“As others have pointed out, the game has charming visuals and voice acting, and solid if simplistic core gameplay mechanics, but there's just not enough content to justify the price tag - only 6 enemy types and 4 levels (including the tutorial one) can be completed in a few hours with not much replay value.”
“The normal levels are playable, although the 'story' is quite short with four chapters, but the arenas and additional achievements are sadly just zero fun.”
“Overall... the gameplay is missing a lot, and the length of the main story is short, and with such a bland experience, you don't even have a lot of replayability here, either.”
- optimization57 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 49 % neutral mentions
- 18 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is notably inconsistent, with players experiencing frequent frame drops and performance issues on the Steam Deck, struggling to maintain a steady frame rate even on lower settings. While some users report smooth performance on higher-end systems, others highlight poorly optimized levels and minor stuttering, indicating that the overall optimization could benefit from further refinement. Despite these issues, the game's vibrant graphics and engaging combat are praised, suggesting that it has potential if optimization is improved.
“The performance is fantastic; I've tried the game both on my laptop (with a mobile 2060), which ran highest settings 1080p with no stutters.”
“The combat feels similar to Sifu, and the optimization and world design are buttery smooth.”
“I completed the game on hard difficulty, and the overall performance is great running on high settings 1440p with a 3070 laptop. My FPS ranged from 65-75 on DX-12 mode, and I noticed that there were no dips or stutters during my entire gameplay.”
“On top of it, playing on the Steam Deck, the performance is all over the place; there's frequent frame drops, and the game struggles to keep a steady 45 fps on medium settings.”
“Not unplayable, but badly optimized.”
“However, the performance is not great; I've seen much better looking games perform significantly better.”
- atmosphere48 mentions
- 52 % positive mentions
- 42 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is consistently praised for its charming, whimsical, and light-hearted tone, enhanced by vibrant graphics, engaging sound design, and humorous dialogue. Players appreciate the storybook/cartoon aesthetic, which complements the improvisational combat style, while the music and environmental design further immerse them in a romanticized early 17th-century Spanish setting. Overall, the combination of art, sound, and character interactions creates a captivating and entertaining experience.
“The art and the general relaxing atmosphere is breathtaking.”
“Music and art style of the game work in merry harmony to deliver an uplifting and swashbuckling-primed atmosphere.”
“The atmosphere is very light-hearted and every character is whacky and entertaining.”
“The atmosphere is very light-hearted and every character is wacky and entertaining.”
“Graphics are very stylized and also do a very neat trick to both save processing power and add to the atmosphere - at distance everything turns into watercolor (I think that's how this type of paint is called).”
“Manages to keep up its tongue-in-cheek atmosphere, thanks in part to the constant quips and banter between enemies and our main character, which also include dynamic hints (like a guard saying 'oh no, she’s moving towards the chandelier!').”
- emotional39 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is widely praised for its wholesome and heartwarming experience, evoking nostalgia and a sense of childhood joy through its charming visuals, engaging swordplay, and lighthearted storytelling. While some critiques mention the simplicity of the combat and lack of character depth, the overall emotional impact is described as delightful and fun, making it a family-friendly title that resonates with players seeking a cheerful adventure.
“It was just a really wholesome experience.”
“A very wholesome and nostalgic game that truly makes you feel like one of those swift swashbucklers having epic swordfights with the bad guys.”
“The art style, music, and episodic stories are heartwarming.”
- grinding33 mentions
- 12 % positive mentions
- 9 % neutral mentions
- 79 % negative mentions
Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, particularly during combat and duel fights, which can feel repetitive and unfun. While the initial hours are enjoyable, the lack of loot drops, skills to unlock, and the simplicity of the combat mechanics contribute to a sense of monotony as the game progresses. Some players appreciate the alternative arena mode for a more relaxed experience, but the general consensus is that the game can become a grind, especially in later levels.
“Combat is fun, group fights are not tedious because you can do a bunch of wacky stuff to kite and crowd control.”
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“No loot drops, no grinding, no skills to unlock (super moves are unlocked simply by completing levels).”
“It's a fight of attrition and it's just so unfun and tedious.”
“Overall, the first couple of hours were great fun, but the game is beginning to feel a little tedious, like I'm playing just to complete it and not for fun.”
“I enjoyed the game up to the last fight, which I found incredibly tedious.”
- character development23 mentions
- 39 % positive mentions
- 48 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is a mixed bag; while some players appreciate the beautiful character designs, animations, and engaging plot twists that foster investment in the characters' fates, others criticize the lack of meaningful development and a linear, bland story. Overall, the game excels in visual and auditory presentation but falls short in delivering a compelling narrative and character growth.
“The plot twists and character development kept me guessing, and I found myself deeply invested in the fates of the characters.”
“More characters, more character development, more story, more environmental interactions, more story, and more gameplay options.”
“The art style is really solid, the character designs are great, and the animations are perfect.”
“There's really no side-content, the game is extremely linear, and the story is bland, has no character development, and bounces around all over the place.”
“There's no meaningful character development whatsoever.”
“The music, voice acting, artwork, animations, character design and comical AI is where this game shines, but that will only get a repetitive game lacking of content, story and playtime so far.”
- stability18 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is generally praised, with most players reporting smooth performance and excellent controller support. While some users encountered minor glitches and bugs, particularly with auto-targeting and specific mechanics like pole vaulting, these issues were not frequent enough to detract significantly from the overall experience. Many reviewers noted that, given the game's price and the size of the development team, the stability is more than satisfactory.
“The game runs great, and controller support is excellent, allowing players to switch between PS and Xbox prompts.”
“It is an Unreal Engine 5 game, and while it doesn't take advantage of all the new features in the engine, it looks and runs great.”
“For starters, the game looks and runs great.”
“Not to mention, some of these newly released titles are released in a buggy and sometimes unplayable state.”
“The auto targeting is a bit buggy and the game in general could be cleaner and smoother, but for the price and the size of the team, it is more than good enough.”
“Pole vaulting (I think that's what it's called) can be a bit buggy sometimes; it didn't happen too often though.”
- monetization4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy in the game involves ads that provide players with ammo, which some users find acceptable, especially in the context of boss battles. However, the reliance on ads, particularly during the final boss encounter, has led to disappointment as it feels like a standard enemy fight surrounded by numerous elite ads.
“The ads give you ammo in Remnant 1, so it was understandable.”
“In part because, same as the other bosses, it's disappointingly just a regular enemy with ads around it, and since it's the final boss, it's a million elite ads.”
