Endhall

Works well from a gameplay perspective, even though the replay value is low once you have completed the game the first time. It hits the satisfying notes that fans of the turn-based genre have grown to enjoy. Some abilities are far more useful than others but there is still an element of strategic choice when selecting them at the beginning of each round.

The overall atmosphere, graphics, (limited) story, and sound design are really well put together, leading me to grow surprisingly attached to what is essentially a very bare-bones protagonist.

Overall it feels as though you are playing a demo for what could be a very solid game concept if it were expanded to a full-price title. As it stands, it is well worth the few bucks on its own.

I completed the game in less than an hour. I was going to thumbs down on account of this until I realised that is actually short enough that you could refund it after completion if you were hard up and so inclined, so I guess it was paradoxically so short that it was OK again.

In terms of game play, it's a super light "Into the Breach". Not a huge winner, in my opinion, but it's not exactly terrible, either. Pick it up if you need a way to kill an hour, but don't spend your last dollars looking for your next significant experience because this will not deliver that.

Short, fun game that's a bit reminiscent of Into the Breach. For the price, it's a good experience with just enough abilities and strategy to make it worth it. Would love to see an expanded form of this game.

pretty fun, well put together and also short, but it doesnt have a lot of replay value (especially for a roguelike)
perfect if you just want to play a good game for an hour and complete it in the same sitting! ^^
(which is something i personally appreciate a lot!)

(also the music is very nice and immersive!)

Very fun game. Pretty easy to learn and incredibly addicting, played for about an hour and a half. Some of the levels are a bit too random / unfair, but still quite a good game for the price.

Refreshing puzzle game with interesting mechanics. It's short, but also very re-playable, I keep coming back to it to play through all the levels yet one more time.
Good job, HeartBeast!

quite good but severely lacking in content : a bit like "hoplite" which is good but not enough skills, enemys or boss to have real replay value. Another problem I have is that skill work very well independently so there is no "build" : I think it would be possible to win while selecting randomly the skill in each level.
so yeah : a bit underwhelming even for the small price and that's too bad because the core of the game was fun

I honestly had a fantastic time with this game. While it's true that you can beat the game in anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, I think that's fine; for a 3 dollar experience, it scratched every itch, explored its concepts very smoothly, and was just overall a very interesting little game. I liked it a lot, and I think that it was more than worth the money I put in to have such a smooth and well-designed experience.

Fun little strategy game for folks who like games like Into the Breach.

It's short, but at only $3, its well worth the experience; I still revisit it from time to time.

i really enjoyed the look and feel of this bite-sized strategy roguelike! the pixel art is very appealing, and i really love the music-- which has heavy Disasterpeace vibes, but still feels very original! the turn-based strategy kept me engaged the whole way through. my only complains are that some of the UI elements and game mechanics were a little opaque, and the game is very very short. however, those are both forgivable for such a small price tag. the final boss was a good challenge, but beating it just made me want more. i would love to see the game expanded on at some point!

Great little game. Would be cool to add a level editor. It's short, but it's only 3 bucks. Just buy it.

Giving this a somewhat hesitant thumbs up; at present a fun little game, but more importantly I hope it's successful so the creator puts time into plenty of further content (upgrades, new enemies/weapons/levels) that this game is begging for, and would make it phenomenal

It's weird to say a $3 game is overpriced, and this game is has a good feel and is fun to play, but there are exactly 8 levels, all of them the same rough size as the ones shown above. It takes less than half an hour to beat the game, which is a shame because all it would need to be quite good is more levels/content or a public level creator.

Endhall delivers a coffee-break tactical brainteaser for less than what you would pay for the coffee itself. Roguelike genre veterans may find Endhall a little too easy -- I beat the game on my second and third attempts -- but casual puzzle gamers will find a good introduction to the joys of procedurally-generated gauntlets here. Fans of Hoplite and Into the Breach will find another byte-sized nugget of what they love.

The clean graphics and retro-synth soundtrack convinced me to play through one more time after that first victory, but there's not enough variety in the learned abilities to keep me coming back for many more runs down the hall. But I do hope to see more from this developer, whether in the form of expansions for Endhall or in other games down the line.

Do you wish more demos charged you money to play them? If so, this is the game for you! This isn't a full game, this is a paid demo.

It is very well designed while it lasts, but it's very simple and has no replayability. Once you've played it once, you've seen every enemy, ability, and idea. When I first beat the boss and the credits rolled, I said out loud "are you fucking serious?" It's a shame, because it's a very good start. If the developer actually finished the game, I would highly recommend this. As it stands, this is more like a tease than anything resembling a playable game.

Endhall's description - a 'byte-sized roguelike' - encompasses exactly what this game is.

It easily serves as a stepping stone for those unfamiliar with the genre, whilst still being enjoyable for those who are well-versed in it. The learning curve is not steep, but the game does a fine job of making you reflect on what you could have done better. It took me about 40 or so minutes to beat the game, which is completely fair given the price. A run consists of beating 9 stages, and a successful run could end up being about 15 or so minutes.

The gameplay is straightforward, yet rewarding. The satisfaction that comes with playing a turn 'perfectly' is unbeatable, but there is always room for improvement. I often found myself pondering at the end of my turn what I could have done better, irrespective of how well the run was going so far. This kind of engagement is always a joy to encounter as the game is encouraging the player to actually want to improve.

There is no time limit on turns, or the run as a whole. Instead the game uses a dual-resource based system; Energy (life points) and CPU. Energy is capped at 8, but a successful enemy kill rewards you with one Energy cell for your efforts. You are also docked a single Energy cell at the end of your turn, forcing you to think ahead. Can you afford to intentionally destroy a nearby bomb, taking damage but also killing an enemy in the process, while still being mindful of the single Energy cell you will lose when your turn ends? This kind of thinking is what makes Endhall deeper than it may appear at first glance.
Beneath your Energy are CPU chips. You only have 4 that you can use each turn, with all the abilities costing varying amounts of CPU. This is where the game forces you to plan out your Actions. Many of the abilities have quirks to them, such as knocking back the enemy or stunning them for a turn. As such, you've got to be on your toes and think each turn through. Using your Actions in the wrong order, or moving to a certain tile, could result in a sticky situation for the next turn, or end the run altogether.

At the beginning of each run, you start with 4 Actions. Move, Melee, Control and Leap. After completing a stage, you are given the choice of choosing between 3 random Actions. Some of these can be duplicates, which allows you to use them more than once per turn. At the time of writing this, I believe there are 17 total Actions in Endhall (including the 4 you begin with).
The majority of these Actions use CPU as a resource, though some use Energy instead. This is a nice little touch as it adds a whole new twist to how to approach each turn. On top of that, many actions also inflict status ailments. Stuns will put an enemy out of action for a single turn, burns will result in them taking damage at the end of their turn, and frost will slow enemies movement.

There do not seem to be any unlockable Actions, nor any new mechanics added to runs after completing the game. I feel as though this is a missed opportunity given the genre, and it does impact the replayability factor. As it stands, replaying the game is fun and optimizing runs is as challenging as it is rewarding. However, without any added incentives to replay the game, such as the aforementioned unlockables and new mechanics, consecutive runs lose their charm after having beaten the game a handful of times.

Graphically, Endhall is a throwback to the retro 16-bit era. They're simple, but effective, and set the tone for the game's premise. I'm an absolute sucker for this kind of graphical style, and I can shamelessly admit that it was the screenshots that piqued my interest for Endhall.
That being said, the game itself seems to be somewhat devoid of animations. Outside of Actions, the only animations I can think of are explosions and turret surges. Character and enemy movement is limited to sprites sliding into place and colliding with one another when attacking. Is this a problem, and does it affect the game? No, it does not. It has its own charm in a way, but some additional animations for enemy attacks and unique movement wouldn't hurt.

The soundtrack for the game, composed by the developers brother, is pretty good. It's not intrusive, and - importantly - not too repetitive. Given the length of the average run, it's vital that the music doesn't grate on the player. There does not seem to be a lot of tracks, but they all do a good job of being both a pleasure to listen to while not being too distracting. As expected, the soundtrack fits with the 16-bit graphical style. It doesn't feature any live instrumentation, or anything too jarring that would interfere with the theme. The music suits the game for what it is, and I found myself humming some of the main melodies even while not playing.


To sum up, Endhall is a fantastic entry into roguelikes. The game describes itself as being high difficulty and having a lot of depth, but I believe that might be a little bit of an overstatement. The difficulty curve is not too steep, which is perfect for a roguelike of this scope - but! I found that after about 25 to 30 minutes (which was about 3 or 4 failed runs), that I understood the game and what was expected of me. The only difficulty thereafter came from the occasional unlucky stage and a handful of misplayed turns.

As for depth, Endhall can be played in a variety of ways, and there is a lot of fun, and challenge, in trying to optimize runs. That being said, the level of depth can seem a little shallow after an hour or so of playing - especially after having beaten it a few times.

It is, without a doubt, worth the money. So far, I've put about 2-3 hours into it and I can see myself playing it for another few hours in at the very least. However, without any new content or optimizations, Endhall will struggle to leave a lasting impression on many players. I would recommend the game to kill anywhere between a half-hour and hour every now and again, but it will likely not be a game you think of in about a few months time - in it's current state, at least.

Cute little rogue-like. Works nice, graphics are nice, mechanics are easy to get into. Looks like there's 10 levels. You have limited CPU (action points, replenishes on the next turn) and battery (health, can randomly get a boost after destroying an enemy). At first you have only four basic moves, but then after each finished level you can chose one additional move that unlocks permanently... for that run. It ranges from special attacks to setting landmines or swapping places with enemies and such. Really adds depth to your strategy in the latter levels. I've managed to reach level 7 before I died for the 5th time. But the game doesn't give you a feeling of being defeated, it sets you up for another try... and another...

---

Disclaimer: I respect the author very much and have been following his online lessons before. Also I think he's a great human being and have been eager to try the game since I heard about it a month ago on Twitter... but I don't believe it affected my "positive rating" that much, as the game really is well made and is not expensive at all.

I might be the oddball to not recommend this game, the overall game has some neat mechanics that allows different styles of play( I often went for the stun kick, as those 6hp bots were nasty) and it took me 4runs to finish the game.

Now with this being a rogue-like, it really bare bones currently which is the main reason why I wouldn't recommend the game, it's a good start but lacks depth and content for the game( There a turn order within the game [ Green{Player}, Yellow{???}, Red{Endhall mobs} ] but never introduces the yellow colour within the turn-base cycle). I'm hoping to see more content added, maybe different zones, new mob types that don't get affect by element attacks or ones that changes up the gameplay and forces the player to change up it playstyle to counter act it, or more null towards those element attacks, different map types; which connects to zones. This idea can be expanded aheck ton and I hope the dev keeps with it

But with the game is now I would not recommend it due to the lack of content for the gametype and price choice for the amount of content in the game. Unless you wanted to support the dev for the endless hours he used to create tutorials for different game-engines(Gamemaker and now godot which the game is made in) and the help in those communitys

Ending text

I hope you expand the idea Heartbeast, it's a neat concept. I just can't recommend it with the lack of content the game has currently.

A fun little game definitely worth my $5!

I've been a huge fan of the developer for years now, and when he announced this game I could hardly wait to see what it was like! The gameplay loop is challenging yet rewarding to the point that it makes you feel good when you chain together some moves and attacks that clear the board, the music is soothing, catchy and reminiscent of FTL, and the art is really cute.

The game presents you with an option of three abilities after each level, but there aren't so many that you won't have a chance to try them all even throughout a single run of the game. At the end of each turn, you take 1 damage, but you gain health back with each enemy you destroy, which creates a great balance between hurrying to clear the board and being patient enough to lay traps for your enemies, but the playing fields are all so different that you may not have any opportunity to do so depending on what the map looks like.

Unfortunately, the game is rather short and has very little variety. I think there's really a lot of potential here for more abilities, enemies and environmental hazards, but as the game is I would still highly recommend it (especially for $5)!

Endhall is a positional puzzle game with some roguelike elements. It has turn-based gameplay, permadeath and new abilities that you can gain after each level, but you should not confuse it with an actual RPG. It was a fun experience while it lasted, but it only took me about 1 hour to beat it. I would say that difficulty is fair, even though you might die a few times until you learn all of the enemy abilities. The game provides the description for enemies and shows their movement range, so I can only blame myself for not reading it. After each level, you can choose one of three power-ups as you would in any generic roguelike. I like the design behind the active skills because some of them have a "risk vs reward" aspect, but as you can imagine there are not many of them.

The levels are randomly generated, but they do not have a lot of visual variety, and there are only a couple of enemy types. However, I was really enjoying its aesthetic, including a pretty decent soundtrack. After several stages, you get to fight a relatively easy boss. I was assuming that Endhall would have 2 more locations, maybe with higher difficulty, but unfortunately, it only has one world. It's probably not that hard to change the aesthetic and add a few more worlds to the game (since they already have the mechanics down), so I definitely want to see more content in order to justify $5. In terms of user interface, you can use "1-2-3" as a shortcut for abilities, but it would be nice if it had more controls for the mouse, that way I can use one hand to play without manually selecting abilities in the corner.

Pros:

Cons: