HeroSquare

A true indie development gem! This game is simply stunning, a genuine aesthetic pleasure for the eyes and soul! The colorful metroidvania world that looks like a 1980s arcade game creates an incredible atmosphere of nostalgia while remaining fresh and original. The gameplay is built around parrying mechanics and reflecting enemy bullets, making every battle dynamic and refined to perfection. The game truly presents a challenge — you'll face tough bosses determined to stop your progress, but it never leads to frustration. There's always a way forward, especially if you look around! The balance here is perfectly tuned. (Though honestly, I still hate the final boss and those damn sword-wielding squares because of how many times they killed me:D But that only adds to the excitement!) The original soundtrack with mesmerizing FM synthesis and melodic chiptune motifs immerses you in the atmosphere from the first seconds. As you progress, you'll unlock new abilities and upgrades, which constantly refreshes the gameplay. And you know what's most surprising? Despite the minimalist retro graphics, I never once got lost in this maze of locations! This rarely happens in metroidvanias — usually I wander through the same rooms for hours, not understanding where to go next. But the HeroSquare developers masterfully designed the level layout and visual cues, so even with pixel graphics, navigation remains intuitively clear. This is a real achievement! An absolute must-play for all fans of metroidvanias and retro aesthetics!

Ignore my play time. There’s a lot more game here, I didn’t play it anywhere near to completion. This is one of those atari-minimalist metroidvanias, not totally unlike [b]Necrosphere64[/b] or the early PC inspired [b]You Have To Win The Game[/b]. While I don't love these, they’re all very well made. [b]Hero Square[/b] might just be the best game in this vein that I've tried. It can be quite difficult in places, requiring quick accurate play. You will die a fair bit but checkpoints are very frequent. There’s something kind of majestic and charming about these sorts of games, despite their visual simplicities. I felt a lot of wonder while playing this oddity. ..wonder enhanced by the charming retro tunes of the biomes playing, wondering what new abilities I would find, wondering which walls would open up and what I was going to see next. While [b]Hero Square[/b] isn’t my kind of jam, I do feel a strong appreciation for it. I’ve left negative reviews on probably most of the games that I’ve received for free, but this one is more than deserving of the positive rec. While I didn’t get hooked on it, I don’t feel that it’s the games fault. It’s Basketball and I prefer Soccer. [b]Minor gripes/bugs:[/b] [i]Save points don’t replenish your health, but dying does. This encourages you to suicide after tapping a save point, a needless (though somewhat minor) inconvenience. I also encountered one visual bug: After a death, some walls I had removed “appeared” to still be removed, but were actually still there. It wasn’t a big deal, I bumped into them and they vanished again.[/i]

Final boss made me want to strangle someone. Recommended.

Don't be fooled by my short playtime on here, the game can be launched natively on Linux outside of Steam with the "love" executable so that's where most of my playtime comes from. I was also a playtester, but I bought this key with my own money so please don't think my review is biased. I would've bought the game at any rate. I have no reservations recommending the game to anyone curious about metroidvanias and wanting to see what a top-down one might feel like. After Dead Cells, which arguably is more roguelite than metroidvania, I never again found a 2D side-scrolling one that felt satisfying to me. They all fell short in enough ways to make me drop them halfway through. HeroSquare has no grinding, not many RPG mechanics, reasonably small areas but filled with enough puzzles and optional extras to make them engaging. It has none of the stuff that annoys me about most metroidvanias now. The controls are simple and the parry window is generous, so don't worry if parry combat is not usually your thing. Despite the simple building blocks the gameplay and level design is compelling, enemies are just annoying and aggressive enough so you can't be asleep at the wheel and none of the upgrades make you really overpowered. Talking about level design, that's my nitpick, I don't like backtracking and I had to do it several times because I simply missed a clue or a puzzle. But hey, that's a problem in almost all metroidvanias with hand-crafted (i.e. non-randomly-generated) levels. HeroSquare *does* have some signposting, but I was often too thick to see it. It's all the more satisfying when you figure out how to get to some closed off place. The exploration, puzzles and boss fights were the highlights for me.

There’s no introduction to the game and you instantly take control of a bright cube. Your movement is free, except for the boundaries on each screen, so there’s no jumping or platforming. In other words, it plays more like a top-down game. You move through interconnected screens, and the first few guide you along a specific path, introducing the first mechanic, which might not be immediately obvious. The game’s layout sometimes features suspicious empty spots or small holes in the walls. Most of the time, these are simply part of the design. But occasionally, if you move to that spot and complete a section while standing there, part of the wall will disappear, creating a new opening, shortcut, or even revealing a secret. Later on, simply reaching the spot isn’t enough because you’ll need to stay on it for a few seconds to uncover the hidden passage. After a few more screens, you gain your main power: the ability to parry bullets and send them back. This is done by pressing a button just as the bullet reaches you, then pushing in a direction to reflect it. The simplest way is to move toward the bullet and send it straight back, but you will often have to redirect it towards an enemy or an obstacle. Enemies come in several types. The most common ones simply move back and forth or bounce around, while others shoot at you. Some can be destroyed by deflecting their bullets, but quite a few must be avoided altogether. Certain rooms also feature ambushes, where a slightly stronger and trickier enemy appears. These encounters expose cracks in the parry-based combat system, which can quickly become frustrating. The core idea is to position yourself and anticipate an enemy’s movement so that a reflected bullet will hit it. In practice, however, you’ll often find yourself running frantically around the arena to dodge incoming fire. Any attempt to parry might result in instant death, especially since the game doesn’t allow diagonal movement or attacks. Even worse are rooms with enemies that fire bouncing bullets. You’ll need to position yourself so the projectile ricochets toward the door, where you can parry the bullet into it. Because the bounce range is limited, you have to find the right spot and act fast before the bullet disappears. Thankfully, this becomes less tedious once you acquire the dash and bomb abilities. The overall objective is to explore the map, collecting keys that unlock new areas and lead to more keys. You don’t have much freedom in choosing where to go next, as the progression is fairly linear, but you can always backtrack if you missed a collectible or skipped a difficult challenge earlier. Saving is essential because the game is brutally difficult, and death comes quickly, whether from contact damage or failed parries. The brief invincibility window after taking a hit barely helps, so when an enemy fires two bullets, you’ll often lose two hearts instantly. If you want to keep your progress or preserve newly opened shortcuts, save whenever you can. Saving doesn’t restore your health, but when you die and respawn, you’ll return with all three hearts refilled. The world is divided into a central hub and several color-coded zones. The path remains mostly linear, though each area contains optional items. In addition to health pickups, you might find rare consumables like instant health recovery, temporary shields, or bullet dispensers. There are also collectible gems used to unlock special doors, and “map perks” that reveal the locations of save rooms. These perks only apply to the zone where they’re found, so you’ll need to locate them again in each new area. Although the game shows a metroidvania-like structure, I wouldn’t quite call it one. The map does expand as you progress, but it’s nearly useless beyond showing save points. It doesn’t display unexplored rooms or paths, nor does it help track collectibles. There’s little incentive to revisit earlier areas in search of secrets, and you don’t earn upgrades or perks for doing so. It’s closer to an action-adventure title, as if it were made in the earliest days of video games.

I'm not quite done yet (still tracking down a few secrets, and have to beat the final boss) but I can definitely recommend the game at this point. Fun retro style metroidvania with lots of secrets. The difficulty is on the higher side, especially if you're not accustomed to bullet hell type games, but the parry window is very large and forgiving which helps a lot. My one moment of frustration came from banging my head against the wall with a very difficult boss, before later realizing I probably should have found the dash ability before that point.

Wow, this is truly an impressive feat of minimalistic design. A fun and unique, but challenging entry into the metroidvania genre. Well done.

HeroSquare delivers a compact Metroidvania experience with a strong arcade feel. You’re armed with a parry and reflect gameplay mechanic that turns enemy bullets into your weapon, so it feels both risky and satisfying when timed right. The visuals are minimalist retro, very colorful and give the game a minimalist charm that evokes classic 80s arcade style. Exploration is the core of the game and you will explore three zones filled with hidden secrets, puzzles, and boss fights (these demand pattern recognition and patience) while upgrades gradually open up new paths. The game balance is definitely challenging but overall the design feels fair and deaths usually feel like a fair way to learn a lesson more than they are a punishment. Downside of this is you might find the content limited. Some systems (like the parry window or secret route hunting) may feel too obscure at first. The graphical simplicity of the game has a lot of charm but also means less variety in enemy types or mechanics so you won’t find any huge shifts or surprises, just more of what you started with. HeroSquare is a nice indie Metroidvania with clean design, tight combat, and good challenge. It’s perfect for players who love precision, discovery, and retro-inspired visuals. If you want something small but polished with a nice compact adventure, this is one to pick up.

【The world's hardest game】に感化されてこのゲームを作ってしまったのかな？ 最初のボスとラスボスがムズイで～す💦 ※パリイは敵弾がきた方向以外にも打ち返すことができます。（右から来た弾を上に跳ね返したり左に跳ね返したりできる）

This game is fresh! It does a lot with its minimalist design and aesthetics. There's some really fun secrets and surprises, but be prepared to do some dying and retrying, especially at the bosses. Options are lacking a bit - control remapping and volume controls would especially have been nice. If you like experimental takes on metroidvania/action-adventures (like Minishoot Adventures, Yoku's Island Express, etc.) and are down for the retro aesthetic you'll find a lot to love here.