As a kid, I remember watching The Legend of Zorro and being mesmerized by Antonio Banderas in the black suit with his mask and fancy hat. But what stood out to me was Zorro’s heroics and his determination to stand for the poor who can’t protect themselves. In the mask, he is dashing, cunning, and his blade speaks for his actions. This is what Fireplace Games’ En Garde! captures the magic of and it is a game that doesn’t fail to wear its heart on its sleeve.
En Garde! puts you in the knee-high boots of Adalia de Volador, a public hero and scoundrel who is driven by a personal mission to protect her city from the nefarious Count-Duke and his henchmen. The game is divided into four self-contained episodes of Adalia’s adventures taking down Count-Duke and foiling his evil plans. As Adalia, players can become experts in swordsmanship; parkour their way through the marketplace, palaces, and dungeons; and use their wit and courage to bring down rich noblemen, all with a kickass soundtrack to boot.
Adalia’s one liners and quips alone makes En Garde! worth playing. Her quirky personality, sass, and humor were easily the highlights for me. Her banter with other characters was quick-witted and made me laugh too often to count. Taking down enemies has never been more fun with such an invigorating character who makes you feel heroic throughout the game.
All the four episodes in the game take place in a variety of different locations. From vibrant marketplaces and alleys of the town to the luxurious palaces to dark and gloomy dungeons, En Garde! is visually beautiful. My favorite locations have to be the colorful town and the scenic greenery of the island both from the first and last episode respectively. Both in terms of animation and visuals, the game does not disappoint.
The gameplay in En Garde! is fast paced with lots of movement and action. Adalia is free to explore the various levels with Assassin’s Creed-like parkour. Combat involves using your environment in a smart way to stun and surprise your enemies. Throw buckets, pots, jars, chandeliers, bombs, and anything else the environment offers at your enemies when surrounded. This brought a good change of pace in the combat, allowing the player to lean into their creativity to tackle many enemies at once.
Apart from using environmental objects, the other main feature of combat is kicking. That’s right, Adalia’s swift mobility allows her to kick crates and barrels at her enemies that will stun them temporarily while she can take them down with the sharp edge of her sword. She can also directly kick weakened and stunned enemies onto walls and weapon racks. I had a blast kicking enemies from higher ground or directly into the water as a sneaky way to avoid fighting them.
Parrying is one of the most satisfying features of En Garde!. As the game is essentially all about sword combat, parrying at the right moment as enemy strikes is crucial to successfully defeating your opponents. The other basic gameplay feature is the dodge. Adalia is a master swordsman, but even she can’t parry all the incoming attacks from her enemies. I must admit, I usually don’t use dodge all that much in general while playing video games, but En Garde! forced me to use it as certain enemies and boss fights would be impossible to beat otherwise.
Taunting during a fight? What good will that do? En Garde! channels Adalia’s sassy quips to the players advantage with a taunt button. By taunting an enemy mid combat, it fills a bit of Adalia’s panache meter, which can be used for healing and performing special abilities on enemies. There are three panache abilities that unlock as you play the story. I didn’t find them all that helpful, but they did provide an advantage when I was surrounded by enemies in a large number.
As much as I found the gameplay to be fun, challenging, and engaging in the start, by the end of the game, certain boss fights felt repetitive and exhausting. Apart from the regular big bad, Count-Duke, Adalia also gets into a friendly fight with her brother, Alejandro, and her longtime crush, Zaida. Both these characters are great additions to the overall story and beating them once fair and square was good enough. But realizing I had to fight them again in the last episode of the game felt like a slog as the sequel fights added little to no changes in terms of challenge or moveset. I wish they could have teamed up and helped me take down the actual bad guys instead.
If you can’t get enough of En Garde! after the credits roll, Arena Mode offers plenty of replayability. Each arena is a different location that will test Adalia’s sword skills against a wave of enemies. Additionally, before each arena starts, the players are asked to select a modifier that will provide an advantage during combat. The modifiers do affect the change in gameplay and makes it all the more easier to tackle large waves of enemies at once. I can see myself playing it over time when I am in need of something challenging, energetic, and combat centric.
En Garde! captures the energy of Puss in Boots and The Legend of Zorro but mixes it up with a gameplay similar to Sifu, creating a wonderful adventure game blend. The game is full of surprises and managed to stun me with its gorgeous visuals. Adalia de Volador is a lovable rascal who one can’t help but be charmed by her antics. She is everything I hope to see more in video games as female characters like her are a rare gem. The game has some shortcomings, but the best thing about it is how it doesn’t take itself seriously and just wants players to have a good time. En Garde! is full of heart and definitely worth checking out for your next adventure.
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